Drones - amazing videos, discussion, reviews and more

[joustmaster]

Drone racing looks wow.

Proper multi-faceted challenge. The skill of the racing, but also the engineering. You make your racer.

FPV headset where you’re seeing the real world, not a render.

And the audience can FPV with you, or watch from the outside.

Are you allowed to program it to fly it it's self

 

[twentythreedom]

Depends on the drone - my CAA permissions let me fly machines up to 20kg which handle high winds much better than something weighing as little as a FPV racer (<700g ish) or a Phantom. For commercial purposes you have to go by the manufacturers specs for max wind speeds in the manual, but as I build my own drones I can decide what is the limit and submit that to the CAA as part of my operations manual... realistically though I wouldn't bother flying in wind over about 15MPH (13 point something knots!?) as the footage would likely be shakey and rubbish due to the gimbal being unable to keep the camera steady. I have still flown in 50MPH gusts on top of mountains when the client demanded it though... the other answer is to fly up to whatever conditions make you feel unsafe or not fully in control of the craft.

There is a great app called UAVforecast that gives you realtime weather status on whether it's good to fly or not

Wow, that's amazing. You are Professor Drone, basically

Any chance of some pics please? Of and by your drones

 

[electroplated]

Wow, that's amazing. You are Professor Drone, basically

Any chance of some pics please? Of and by your drones

I do tend to drone on a bit I'm told... www.mobulair.com is my site, there's a gallery on there of lots of custom builds and stuff but not fully up to date, new website launching soon with less words and more pictures & videos - stuff on instagram too Mobulair (@mobulair) • Instagram photos and videos

 

[electroplated]

Are you allowed to program it to fly it it's self

Not in an FPV race condition, and if you did it wouldn't be able to beat a human pilot with current technology - automated missions are a big part of aerial survey and photogrammetry work though for slower more precise and repeatable use cases.

 

[pogofish]

Just discovered an interesting thing.

Never disable GPS, then leave your drone running on low to discharge the batteries - Ours suddenly decided to do a "return to home" - all by itself, in the office!

Cue myself an a colleague hitting the decks as it careened around the office at nose height and three sets of wrecked blades when it finally found a way to earth after bouncing off a few walls, macs, filing cabinets etc...!

At least blades only cost around eight quid a pair!

 

[spitfire]

Please tell me you left the camera on.....

 

[pogofish]

Sadly no, the camera and gimbal were detached this time.

 

[spitfire]

Probably just as well, may have got really expensive.

 

[pogofish]

Our thoughts exactly.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Just discovered an interesting thing.

Never disable GPS, then leave your drone running on low to discharge the batteries - Ours suddenly decided to do a "return to home" - all by itself, in the office!

Cue myself an a colleague hitting the decks as it careened around the office at nose height and three sets of wrecked blades when it finally found a way to earth after bouncing off a few walls, macs, filing cabinets etc...!

At least blades only cost around eight quid a pair!

I thought you didn't need to discharge lithium ion batteries?

 

[pogofish]

I thought you didn't need to discharge lithium ion batteries?

It was our "pilot's" decision to do that. He's in charge of the drone.

 

[twentythreedom]

Mad skills

 

[Saul Goodman]

I thought you didn't need to discharge lithium ion batteries?

They tend to be LiPo (lithium polymer), and they shouldn't be stored at full charge.

I have one or twelve of these too. What I did discover is the first time you use goggles and fly FPV, you should make 100% certain that your goggles are tuned in correctly to the transmitter, and not just on a channel that's bleeding through.That was an expensive 30 seconds

I've built all of my own. I think I actually prefer building them to flying them. I'm currently working on one with 4X 26cc Zenoah petrol engines

 

[electroplated]

They tend to be LiPo (lithium polymer), and they shouldn't be stored at full charge.

I have one or twelve of these too. What I did discover is the first time you use goggles and fly FPV, you should make 100% certain that your goggles are tuned in correctly to the transmitter, and not just on a channel that's bleeding through.That was an expensive 30 seconds

I've built all of my own. I think I actually prefer building them to flying them. I'm currently working on one with 4X 26cc Zenoah petrol engines

Good advice re: checking your vtx and goggle frequency are set correctly - very easy mistake to make and also once the vtx or antenna gets damaged they can start pumping out signals on a wider range of frequencies than just the one selected, or have very unpredictable range and radiation patterns. I'm a big fan of a diversity setup on goggles with a good omni antenna like the TBS triumph combined with a more directional helical or patch antenna for longer range flights.

As for using petrol engines over electric, are you going for fixed pitch or variable? The best results I've seen with IC engines on multirotors is using a single engine to power all the blades via drive belts and using variable pitch prop setups like you'd find on a traditional rc Heli. Have you seen the Curtis Youngblood stingray setup?

 

[Saul Goodman]

Good advice re: checking your vtx and goggle frequency are set correctly - very easy mistake to make and also once the vtx or antenna gets damaged they can start pumping out signals on a wider range of frequencies than just the one selected, or have very unpredictable range and radiation patterns. I'm a big fan of a diversity setup on goggles with a good omni antenna like the TBS triumph combined with a more directional helical or patch antenna for longer range flights.

As for using petrol engines over electric, are you going for fixed pitch or variable? The best results I've seen with IC engines on multirotors is using a single engine to power all the blades via drive belts and using variable pitch prop setups like you'd find on a traditional rc Heli. Have you seen the Curtis Youngblood stingray setup?

I have 4 or 5 spare heads here for the Trex 700 helis, so I'll most likely (haven't decided 100% yet) be using those and a variable pitch. I'll be easier to set up for me, as I came from an RC heli background, and I do like the sound of an IC engine (or 4) on idle up position 3

I haven't seen Curtis' setup. I'll have a look on the tube now

 

[editor]

Here's some pleasing drone crashes






7 drone crashes that will make you fly your bird more carefully

 

[Badgers]

Going well...

Police drones grounded over power bug

 

[editor]

Ruddy Nora:

 

[editor]

https://jalopnik.com/this-guy-has-to-be-one-of-the-best-drone-pilots-in-the-1830573469

 

[2hats]

Water? No problem. The 'Naviator':

 

[spitfire]

Holy cow...



https://www.fireflydroneshows.com/?...v1KGsKy6NJgb1alFPJAgmVEW6UWeHHDIxOCVUPKGJhPMk

https://www.fireflydroneshows.com/v...dium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&utm_source=share

 

[a_chap]

Am I the only one to watch that and think "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"...?

 

[spitfire]

Am I the only one to watch that and think "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"...?

No. It's well eerie.

 

[2hats]

Holy cow...

Full sequence of that 100 drone show here.

Intel 50th anniversary show with 2000+ drones:

Longer background video here.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Jet powered drones

Jet-powered VTOL drone is like a quadcopter on steroids

 

[hash tag]

in the V&A, a car carrying drone

 

[editor]

Drone KILLA

 

[editor]

Royal Mail:

Introducing our newest member of the fleet! Our exciting drone trial will help deliver to some of the most remote parts of the British Isles with help from @what3words to pinpoint a location anywhere in the UK.

 

[hash tag]

More reliable than humans and less expensive.

 

[weltweit]

When we were last badly flooded in October 2019 a man came down to the waters edge with a couple of drones and made some very pretty photos and videos of the flooded village and landscape.

Great for photo work, an amazing viewpoint, but out of my budget for the time being.