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Whaddup UAS (or whatever preferred term you want) goons? I picked up a Mavic Pro FM bundle during the Prime Day stuff because I'm an idiot with poor impulse control. We'll be returning the thing as we can likely get a better deal elsewhere, but I have some thoughts I'd like people more competient than I to give some takes on. Pros: Portable as hell Light as hell Controller is pretty neat and has FPV capabilities w/ phone Features like anti idiot crashing prevention and active track are nifty Cons: Is a flying camera (hear me out) Expensive as hell The ability to fold up the thing is cool as hell and looks neat too. However the unit is to a camera as an A-10 is to a big goddamn gun. That's all fine and good, don't get me wrong, but I'd be happy with a cheaper unit that is more focused on flying. Retaining FPV capabilities would be a must as I do have a level of interest in arial photography, but I don't have much interest in doing videos/photos. Looking around, it seems that the Mavic Air may be more up my alley (though it loses points on looks). Thoughts?
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Jul 23, 2018 16:04
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Can you elaborate on P4P? As far as the deal part I believe she means “ship to Delaware” or “buy used from one local expat groups”. We’ve had a decent track record of getting pretty nice stuff at a good price from the Chinese kids at the local University who are selling all their crap before headed home.
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Jul 23, 2018 18:41
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Just out of curiosity, would there be any interest with a VR game simulating the DJI goggle stuff?
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Jul 25, 2018 02:04
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I decided to compound my poor purchasing decisions and grabbed a pair of the Racing DJI Google off of eBay for my Mavic Pro (got a good deal too). Would using them for more expendable drones be recommended or would getting some farsharks or the like be preferable? I'm aware you have to get additional equipment to have the DJIGs work on non DJI stuff and whatnot.
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Feb 7, 2019 20:58
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evil_bunnY posted:The racing goggles should have a standard analog receiver too. Just get a long rear end RHCP and done. Don’t try and fly on digital downlink. To clarify, you're talking about the occusync mode when you say digital downlink right?
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Feb 7, 2019 22:30
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Hm, that's a bit concerning. I'll have to experiment and see how it goes. Would you consider the goggles worth using on non DJI stuff or would another solution be saner?
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Feb 7, 2019 22:47
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I've got a VR setup, so this is nothing as far as bulk. I think I have my head wrapped around this now. There's the fancy digital Ocusync that makes for pretty pretty pictures, but can have impact on range. If I wanted to do the digital thing on a nonDJI I can add the kit they sell to the drone. If I don't want to do digital, I can add the little antenna it comes with to do the analogue solution, even with the Mavic Pro. That all line up?
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Feb 8, 2019 00:17
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The goggles finally showed up and I managed a flight during lunch. It's pretty neat, but I also just went up to max height to looked around. It's a bit too windy here to fly so hopefully I can make some time over the weekend. I'm a bit disappointed with the headband part. I have a large mellon so I have to nearly max it out to get it to fit and it doesn't "hold" it's position when not being worn so it takes a bit more fiddling than I'm used to. I wish they'd have gone with more of a welder's mask solution with the current tightening system combined with a bit of elastic at the end to help facilitate getting it on and off once you have it just so. Coming from a VR headset I've got to say I'm bummed at the loss of depth perception. I could see a drone in a generation or so have dual cameras to do that sort of thing. You could likely rig up something now with one of the WMR headsets if you're crazy enough.
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Feb 8, 2019 22:20
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You’re likely right, but “VR legs” are a thing so it may be possible to handle it. The next version of VLC is supposed to have native VR support so it would be possible that you could set something up with that. Latency would be abysmal but it ought to work.
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Feb 9, 2019 06:00
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loving moran tries to ruin things for everyone.
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Apr 12, 2019 12:55
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I’d say one of the smaller DJI line for photo taking and general fuckery. You can likely get a used one for a pretty reasonable price. They are pretty much flying cameras so you’re getting good photo/video and crash prevention with pure flying fun as a trade off. Someone here may be able to recommend a less common brand that would be more cost effective. What would be a realistic price point to get into aerobatic flying frames? Steele’s videos have me interested in trying something a bit more dynamic than my Mavic, but I’m not sure I could expand my drone budget too much. I can use my DJI goggles in analogue mode, so no need for fat sharks just yet.
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Apr 14, 2019 00:49
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I've put my DJI Googles up for sale and I'm thinking about using the funds to purchase a more "flyable" FPV quad setup. What would be a decent entry point as far as prebuilt drones? I'm not opposed to building my own at some point, but I figure that an established unit would be easier to sell if I decide it isn't for me. Would grabbing a used Tinyhawk combination kit be a decent way to go or would I better off getting one off elements (controller, drone, goggles, ect) in the bang for the buck department?
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Jul 29, 2019 01:34
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I'm starting to part this out so feedback would be appreciated so that I'm not missing anything. I'll likely go with the Tinyhawk for now. The Hawk 5 looks impressive, but may not be the best use/budget pick. I'll keep an eye on it though. Drone/platform: Tinyhawk (~$85-$110) Controller/radio: QX7s (~$190) Goggles: Fatshark(?) (~$100???) I assume I'll need to part out batteries and a few extra props so that should rise a bit more as far as cost. I'd be interested in hot takes on goggles from those that have some. Fatshark are pretty much the only ones I've encountered so I'm assuming they're popular for a reason. No idea about the different versions/SKUs though. I'll have to take a look through Craigslist as well, the prices above are just from cursory Amazon/eBay searches.
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Jul 29, 2019 18:32
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The slim form factor of those and the dominatior FS goggles would be nice, especially coming from a VR HMD style headset that was the DJIs. What is the antenna situation exactly anyway? My understanding is that there are no end of different ones that can be purchased given requirements of distance and surroundings and whatnot. It's all analogue so everything should just work, but maybe not as optimally as other setups, correct?
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Jul 29, 2019 19:33
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My Tinyhawk came in and I should have my radio by the end of the week. Still haven't sourced goggles, but I'm hoping one of these FS Dominator auctions on eBay don't get crazy.
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Aug 6, 2019 03:08
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Is there a decent "Drones for morons" guide out there that anyone can recommend? My radio comes in today and while I have a decent concept of how this all works I'd feel more comfortable if someone laid out the base concepts so I don't go and break something. eg: The Tinyhawk came with this little USB charger dohickey for the batteries. Fairly self explanatory, but with enough wiggle room that I'm semi concerned about causing something to make these batteries explode. Like I assume that I'd want to flip the switch to .6A for this extra 600 mAh (3.7V) battery I got, but I'm also fairly sure these things don't have as many protections in them to keep me from loving up as DJI's stuff has. This appears to be it exactly, but I can find a Crazypony charger that looks just like it that very clearly says not to use it on 3.7v batteries (as well as another one from them that does). Warbird fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Aug 9, 2019 |
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Aug 9, 2019 17:15
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Thanks! I like that he has a nice "Click here for new folks" section right at the top. My main concern is not causing a battery to explode through extreme misadventure, but I'd like to think that this USB charger thing has some logic built in. That being said it's off some rando on eBay so who even knows.
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Aug 9, 2019 17:26
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Good news, I've sourced some goggles for what I hope was a reasonable price. I grabbed some FS Dominator v3s off of eBay. I did not realize that the HD3 SKU was a thing at the time though. Is it safe to assume that the Dominator v3 is a decent enough entry point vs the HD3s? The latter is clearly "better" due to a larger FOV and a bit better resolution, but I don't see myself shelling out the amount that a used pair goes for.
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Aug 12, 2019 00:52
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Good stuff. The seller is taking their sweet time shipping them, but I'm hoping to get them by the end of the week. I've gotten my radio connected to the TH, but I haven't been able to sort out exacrly how to get it to actually do anything yet. I can see the bars moving in BetaFlight so I'm starting to think I need to set up an ignition switch or something. All sorts of fun things to learn!
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Aug 12, 2019 23:40
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Slash posted:You need to set up an arm switch in the modes panel. Here's an appropriate JB video. Thanks for the link! I'll go and play around and see what I can do. Total side note, that little metal dohickey he has over the power switch on that image preview; how do you attach it exactly? I've got one too and it looks like you have to screw it into a cap or something to secure it to the radio? My kit is second hand so it's entirely possible that I'm missing a piece.
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Aug 13, 2019 15:27
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Success! I got things hooked up and working after watching a few more videos. I have noticed that one of my props isn't starting after the initial flight for some reason; I'm hoping the battery charge was too low or the like. I haven't made it an inch off the ground yet so I doubt it was banging into anything. Back to fretting over batteries. I have two that came with the TH: a 450mah 4.35v that came with the quad and a 600mah 3.7v "extra" battery that was thrown in for the specific model/kit I got on Amazon. So the charger that was bundled has switches on its ports for "0.6A" and "0.2A". I'm interpreting that as "600 mah" and "200 mah" because metric. The 600 is pretty self explanatory, but what's best practices on the 450 though? Run it through the .2 setting a couple times and change? I'm assuming the charger will let me know when these things are charged and/or won't let me pump too much juice into them. Edit: Found the docs for the charger. Looks like I can just throw 0.6 at whatever so long as I'm only charging 1 or 2. It also appears to have safeguards in place to keep me from burning my house down. A good add. I wish they didn't whine when charging; it's a bit disconcerting. Warbird fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Aug 13, 2019 |
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Aug 13, 2019 19:11
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timick posted:This sounds strange. Remove the props and and see if you can get the motors to spin in the Betaflight's motor tab. You can hear the servo complaining, but nothing is happening. What do you recommend? Edit: It doesn't see too straighforward. It occasionally spins up just fine or starts after a moment or two. Most of the time it does nothing. Warbird fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Aug 13, 2019 |
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Aug 13, 2019 21:59
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I have a Mavic Pro FMB. You're petty much good, it's an all in one solution. The only thing I recall having any sort of issue with was turning the thing on the first time as I don't think it's actually mentioned anywhere. (It's *Press* *Hold* fyi) If you're desperate to get some dodads for it, look into the platinum props for a slightly quieter flight and some silicon propeller holders if you're stowing it with props on. A sun hood wouldn't be the worst idea either, but I'm not sure how that plays with the 2's camera. If you're feeling particularly froggy there's DJI's FPV goggles, but I wouldn't recommend them unless you're doing some really serious photography; the drones don't fly in a manner that really makes them worth a hoot. TH Motor: What are the odds I could resolve my issues via a firmware upgrade? I'm half considering just returning it to Amazon and ordering another as the most efficient usage of time/effort.
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Aug 14, 2019 03:49
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I’m using whatever betaflight defaults to settings wise. I’ll take a look at the link and poke around a bit. Slash posted:Does it spin at all once you throttle up? If not i would first be checking the solder joints/continuity between the motor and the ESCs. If the motor is connected ok then you may have a damaged ESC/FC. It will twitch a bit but that’s about it. About 1 time in 10 it starts up immediately or a second or two after all the others. My FS Dominator V3 came in yesterday. Naturally it seems I have to go buy another thing to be able to charge the battery on it. What’s the cheapest safe way to do so? I’d really just like to plug something into a wall for a bit and let it sort itself out. Say what you will about DJI, you get pretty much everything you need out of the package.
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Aug 14, 2019 16:52
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I mean I got it off of Amazon so I could just go drop it off at Belk and order another. I'll send them a message and see what's what.
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Aug 14, 2019 20:22
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Already sent mine back and have another coming tomorrow. I’ll take a look and see what I can do to it when t gets here. evil_bunnY posted:You only need to make an adapter so you can charge it with a normal lipo charger. So prob a 5.5mm barrel plug and wire/shrinkwrap. I’m starting to notice a trend of “make your own solution” for this hobby. I’m going to have to get an nicer soddering iron aren’t I? Warbird fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Aug 16, 2019 |
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Aug 15, 2019 15:26
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Update: New Tinyhawk showed up today. Got it paired up and set up to my radio/controller in no time or trouble. Powered up with little fuss and everything seems to be good to go. I loving shattered a prop within 3 seconds of arming the thing when it bumped sideways into the soft case for my radio. I didn't even get it off the ground. This is strictly on me but god damnit.
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Aug 16, 2019 19:20
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I’ve had my TH and assorted TH related stuff just sitting around for a month now. It’s just too drat hot to fly right now. I need to find a gymnasium or something to learn inside until it cools off.
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Sep 13, 2019 00:41
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Have any of you all taken drones traveling with you in the EU?
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Nov 5, 2019 03:26
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That’s pretty neat, is that the “Flight Plan for DJI Drones” on the App Store? If so, do you figure that $15 is worth the cost of admission?
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Mar 11, 2020 04:34
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That's pretty neat. Is that a commercial product or some open source initiative?
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Mar 18, 2020 21:06
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That's super interesting. What sort of presets do they have to let you tweak rendering? I do a decent amount of GPU rendering for Blender piddling and you can certainly go down the rabbit hole if you so choose.
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Mar 19, 2020 19:14
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Are RC gliders a thing? It would be a hoot to send one up on one of those balloons and pilot it back to you in FPV or something like thing. I'd assume the distances involve would quickly result in things being infeasible and/or illegal to transmit that amount of data over that distance. I wonder if you could do an autonomous solution.
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Mar 20, 2020 20:27
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Have any of you messed with drone based mapping or modeling? It seems there are a number of solutions out there, but most are enterprise operations. I'm taking a look at WebODM, so we'll see how that goes.
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Mar 26, 2020 01:03
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No real plans beyond being able to program in a flight plan and letting the drone take pictures or whatever. It would be neat to be able to use it to do some photogrammetry or stitch images into a map or whatever. Might be fun to dump it into blender or whatever and mess around. I was under the impression DroneDeploy was a 14 day trial, but I’ll circle around to it. porktree posted:I did a 3d map with Altizure; it was pretty sweet and free for non-com use. What's an Alticoin? Are these maniacs having you upgrade your membership with crypto? If so, I love it. That's stupid as hell. Warbird fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Mar 26, 2020 |
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Mar 26, 2020 01:57
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It’s super aggravating. It looks like the only actual free solution is WebODM from what I can tell and it runs in a docker container of all things. That is cool and good, but not ideal considering my docker machine is usually maxed out already doing other things. Plus it needs python and good god I hate python. Pix4D seems really neat, but also is a 14 day trial as well. I’ll reach out to some of these folks and see if I can beg my way into a no commercial license.
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Mar 26, 2020 03:55
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:The pix4dcapture app I believe is free to use. It will plot routes and take pictures. The cost comes when you want to do more than stitch the pics together with photoshop I played around with it a bit and it seems neat. I think I might be able to use ODM to stitch them together. I’d ideally like to get a 3d model of whatever out of it, but baby steps.
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Mar 29, 2020 18:05
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Does anyone know of a decent spare prop holder for a Mavic pro? It seems like something that should exist, but I'm not having much luck finding anything so far. I may just toss them in an Altoids tin or something I guess. Edit: Too long for Altoids, but you get my meaning. Warbird fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Mar 31, 2020 |
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Mar 31, 2020 21:02
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I think a couple of you have mentioned mapping work in the past. I've gotten WebODM up and running on my desktop via docker and have been pretty pleased with some of the results so far. That prompts the natural follow up question, "Now what?" It would be neat to go map places and toss it onto OpenStreetMap of one of the other open source mapping projects for folks to use. Does anyone have experience doing so? Also, can anyone recommend a decent way to generate ocp files? I generating one using the GUI in WebODM, but the results just broke the hell out of everything. It seems I might be better off grabbing the coordinates manually and importing them in. Would it be reasonable to try and utilize my phone to get this data or is a more dedicated piece of hardware recommended?
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Apr 4, 2020 18:34
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I don’t recall GEVR being particularly friendly to custom stuff but if you get it working I’d be super interested in hearing about it. Can you walk through your process extracting the day at and integrating into GE?
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Apr 6, 2020 20:07
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