Looking to buy a drone, have some questions.

oneslo5.0

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I am looking to buy a drone for work, I have seen some guys use them here but I would like the ability to have a live view/record. I have a decent budget to work with, let me know what you guys have or recommend.

Thanks!
 

HEMIHUNTER

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I'm a superintendent for a large construction company and our aerial guy uses one, about 5k I think but like anything else you can pay more.
 

JetmechF16

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Be careful with how you use it, the FAA is becoming increasingly "annoyed" with the people using them commercially. A friend of mine and I started a side business with one but we are holding off on payed jobs until they finish the regulations, supposedly should be out next year.

As far as a build goes, you can either buy a full budget kit like the popular DJI Phantom series, or go custom. Our build consists of a Tarot Ironman 650, Tarot two axis camera gimbal with GoPro Hero 3, Sunnysky 2814-11 kv 700 motors, Hobbyking blue 30 amp escs, NAZA V2 w/gps, Futaba 8J controller, Boscam FPV, and still undecided on batteries.
 

JetmechF16

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$5k would set you up with one hell of a system. Check out UncleMeat's build thread, he has a nice setup using the F550 (DJI) platform. Both his and ours are in the $1500-$2000 range.
 

oneslo5.0

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Be careful with how you use it, the FAA is becoming increasingly "annoyed" with the people using them commercially. A friend of mine and I started a side business with one but we are holding off on payed jobs until they finish the regulations, supposedly should be out next year.

As far as a build goes, you can either buy a full budget kit like the popular DJI Phantom series, or go custom. Our build consists of a Tarot Ironman 650, Tarot two axis camera gimbal with GoPro Hero 3, Sunnysky 2814-11 kv 700 motors, Hobbyking blue 30 amp escs, NAZA V2 w/gps, Futaba 8J controller, Boscam FPV, and still undecided on batteries.

For the application it will be used nobody will give much of a hard time.
 

Riddla

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Tracing ip address, recent transactions, any suspicious activity...
 

Uncle Meat

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I have approximately $2K into mine and it does what you ask. PM if you have specific questions.

U.M.

f550um.jpg
 

thomas91169

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How long can yours stay up UM?

We went to the La Jolla portion of the annual Big Bay Boom fireworks show down here in SD, there was one of these guys flying out and through the fireworks. It stayed up the whole time (25min), I think I was more blown away by that thing than the actual fireworks. I keep searching YT for him to upload it. I bet the footage is unreal.
 

MovingZen

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That looks pretty cool UM!! What kind of range do you get?

Op, what are you trying to do? I have the phantom vision and the camera is disappointing. I would much rather have a gopro but the fpv is really cool. DJI recently released the way point autonomous flying app and it's pretty cool.
 

CobraBob

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U.M. has posted a few threads with his hexacopter in action. Amazing footage, if you haven't already seen it.
 

Uncle Meat

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How long can yours stay up UM?

We went to the La Jolla portion of the annual Big Bay Boom fireworks show down here in SD, there was one of these guys flying out and through the fireworks. It stayed up the whole time (25min), I think I was more blown away by that thing than the actual fireworks. I keep searching YT for him to upload it. I bet the footage is unreal.
With my current configuration my rig weights in just under 2400 grams (about 5 lbs which is the max weight for this particular model) and I can get about 14 minutes of flight time on a 3S 8000 mAh LiPo and about 12.5 minutes on a 3S 6400mAh battery. However I am carrying a GoPro camera, a stabilized gimbal assembly, an OSD (On Screen Display) module for FPV (First Person View), and a 400mW video transmitter in additional to the receiver, the GPS, and the on-board nav system. Now the newer Phantom 2 quad-copters have a flight time of over 20 minutes! However this is in their bare-bones configuration. The more "stuff" you add to the platform the faster the battery drains. Personally I find that 12+ minutes of flight time is more than enough for the type of shooting I do.

That looks pretty cool UM!! What kind of range do you get?
Well initially with the Futaba T8FGS radio and the stock receiver I was getting about 1 kilometer of range before eventually losing contact and initiating an automated RTH (Return to Home). Yes these hobbyist multirotors will automatically come back and land where they took off from when they lose signal from the radio transmitter. I wasn't happy with that though so I replaced one of the two receiver antennas with an 400mm unit from an R/C boat. I've been out as far as 1800 meters with the new antenna and still maintained contact. Problem is at anything over 750 meters the damn thing is not visible with the naked eye so FPV is a must at those distances. I feed the output from my GoPro through the GCU (Gimbal Control Unit) and then it's sent back to me via the on-board transmitter. I have a 9-in LCD receiver I place on a tripod and use for my remote viewing with both a Helical Axial Mode and a 5 lobe Mad Mushroom antenna. Een at 1800+ meters as long as I have direct line of sight I get clear color video from the GoPro as seen here:

Sorry about the picture quality. Taken outdoors in direct sunlight. Screen is actually much brighter.

FPV Display
fpv003s.jpg


LCD Receiver antennas.
fpv005s.jpg


Hexacopter 3-Lobe transmitter antenna.
fpv004s.jpg


The AVP.
updated_hex2.jpg





U.M.
 
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oneslo5.0

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That looks pretty cool UM!! What kind of range do you get?

Op, what are you trying to do? I have the phantom vision and the camera is disappointing. I would much rather have a gopro but the fpv is really cool. DJI recently released the way point autonomous flying app and it's pretty cool.

I think that thing looks badass! I want a drone so bad for my personal use.

As for the use it will be at a Law Enforcement capacity.
 

Uncle Meat

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I got a chance a few months ago to work with the local police and used my Phantom to film the top of a building where some numb-nuts wasn't supposed to be and fell through the skylight. They were very grateful because it saved them from having to climb up on top of a 100+ year old factory roof just to shoot some pictures of where this guy fell through.

U.M.
 

Uncle Meat

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truefiveo

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FAA just announced last week that flying an R/C anything with goggles is illegal according to their rules. Big fight between the AMA and FAA is ensuing.

U.M.

Got dammit you cant have any fun in the US anymore.

I sure enough have one sitting in the shopping cart was gonna hit the buy button as soon as I was home for good.

Dammit...:nonono:

I hope FAA loses this fight badly

Whats next?

Taxing anything in the skies except birds and bees???
 
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Uncle Meat

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The more "stupid" stunts people pull with these multirotors the more heat it brings down upon the hobby as a whole. I'm afraid I may have to sell mine before too long... I had a neighbor recently call the cops on me because they thought I was filming their back yard. :dw: I was testing my AVP's new FPV setup so I took off from my back yard and just flew out over the neighborhood until I hit the limit for my radio. Then I flew it back to my house and continued to fly in and around my local neighborhood to drain the battery before landing. While I didn't notice this during the flight, my neighbor was outside his home milling around. He must have seen the APV and where it eventually landed so he called the law on me and complained. Cute little policewoman knocked on my door an hour or so later and asked if I owned a "drone". She even used "Air Quotes" too. :D I told her I owned a couple of them and asked what the problem was. She told me they received a complaint and they had to follow up on it. She went on to tell me there's nothing illegal about flying my APV around the neighborhood and filming the flight. She laughed and thought the whole thing was pretty funny actually.

U.M.

Here's the video of the flight. I initially fly over the home of the guy who complained at the :20 second point in the video. His home is in frame a lot towards the end of the video and you can even see him standing by a bush (@9:01) in his front yard and then walking to his garage and staring up at my rig. I had no idea he was out there (until I reviewed the footage later) and even though I did hover over his yard a bit it wasn't because I was wanting to film it or him. Dude is a real narcissist I guess.

[youtube_browser]ZChij74tWj4[/youtube_browser]
 

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