Quad copter recommendations

[skotl]

Following on from this thread, I got all excited about getting my 11 year old son into something we could race around, but I ended up with questions about our garden (it's a 45 degree slope with grass around 12" high), the fact that we'd have to get two, and it didn't seem quite so appealing.

So then I started looking into quad copters with cameras. Now, I know some threads have a habit of running down various legal rabbit holes but rest assured I have one neighbour within 500ft and he's completely fine with anything like this...

It seems that GPS/gyro/come-home are important features to have (and I'm astonished that these are available in a ~£100 machine), but my boy gets distracted easily (ASD) and so quick charge / standard / replaceable batteries are important to me, too.

That in mind, can anyone recommend a copter for around the ton?

Ta

 

[johnik]

I got one about 2 years ago,never managed to get anything more than a gentle hop out of it,the slightest breeze will cause problems,they aint easy to fly ! it,s now sitting on the table gathering dust.

 

[MrFluffy]

Dj1 if your budget stretches, or parrot ar drone2 arent bad if you can find one secondhand for sub 100 quid and fancy tinkering (the ar or ar1 is a different beast hardware wise and not as capable), they don't come with a inbuilt gps as standard and the stock range is 500ft on a good day but you can tinker with range using antenna's and wifi extenders. I fly mine fpv with google cardboard and a playstation2 remote paired to the android phone doing the display with a 2w amp on the drone itself and a repeater for the ground station. I've also added a gps module for autonomous flight experimenting and you can link this back to a laptop for ground control to waypoints etc, but one day I'm going to get round to replacing the whole main board with a different one but I've resolved by that point I'll build my own frame and use better motors and esc's.

 

[MrFluffy]

Oh and GPS fly home features are great, until you forget you set home to somewhere inside your house when you powered it up and it flies into the side of said stone house at about 30mph returning home... So a important question with any quadcopter should be "can I buy spares". You will need them.

The parrots are stabilized and the 2.0 lands if it looses comms without gps (the ar1 sometimes flies away into the stratosphere, different hardware...), but you need the gps module to do return to home. It also has a detatchable battery pack, in fact I have lots of them, with the biggest I get 25 mins flight time, but it flies like a whale and backflips and stunts are out because its so heavy so I'd rather fly with the two lighter packs and swap them after 15-20.

 

[gerrymoore]

I had a walkera 350 which was very easy to fly in beginners mode..which ever way it was pointing you pushed the lever left to go left..it can be very confusing in 'normal' mode as when it's coming towards you left is right!! It had gps and return to home and I got some great video from it using a little hd camera..regret selling it now I used an old bleach bottle and a bit of paint to make it look like a wasp..great fun for a pensioner like me!!

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Build your own. Lots of RC places will provide pre specced kits including radio gear in some cases. Bit of reading and fun building. Big advantage is replacing and repairing is easier and cheaper. And better upgrade paths as your piloting improves. (Some good free/cheap quad sims available and can run through your tx too.
I went for a 250mm quad not too big but easy to work on and plenty of room for camera gear when I get around to it. Just LOS for me ATM. Wouldn't advise flying in the garden though tbh. They shift quick. Mines a relatively low powered quad and will easily hit 50mph full chat.
Worth buying some small indoor quads for getting to grips with flight too.

 

[wookie]

I was seriously impressed with a DJI Mavic Pro that a guy I know was flying but then is should be good as it costs a grand He started with a DJI Phantom 3 then a Phantom 4 Pro and now flies the Mavic the most.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

What do you want to do with your quad. Fast maneuverable. Or slow and controlled as a camera base for photography ect.
I went for the first option. Cost me 200 notes including the tx. ( I paid a little over the odds but as it was my first RC and quad build having all the parts specced let me get to grips with the build and learn for the next time without too much stress.

Straight forward to assemble. Flashing and setting up the software was harder than assembly. Didn't worry about GPS on this build but have setup loss of signal parameters to ensure a reasonable safe decent should I lose signal.(was nervy shutting off the tx to test)
First flight 1esc was playing up resulting in a flip so I played safe second time around. Wife wasn't impressed.

Looked much better and ventured out into the garden for test 3 then braved the sports field for my first proper flight. Had only flown a tiny indoor quad previously so don't judge me too harshly.

Not had much chance to fly over the winter but I'm going to get some flying in now the weathers improved. Just need to persuade the wife I need a camera kit and googles...
My next build will be a camera platform which will probably be a lot more involved than this one.
Lots of fun to fly and can't wait to fly FPV.
Not sure a camera platform would give quite the same rush though.

 

[skotl]

Good options there - thanks, folks!

Wife's away for the weekend so me'n'boy might go shopping

 

[Robotstar5]

What do you want to do with your quad. Fast maneuverable. Or slow and controlled as a camera base for photography ect.

Any recommendations for the 2nd option?, I would like to try aerial photography.

 

[skotl]

Any recommendations for the 2nd option?, I would like to try aerial photography.

Ditto - I think that's the best route to keep my kid's enthusiasm up, especially when we go on holiday, etc.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Any recommendations for the 2nd option?, I would like to try aerial photography.

Make sure you have a full wallet. Lol.
On a serious note. Wouldn't know where to point you for an off the shelf option for sensible money. They all seem to be extortionate.
Given the nature of this forum maybe this will lend you some inspiration.
http://fromwhereidrone.com/how-to-build-your-own-custom-photography-drone/

 

[wookie]

A friend of mine has one of those £100 drones with camera, I've not seen it flying but he's shown me footage its filmed, the quality was very impressive (for the price) but it seemed like he was struggling to fly it smoothly with a fair few crash landings, at the other end of the scale the guy I mentioned previously makes flying the £1000 Mavic look so easy and the footage was so slick it could have been done by a professional. I quite fancy getting a drone and if I ever do it will be from the expensive end of the range.

 

[skotl]

A friend of mine has one of those £100 drones with camera, I've not seen it flying but he's shown me footage its filmed, the quality was very impressive (for the price) but it seemed like he was struggling to fly it smoothly with a fair few crash landings, at the other end of the scale the guy I mentioned previously makes flying the £1000 Mavic look so easy and the footage was so slick it could have been done by a professional. I quite fancy getting a drone and if I ever do it will be from the expensive end of the range.

My mate is up in Skye and dropped around £4k on a top end unit (couldn't tell you the make), went and got his CAA licence and is now making a side living doing surveys of roofs on damaged buildings and fields/crops. TBH, I suspect he's not yet cleared the initial investment, including the down-south training, after around 3 years but it's another string to his bow.

 

[gaz1]

try laptops direct was in there the other week picking up the cctv system and they had some of the drones in the building looked nice as well

 

[cumbriasteve]

This is my mate with his Phantom, probably a bit more than you wish to spend but he was flying it from day one with relative ease, had it linked to an ipad mini controller.

He did a few flights but don't think he has used it now for ages, I think they are a thing that's exciting to get into but not sure how long the excitement remains once you have mastered it, taken a few videos and realise how much you are spending on deep heat cream for the neck muscles

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

He did a few flights but don't think he has used it now for ages, I think they are a thing that's exciting to get into but not sure how long the excitement remains once you have mastered it, taken a few videos and realise how much you are spending on deep heat cream for the neck muscles

Thats one of the factors that put me off a camera platform build first off. Alltitude hold, direction hold, headless mode. GPS waypoints, auto land and take off , return to home all detract from connecting you to the drone. Unless you have a use for the camera the novelty wears off quickly. I used to race kite buggies. If I was still doing it then a camera platform would be excellent for capturing the action and would see a lot of use but would be more likely to grab a racing quad for a 15 minute brap over the field.

 

[skotl]

Thats one of the factors that put me off a camera platform build first off. Alltitude hold, direction hold, headless mode. GPS waypoints, auto land and take off , return to home all detract from connecting you to the drone. Unless you have a use for the camera the novelty wears off quickly. I used to race kite buggies. If I was still doing it then a camera platform would be excellent for capturing the action and would see a lot of use but would be more likely to grab a racing quad for a 15 minute brap over the field.

That was another thought, and I actually went to the local RC shop website to look at buggies first before getting distracted by quads.
Looks like the majority of them are 3 hours' charge for 15 minutes of fun - I know I can buy more batteries but you certainly don't get a lot of time for your investment in charging.
Hmmm... 30 year old used petrol Tamiya perhaps... bet they're expensive!

 

[Shox Dr]

I've a Traxxas T maxx 2.5 if you are looking for a hoot on 4wheels, not used it for a while

 

[slim_boy_fat]

What do you want to do with your quad. Fast maneuverable. Or slow and controlled as a camera base for photography ect.

Are they all as noisy as that?