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https://www.anyleaf.org/elrs-rx-dualradio <-- I just bought this Rx. I think it's really good. I have two suggestions! But the first one is for everybody. If you're from the USA, please watch this Youtube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chRHZP9nbpY The more people who get in on this and write a letter to their congressman, the better. But as a Canadian I don't have a congressman, so I can only encourage you to write yours. If you were Canadian I would ask you to please consider writing to Don Joyce at the DPAC organization: https://www.dronepilotassociationofcanada.com/contact/ instead. 2nd suggestion: Please look at this plane and think about what it's missing: https://rotorgeeks.com/wings-and-planes/pnp/zohd-dart-250g-wing-pnp Did you find it? It's sub-250g, so it can fly BVLOS. But what about people who want to fly BVLOS? Do you ever think about making a 900MHz/915MHz version of your dual radio receiver? I've searched up and down aliexpress and there isn't a single true diversity 900Rx to be found. There's one guy on ebay who sells them: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295347519553?hash=item44c4158041:g:YdsAAOSwSgxjaGI7%A0 But he's got no LNA, no PA, no TCXO, and for all I know he's only got fake diversity like the Radiomaster RP3. It's nowhere near as good as yours. Something with your featureset in the 900MHz range would be the best possible hardware for anyone making a sub-250g LR FPV fixed wing. (Or sub-1000g if the FPVFC has their way). (Please write your congressman)
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Mar 5, 2023 04:40
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Why would you need diversity?
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Mar 5, 2023 04:48
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I sent off a few letters for you, but I'll warn you that the only interaction that I've yet to experience with an elected federal representative is staffers poking around my linkedin.
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Mar 5, 2023 06:26
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ImplicitAssembler posted:Why would you need diversity? That's a very good question! The short answer is "physics." The medium answer is that it's for the same reason your wifi router has multiple antennas. The long answer is that antennas don't broadcast in a perfect sphere around themselves. Reception is worse in the direction the antenna is "pointing", completely unlike the way a laser works for example. If your antenna runs along the length of the vehicle, you are going to get crummy reception when it's coming straight at you or pointed directly away from you. If the antenna is running horizontally across the vehicle perpendicular to the long axis, like from wingtip to wingtip, you will have crummy reception when the vehicle is aimed across your field of vision, like going from right to left or left to right. And if you orient your antenna vertically, you will have worse reception when it's directly above you, or if you bank such that the belly of the aircraft is pointed at you. Most of the time you're probably going to be fine with a single pole antenna mounted vertically. But if you're a belt-and-suspenders type person, and you like to cover all your "what-ifs," you get multiple antennas and orient them perpendicular to each other so that both are never pointed directly at you at the same time. (True) diversity listens to both antennas at the same time, and if one dips because the antenna was pointed straight at you, you have a backup. The 2nd antenna+receiver adds like $5 to the total cost of the aircraft, and if that tiny little bit of extra coverage is enough to keep your drone out of a tree because you didn't lose signal for a split second, you might save a few hundred dollars worth of drone replacement. For more information about antenna patterns, please read this pdf: https://www.industrialnetworking.com/pdf/Antenna-Patterns.pdf nomad2020 posted:I sent off a few letters for you, but I'll warn you that the only interaction that I've yet to experience with an elected federal representative is staffers poking around my linkedin. You are a good person and you should feel good. Sorry about the creepy staffers.
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Mar 5, 2023 10:32
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DreadLlama posted:Do you ever think about making a 900MHz/915MHz version of your dual radio receiver? I've searched up and down aliexpress and there isn't a single true diversity 900Rx to be found. There's one guy on ebay who sells them: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295347519553?hash=item44c4158041:g:YdsAAOSwSgxjaGI7%A0 But he's got no LNA, no PA, no TCXO, and for all I know he's only got fake diversity like the Radiomaster RP3. There are more commercial 900MHz True Diversity / Gemini-capable RX coming from a couple manufacturers. The reason there isn't much 900MHz ExpressLRS stuff is: -- There's not very much demand for it. 2.4GHz gear just outsells everything at least 50 to 1. Team2.4 just has small antennas and great range so why deal with 900MHz at all making your handset speaker buzz, mucking with the GPS signal, or finding a place to safely put the antenna. -- It isn't needed as much. With clear LOS 100mW 2.4 can reach 100km, so blasting a watt within 100m through a bando isn't a problem. Neither band will get you very far flying into heavy tree cover, but the video link is always the first thing that goes for me. -- Technical reason too: There's just not as much bandwidth available so the packet rates are much lower, and there's fewer channels so flying with friends causes more interference between transmitters. In the EU this is incredibly bad because the 868MHz band is super tiny so each additional pilot in the air causes 6x the collisions you'd get on Team2.4. The GorillaLink RX is just regular diversity (just FrSky R9 hardware flashed with ELRS). Regular antenna-switching diversity iiiiiiis an ok safeguard but can also have a negative impact on performance as the receiver has to check the other antenna to see if it is getting a better signal, and many times it is not so now you've made your situation worse by switching away from the better antenna to check the worse one. True Diversity is great because it has two active receivers at all times so there's no need to switch away from the possibly best antenna. It also means it can do Gemini mode, which is dual transmitter in addition to dual receivers, and transmits on two channels. It works around temporary interference (such as another pilot, or a wireless weather station in 900MHz) by just taking up more of the spectrum-- doubling the problem can solve it sort of. There are no commercial Gemini transmitters yet for either band, but it will require a new transmitter module with a second RF frontend and LoRa chip. CapnBry fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Mar 5, 2023 |
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Mar 5, 2023 17:36
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DreadLlama posted:https://www.anyleaf.org/elrs-rx-dualradio <-- I just bought this Rx. I think it's really good. 900Mhz diversity might be on the roadmap on the future, but need to knock out a few other designs first. Dominoes fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Mar 5, 2023 |
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Mar 5, 2023 17:50
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DreadLlama posted:That's a very good question! I know how they work, I'm just curious why it's so important for what you want to do? Typically for long range its not really important, unless you're running a really long yagi antenna on a fixed mount.
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Mar 5, 2023 18:00
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Oh! The reason is that I'm scatterbrained. For my current project and next two after that I have zero need for long range capability. But my mind is always racing ahead 6 or 7 projects down the line and if in the future I ever built a sub-250g FPV fixed wing, I'd want to have the absolute best tree-penetration possible. I thought a 915MHz antenna embedded in the tail and another embedded in the wing spar would give me that, but then I read CapnBry's post and now it appears that I've put my foot in my mouth. How do you fly among trees? Like if you wanted to do this but not in a simulator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yOoDP8E9xg Again this is my stupid brain getting ahead of itself. I'm nowhere near the skill level needed to maneuver like the pilot in that video. But drat it would be cool if I could. But to answer your question: Not important. Pipe dream. Maybe someday.
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Mar 6, 2023 03:39
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I dunno, if the woods actually looked like that then it might be possible-- looks like just a buncha tall sticks with some canopy and that might be doable. I don't know many forests that are just devoid of anything except towering beams in my area though. I do a lot of testing around this small pond behind my house (90 meters from my back porch).  At 200mW VTX power the video is almost unusable but the 100mW ELRS link will be ok. At 800mW the video is acceptable but going the same distance into the woods instead it is flyable but not enough to do any tricks in it. I've always wanted to go fly to the mystery pond all the way on the right but there is zero chance of that happening, despite it only being 260m away. 900MHz True Diversity wouldn't help because there's just no getting around the video issue. I dunno, maybe now that 1.6W and 2.5W VTXes are available, it might be slightly closer to possible? I'd hate to lose a quad in there though, it is all swamp and snakes and poison ivy and mosquitos. To pivot from crushing your dreams with the reality of my Florida swamp life, the park that Rotor Riot flies at a lot is covered in oak trees but there's a lot of space between their trunks so the signal gets through really well and they can fly all around in their area no problems at all. There's also some park they go do where it is all mowed grass and tall pine trees, more similar to the Liftoff level and also would not be any problem. They used to fly it with DJI (2.4GHz control link) and some Crossfire 900M 50Hz, but now from what I hear ExpressLRS is more popular with their pilots, but all 2.4GHz. Also: you will have the skill level to maneuver like that! I'm not sayin' you gotta fly "3 packs a day" or anything but every time you fly a few packs you're gonna get a little better assuming you don't just cruise around in circles the whole time. Unless you're having a hard time with that, in which case even that will make you better. I'm 3 years in to flying quads and I still can feel myself getting better compared to a few months ago. Have fun!
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Mar 6, 2023 17:12
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Oh for sure. Right now I'm grinding Liftoff! and Drone Racing League. It's not helping me with cool flips and stuff but I'm definitely getting better at hitting gaps and pulling hard 180°'s. I like that they do stats, because I can see that I'm only 40th percentile - on the maps marked "easy" and "basic". So I've got a long way to go. But I just beat a bot in a race for the first time. I'm pretty proud of that. But flying an actual real freestyle quad is a long way off.
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Mar 7, 2023 00:17
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You ever heard an M30 crash into a tree? Well it doesn't sound like $20,000 dollars disappearing but it sure looked like it.
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Apr 6, 2023 17:34
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They don’t call it the ‘worry free combo’ for nothing.
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Apr 7, 2023 03:39
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With remote id happening in the UE what are my options for something? I've kind of been out of the drone loop for awhile. I do need to study soon to recert for part 107. I don't believe my air2 has any remote ID capability just the air 2s Looking around lol the only thing I see is a $300 module so I'm probably inok get fukt territory. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Apr 19, 2023 |
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Apr 19, 2023 18:54
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Newly sold drones must be equipped with RID. Old drones that did not ship with RID must be retrofitted before 9/16/2023 so you are OK to fly as is for right now. https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/remote_id I wonder what Rotor Riot/GetFPV/whatever other shops selling ready to fly quads are doing about this. Maybe requiring you to plug in the receiver or something so the onus is on you to install RID.
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Apr 19, 2023 20:45
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Yeah I'm aware that as of today I can fly but come Sept I'm out of compliance. Was wondering if there are any retrofit products out there. The only one I see so far is a $300 module that looks a bit big to slap on my air 2. September isn't too far away, at least I can get through the summer with it. It sucks.. I mean I get it, it's there to hopefully reduce asssholery and flying where you shouldn't, I've seen it plenty of times. Jaur sucks I have a $800 paper weight come Sept (unless there is a reasonable remote id add on.)
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Apr 19, 2023 21:38
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or just don't do it cuz it won't be in enforced by local police. they could have just piggybacked elrs to broadcast out position telemetry but they went with the option that makes a few people a bunch of money and adds a bunch of weight guidoanselmi fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Apr 20, 2023 |
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Apr 20, 2023 18:34
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Has anyone seen a USB charger for Mavic Air 1 like this one? It's really annoying having to carry a huge brick when I already have a USB-PD charger or powerbank with me. But I can't find anything, not even the separate proprietary battery connector for the Air 1, or I'd DIY it. mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Apr 23, 2023 12:58
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ordered...now we wait LifeSunDeath fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Apr 24, 2023 15:43
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I traded my Flipper Zero for a Mini 2 setup. Oh man, I know this thing is going to be a gateway drug.
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Apr 24, 2023 18:04
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EVERYWHERE 
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LifeSunDeath posted:
 same though, tbh. The Air still works fine but at this point the Mini 3/pro would be a significant improvement on most fronts. I wish they made a more compact remote though.
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Apr 24, 2023 18:14
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LifeSunDeath posted:
The RCcontroller is worth it IMO. It is nice having your phone separate, downsides are that you will still have to wirelessly tether it to your phone to log into DJI, and that you can't install custom apps to it even though it is just android. I believe they updated the firmware so that the RC will work with the air 2s as well. E: Not to be confused with the RC-pro, which is the one that costs $1,200, bet that one's nice too and you can install apps to it, or so I'm told. nomad2020 fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Apr 24, 2023 19:13
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nomad2020 posted:The RCcontroller is worth it IMO. It is nice having your phone separate, downsides are that you will still have to wirelessly tether it to your phone to log into DJI, and that you can't install custom apps to it even though it is just android. yeah I got the RC (my phone is so old it won't work with the N1) and the bigger batteries...and the insurance...ugh, 1400 bucks total. LifeSunDeath fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Apr 24, 2023 19:27
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meatpimp posted:I traded my Flipper Zero for a Mini 2 setup. Oh man, I know this thing is going to be a gateway drug.
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Apr 25, 2023 05:26
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LifeSunDeath posted:yeah I got the RC (my phone is so old it won't work with the N1) and the bigger batteries...and the insurance...ugh, 1400 bucks total. Happy (almost) birthday dude. Enjoy it and let us know how you like it
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Apr 26, 2023 03:49
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so my dji mini 3 pro will get here later today and I'm hype. In the meantime I'm sure you all heard they updated the firmware so it can work with the headset and motion controller: https://i.imgur.com/vBhtHsy.mp4 pretty sick, but doubt I'll drop more money on this project soon, gonna try and get a lot of flight time before I go back to the well.
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Apr 27, 2023 14:58
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Dji mini 3 pro is here! I put in 30 min of flight time yesterday, made it a mile from the house in few different directions, only got signal dropping out when I tried to get lower cause I'm surrounded by houses. Also did a night flight just hovering above the house to see how landing was at night (went totally fine). Getting a lot of poo poo sorted out and getting used to the camera controls and systems...had some issues with "autofocus" blurring out half the screen, but think that's sorted. Hrm...I'd say so far this is the coolest RC I've ever played with in my life. Can't wait to mess around with the activetrack and obstacle avoidance stuff at low altitude. Oh I did buy the landing legs that look like mech spider legs and it makes landing a breeze, highly recommend:  Don't worry I did not forget to bind my controller and UAV to my drone insurance, and also I did all the compass/imu/RC calibrations. They really should have made a guided walkthrough to do all that stuff but oh well. LifeSunDeath fucked around with this message at 14:33 on May 1, 2023 |
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Apr 28, 2023 15:32
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I presume the landing legs take you over 250g?
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Apr 28, 2023 16:43
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slidebite posted:I presume the landing legs take you over 250g?  if they went for the big battery option.
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Apr 28, 2023 18:22
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nomad2020 posted:
yeah did both big batteries and landing gear. hell I'd strap a spoiler to the drone if it made it look cooler.
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Apr 28, 2023 18:44
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just encountered my first strong wind warning and it freaked me out so I came right back and landed. LOL. I'm so nervous to crash this thing and have to go bushwack to get it back.
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Apr 28, 2023 19:48
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In my experience dji drones are very wind resistant. I’ve flown mine in 35-40mph storm winds while getting footage of waves on Lake Michigan. Wind warnings from takeoff to landing and it was fine. The thing you really have to watch is the battery, it uses a ton of power fighting the wind. That and if you’re going downwind, you need to leave battery reserve to get back while fighting the wind.
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Apr 28, 2023 23:22
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Just had a lot of “fun” flying in high wind in the high desert today. Tried to fly a 2.5” cinewhoop with a GoPro and it couldn’t fight the wind at all. Flew my dolphin fixed wing and drank all its juice just as I was bringing it down. Lost motor and then vtx about 200 m from home. Ran to get it and stumbled into a rattlesnake. Looking at the goggle recording, inav estimated a 40 kmph headwind. It dropped from 14 to 8 V in just 5 seconds.
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May 1, 2023 07:32
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guidoanselmi posted:It dropped from 14 to 8 V in just 5 seconds.
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May 1, 2023 14:14
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I flew my mini3 pro all over a city center yesterday and it was awesome. I got some great videos, got to use active tracking with my buddy, and also freaked out some window washers at the top of a building. It performed amazingly. Active track can lose people if they go around a corner too fast, but it still works really well. I did lose signal at one point while trying to circle a skyscraper that was bout 1500feet from where I took off, return to home kicked in and got me back to signal...still scary seeing the RC screen go black and white and all the warnings are lit up LOL. Lastly, I flew at dusk in the back yard and discovered the obstacle avoidance doesn't work at all in low light, almost flew straight into a wall showing the thing off, be careful!
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May 1, 2023 14:30
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LifeSunDeath posted:I flew my mini3 pro all over a city center yesterday and it was awesome. I got some great videos, got to use active tracking with my buddy, and also freaked out some window washers at the top of a building. It performed amazingly. Active track can lose people if they go around a corner too fast, but it still works really well. I did lose signal at one point while trying to circle a skyscraper that was bout 1500feet from where I took off, return to home kicked in and got me back to signal...still scary seeing the RC screen go black and white and all the warnings are lit up LOL. Lastly, I flew at dusk in the back yard and discovered the obstacle avoidance doesn't work at all in low light, almost flew straight into a wall showing the thing off, be careful! 
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May 3, 2023 04:35
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Yeah, I couldn't figure out what to say either...other than please don't do that again.
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May 3, 2023 05:04
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When I was brand new and didn't know any better my bvlos experience was trying to identify tree leaves up close without actually go up to the trees themselves. But yikes! People? Don't fly near those. Nobody on this forum would report you to transport canada for light law-breaking. And because you're flying a sub-250g drone, the majority of the laws don't actually apply to you. Namely you are not prohibited from flying beyond visual line of sight. But if/when you upgrade to a larger drone you should definitely read up on what things they will fine you $1,000 for and what things they'll fine you $3,000 for. Specifically you should not fly within 30m of people. Doing so could "put them at risk" and that's a $3000 fine. Unless you're a cop. If you're a cop you're allowed to hover in the glide path at runways out of visual line of sight and you can collide with manned aircraft and nobody cares. You won't even have to pay to to repair the aircraft you hit. But if you're not a cop, you have to follow the rules. Edit: https://nrc.canada.ca/en/drone-tool/ Speaking of the man bringing you down, this is a moderately useful tool for knowing if you're close enough to an airport that you shouldn't even take off. There's a better - paid - version made by the same guy who did the youtube video I linked. https://dronepilotcanada.com/ It's great because you're technically supposed to maintain a log book detailing each flight. This is a pain in the rear end and I honestly can't be bothered, but for $60 it's automated to like, 2 button presses. DreadLlama fucked around with this message at 16:24 on May 3, 2023 |
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May 3, 2023 16:18
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LifeSunDeath posted:I flew my mini3 pro all over a city center yesterday and it was awesome. I got some great videos, got to use active tracking with my buddy, and also freaked out some window washers at the top of a building. It performed amazingly. Active track can lose people if they go around a corner too fast, but it still works really well. I did lose signal at one point while trying to circle a skyscraper that was bout 1500feet from where I took off, return to home kicked in and got me back to signal...still scary seeing the RC screen go black and white and all the warnings are lit up LOL. Lastly, I flew at dusk in the back yard and discovered the obstacle avoidance doesn't work at all in low light, almost flew straight into a wall showing the thing off, be careful! Please do not
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May 3, 2023 16:23
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Beve Stuscemi posted:Please do not everyone giving me poo poo, I immediately flew away from them when I came around, wasn't trying to be a problem. anyway, thanks for the input, I get it.
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May 3, 2023 16:27
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Well, its not just that........LifeSunDeath posted:I flew my mini3 pro all over a city center yesterday Flying over populations of people is generally a no-no. Motor or battery failures at skyscraper heights mean the drone is travelling very fast when it hits the ground and skyscrapers/city centers are often surrounded by pedestrian traffic LifeSunDeath posted:also freaked out some window washers at the top of a building. This is not explicitly terrible, but people in general dont like feeling like they're being spied on, and this is the type of thing that leads to more restrictions for drones. LifeSunDeath posted:I did lose signal at one point while trying to circle a skyscraper that was bout 1500feet from where I took off, return to home kicked in and got me back to signal. You really got lucky here. You shouldnt be losing LOS around a big building like that, let alone control and video feeds. For all of the above mentioned reasons, but you cant trust RTH to do the right thing in a busy city area where it has to deal with a large building. People smack the backside of buildings when their drone decides to RTH and either cant ascend because it hit its altitude ceiling or doesnt ascend enough. Big buildings are also usually covered in antennae and towers that pose a thread to RTH-ing drones too. Not to be that guy (I am definitely being that guy), but these are all of the mistakes newbies usually make, except you did them around a giant building with people around. Beve Stuscemi fucked around with this message at 16:40 on May 3, 2023 |
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May 3, 2023 16:38
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