Drone view of the neighborhood from last weekend.

tractchores · Sep 4, 2015

The more I read this thread the more I want one. I wonder what the odds are that I lose it in the lake though...

IslandTractor · Sep 4, 2015

tractchores said:
The more I read this thread the more I want one. I wonder what the odds are that I lose it in the lake though...

Just make sure it has a waterproof camera so you can document the undersea portion of the flight. Don't laugh. There are examples on YouTube with schools of fish swimming by the sunk drone.

Garandman · Sep 4, 2015

tractchores said:
The more I read this thread the more I want one. I wonder what the odds are that I lose it in the lake though...

There are many Youtube videos on building floats and waterproofing.

Garandman · Sep 4, 2015

Floats. This is the monkey version, folks are doing all sorts of performance mods.

dragoneggs · Sep 4, 2015

tractchores said:
The more I read this thread the more I want one. I wonder what the odds are that I lose it in the lake though...

Expensive little toy but if you do pull the proverbial trigger... get the dji Phantom 3 and don't get the Standard version. Get at least the Advanced $999 plus you will want other goodies. The Pro model is identical except for 4K resolution and a faster charger... but I don't own a TV that is higher than 1080 HD and 4K is for pro's. If you are a hobbyist then this is plenty and use the $250 you 'save' and buy an extra battery. I bought prop guards too. Next is a suitcase/backpack for toting around and storage. Had a blast this afternoon flying out over the Hood Canal. A little nervous as I left my property and flew over the water for the first time. Max'd out at 300ft altitude and about 600ft out. Baby steps. Amazing video quality.

My flights have been less than 10 minutes each and you get two in before you want to charge the battery so the extra battery is almost a must. Lot's of fun and a lot to learn. I am not focusing on videoing. Sometimes I forget to turn the video on. You can take 12Mb stills while video is on. I definitely can see this could be a money maker if you had some time and wanted to work it a little.

tractorgp · Sep 5, 2015

tractchores said:
The more I read this thread the more I want one. I wonder what the odds are that I lose it in the lake though...

Every flight is a gamble but also a thrill. Today for example I'm thinking about taking some video with the drone of me working on my fence. So for this job I have to consider: the fairly high wind speed, trees right in the desired line of sight, a rocky hill on the other side of the fence, the back yards of neighbouring houses (spying), the drone getting in trouble and landing on a neighbours land, and flying the drone while doing some work on the fence (I will let it hover in place for a short time).

BoylermanCT · Sep 5, 2015

The technology is getting really cool. Check out this video on new drones coming out. Follow me technology, orbit technology, invisible boundary lines etc. Very cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iX8p_a-eFA

Garandman · Sep 5, 2015

The Phantom is pretty rugged: I landed it in some shrubs and it just chopped up the shrubs for a bit before landing and shutting down. :laughing:

BoylermanCT said:
The technology is getting really cool. Check out this video on new drones coming out. Follow me technology, orbit technology, invisible boundary lines etc. Very cool!

The quality of video and ease-of-use of the Phantom 3 is really remarkable for the price.

Per the post above, the next version of the Phantom 3 software due out 9/7 is supposed to have "follow me" support, waypoints, and POI so that you will be able to plan a flight path, have it follow you, etc. With all the trees around here I don't think "follow me" is going to be very useful though I've already seen some amazing ski, biking, and kayaking videos. I did want the waypoints support so I could scan the range fan and search for the neighbors long-lost graveyard.

I'm upgrading the firmware to V1.3.20 as we speak. It's about 25 minutes for the craft, less for the controller and battery though it is done serially.

One complaint about the Phantom 3 comes from professional videographers. The compression algorithm used to record and stream HD video "smooths over" details the pros want to keep. That's why I got the Advanced, not Pro. The Lightbridge link works great so the display you see from the craft has only a tiny bit of lag.

MMfrompa · Sep 5, 2015

dragoneggs said:
Expensive little toy but if you do pull the proverbial trigger... get the dji Phantom 3 and don't get the Standard version. Get at least the Advanced $999 plus you will want other goodies. The Pro model is identical except for 4K resolution and a faster charger... but I don't own a TV that is higher than 1080 HD and 4K is for pro's. If you are a hobbyist then this is plenty and use the $250 you 'save' and buy an extra battery. I bought prop guards too. Next is a suitcase/backpack for toting around and storage. Had a blast this afternoon flying out over the Hood Canal. A little nervous as I left my property and flew over the water for the first time. Max'd out at 300ft altitude and about 600ft out. Baby steps. Amazing video quality.

My flights have been less than 10 minutes each and you get two in before you want to charge the battery so the extra battery is almost a must. Lot's of fun and a lot to learn. I am not focusing on videoing. Sometimes I forget to turn the video on. You can take 12Mb stills while video is on. I definitely can see this could be a money maker if you had some time and wanted to work it a little.

Baby steps is the best way to go for sure. I have about 100 flights in so far with my Phantom. I fly no higher than 400' and the farthest out of been is about 2200' which I think is about max for my Phantom Vision 2 version 3, The Phantom 3's go a little over a mile out. It was a little scary first flight out over 1000' feet. At around 400' out you can't hear it, and around 800' its out of sight (at least with my eyes lol) you are flying 100% with the screen at that point. It honestly is a blast flying and seeing everything from a perspective that we are not used to. I have a Mac for personal computer and use I movie for editing. It is wicked easy.

Couple tips, if you are flying pre programmed way make sure there is nothing between take off point and way point one, because it flys in a direct line to waypoint one. if there is a tree top between you and waypoint one its hitting it lol. (came very close once) also no matter what make sure you have Satellite lock before you take off. Maybe the threes are different but mine will let you take off before you're locked on at least 6. Don't get me wrong it will fly but you better be good to fly in breezy conditions without GPS lock. Real good cause you will have your hands full.