Quadcopter Frost Morning Full FPV flight

[JAB1a]

Hi all,

Here is my flight I did the other morning before work, it was a beautiful morning and perfect conditions for a quick fly to set me up for the day.

This was shot pure FPV using some new Skew Planar antenna I have just got which are amazing!

Some nice shots of the Evo too

FPV Quadcopter Frost morning flight

FPV Quadcopter Frosty morning flight - YouTube
Best viewed full screen and at 720p

Its a very strange feeling when you have to think "Where did I leave my body?" Lol

[reggiep]

Nice! How much did that lot cost you? And what's a Skew Planar antenna?
Can you see what the camera sees while you are flying it?

[pcstru]

Bravo!

[Dos_Box]

Why does everyone else seem to have cooler hobbies than me

[Andrew_C]

What Reg says... What's the best route into this sort of thing?

[pcstru]

Why does everyone else seem to have cooler hobbies than me

Because they work for a living!!

[ChrisH]

Great stuff this has definitely got my attention as a potential new hobby. There is quite a lot of stuff to get your head around which is great so I am currently researching and resisting the impulse to buy now!

[JAB1a]

Its like any hobby, you can spend as much as you like on this.

From scratch (ie not even having batteries etc) then you will be looking around the £300 mark to build something like this but then rapidly hitting at least the £600 mark for a decent full FPV setup, it can be done cheaper but you will limit yourself if you ever change plans i.e buy a Parrot AR drone.

Any ones best bet would be go to Youtube and google and start your information munching in the forums and tutorial videos. Ebay is great for bits and most comes from china so look out for import tax etc.

Its all so much fun

[JAB1a]

Sorry missed your question. Skew Planar antenna are great because the normal antenna only transmitt on 2 planes, Vertical and horizontal, a Skew Planar antenna is circular polorised so transmitts on both/every angle. This means if I had a standard di-pole antenna and I banked/rolled my quad to the near horizontal level then I would loose video signal. Its an amzing bit of kit that I think was invented by Amateur Radio guys. Since I have had them on the quad the difference is like night and day, the picture is so clean and crisp.

[Gibbo]

From scratch (ie not even having batteries etc) then you will be looking around the £300 mark to build something like this but then rapidly hitting at least the £600 mark for a decent full FPV setup, it can be done cheaper but you will limit yourself if you ever change plans i.e buy a Parrot AR drone.

I think most of us would be happy with a clone of your setup. A shopping list based on that would be perfect, particularly if its around £300, as it seems to be much better value with regards to upgrading over the Parrot.

What do you think of the DJI Phantom quadcopter?

[JAB1a]

Ok you will have to give me a few days to get links and equipment details together for my build but I will post it in a new thread called My quadcopter clone or something like that the ability to upgrade my setup 'as is', is without limits (apart from cash).

The DJI Phantom Quadcopter looks like an amazing bit of kit. the DJI Naza is one of the best flight controllers I know of under the £200 mark, the GPS will stop on a knife edge in PH mode. The only problem I see with this is its not using generic parts so if you crash/break anything you will without a doubt be paying over the odds, the frame does not look like there is much room inside for extra FPV equipment so you would be forced to buy there bits etc I think. Also the radio is an issue, I have not researched reviews etc but I stick with Spekrum all the way...never let me down.