Does Anyone Here Fly Drones??

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

DJI Ryze Tello Sports mode, great beginners drone that You can buy pretty much anywhere for not a lot of money:

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Hover test of this cheap non gps drone.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

The lowly and now obsolete GoPro Karma Drone, still great in 2019?

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

A video demonstrating the follow me mode of the DJI Spark drone.

[DJR-351]

And they even cater for the Pyromaniacs.....

[.:4:.]

Dunno anything about drones as such. Rc cars i do know. So my kid turned 10 yesterday. Because im not on the greatest terms with his mum i leave it till after the date to take him shopping for a present because i dunno beforehand what he got. He gets excited too as he has a say in what he wants. He has a quad copter that isnt a drone in the slightest. Constant trim adjustments as the thing has no smarts makes it difficult to fly. So range isnt really an issue, but im more interested for advice on stuff like ease of operation. https://www.jbhifi.com.au/drones-rob...-drone/828200/ . The model under that one my kid was satisfied with. But im thinking spending the extra for gps which i think you can set a home point with could be a saviour if he flys out of his sight and cant reference anything on the screen. The kid is good with rc cars. He has a traxxis bigfoot (effectively just a stampede) with a few goodies and a kyosh mini z. Both arent trashed. So he knows how not to hit stuff. Things on paper for that drone i like are the auto takeoff and land, and auto hover. But i dont know anything about flying drones.

[JasonACT]

New laws have had my 2 x 3D printed drones sitting on the shelf, I just can't be bothered (hey I expected to crash more, so printing replacement parts seemed like the way to go - only the landing feet have ever been replaced though).

https://www.casa.gov.au/drones/register

[.:4:.]

Ive read the legalities, well the old ones a while back. Interestingly enough, my kid did mention that when he plays in the front yards of his nanas place and the front yards of the neighbours kids with said kids he often wondered why a drone would be flying. Turns out it was just one of the other kids parents keeping an eye on them from the sofa. Odd, but nothing sus in my opinion.

[JasonACT]

I've read, photos are needed or it didn't happen, on AFF:

[.:4:.]

Thats dedication. For a drone i know nothing about, plug and play with ease of operation is what im after for a 10 year old. As previously stated rc cars is my game and upgrades and repairs to those to me are what im used to. Replacement gearbox gears is something ive done before, and that's steel gears not nylon. Going stupid with brushless motors and 11.1v 3 cell lipo batteries with the suited speed controllers does terrible things to rc cars. Yeah stupid fast until they break. But, not to digress. My main question remains as will a proper drone be fool prood to fly?

[JasonACT]

The only thing mine don't do well is stable height at low altitudes. They are stupidly simple for everything else. Once you are 50m high it doesn't matter...

https://github.com/betaflight/betafl...sked-Questions

I've got some amazing video from around where I live, at a great height.

The reason height is a problem is, the MCU has a pressure sensor, but air pressure changes all the time, at all heights.

I don't know what the store bought ones are like though. A mate at work who bought one (much larger than mine) but a year earlier says, it's hard to stop it crashing.

[Captain Stubing]

What about Tiny Whoops? They take a little bit to learn, you fly them by viewing through the FPV goggles. They are less than 100 grams, so exempt from licensing.

This is a video from a mate of mine...

[JasonACT]

The "run cam" device on mine has a WiFi module for the same goggle view, but my phone is too old to use it. I do want a tiny whoop though. The problem would be battery life. The batteries I've got are already >250g and so are my 2 drones, so quite heavy, but I get a lot of life out of them before bringing them in for a change over.

[Captain Stubing]

Get away from using your phone to control them, Bluetooth is limited in range and reliability.

You can get cheap digital transmitters, I use Flysky. There’s a few different protocols out there.

[creative]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Thats dedication. For a drone i know nothing about, plug and play with ease of operation is what im after for a 10 year old. As previously stated rc cars is my game and upgrades and repairs to those to me are what im used to. Replacement gearbox gears is something ive done before, and that's steel gears not nylon. Going stupid with brushless motors and 11.1v 3 cell lipo batteries with the suited speed controllers does terrible things to rc cars. Yeah stupid fast until they break. But, not to digress. My main question remains as will a proper drone be fool prood to fly?

No.. A proper drone will not be fool proof to fly. There are 3 types of quads/drones.

Toys - what you find in shops, usually brushed motors that will wear out but can be fun if you dont expect to much from them
Drones - DJI etc self explanatory tbh
Quads - home built and can be serious machines and require alot of building and programming and generally dont use any crutches such as gps etc. This is where the real fun is had but can also be costly and frustrating

Ranging from micros ( tiny whoops etc ) mini ( 2.5 - 3 inch size) a 'normal sized' 4 or 5 inch and the new category X-class which are 10inch behemoths that are genuinely scary but epic to watch! lol

These are then generally broken down to 3 types of builds: with example videos...

Race - designed to be light and fast... like really fast! this kid is just a robot. I dont race, my brain cant keep up..


Freestyle - flippy floppy stuff that looks cool - digging wild willys flow at the mo and this is what style I fly.



Long range - built for efficiency and cruising over long distances. Bit of TBS goodness...


Its also usually cheaper to do hard drugs...

[creative]

Also the hobby is about to go digital video... DJI have just released a game changer to the hobby that gives us HD cam footage in the goggles.. The technology is finally getting mainstream and is going to change FPV in a big way!

[creative]

and my last vid I did. Havent been flying much recently due to work and weather but found my very first proximity clip.... and just had to put something together to show then and now. lol

https://www.airvuz.com/video/How-tim...47f40eedaab3f8

[Captain Stubing]

Originally Posted by creative

and my last vid I did. Havent been flying much recently due to work and weather but found my very first proximity clip.... and just had to put something together to show then and now. lol

https://www.airvuz.com/video/How-tim...47f40eedaab3f8

The last quad I built was a nice-flying 85mm frame with 9kv motors, and 48mm tri-blade props. It was a victim of an Act of Dog. Initially it was one motor that died, but he nicked it off my desk later that night, and finished the job off. I'm awaiting the replacement parts...

[Ratmick]

For anyone that does their own builds I found this place in Tassie that stocks multi-coloured flexible silicone insulated stuff and I ordered a few boxes:

Box 1: Blue/black/green/red and yellow
Box 2: Purple/grey/orange/brown and white

It's on sale at the moment, they put the price down the day after I bought the last box...

[Ratmick]

Anyone got any recommendations for drone motors.

I'm building one of these: FS277 Hornet

...tying to work out what to buy to power it.

Mostly flying 3S or 4S so at this stage (raw beginner) so don't need anything too hyperactive...however would like to future-proof it to a degree.

I have another 5" drone, and Armattan Chameleon, it has Emax 2205RS 2300KV and is plenty fast enough.

...like to try something different next time though.

[Ratmick]

Originally Posted by Ratmick

Anyone got any recommendations for drone motors.

So I'm looking at iFlight XING 2306 2450KV

Not as heavy as a 2207 or a 2208...

[creative]

what do you want to fly? Freestyle, LR, Race?

Im a steele fanboi when it comes to motors, amazing for freestyle but all the guys I fly with race with fly T-motor , especially the BMS ones atm.

[Ratmick]

Originally Posted by creative

what do you want to fly? Freestyle, LR, Race?

Im a steele fanboi when it comes to motors, amazing for freestyle but all the guys I fly with race with fly T-motor , especially the BMS ones atm.

Freestyle would be the closest to what I would be aiming for, I have no interest in racing.

...I did look at the Steele Silk 2306 2345KV, they’re not cheap though.

[Ratmick]

https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-robot...ilots-by-2023/

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

The long Obsolete GoPro Karma still going strong in April 2022

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Finally got a new Drone.

DJI Mini 3 Pro.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

[T3rminator]

What can one expect to pay for an entry level drone for learning? Maybe one for taking scenic photos rather than sports at this stage?

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

What can one expect to pay for an entry level drone for learning? Maybe one for taking scenic photos rather than sports at this stage?

A decent beginner drone would be the DJI Spark IMO.

They are no longer sold new, but can be had for $300-500 depending on accessories.

Fly great and are able to handle a crash or three without falling apart. Do great videos and can also have some fun with them. I had one for years only sold it this year as after buying the Mini 3 pro I would not be using it any more, mini 3 pro costs around $1300, and is much more fragile but also has a lot of professional camera settings, 4K video etc stuff you don't need for some nice holiday snaps.

Ill attach some videos below for you from when I had my Spark, was my favourite drone for many years.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Some more for you :