RC aerial vehicles: because we don't have flying brooms

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > RC aerial vehicles: because we don't have flying brooms

redeyes: Sep 14, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

Not sure if this is a good thread for this but I need help:

I am in the market to buy my 15 year old a quadcopter (prebuilt maybe?). After doing a bit of research I have a few questions for anyone that may know.

Fly time: seems to be in the 10-15 minute range at best, can this be increased with a better battery?

Motors: Brushed motors seem to be the norm in the $50-200 range, from reading these can die after as little as 1-5 flights (10 minutes average), and this seems like its a deal-breaker. Are there models with brush-less motors in my price range? Should I be worrying? Are there good quality brushed motors that can be recommended?

Range: seems to be around 100-200 feet, and this seems ok but I don't know for sure

SAFE: seems to be software stabilization, and necessary to not destroy your quadcopter immediately, allows for learning for a beginner. is this the case?

Video recording: I am not married to video recording but it seems like it would be a nice feature. You tube videos tell me that I need to spend at least $500-1000 to get a reasonable HD video model.. but maybe there are mods, etc that can be done.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 00:44

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 01:14

redeyes: Sep 14, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

Arcturas posted:

Has your 15-year old flown a copter or a quad before? How much interest has he/she expressed? If neither of you have any experience with RC stuff, and flying RC stuff in particular, I'd recommend getting one of the ready-to-fly (RTF) mini-quads. There are a bunch in the $50-$100 range. I think the current thread favorites are the Blade Nano QX and Hubsan X4. The X4 has a camera but I have no idea how the quality is, the Nano's pretty excellent and a little more nimble than the X4. Both get ~15-minutes worth of flying on a single battery, but spare batteries are pretty cheap so it's worth getting a few extras.

(Get the RTF models - BNF is Bind-N-Fly, meaning you have to snag a transmitter-a remote control-as well. There's a few other designations for pre-built kits as well)

If you want something bigger, the Parrots are great since they're super durable and so are good for new pilots. The DJI Phantoms often come with cameras but you need to be a little careful with them because they've got exposed props that break easily in crashes. I'd recommend practice before starting on that, or just spend a bunch of cash on spare props.

If you want a more hands-on experience or have played with these things before, then building a quad or starting with a kit you put together is a great idea. Check my post history in this thread for a link to an easy DIY quad build - that's a good starting kit, but you'll want to get the alternative landing gear to practice with (it lowers the quad, which helps make landing easier). It's on a 550mm frame (i.e. a square roughly a foot and a half or two feet on a side) which is bigger than it sounds, and in hindsight I wish I'd gone with a smaller 450 H frame or a mini quad in the 250 range, but those smaller builds are trickier because you need to know what you're doing with the wiring going in. Plus you need to be okay at soldering.

As for your other questions:

15 minutes per battery is pretty good. Look into setting up a battery voltage alarm, though that typically requires soldering. To up that most people get spare batteries and just land/swap batteries. The bigger batteries can increase flight time, but are a bit heavier. It's surprisingly hard to fly a quad for more than 15 minutes straight when you're first starting out, too. (At least for me - maybe I'm a wimp) Instead, I tend to have a bunch of shorter hops and flights, so swapping batteries isn't too hard.

Brushless motors are absolutely the way to go. Depending on size and quality you can get motors that cost anywhere from $10 and up. For a starter quad expecting $20/motor is pretty reasonable.

Range I don't really know much about - other people will know more, but a lot depends on the transmitter/receiver pair you got, whether you got a separate antenna, whether you go for various strange antenna technologies, etc.

Every flight control board has some kind of stabilization. The better boards have better accelerometers and better stabilization. I don't know SAFE per se, but if you want a starter flight control board, the KK2.x series from Hobbyking and the Naze32 are often recommended. (KK2.x might be out of favor now - I built my quad back in February/March when that was recommended for newbies)

Video - There are all sorts of video options. Are you planning on getting an FPV setup? Do you just want to attach a video camera? Do you want to have a monitor so you can see the feed live, or are you okay capturing and then checking it later?

Thank you very much for this information! This helps a lot. Neither I nor my kido has flown anything. Having said that, I am also getting him a soldering station hope to teach him about basic electronics and proper soldering. I will say this, the kid is really smart, has an ardunio and loves to hack electronics so maybe a kit would be a great idea. I don't have the ability to look at your post history so if you could link the thread you are talking about, that would be great.

As far as video, it would be great to be able to record and view later, I don't need FPS most likely.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 03:14

redeyes: Sep 14, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

Does this kit look reasonable for a starter build?

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbypower-QA...words=CF+QAV250

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 22:15

redeyes: Sep 14, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

Arcturas posted:

Redeyes, click the little question mark below my name for my post history in the thread. It's not a forums upgrade you need.

And yeah, that kit looks fine. I don't know much about the CC3D board, but it's probably workable. As people have said, you'll want to buy a receiver, transmitter, batteries (probably 1200-1500 3S batteries), and a battery charger as well. Plus a bajillion spare rotors, too.

OK I get it, that one is only the first step. Part of my motivation for getting a kit is because I want my kid to learn electronics, soldering, etc. I figured that might be a good way but yeah, if that needs another 300 bux of crap to get working that isn't as cool.

My bad about post history, I see your post history and will check it out.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2014 04:18

redeyes: Sep 14, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

Nerobro posted:

I went Naze32 after watching the french guys doing their racing in the woods. That sold me on that board.

Getting FPV quadcopters going is either a matter of hooking up black boxes, and praying it works, or getting really really deep into the nitty gritty of things. Learning to fly is hard enough as it stands. Throwing in the "did I do it right?" is a really difficult pill to swallow. You might not even know you didn't do it right until you've learned how to make it work "around" the stuff you screwed up. (I'm writing from experience here...)

If you want him to learn how to solder (it's a him?) I highly recomend something that will find daily use. At PS:1 for our soldering classes we did these: http://www.adafruit.com/product/14 And don't cheap out on the soldering iron!

Though i'd prefer you buy it at the local hobby shop:

Nano QX
http://www.amazon.com/Nano-QX-RTF-with-SAFE/dp/B00CYHZN8G

Hubsan X4
http://www.amazon.com/Hubsan-H107L-...words=hubsan+x4

To feed your addiction.. the radio that comes with the Nano QX also is useful for flying a whole bunch of other stuff.

All of these can be flown by that transmitter:

And this:

And this:

And.. this:

Though you'll probably want something fancier to fly your next quadcopter... :-)

Yes its a 15 year old boy. One question, is there a decent RTF model in the $100-200 range? Maybe a tad larger than those 2 models? I wanted to try and get a model with brushless motors if possible.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2014 18:13

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# ¿ May 18, 2024 01:14

redeyes: Sep 14, 2002; by Fluffdaddy

I know im being a pain in the rear end, does this thing look like a reasonable starter model which might be modified a bit?
http://www.amazon.com/Skyartec-Butterfly-Quadcopter-without-Battery/dp/B00KGVL7UA/ref=pd_sbs_t_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1CMAHXD23XQTCPKD16YE

How long does Hobbyking take to ship roughly?

redeyes fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Dec 8, 2014

# ¿ Dec 8, 2014 02:50

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