My latest toy

Fordzuki · May 7, 2014

Got off early so I mowed the lawn as quick as I could so I could get to flying.
This is as high as I've gotten with it, and I could still tell which end was which from the leds.

The light green strip is the fields along hwy 162, and the cluster of buildings at the left end is South Prairie. Evans creek is in the cluster of hills in the distance.

Fordzuki · May 9, 2014

I made up some longer skids for the phantom to help keep it from tipping while landing.

ChopTop84 · May 9, 2014

Now you need to look into getting a 2D gimble with tilt control. Stabilizes the camera and gets rid of a lot of the jello when filming video. Tilt control lets you adjust where the camera points from forward, to straight down. Need FPV return signal to a screen tho to get the most use out of tilt.

Cool thing about a gimble is, you can mount it to your roll cage or where ever when its not mounted to your quadcopter, and it turns your camera into a steady cam.

Fordzuki · May 9, 2014

I'll probably end up upgrading to a gimbal at some point, but for now I'm just having fun getting pictures from a new viewpoint. I have quite a few ideas for it's use once the weather clears up a little.
I've seen Chris' in action and it's definitely a whole new animal with a gimbal and fpv. (and someone a little more seasoned flying :haha: ) I'm still learning to fly so the less money I crash the better. My next upgrade though will be a video feed so I can see what I'm aiming the camera at.
I got a second battery in the mail today, and sunday is supposed to be nice, so I'm excited to get out and see what kind of pics I can get.

Fordzuki · May 12, 2014

Finally caught a shot of the mountain, and managed to get the moon too.

And got a flock of 6 or so birds trying to check out the quad in my backyard.

nick c · May 20, 2014

That looks cool as hell. Ball park what would a guy be looking at to get into a GPS controlled set up?

I'd have a ton of fun with one of those taking it camping, and on our road trips.

skinny_pedal · May 20, 2014

Anyone spyed on there hot neighbor yet

Fordzuki · May 21, 2014

nick c said:
That looks cool as hell. Ball park what would a guy be looking at to get into a GPS controlled set up?

I'd have a ton of fun with one of those taking it camping, and on our road trips.

The one I bought is a Phantom 1.1.1, it was $479 with free shipping on ebay. The camera is a mobius action cam, $79 (iirc free shipping as well) also from ebay.
My boss just picked up the Phantom 2 vision + and it comes with a camera, and the ability to fpv with a smart phone. I forget the exact number, but it was more in the $11-1300 range.
There are of course other brands like the AR Drone that you can control with a smart phone, but the phantoms seem to be the "honda civic" of quads.

skinny_pedal said:
Anyone spyed on there hot neighbor yet

That would be both illegal and immoral, plus I don't have any hot neighbors...:booo: :haha:
In all seriousness though, that seems to be the problem surrounding these things, is everybody is worried about their privacy. I haven't had any negative comments in the time I've been flying mine, but I also don't fly it in a way that could be construed as "peeping".

Fordzuki · Jun 22, 2014

A couple from up near Evans today.

I bought an rx/tx combo for video, but I'm waiting on my monitor to show up.

JOOP · Jun 22, 2014

Cool pics. :awesomework:

Fordzuki · Jul 2, 2014

You doing much with yours lately Jon?

I finally got my fpv setup working, though I'm still waiting on some parts to show up. The monitor was supposed to show up as a kit, with mounting bracket, battery, charger, correct cords to run rx and monitor on 1 battery... Well the monitor showed up but thats it.

The rest is supposed to be on its way along with another mounting bracket (different style) for my troubles.
So last saturday I drug out the weedburner again and did a little soldering :redneck: so I could power the rx and monitor off a spare phantom battery. Then I had a little trouble with the channels, since the included diagrams were wrong... and only got 50' out of it, but after some reading found the correct channels and I haven't had it cut out yet.

Got this one tonight.

JOOP · Jul 2, 2014

What FPV set-up did you build? I need to get one. But then I've been thinking about selling mine too. I've been taking my boat out every damn weekend so haven't had much time to fly. Plus I need to order some new blades. One fo mine is broke but it still flies

Fordzuki · Jul 2, 2014

JOOP said:
What FPV set-up did you build? I need to get one. But then I've been thinking about selling mine too. I've been taking my boat out every damn weekend so haven't had much time to fly. Plus I need to order some new blades. One fo mine is broke but it still flies

This tx/rx
http://www.ebay.com/itm/151137635206?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
This monitor kit (though I wouldn't recommend this seller, I ordered on the 13th and I'm still waiting for everything but the monitor)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181360414268?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
And these antennas
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191015889112?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
In reality, you could get the same monitor for $100, but I bought the kit to have a second charger, and for the mount and battery. Someday. :haha:

Then I bought this cord set for the mobius,
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360718422084?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
I just used the main mini usb, cut all the servo plugs off, and soldered the yellow and black (video) wires to the video harness, and my 1.1.1 came with power wires on the 4th leg, so I soldered those to the power harness for the tx.
For props, I tried some "xoxox" brand vision props from ebay, and the flight controller seemed like it was fighting itself, it was flying erratically, and wouldn't come down no matter how long I held the stick down. At one point it flipped up 90deg in the air and when it finally did come down, it came down teetering in propwash, which it's never done with the stock props. I decided to cut my losses after 3 attempts and crashes, and bought a factory replacement set of dji props. It could have been the a/m props were unbalanced, it could have been gains, or one thought was the "idle" speed of the motors that can be set in assistant. The vision props are supposed to be 20% more efficient, so it may just be too much thrust for a basically "naked" phantom and stock settings.

You should take the phantom out on the boat. :awesomework: Could make for some good pics/videos chasing the boat.