http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQEAfVIJpHY
Horrible multirotor crash in the middle of the crowd. It seems like the drone first gets short of power (end of the battery?) and then goes entirely out of control, maybe for a late (too late) attempt to get it out of the area. Some people should know better, this gives a bad reputation to our hobby
Finally finished the setup of the DJI Flamewheel F450 and went out for a first flight test very early in the morning at the park, with the idea to avoid kids.
Love kids but I feel that at this stage (of my flying skills), it could be dangerous for them, as they tend to come close to see the strange flying thing and are totally unaware of the possible dangers, those rotating propellers are like blades.
I discovered that dogs, that are indeed at the park early in the morning, are as curious as kids:
Anyway it was my very first flight with a NAZA quadcopter, and it took a few tries to take off because of my poor acquaintance with the settings and led light codes. The quadcopter needs GPS calibration, entirely forgot about that. Then, in atti and atti GPS modes, the throttle becomes effective only after the midpoint, which was kind of misleading to me. At the end, all was good. Took a couple of short videos while the quad was locked in GPS mode, holds the position beautifully. Video is very short as I did not really trust the quad in this very first flight. Here you go:
A 2 minutes night flight with the Idea Fly 4S
Brilliant shiny moon on the background.
Soundtrack: Anton Lansky – “00000000”
Cameraman: Andrea2
Pilot: Personal-Drones
The following two short clips were shot in Villa Borghese in Rome with the Walkera brushed Hoten-X quadcopter with wide angle 808 camera #16 setup illustrated in the previous post. Video was stabilized with Final Cut.
The light was just perfect at around 8 in the morning, shortly after sunrise. Wind was very gentle.
So unless I improve my pilot skills, which is actually happening every day, this is about the best I can get now with this equipment. It’s starting to be decent although still far from the nice footage I am aiming at.
Stay tuned for developments!
An aerial view of the Globe Theatre in Rome, Villa Borghese
An aerial view of the Pincio in Rome, Villa Borghese
So far we have been experimenting a bit with the most small devices, Hubsan H107C and Walkera Ladybird or Spacewalker with a normal 808 camera onboard. The video we could capture with those, is basically poor. This is because the quadricopters are very small, lightweight and wind sensitive. This makes the video inherently shaky. The relatively low quality of the cameras does not really help to get a great result.
Those are still valid devices maybe in situations in which a bigger drone would attract unwanted attention, and the event to be captured is still worth the poor quality, maybe because it is interesting for other reasons anyway, as it happens for so many videos we see on youtube.
Anyway, as a next step I took of the DEVO-4 FPV camera off my brushed Hoten-X quadcopter and I built a little sorbothane basis to attach a 808 #16 camera with a velcro strap. Since the lens of the camera was nearly to the floor after mount, some foam was added to skids to gain some free space under the camera. See the picture gallery.
The resulting video is a net improvement over the previously captured footage. Stability is much better, no traces of Jello effect, possibly thanks to the sorbothane mount and the mount for the DEVO-4 with little rubber foots that I left in place.
I recently received a package from UK with a BNF IFly4S. I connected it’s flight controller to a Walkera Devo RX701 2.4Ghz 7ch Receiver (Walkera-Parts-RX701) in order to be able to control it with my DEVO7 radio, best radio I have so far. Connection was not difficult although it took a while as it was my first connection between a receiver and a flight controller, ever.
The flight controller was then connected to a PC with Ifly Tools installed and calibration of the radio was done. Had a few problems on this one, but eventually succeeded also thanks to a couple of youtube videos that you will find in the specific models section.
Then comes the first flight test. Will it work? Please find out in the video below.
Some more sample footage with the Husban H107C. Windy day and shaky video but nice light and a beautiful scenario in Villa Borghese in Rome.
In search for more stability with respect to this setup:
http://personal-drones.net/how-to-capture-video-with-the-walkera-qr-ladybird-and-808-camera/
I tried to add the 808 cam to the Walkera Spacewalker octocopter. Unfortunately it was very wind and video is very shaky. On the last bit there is a more quiet moment that show potential for a decent although low resolution footage. Clearly the 808 cam has limits, waiting for the #16 model for testing.
A small piece of sorbothane was used to quench the vibrations to the camera.
Stay tuned for more on my quest for the perfect personal drone. I aim at something possibly much smaller than a phantom with a gopro. Tips and suggestion most welcome!
Thanks for watching
What can you expect on taking footage with the Hubsan H107C mini quadcopter with onboard camera? This video contains a couple of minutes of footage in a light breeze condition. This is just a first test fly, however there is some potential here, maybe when less windy.
It is amazing that such a small system that stays in the palm of on hand can produce such interesting results. With the radio controller, everything can be carried in a small bag ready to use everywhere. Lots of fun. Video quality very poor.
Stay tuned for more!
Soundtrack: Pavel Tukki: “Diku”
When I received my FPV QR Ladybird, I was entirely disappointed that I could not record video. A lot of search went into “can I record video with walkera ladybird”. All I could establish is that it is possible to connect a video cable to the radio, and then hook this to a DVR. Bulky and complicated setup.
What I did was to get a 808 car key cam off ebay, very cheap. Then I temporarily stripped out the “native” video transmitter and came to the solution shown in the video.
Hope this can be useful. Any info on better quality, lightweight camera to test in a similar setup is most welcome.
Concerning the flight with payload, the ascensional phase was quite smooth and the Ladybird can lift the weight of the 801 camera easily. The descent was more turbulent and in more that one case I was only able to control it and slow it down, but not to stop it (in short a few crashes occurred). No damages though.