New toy?

[navy2kcoupe]

Sounds like not only do you need to securely mount the GoPro, but you also
need to securely mount a long 'effin wire to get the darn thing back if it
decides to fly away. I've read where the wi-fi on the GoPro interferes with
the wi-fi on the quadcopter and communications between the copter and the
controlling transmitter goes south. That would probably make the copter go
south as well. Or North. Or West. Or East............. I also noticed
that there are a LOT more choices than there were 9-12 months ago, and
they're getting pretty sophisticated too. Prices on the older/entry models
have come down, but the higher end models have gotten up into the
"sticker shock" area. It also looks like the "flying time" on some of the bigger
units has increased as well. Must mean weight reduction and battery
technology increases along with more efficient motors. No matter how you
slice it, it's a VERY interesting arena!
Andy

[Rich Z]

Yeah, that's why I'm in no hurry. New and improved units are supposed to be coming out this year. I heard that GoPro is developing their own quadcopter as well, so that should be an interesting entry into the field.

And, of course, this isn't a game that you should hurry to be the first on your block to get into. Some of these products are going to be rushed to the marketplace, so the first line of users are going to be acting as beta testers for those products. That's not a position I want to be involuntarily thrown into if I am paying for that stuff. Heck, just flying these things over my own property is going to be fraught with peril just because this is all very heavily wooded. So getting a quad stuck up at the top of a 70' tall pine tree will be a real possibility not only because of a unit failure, but just from my own lack of experience coming into play. So I've got to practice with the little units until the interface becomes second nature intuitive. If the quad is acting strange, I've got to be able to react instantly with the correct controls to bring it back before it is just gone from sight. These things can move pretty quickly and with trees are around, it wouldn't take more than a second or three before I would lose sight completely of it, and then have a real devil of a time just figuring out how it is oriented to make the correct controller motions just to get it heading in the right direction to bring it back. WRONG motions will just make things worse in a hurry.

There are a lot of places I would like to get this sort of videography, and most of them will involve flying over water. So a failure of any kind will likely result in the quad getting dunked, and pretty much kiss the thing goodbye. So I'm pretty much expecting EVERY flight I take to pretty much be a white knuckle affair until it comes back to land safely at my feet. Not sure how much of that I could take before realizing that it's really no fun at all being subjected to the fear of losing $2k worth of equipment EVERY time I take it out.

[navy2kcoupe]

Yep, and from what I read, the fail safe return to launch point relies on gps
coordinates and returns to the launch point DIRECTLY. It doesn't retrace the
outbound steps, so the possibility is very high that it would get hung up in
a big ole tree. Cut down your trees or find a parking lot would seem to be
good advice, but very expensive for the former. It would be nice if the fail safe
shut down the motors and deployed a parachute if it lost contact with the
transmitter. Maybe on a future model. I hear you about dropping the unit in
the salt water. The GoPro would survive if it's in its OEM factory waterproof
housing cause it was designed for stuff like that, but the quad copter would
probably be toast after salt water submersion. Some of the operators in the
videos seem to be above expert status. They must fly those things 10 or 12
hours a day to get that good. Still, with all that said, it's STILL fun to think
about owning one...........
Andy

[Rich Z]

Most of the functions are user programmable in these devices so the RTH (return to home) can be programmed, for instance, to respond in a manner that would be best suited for where you are flying at any given time. So in the case of launching from my own property, I would set the RTH function to first climb to 150 ft, move to the launch position and then slowly drop down to the launch point. But even that could have it's own problems. Apparently a quadcopter dropping down too quickly can get caught up in it's own propeller wash and become unstable because it loses lift. So technically a tight spiral down would be best, if such a thing is programmable.

There might be other situations where you would want to program the RTH function differently. For instance flying over the water, height won't matter too much so a beeline right back to the launch point would be best. Or if you are flying somewhere UNDER obstructions, limiting the height during RTH might be best so you don't have the unit fly UP into the branches.

Hopefully newer models might come with the capability of developing RTH scenarios that can be easily picked from a list rather than having to program them each time out in the field for each situation.

As for deploying a parachute, in my case that would still quite likely put the copter up into a tree. And, of course, the unit becomes completely under the control of any wind at the time. The chances of my being able to recover the thing would be virtually nil. Not to mention this could be just another point of failure if the chute deployed while the rotors still had power applied to them.

Actually one of my "would like to have" list items is a unit that could still maintain a sort of "limp home" mode during a single motor or motor controller failure. As most of them are designed now, a motor or controller failure (each motor has it's own separate controller) forces the copter into a completely uncontrollable "drop like a rock" mode.

As best I can tell, the quadcopters are designed to carry the GoPro cameras without the waterproof housing in place. Balance is REAL important when mating the cameras to the gimbal, and I've heard that there is enough difference between the different models of the Hero that each one has to be balanced separately. So getting a gimbal designed for a Hero 3+ or even the Hero 4 Silver will not work out of the box with a Hero 4 Black. And if you are seriously thinking about getting into this, the 3D gimbal, in my opinion, is an absolute must.

Here's a video showing a comparison between the various types of camera mounting systems to show you what I mean:



So as you can see, a unit that is compatible with a 3D gimbal is right at the top of my "must have" list.

[navy2kcoupe]

Got a MAJOR storm (blizzard) coming in tonight and tomorrow. Got the GoPro
set up on a tripod looking out one of my front windows. There's a light pole right outside
on the street, so I'm gonna try leaving the GoPro running all night.
It's set for a 7MP narrow shot once every 30 seconds, and when I shut it off,
I'm gonna have to learn how to stitch all those individual pictures together
to get a time lapse shot. Got the camera plugged into the wall so that the battery
doesn't run out. Hopefully I'll get a decent time lapse of the blizzard.
Estimates run from 45 to 85 MPH winds with accumulations of 2-4 inches per
hour in some parts of the state (mine included of course) and total accumulations
of 20" to 24" (or more) where we live. Looks like there might be pictures of the
snow going sideways.............! Doesn't look like I'll be driving
for a couple of days either. I sure hope it's a powder snow, and not one of
those heavy, wet type of snows. Don't know if the old snow blower is up to
handling 2 FEET of heavy wet snow. I KNOW the old BODY ain't !
Andy

[Rich Z]

When I've done timelapse of sunsets and sunrises, I found that a 10 second interval seems to give me the best results. Never tried the 30 second duration as I felt it would produce too short of a video and the motion of the sun and clouds would be way too quick. But this may be a different effect if you are trying to capture snow fall accumulation. Much of time lapse seems to revolve around a lot of trial and error to see what looks best.

I would think that something like a 12 hour real time event would produce a video much less than a minute in duration at that timelapse rate. Which might look pretty cool for what you are trying to capture.

Just try to make sure that you don't get any glare in the lens which could ruin the video.

Let us see what you come up with!

[navy2kcoupe]

Yep. You're right! After I sent the post I did the math and changed the
setting to 1 frame every 10 seconds. At that rate it will still record for over 25
clock hours by which time I REALLY hope the storm will be outta here. Gonna
be interesting to see what comes out of this experiment. Using the GoPro app
on my tablet allows me to see what the camera sees, but only if the camera is
"idle". As soon as you start the time lapse recording process, the real time view
that the camera sees changes to a black screen with the word "BUSY" on it.
Good for adjusting what will be captured, but that's all. Don't know about the
lens flare, because the street light was not on when I started, and it's too late
to check it now. If it's no good...........TA-DA.......hit the delete button and
try again. One thing I know for sure that I don't like is the VERY SHORT time
window that they have between button pushes. If you aren't really sure where
you want to go and have to refer to the "menu flow chart", you hit the timeout
window and have to start again. I wish that that value would be user definable
so you could shorten it up as you become more familiar with the menus and
what you want to do.
We shall see..................
Andy

[85vette]

Uh-oh. Don't look now but....

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the wayward quadcopter that crashed on the White House grounds — flown by an off-duty intelligence employee — shows that the U.S. must take steps to ensure commercial and consumer drones are used safely.

Probably need to be licensed, permitted and insured in the next year or so. This guy can take the fun out of anything.

[Rich Z]

How about just training your own employees to not play with their toys around the White House? Duh.....

[85vette]

Surely you understand that people cannot be responsible for themselves. That is why the government must step in and control all aspects of our lives. Especially if there is revenue to be gained. Thus "the U.S. must take steps " to ensure our safety.