Anyone into Multirotors? (also known as Drones) ?

I did not post on the forum for a long time, because I've been busy with other things. But mostly I've been busy with my new found hobby: flying my Hexacopter :)

From programming to electronics, then making robots & CNCs :), and now.... FLYING :D

It all started last year when I bought myself a quadcopter just to try something new. I got an AR Drone 2.0, and I loved the thing!! I went out to fly it every week for the whole summer (weather permitting). Then I wanted more than a toy... so I built myself a Hexacopter :) it was very challenging to build it, and also very challanging to fly it. But still love it :) What I love most about my new hobby is that it takes me out of the house very often, as opposed to before when doing programming all the time never getting any fresh air.

So here it is!
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Anyone else into this hobby?

Edit: Here is my new video with my Hexacopter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIYogu0J16g

That can become an obsession pretty fast.

Even the tiny toy coax helis can get to be one. I have far too many of them including a few that work outdoors, as well as a small Chinook tandem. Tried a quad and found it boring but it is true they make a far more stable platform.

At least boredom saved me investing a lot more money, storage space, and time though!

HCW 543 4CH Coaxial Helicopter Outdoor Test

We may end up using them for work. It turns out that drones make great platforms for counting spawning salmon. By recording the video streaming from the drone, one group found that their counts were higher than if you put a person in a helicopter, which means that they aren't quite comparable because the video allows for a more leisurely, and therefore accurate, count. It's also a heckuva lot safer. Two of my friends were killed when their helicopter crashed while doing these counts a couple years ago. I'm totally in favor of drone-based counting, and have been thinking of getting a small drone for my own use (an indoor drone, though I forget the model) after flying one at a conference recently.

The indoor flying things; yes, those are easy to get bored off... and the Chinook Helicopter is very small, so outside the wind will move it side to side, especially that it does not have any auto-leveling and position hold. The AR Drone has a camera poiting down, and it's using that to correct it's position using motion tracking, and it also has an ultrasonic distance sensor and barometer to keep itself at a constant height, it's doing that all by itself, so when you take off, you can set it anywhere in space, and put the controller down, and regardless how the wind blows, it will keep itself in the same position. The new AR Drone 2.0 also has a GPS addition that will keep itself at the same position even at high altitude.

I can't see myself getting bored of these anytime soon, the fun of flying is overwhelming for me :)

I read "Anyone to Minotaurs" :P

When I saw this video, I knew I wanted to learn how to build one of these before I die:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2itwFJCgFQ

I've often wondered whether there are any restrictions on where and when you can fly those things. I'm guessing that flying them over military bases and the likes is well and truly off limits but I imagine that there are a lot of places that a manned aircraft wouldn't be allowed but a drone would. As they proliferate, I would expect rulings to be enacted specifically with them in mind to restrict their use. In time, I can imagine it being illegal to fly one over someone else's property without prior consent.

Oh, so you guys are to be blamed for those U.F.O. sightings?

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Originally Posted by Niya

When I saw this video, I knew I wanted to learn how to build one of these before I die:-

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Those guys were able to achive that precision because they setup cameras around to track where the quadcopter is, and it is computer controlled.
My hexacopter has no such things of course, and the thing moves around a lot, and you constantly have to adjust it's position, especially when it's a little windy, but because my hexacopter is big & heavy, it takes a lot of wind to push it around. Also the drome is so fast, that it is imppossible to fly it indoors, you crash it 2 seconds after take off... I have GPS on mine, but I still could not make it work properly. Right now I am learning to fly in acrobatic mode, and also line of sight, this is basically no automation whatsoever, so no altitude hold, and no position hold. Once the thing is setup properly it is much easier to control because there are a lot of things that the main controller can do for you. But I am not trying to hard to setup those things because learning how to fly is acrobatic mode is very important, because when something fails, and you know how to fly in acrobatic mode, then you can save the drone from a nasty crash.
I also have FPV on it, this is basically a small camera connected to a video transmitter, and I have video goggles to view from it's point of view the video. This is really cool stuff, but the problem is that you loose the "environment"... because the camera view is limited, it's difficult to know what it's behind, left, right, up, down... you only see what's in front... so when using FPV... the unwritten rule is to ALWAYS move forward!! never go backward, or sideways, this way you can keep track of the environment.
I am still learning how to fly, so I am not using FPV because I feel like I am loosing my senses, I need to see what's around it, also, because I don't use FPV, and use line of sight, I can't go too far from where I am, after about 100 meters, it is very difficult to keep track in what direction is pointing, and that makes it very difficult to control.

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Originally Posted by dee-u

Oh, so you guys are to be blamed for those U.F.O. sightings?

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Yup! :) there are many that add lights on it, and yes, it is vey easy to mistake it with a U.F.O.

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Originally Posted by jmcilhinney

I've often wondered whether there are any restrictions on where and when you can fly those things. I'm guessing that flying them over military bases and the likes is well and truly off limits but I imagine that there are a lot of places that a manned aircraft wouldn't be allowed but a drone would. As they proliferate, I would expect rulings to be enacted specifically with them in mind to restrict their use. In time, I can imagine it being illegal to fly one over someone else's property without prior consent.

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Yes... the FAA is trying to regulate this right now, but they are way to restrictive about it, and they are basically trying to kill the hobby, and also many other things that are usefull, like for example farmers are using drones to monitor on their crops... (don't know too much about this, just read it on other forums)
The FAA is basically trying to bann FPV, but the problem with that is that without it, you have to fly the drone very close to you, so then what's the point of the drone in the first place? There is A LOT of talk about this on other forums...
There are many benefits of using drones, but because of some morons that fly them near airports, this hobby (drone use) is in danger, and they are being viewd in a very negative way...
Some people also raised concerns about privacy of using them... those are the paranoid people who think everyone is spying on them... if I really wanted to spy on someone, then I won't need to spend thousands of dollars for a drone that can stay in the air for 10 minutes, I would just get a set of binoculars... much simpler and cheaper... LOL

Anyways... there is much to say, but forums dedicated to this hobby already talked about this countless times

When I think about heavy commercial use of drones I always think of The Jetsons' flying cars.

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Congestion would lead to hazards preventing widespread use of either one, so I don't expect drones to get very far before being regulated out of existance for many uses.

Yea, I don't think drones will be very widespread... right now the problem is that this technology is still new, and there are many things that should be done to make them safe (if ever), but this is a big push in technology and innovation. It's new and exciting, and there are a lot of possibilities, in the near future they will become safer, and of course there is a limit to that.... look at cars for example... they've been around for a long time, yet there are many accidents happening every day.

Talking about technology & innovation, check this out: http://dronelife.com/2014/06/20/rise-drones-space/

I'd never really looked at those Jetsons's cars before: Where do they put their legs? Are they all kneeling, or is it some kind of horrible bent-over posture?

Maybe they have short little thin legs since they use "slidewalks" so much? When they don't maybe then they have to sit on the floor on a pad or something, legs sticking toward the front?

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Yeah, some of those legs would work in those flying cars. Some of those feet wouldn't, though.

Here is a 21 century Flintstone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syJq10EQkog :)

Speaking of the Flintstones. Anyone ever seen the Stone Trek crossover by Brian Matthews?

Angelfire? Really? It's 2014.

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Originally Posted by wossname

Angelfire? Really? It's 2014.

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Amazing it survived this long. Geocities didn't....

The autonomous multi-rotor vehicle I've been involved with for the last 3+ years can be seen in this issue of Popular Science.
The official "Return Home" fly-in celebration is tomorrow. The team is no longer out of the country.

More in-depth article.

Here is my new video with my Hexacopter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIYogu0J16g

It is about 20 flights, and in total about 2.5 hours of video. I spend about 4 to 5 hours to edit and compress it to the 11 minutes for the YouTube...

I hope you like it :) let me know what you think?

PS. Play the video with volume high, in HD, and make sure it is FULL SCREEN :)