Author Topic: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?  (Read 4062 times)

Zooport

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Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« on: November 17, 2014, 05:31:37 PM »
Does this look like it would work as a drone?  I have bought a fair amount of radio controlled gear, planes and other stuff from this operation and have been satisfied with their quality and service.  I don't know anything about drones, but I'm very interested in seeing if one of these would work.  What do you think?

http://www.r2hobbies.com/new-arrivals/eurgle-290mm-e-ark-rtf-quad-multichopper-9659.html


« Last Edit: November 17, 2014, 05:35:08 PM by Zooport »
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PonoBill

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2014, 07:08:08 PM »
Sure, but why? It's a low-tech quad. A DJI knockoff without the autopilot capabilities. And it's not really cheaper.  What do you want to do with a drone? If it's just a matter of shooting pictures with manual control then there are a lot of choices and that might be OK. But if you already have a bindable transmitter you can buy a bare DJI for the same price. It's a strange hobby--easy to spend a lot of money finding out what you don't want to do.
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Zooport

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2014, 07:50:15 PM »
Ahh, very interesting.  Glad I asked.  I thought they were a lot more expensive than that.  And, yes, I do have a bindable transmitter.  Hmmm. 
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PonoBill

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2014, 08:50:06 PM »
Depending on your electronics chops, one of the most rewarding places to start is at 3DRobotics. You can buy a Pixhawk controller for $300 or an APM2.6 for $200 and start building a serious drone--either directly controlled, or autopilot, or full autonomous. You'll wind up with a lot more than a few hundred bucks in the game though. Serious drones are a money sink.

If you just want to fly around and take pictures, it's tough to beat DJI. Solid autopilot (DJI Naza) with most of the trimmings. Of course you can quickly get to $700 bucks or more there (add FPV stuff, video screens, gimbals, goggles, etc) but lots of people don't.

I also like the Multiwii stuff--high performance but mostly for hands-on flying:  http://www.multiwiicopter.com/
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Piros

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2014, 09:07:12 PM »
+1 on the DJI Phantom I have a few drones for it price , ease of use and stability (no jello) really hard to beat.
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linter

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2014, 02:38:53 AM »
  i too like dji phantom.  you can still do plenty of tinkering with it, if that's your bag, but mainly it's ready to go.  customer support is the worst i've ever experienced, however, so expect none of that.  instead, you'll be spending hours at rcgroups.com , sifting through thousands of post, trying to find that one screw you lost.  great fun.  a real time drain, tho. 

eastbound

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2014, 06:33:06 AM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yOCTgVqmeQ

anyone know about this--like a drone/soloshot combo--prob a bit buggy at this point, but not for long.

could get nutty with drones all over the place, tracking guys in the lineup, or skiing, bike racing, whatever.
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1tuberider

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2014, 07:08:39 AM »
I am interested in drones. I don't want to build one as I am not a tech person. I want rtf.

I decided to get a la trax alias to learn how to fly a drone before I totaled one. Great little drone with around 15 minutes of battery life. I have had to replace 2 of the motors due to crashes. Their is also a camera option but no gimbaled mount so it is shaky.

I also have a walkera that I am about ready to fly. It has most the features for photography. It is priced less than the
phantom.

My plan is to take walkera with me when I go to the mountains and maybe use them on nicer days at the beach.
Nothing professional, just moments to remember.

As long as you can get replacement parts, support, durability and enough flight time, your idea looks like a good starting point. At least you are not going to loose a grand trying until you are sure this is for you. Then if it works out you can tell us how happy you are.


PonoBill

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #8 on: November 18, 2014, 07:34:36 AM »
Iris+ is from 3DRobotics, the company I was mentioning that makes the Pixhawk controller. Fully autonomous, with all the goodies that implies, including follow me. The follow me drones that are featured in Kickstarter use the same tech.

The basic, basic Iris+ is $750, which is pretty amazing for a fully autonomous, ready to fly system. with a gimbal and some bits it gets to a bit over a thousand. You also need an android device with an active USB port. No RC gear required, you connect the tablet to the Iris via a transceiver set which is included. Easy and cheap way to get to the serious level fast.

They must be pumping these out to get to that price. The parts cost about that much.
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jdmotes

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2014, 06:04:04 AM »
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airSUP

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2014, 07:02:36 AM »
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PonoBill

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Re: Super cheap price for a drone. Would it work?
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2014, 05:37:39 PM »
The core development efforts in the drone world are headed away from direct control towards autonomous and semi-autonomous controlled by a tablet or cellphone with a USB radio. On the plus side it eliminates the need to learn to pilot. On the negative side, it eliminates the need to learn to pilot. Most of my interest lies there. I like flying them for about twenty minutes, and then I'm a lot more interested in hacking the controller. Even the simplest drone has a pretty sophisticated microcontroller running the show. The early ones were a bitch to fly and you needed a lot of propellers and motor arms to get to useful pilot status. The new ones fly themselves. If you just want great pictures then that's what you want--more like the Ghost than the Parrot.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

 


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