Just bought a drone

Zambo

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Anybody else have one? I just got the Phantom 3 standard. 600 clams for the drone, some extra props, an extra battery, and a hardshell backpack that carries it all around.

It came fedex today and it took about an hour to charge the batteries, get the app installed on my phone, bolt on the rotor guards (training wheels), and figure out how to wirelessly connect everything and get it ready. Then I drove to a nearby field that I figured was big enough to avoid catastrophe and fired it up.

Super freaking easy to "fly." I say "fly" in quotes because you aren't so much flying it as simply telling it where to go. I'd imagine if you want to sport-fly the thing like racing through a forest it would take some time to get the hang of it, but for just moving about, climbing and descending, etc its pretty intuitive. If it starts to get crazy you just let go of everything and it stops on a dime and hovers.

After one battery worth of flying at the field (about 20 minutes) I came home and flew it around outside the house to torment my dogs. Pretty easy to keep it about ten feet off the ground (out of jaws reach) and move it around the yard. The flying part gets so easy after a while that you can concentrate on pointing the camera.

There are advanced modes which let you automatically fly around preprogrammed paths or orbit around a fixed point, etc. These let you spend more time using the camera for filming. I'll play with those a little tomorrow. Anyway if someone has some drone tips lets hear them.
 

NVGator

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Looking forward to your first video being posted.
 

Lake Gator

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Drone usage by those intent on terrorism is not a far-fetched idea.
 

Zambo

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Good friend of mine has the DJI phantom, so I have been eyeing them. I think I am going to spring for this one soon:
https://www.dji.com/mavic

this thing is sweet:

Yeah I got the cheapo old Phantom just to figure out the whole process. That Mavic model looks like a super nice piece of gear.
 

Zambo

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Drone usage by those intent on terrorism is not a far-fetched idea.
Absolutely not. We had quite the thread about it last year. If you can program a drone to deliver a ten pound package you can program it to deliver a ten pound warhead.
 

Zambo

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Here is a video of some fat guy flying his new drone over his house in SoCal. Camera has good resolution but when you pan back and forth the video is hard to watch. Most likely have to adjust camera settings/framerate, etc.
 

NVGator

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That's pretty badass. Being I'm a novice at this, does it have a limiter of how hi you can go? I know FAA regulations have one set but what's keeping you from going higher? How do you fly it, via a iPad or iPhone? Are you seeing what the camera is seeing? Are you planning on getting a license? How do your neighbors feel about your drone usage? I know in the real estate world that's a concern now that more people are using them to show lots, land and the house.
 

Zambo

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The unit has a built in 500m limit, that is horizontal and vertical. You can adjust it in the settings. It uses GPS to aid its position and the software has a built in map of restricted areas such as airports and such where it isn't supposed to be flown. It won't let you fly it in those areas. It has a controller that looks similar to a typical RC aircraft controller but it works in conjunction with your smartphone or tablet. You connect wirelessly and use the joysticks to manually fly it and you use the touchscreen of the phone to see what the camera is seeing and program the settings and advanced functions. Like in the video when I looked down on my house I programmed it as a focus point and had the drone automatically orbit around it while I just played with pointing the camera. Lots of videos online for how to it works.

Evidently the old software used to let you program points on a map and upload them to the drone to follow. I guess the fear was that you could program it to fly into a stadium or other such place that a drone isn't supposed to be. Now with the current software the only way you can "program" a route is to fly the drone to where you want the waypoints to be and program the points with the drone itself from the actual spot. That way you are limited to the 500m range and you actually have to fly it along the route first which would make the stadium type scenario much more difficult for those bent on mischief.
 

crosscreekcooter

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Here is a video of some fat guy flying his new drone over his house in SoCal. Camera has good resolution but when you pan back and forth the video is hard to watch. Most likely have to adjust camera settings/framerate, etc.

Dude needs to fix his pool leak and clean the algae
 

Zambo

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I think that the dude had just back washed his pool earlier
 

Zambo

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They say the drone camera adds thirty pounds. It's in the manual.
 

oxrageous

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I want one. Desperately trying to justify blowing the dough on it.
 

URGatorBait

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Write it off as a business expense for your property management gig.
He probably could. I've seen these becoming more commonly used in real estate, residential and commercial.
 

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