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Corky Romanovsky
Oct 1, 2006

Soiled Meat
Does the nature of the structure and land prevent you from utilizing a pole saw with a GoPro knockoff attached?

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pmchem
Jan 22, 2010


Corky Romanovsky posted:

Does the nature of the structure and land prevent you from utilizing a pole saw with a GoPro knockoff attached?

Hmm, good question. It’d need to be a tall rear end pole. I hadn’t considered it but that may be a good alternative.

ImplicitAssembler
Jan 24, 2013

pmchem posted:

I'm interested in getting a drone that would be pretty much exclusively used to check out my gutters and roof every other month or so. That's all. It's a pain to get on the roof and I just want to make sure things are ok up there (be able to see it "for myself") and then call in a contractor if needed to fix stuff. I searched the thread, and this seemed to be the most relevant recent discussion on the subject...:



Anyway, I'm in the USA. I know absolutely nothing about small home-use drones other than what shows up now and then in funny youtube clips. What would people recommend as a starter drone with a decent camera for taking pics or video of my house?

Mavic Mini 2

CloFan
Nov 6, 2004

Gopro and sticks is good, but if you have the cash and want a drone Mini 2 is a good choice. I'd bet you'll fly it more than just gutter checks

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
I have a mild interest in printing and building this Raptor 2 RC car, because of the four independently driven wheel controlled by some STM32 based control board. The idea is to have a platform to mess around with coding RC things and control algorithms.

Question now is two fold: RC cars typically have these large heatsunk ESCs, from what I can see, which seem made for that specific purpose. Do these meanwhile also come with things like bidirectional DShot (and with that RPM telemetry), or is that still just something quadcopter specific? In turn, why can't I just take something like an F55A Pro II from the quadcopter world, upgrade its heatsinking and use that instead?

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

The reason you don't really see miniquad ESCs in cars is simply the amp ratings: ~50A is enough for pretty much anything 7" or smaller, but it's weaksauce compared to even a basic 1/10 ESC. An ESC capable of driving a 1/10 would be something like an X-class unit, and those cost the same as a good surface ESC. Surface doesn't do D-shot etc because since you drive the motor directly with your finger (as opposed to a flight controller) there's zero point to losing a millisecond or 2 to PWM.

Since that raptor splits the propulsion between 4 independent motors it makes sense to use miniquad gear.

Surface telemetry seems to be all proprietary bullshit (traxxas, horizon, etc)

evil_bunnY fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Apr 10, 2021

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
Hmm, thanks for the info. I'm mostly interested in getting wheel speed telemetry to be able to use it when futzing around with custom control algorithms, e.g. attempting things like vectoring/traction control (if I even get to doing it, because it's also a lot of work code-wise, redoing DMA DShot from scratch and what not). A bidirectional DShot capable ESC pretty much implies real-time telemetry, that's why the question.

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

Neat! The thing I'd be wary about with DSHOT is the lack of startup optimization and orientation sensors (so startup and low speed are going to feel "coggy" unless you gear way down?).
Miniquad ESC aren't really setup to run below flight idle except at arming time, and most of them zonk out if you stall them. You really want a servo system with telemetry.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
The rig is laid out for brushless motors, so you'd probably have to rework the drivetrain blocks, and servos would probably bump the cost quite a bit, for a tinker RC car. The original gearing is apparently 5:1. We'll see, I need to get my 3D printer running again first. :[

Also, anyone knows something about blade/propeller theory? Does increasing the amount of blades loosely work like you'd be scaling the prop disc? I'm just wondering, because some people have been messing around with those 8-blade 3.5" cinewhoop props from HQProp on 5" quads, and the whole idea seems hilarious. The prop disc of a 5" prop has twice the surface of a 3.5" prop, but what if latter has 2.67x the amount of blades... :science:

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

The reason you go to those silly cinewhoop props is noise profile I thought? The tip speeds on a 5" dual or tri blade prop are loving astronomical.

Same setup in both vids pretty much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ory6TaxuKlkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh4eMEDJo3c

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
quadmovr had two of those videos I was hinting at, for instance this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F3svnfzKwY

Seems they work well enough. I want to try this.

--edit:
Friend of mine got himself a balancer board. AFAIK, he isn't the type to babysit batteries, putting them away at storage charge levels, so I expect him to plug in batteries at different charge and balancing levels. He's in for a fun time, isn't he?

Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Apr 13, 2021

Captain Toasted
Jan 3, 2009

Combat Pretzel posted:

quadmovr had two of those videos I was hinting at, for instance this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F3svnfzKwY

Seems they work well enough. I want to try this.

--edit:
Friend of mine got himself a balancer board. AFAIK, he isn't the type to babysit batteries, putting them away at storage charge levels, so I expect him to plug in batteries at different charge and balancing levels. He's in for a fun time, isn't he?

Depending on the difference he’s either gonna fry the board or blow up a battery. Parallel charging isn’t something to mess around on

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

They make boards with polyfuses now I guess? Hope he's got one of those. Honestly the topup from storage to full doesn't take that long.

Elendil004
Mar 22, 2003

The prognosis
is not good.


What are my options for a quad (or hex/octo) that will carry either a traditional camera, lidar, infrared, something interchangable I mean.

CloFan
Nov 6, 2004

https://twitter.com/Pathfinder/status/1383491963068899336

deong
Jun 13, 2001

I'll see you in heck!
Equal parts impressive, tech nerd cool and disgusting. I hate the idea of sky ads so much.. but also

Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

That's like a 50x50 grid so if about half of them are illuminated that's 1250 drones at a minimum. Wack

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
I got myself one of those VAS Ion Pro antennas, based on the supposedly high gain they were boasting. I was wondering what was going on inside, given all the fancy multilobe bent wire antennas, and that popular Pagoda PCB one, that came out in the past. But I couldn't find any information.

Well I smashed it on a branch yesterday, and turns out it's a dipole with a passive polarizer element, which is just a flexible PCB with some copper traces. Oh how we went from complicated to this:

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

Elendil004 posted:

What are my options for a quad (or hex/octo) that will carry either a traditional camera, lidar, infrared, something interchangable I mean.
What do you actually need? Lidar units are still kinda chunky, so you'd probably need something in the DJI M600 pro range.

deong posted:

Equal parts impressive, tech nerd cool and disgusting. I hate the idea of sky ads so much.. but also
That thing is one nerd with birdshot away from never happening again, you know what to do.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
Jerryrigged high power GPS disruptor. Gonna send the drones in a tizzy, and you'll be long gone before they have their scanning equipment out.

Elendil004
Mar 22, 2003

The prognosis
is not good.


evil_bunnY posted:

What do you actually need? Lidar units are still kinda chunky, so you'd probably need something in the DJI M600 pro range.

That thing is one nerd with birdshot away from never happening again, you know what to do.

DJI's got the Matrice 300 RTK, so that with the Zenmuse for lidar is like 26k, but is there a non DJI solution out there in the high teens or lower 20s? Can I mount a thermal on the M300?

Beve Stuscemi
Jun 6, 2001




You can get an Anafi thermal for relatively cheap (like $2k)

https://www.parrot.com/us/drones/anafi-thermal

evil_bunnY
Apr 2, 2003

Elendil004 posted:

DJI's got the Matrice 300 RTK, so that with the Zenmuse for lidar is like 26k, but is there a non DJI solution out there in the high teens or lower 20s? Can I mount a thermal on the M300?
The m300 can mount the zenmuse multisensor camera I think?
Yellowscan also makes units you can stick on an m600

That anafi drone doesn't do point clouds.

TheReverend
Jun 21, 2005

So I bought a ev800D goggles and a tinyhawk freestyle 2 .

I'm still learning on sims, but I are these two compatible?

Did I make a mistake ?

aunt jenkins
Jan 12, 2001

Goggles work with anything, unless you got a digital / DJI quad, but I’m pretty sure they don’t make the Freestyle in digital so you should be fine.

Corky Romanovsky
Oct 1, 2006

Soiled Meat
Just got to figure out which channel the quad defaulted to. It should remember the last channel before power down, so it is set-it-and-forget-it unless you fly with others or are near a system with similar frequencies.

Warbird
May 23, 2012

America's Favorite Dumbass

Got around to actually purchasing WebODM the other day. I had it installed via the free method, but this way is a lot smaller on the PITA scale and I may as well kick them over a few dollars. I really need to sort out how to piggy back off of the city’s surveying points as forking over 5 figures for subCM level accuracy for my dumb personal projects it a touch much.

CapnBry
Jul 15, 2002

I got this goin'
Grimey Drawer
My FAA registration is coming up for renewal, Recreational Flyer Exemption. I like now that you have to provide an inventory of your UAS. What is the model, manufacturer, and serial number of the piece of foam board from the dollar store that I make fly? I have three freestyle quads as well... manufacturer: Parts? It is almost like the people who wrote these rules have no idea how people fly.

Elendil004
Mar 22, 2003

The prognosis
is not good.


Ended up picking up a Phantom 4 RTK and a Reach RS2 since MA has a decent NTRIP network. Should help a lot.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
Finally received those 8-blade cinewhoop props for my 5". They sound really nice and silent, but holy crap to they draw current for bleh performance (and my quad is a Hyperlite Floss, and therefore not really heavy at all). I guess they'd work better with ducts. And well, they have a 3.0 pitch, so...

ImplicitAssembler
Jan 24, 2013

more blades, more mass, more power required

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
Yeah, but they're just 3.5".

Corky Romanovsky
Oct 1, 2006

Soiled Meat
Blade tips are a major source of drag.

helno
Jun 19, 2003

hmm now were did I leave that plane
Anyone here still doing some more traditional R/C aircraft?

I inherited a few aircraft from my old man and decided to convert one to electric.

Sig Rascal. Decided to fly it one last time with the four stroke nitro motor and found it had a terrible fuel leak so it got two laps around the pattern and on to the workbench to be converted to electric.



One 3d printed motor mount and now it is ridiculously overpowered.



The other aircraft is a Sig Riser.

I had to get some fresh surgical tube since the highstart was pretty rotten. Someone caught me in the act but filmed it with a potato.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXbf_PHbfo4

Decided more recently to finish the four channel wing for it. Spoilers and ailerons should be a nice addition.

helno fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Apr 30, 2021

i own every Bionicle
Oct 23, 2005

cstm ttle? kthxbye

helno posted:

Anyone here still doing some more traditional R/C aircraft?

I inherited a few aircraft from my old man and decided to convert one to electric.

Sig Rascal. Decided to fly it one last time with the four stroke nitro motor and found it had a terrible fuel leak so it got two laps around the pattern and on to the workbench to be converted to electric.



One 3d printed motor mount and now it is ridiculously overpowered.



The other aircraft is a Sig Riser.

I had to get some fresh surgical tube since the highstart was pretty rotten. Someone caught me in the act but filmed it with a potato.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXbf_PHbfo4

Decided more recently to finish the four channel wing for it. Spoilers and ailerons should be a nice addition.



Yes. Haven’t touched my quads in a long time other than to harass people in the office with a whoop.

Currently building an ExtremeFlight 85” Slick 580 with a piped DA50, and getting out at least once a week to fly the Turbo Raven(s).

helno
Jun 19, 2003

hmm now were did I leave that plane

I got to see the actual Turbo Raven fly at Oshkosh in the 90's. It was a very different performance than the usual airshow stuff.

i own every Bionicle
Oct 23, 2005

cstm ttle? kthxbye

helno posted:

I got to see the actual Turbo Raven fly at Oshkosh in the 90's. It was a very different performance than the usual airshow stuff.

drat, that’s awesome. That plane was absolutely nutty. So lucky you got to see it during its short life.

helno
Jun 19, 2003

hmm now were did I leave that plane
I'm really surprised that no one has recreated it.

Mike Patey was able to do some of the beta tricks on Draco but it was never going to do a tumble like the Turbo Raven.

One thing that really stood out to me was just how much rudder that plane needed and used. It really reminds me of the large scale R/C aircraft that came out about 10 years later in that respect.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
Seems some people finally got fed up by the glacial pace of OpenTX development and forked it.

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CapnBry
Jul 15, 2002

I got this goin'
Grimey Drawer
Yeah seems Raphael Coeffic has been struggling to get things merged and finally decided to just start his own fork and came up with BeTX EdgeTX. Looks like the first things on the list are internal CRSF support, and a bunch of backed up targets that people have been waiting forever to get, such as Tango 2 and Nirvana. The idea being that stuff from EdgeTX can be merged back to OpenTX if bsongis wants to take it. This way features will get more testers than if they were just PRs sitting around on OpenTX's github for a couple years. It is easy to lose people enthusiastic about helping with development when their work just sits around with no timeline for merge, but being an unpaid project lead dealing with tons of code being thrown at you can also be a full time job just trying to maintain quality. I'm excited to see if it can gain momentum and start banging out some new features.

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