Quadcopter Video Fun

[Yamadoo04]

So I broke down and got me a quadcopter. This thing is so freaking cool! I can't wait until next season now. I was able to get out on Saturday and get a little test footage with it before all the snow is completely gone. It's going to take some practice flying it while following someone but when I get it down its going to be sweet.

First sledding video with copter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAqcC6lCELw
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xAqcC6lCELw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

First flight with copter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZWL3Kru24E
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CZWL3Kru24E?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Reeb]

These Phantom's are great. My buddy is a distributor down here in Chile and we've had a blast with them! Kinda need the best conditions available cuz it get's unstable with wind versus other more balanced units. But it's great knowing we can crash one and it's not a huge hit to the wallet like what I used to use back home for commercials and TV shorts.

We've gone thru 4 Phantom's so far, the Ocean took one that we never found, and 3 others crashed and burned pretty horribly. But with good conditions and steady thumbs, they work great!

 

[Cooksend]

Good stuff! Heli's get some of the coolest shots. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next year!

 

[Yamadoo04]

Yes they can crash pretty easy. Got to have a non windy day too. The wind can really mess with them for sure. I wanted to take more footage from some of the ridge tops but it was way too windy for that. Next year for sure though.


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[Jeff C]

Yamadoo:

Are you able to pan up/down by controlling the camera or are you turning the whole craft up/down?

Also, can you see live video from your controller? It looks as though you could see what the camera was looking at in real time.

Can you post a link as to where to look at the unit you bought.....??

Pretty cool stuff there!

 

[couch]

Picked one up last year to get some different perspective promo shots for our tour company - need to get some practice in with to or find someone who is used to them ..... never was a gamer so it's a bit foreign to me in terms of operating it. Hopefully this season it will get a bit of use!

 

[smokindave]

I really need to get one of these.



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[Yamadoo04]

Yamadoo:

Are you able to pan up/down by controlling the camera or are you turning the whole craft up/down?

Also, can you see live video from your controller? It looks as though you could see what the camera was looking at in real time.

Can you post a link as to where to look at the unit you bought.....??

Pretty cool stuff there!

It is called the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus
See link below

http://dji.com

Yes you can pan tilt the camera up and down via the app on your phone. ( I use the iphone)
Yes you can see in real time exactly what the camera is seeing.
From the app on your phone you can control everything on the camera. Settings, take pictures and video etc.... It shows you the height of the copter from where you took of and the distance away from you. I have had it at 1000 ft high and about that far distance horizontally away from me.
Only thing about this one is there is no audio with this camera. (but in all honesty is ok because all you would hear is the buzz of the motors and that would get old quite fast)
If you have a GOPRO camera already you can buy just the phantom 2 with a gimbal and use your own camera.

This thing is way freaking cool.

 

[KTMDirtFace]

Yes they can crash pretty easy. Got to have a non windy day too. The wind can really mess with them for sure. I wanted to take more footage from some of the ridge tops but it was way too windy for that. Next year for sure though.


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I'm building a waterproof quad right now. Never flown a quad before. I fly 3d Heli's though have a few.

What does the quad do in the wind? Are you flying in manual mode or one of those auto hover type deals(gps/attitue hold)?

Helis exept the real little ones don't really get affected by the wind to badly. so I was curious..course they are full manual, but their flight unit will compensate for wind/outside forces.


By the way , Best tool ever for learning to fly Planes, Heli, and probably quads. ( Quad should be easy if you learn a heli lol )
http://www.realflight.com/

 

[SnowScout]

Tudizzle has the quad copter down.

 

[SnowScout]

 

[Yamadoo04]

See red text below

I'm building a waterproof quad right now. Never flown a quad before. I fly 3d Heli's though have a few.

What does the quad do in the wind? Are you flying in manual mode or one of those auto hover type deals(gps/attitue hold)? I haven't had it in really strong winds but have in about 10 mile hr winds. I have been flying in the GPS mode right now. It makes it so easy to fly that way. It will hold it within a couple of feet of where it wants to be. Takes all the work out of it. I have tried it once without GPS and only did it for a couple minutes. It is different that way for sure.

Helis exept the real little ones don't really get affected by the wind to badly. so I was curious..course they are full manual, but their flight unit will compensate for wind/outside forces.


By the way , Best tool ever for learning to fly Planes, Heli, and probably quads. ( Quad should be easy if you learn a heli lol )
http://www.realflight.com/

 

[Reeb]

I'm not sure what the laws are like for UAV's in the States, but in Canada we have to be very careful. Especially in the business sector. Flight plans, rules and regs. It's pretty heavy if you want to do it without breaking rules and possibly getting a major fine.

Being too close to people, power lines, airports, altitude, etc. Flight plans to the ATAC are ridiculous unless you can get a bunch of signed forms with open times on them.(Which is a fable as far as I know, although I wish it wasn't!)

This is the unit we use in a commercial sense. For realty, businesses, promos, etc. Much better than a quad, but ridiculously expensive.(Carries 20x the weight and has a lot more features too) You can't imagine the cost it took us to get one. Let alone the red tape to get the OK from the US Military to get the company that makes them, sell one to us.

I'll have a Phantom back at home for personal use tho. Too much fun not to have one!

 

[shelbwyo]

I can not believe how steady that thing is in the air. I think if someone can get real good at making a fluid video this is going to be used in filiming. The only down side i see is having to pack it into the backcountry.

 

[Jeff C]

It is called the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus
See link below

http://dji.com

Yes you can pan tilt the camera up and down via the app on your phone. ( I use the iphone)
Yes you can see in real time exactly what the camera is seeing.
From the app on your phone you can control everything on the camera. Settings, take pictures and video etc.... It shows you the height of the copter from where you took of and the distance away from you. I have had it at 1000 ft high and about that far distance horizontally away from me.
Only thing about this one is there is no audio with this camera. (but in all honesty is ok because all you would hear is the buzz of the motors and that would get old quite fast)
If you have a GOPRO camera already you can buy just the phantom 2 with a gimbal and use your own camera.

This thing is way freaking cool.

Yamadoo:

I do have a Hero 2 Go Pro but I would think there is no real time video with that camera as there is no transmitter inherent in the camera.

If your gonna do it, do it right............ I would get the complete system WITH the camera...........

Is this the way you went? Bought the camera as well?

I wonder what the distance limit from the controller is and what happens to the copter when it gets out of range?

 

[Yamadoo04]

Yes a complete system is the way I went. I think the newer go pro cameras do have the ability to connect to your phone but I'm not certain about that as I don't have a go pro.

As far as distance goes they say you can go up to 700 meters away for the wifi connection from the camera to your phone. It is line of site though. I flew it from the front of my house to the back and lost the phone connection when I lost site of it.

The controller on the other hand they say you can go a mile away. Don't know if that's true or not. I can tell you as long as you wait for gps signal to mark your home location it will come back and land right where it took off if you lose controller connection. I tested this by flying just straight up until it lost connection. Which was just over 1000 ft. There might have been interference or something that caused to lost connection I'm not sure though. I know there are rules about flying heights and stuff but oh well. Anyway when it lost connection it flew back by itself and landed within a foot of where I took off. That's a pretty cool feature.


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[KTMDirtFace]

I'm not sure what the laws are like for UAV's in the States, but in Canada we have to be very careful. Especially in the business sector. Flight plans, rules and regs. It's pretty heavy if you want to do it without breaking rules and possibly getting a major fine.

Being too close to people, power lines, airports, altitude, etc. Flight plans to the ATAC are ridiculous unless you can get a bunch of signed forms with open times on them.(Which is a fable as far as I know, although I wish it wasn't!)

This is the unit we use in a commercial sense. For realty, businesses, promos, etc. Much better than a quad, but ridiculously expensive.(Carries 20x the weight and has a lot more features too) You can't imagine the cost it took us to get one. Let alone the red tape to get the OK from the US Military to get the company that makes them, sell one to us.

I'll have a Phantom back at home for personal use tho. Too much fun not to have one!

They are pretty much not allowed for any commercial use here in the states currently. Law enforcement I believe has to get a warrant to use them.

Personal use is ok "for now".

But the jerkwads washington pricks are trying to change that too... last i heard they were trying to ban them alltogether and making it a felony. i'm sure california will do it first LOL.

 

[KTMDirtFace]

I can not believe how steady that thing is in the air. I think if someone can get real good at making a fluid video this is going to be used in filiming. The only down side i see is having to pack it into the backcountry.

These guys build quads to do just that out of Bend, Oregon
http://xproheli.com/

I do have a Hero 2 Go Pro but I would think there is no real time video with that camera as there is no transmitter inherent in the camera.

You can totally use a Go Pro as first person view

There is a cable you can buy for the go pro and then you get shark goggles or some other brand with a transmiter to send the signal FPV from your go pro to the goggles. I will be doing this eventually with my custom build.

Hero 2 Cable: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__32027__gopro_hero_2_to_fpv_transmitter_lead_150mm.html
( hero 3 is a bit diffren t)

FatShark of some sort for the Transmitter and Receiver and goggles.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__539__543__FPV_Telemetry-Goggles.html

How you would hook all that up to a Phantom I don't really know..havnt looked into it.


Edit: Oh the new go pros you can view the image on your phone with wifi but its pretty much usless. its got about a 3 second delay..its basically just for lining the angle up on your helmet or something usless otherwise. You definitly need a 5.8ghz transmitter and receiver setup.. or something similar for realtime first person view through it.

 

[Reeb]

Yeah you can end up with a small fortune to make it a professional setup.

 

[Jeff C]

Reeb:

Yea, but it is sure cool though.......

If the F.A.A allowed this comercially, I could see a viable aerial inspection business that could be born here.

Inspecting:
Water towers
Antennas
Roofs
Satellites (LOL)
Or supplying video footage for HS football games that sort of thing


The sky is the limit (No pun intended)


How long do batteries last and how long does it take to switch out a battery?