General BS forumI guess this will be for anything that would seem to be off topic in any other forum here. Just general shootin' the breeze kind of topics.
Recently two things happened almost simultaneously that got me to thinking about a sort of new interest. The first thing was that GoPro came out with the new Hero4 camcorder, and I've been debating buying one ever since the Hero3+ came out. So I've been looking around trying to get a feel for image quality and see if anyone wasn't adhering to the obvious price fixing that is obviously being imposed on all sellers.
The second thing that happened was that Connie and I were down south Florida visiting with my mom and we stopped in at a Cracker Barrel for lunch. After eating Connie always likes browsing around in the shop area and I just tag along. Well, they had this little toy thing that looked like a helicopter trapped in a mesh ball that you could charge up and fly with a remote controller. Hmm, that might be fun. So Connie talked me into buying it. When we got home, I put batteries in the controller and charged it up. It would only fly for about a minute before the internal battery would go dead and I was just barely getting the hang of the thing with the short amount of time I had available before the battery crapped out. But it was kind of fun during that short minute of time while it was flyable.
Anyway, so I'm browsing through YouTube looking for examples of video from that new GoPro camcorder and I stumbled on some images that were apparently taken from some sort of flying platform. You can't help but be extremely impressed by this sort of video:
So, of course that got the old brain cells sparking. Man, I really like the video stuff, and this sort of platform would open up an entire whole new world of perspective completely unavailable in any other way. But after that short stint with the "flying ball" I got from Cracker Barrel, I knew this wasn't something I could just pick up and use immediately. Besides, I checked prices on what a getup like this would cost, and it's not going to be cheap. Dropped the whole shebang into a lake, the Gulf of Mexico, on hanging it up in the top of some tree somewhere would REALLY ruin my day.
So I looked around to see if there was something a LOT cheaper that I could buy to use as the crash test dummy, yet still give me somewhat of the capabilities and training experience in handling. So yes, there is such a beast. It's a little quadcopter that will fit comfortably in my hand yet carries a fixed camcorder in it and is run by a radio controlled handheld controller just like the big boys. And it cost less than $160. It's called the Hubsan X4 H107D. I got it delivered about a week or so ago, and honestly the first flight was not pretty. I went and ordered new props and extra batteries for it, because I could see this was going to be a long learning experience. A flight on a charged battery takes about 6 minutes, so it's not too bad and I can actually get some real flying time before I have to start thinking about coming in for a soft landing. So far I haven't really cracked it up or even lost any of the original propellers but trying to get stable video is a REAL chore. The bigger units are much better, of course, but I figure if I can get this semi-decent with no damage to the copter, then I won't feel as nervous plunking down ten times+ that amount on a decent unit.
Video from this is just so-so, but heck, for the money I can't expect a whole lot. But it's getting the job done concerning my learning curve, and that's all I really expected from the beginning. Anyway, I took the video from my last run (only done four flights so far) and didn't push the height envelope much at all...
Yeah, this thing is pretty wobbly and pretty difficult to get smooth video from. Honestly this thing is so small that if you get it very high it easily vanishes from sight. The most difficult part of this is making sure of the orientation of the quad when it is barely in sight. I guess I should wear my glasses, as that might help. Anyway, if you are not sure of the orientation, you really don't know where it is going to go if you try to make it go "right". It WILL go right, but only in relation to the way it is pointed. If it is actually pointing towards you and getting close to the tree line to the left (from your perspective), telling the quad to go right will actually put it right into the trees. So I've been trying to keep it close by where I can more easily tell it's orientation. It has colored LEDs on it with blue on the front and red on the back to help, but honestly in bright sunlight you really can't see those lights at all.
Anyway, not sure if I will actually take the step of getting the more expensive set up. I guess it will depend on how well I do with this trainer. I might find out that I've gotten too old and my reflexes too slow for this sort of thing. But the bigger units are supposed to be MUCH easier to fly, as they use GPS and compass calibrations to help keep the unit in place. This little Hubsan is fully manual, and kind of flighty, so it will take off in apparently random directions in a heart beat. And I'm flying it in beginner mode which reduces the controls by 50 percent power.
But darn, the idea of getting good quality video from 100 ft up at Cape San Blas and areas of that nature sure does get me excited.....
Got a newer quadcopter with better video the other day and took some video with it on Thursday.
I basically just wanted to fly in front of my garage to try to get some stable video and use actual targets (like cars sitting in the garage) to try to get video of as best I could manage. I want to practice trying to point the camera at something of interest and see how well I can keep the target centered in the video. Obviously need some trim work to do on the controller to stabilize the quadcopter as well as work on my own neophyte skill level. The quad goes real unstable coming straight down so I need to work on a better method of shedding altitude. This is referred to as "vortex ring state" and means that when the copter drops down into the wash of it's own propellers, the turbulent air causes instability, and even sometimes complete loss of control. If it's too close to the ground when this happens, it's very difficult (for me anyway) to keep the quad from bouncing off of the ground. So I try to keep if from coming down over the concrete.
As you can see, my property is heavily forested, so the clearing around the garage gives me little room for error with this thing. It will be extremely easy to get this thing stuck up in a very tall pine tree if I am not careful. Matter of fact, I'm real surprised that I haven't put the Hubsan I bought earlier up in a tree already as I ran it up pretty high a few times and consider it a minor miracle that I got it back safe and sound.
All in all the picture isn't all that bad considering the whole shebang cost just over $200. Video probably would have been a lot better had it been bright and sunny out, as the camera seems to be sensitive to light levels. I can see quite a bit of graininess in this video, but it's definitely heads and shoulders over the video I can get out of the Hubsan I got earlier.
Man, there is REALLY a learning curve involved in these flying gizmos. They can move really fast, so I can see where you need to get so proficient that reflex takes over instead of thinking about what you need to do. If you have to take time to think about what you need to do, it will already be too late if you aren't REAL careful. And I'm running this thing in EASY mode which limits the power to only 50 percent of the full throttle settings.
I think most of the quads can do acrobatics, but not without some risks. I believe mine can when set in so called "expert mode" which allows 100 percent controller power. But it's supposed to be real hard on the motors and can cause premature failure as a result, so I'm not really interested in that aspect of this stuff. I am interested in the flying camera platform and the possibility of getting video and photos that were completely out of reach for the average photographer not all that long ago.
Perhaps it is the illusion of personally self controlled flight that is so exciting. And the potential for the future is astounding. With goggles that could give you a full vision effect with 3D cameras on a quadcopter and receptors in the goggles, along with the position of your head controlling the gimbal to position the camera in the direction you move your head, this would give a pretty realistic emulation of actually flying. Heck, who hasn't dreamed of flying, if not only as a kid? Well, the technology exists to make this a reality today if the parts will be welded all together into a unit. I think the only limitation today will be bandwidth for the 3D signal in a high enough resolution that it will LOOK like bare eyes viewing.
Of course, with the FAA making noises about banning FPV flying (which in my opinion, they don't have jurisdiction over anyway, at least not according to the US Constitution) they might be the monkey wrench in the future for all this.
Here's a pretty good video showing some 2D FPV flying...
And as for acrobatics, well, this guy sure can handle a quadcopter...
I would have crashed that thing SOOO many times trying something like that!
The 2 "toys" you mention, the GoPro and the flying camcorder, are 2 play things that I've been thinking about getting. My wife suggested getting the GoPro for me for Christmas, but my problem is that I just can't imagine what I would do with it once the thrill of first using it wears off. There are just so many "action" videos I can see myself filming. I guess I'm just not adventurous enough.
Yeah, certainly my life is just as boring, too. And push come to shove, unless someone would be really interested in video of trees from a bird's eye view, not much around the house to take video of using one of these things.
But maybe some fly throughs through the bamboo groves (if I can manage that without crashing) would be interesting. And there are some rather interesting places nearby that would likely look good. But I sure don't have any illusions of creating video that will be watched a whole lot. I've looked through the stats of my YouTube videos and can surely figure out how boring they must be to people.
Location: 25 miles south of Boston, MA. Also have a house in Dunedin FL.
Posts: 1,927
Name : Andy Anderson
Hey Rich, made any more progress with that quadcopter?
Or are you single handedly keeping the spare parts suppliers in business?
Will your Hubsan tote a GoPro, or does it require something lighter?
Andy
Nah, had other things on my plate to have to deal with lately.
None of the smaller quads have the lifting capability for a GoPro, but the bigger units I am hoping to move up to eventually can. I sure don't want to lose both a copter and a GoPro during the learning process, as this does take a bit of self training to be able to adequately control the entire process. And from what I have been learning, none of the affordable units are really 100 percent reliable, suffering things such as "fly aways", which means exactly what it sounds like. I wouldn't like losing a $200 little copter like I am using to train with, and would like even less losing a $1500 copter carrying a $500 GoPro.
Plus I haven't found one unit that has everything I want in a single unit yet. There are some functions I have in mind that I am holding out waiting for.
New toy?
Linear Mode
