Drone view of the neighborhood from last weekend.

[tractchores]

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.

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.

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).

I would think that putting floats on it would just help you find it upside down in the water. Would not take much of a wave to flip it over....

Very cool. I do a lot of boating and it would be awesome to be able to get pics of the boat going through the water or of someone fighting a fish. I wonder how they interact with seagulls?

Going to have to look into it more. It may be worth a cheap one just to see how much I use it.

 

[TomSeller]

I was thinking of a tool that an ape, or any creature with opposable thumbs, could use to take down a drone. Although, the long sticks were quite effective.

Forget the shotgun. The DJI Phantom operates on a 5.8ghz frequency and other drones use 2.4ghz. Get a transmitter and you can fly that pesky drone into a nearby tree, lake or land it in the road. There was an article online about a hacker who was stealing drones this way.

I have opposable thumbs and a trigger finger so it looks like a with a 5.8ghz jammer and my shotgun, I have lots of options for the trespassers buzzing my livestock and flying around my place. Now I have to decide which is more fun, crashing one or shooting one. Maybe both?

Lots of very good uses for these but please keep them above your own or public property unless you have permission to fly over someone else's property under 500'.

 

[IslandTractor]

Very cool. I do a lot of boating and it would be awesome to be able to get pics of the boat going through the water or of someone fighting a fish. I wonder how they interact with seagulls? Going to have to look into it more. It may be worth a cheap one just to see how much I use it.

If you search, there is at least one that advertises itself as truly submersible. Most of the other drones, even those with waterproof cameras, make only a single water "landing" in their life.

 

[dragoneggs]

Here's my drone delivery system: https://youtu.be/RiJDQ06VZfk

The end of this video is too funny! GP, you did it again.

 

[tractorgp]

Very cool. I do a lot of boating and it would be awesome to be able to get pics of the boat going through the water or of someone fighting a fish. I wonder how they interact with seagulls?

Going to have to look into it more. It may be worth a cheap one just to see how much I use it.

Seagulls are a concern. At about 33 seconds in this video one approaches the drone. I had closer encounters but didn't get video. But in this particular video the drone was dragging my GoPro camera that was underwater and I was more concerned with a codfish grabbing the GoPro and taking the drone down (That's one reason why I had a float on the outfit). I was filming the small capelin that come to shore to spawn (codfish often follow capelin in to shore).
https://youtu.be/QELHcNLzJzA

 

[dragoneggs]

Seagulls are a concern. At about 33 seconds in this video one approaches the drone. I had closer encounters but didn't get video. But in this particular video the drone was dragging my GoPro camera that was underwater and I was more concerned with a codfish grabbing the GoPro and taking the drone down (That's one reason why I had a float on the outfit). I was filming the small capelin that come to shore to spawn (codfish often follow capelin in to shore).
https://youtu.be/QELHcNLzJzA

Interesting... curious as to your hook up? Did you rig a float part way up from the GoPro? I would be worried about snagging something in the air or water. Do you have breakaway ability? I know you wouldn't want to loose your GoPro but with a float it would be recoverable and you reduce the risk of the whole set up taking a plunge.

 

[tractorgp]

Interesting... curious as to your hook up? Did you rig a float part way up from the GoPro? I would be worried about snagging something in the air or water. Do you have breakaway ability? I know you wouldn't want to loose your GoPro but with a float it would be recoverable and you reduce the risk of the whole set up taking a plunge.

The first 30 seconds or so of this video (below) shows the way I interconnected the drone to the float and gopro. The line is a series of stainless steel fishing leaders. The float is a piece of foam that I salvaged from the packing material from my sous vide cooking machine (there's a TBN thread on this subject that inspired me to buy the machine). When I used this setup (just twice this summer) I brought my rod and reel in the hopes of hooking on to the float if I had a catastrophic failure of the whole system. In such a situation I might be able to retrieve the whole works and possible get the video from the gopro... but the drone would be a write off. Thought of a breakaway between the float and drone but haven't worked on it to this point but it would be the smart feature to include. https://youtu.be/PJslhu3IJE8

 

[dragoneggs]

The first 30 seconds or so of this video (below) shows the way I interconnected the drone to the float and gopro. The line is a series of stainless steel fishing leaders. The float is a piece of foam that I salvaged from the packing material from my sous vide cooking machine (there's a TBN thread on this subject that inspired me to buy the machine). When I used this setup (just twice this summer) I brought my rod and reel in the hopes of hooking on to the float if I had a catastrophic failure of the whole system. In such a situation I might be able to retrieve the whole works and possible get the video from the gopro... but the drone would be a write off. Thought of a breakaway between the float and drone but haven't worked on it to this point but it would be the smart feature to include. https://youtu.be/PJslhu3IJE8

Or you can do simply this way... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ZkpXG0-eU

 

[dragoneggs]

And for those of you concerned about finding useful things to do with your drone... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hqppfBJmng

 

[Garandman]

A gust of wind blew the craft into a tree. It flies fine but I noticed when performing the latest upgrade that one of the rubber isolaters for the camera gimbal has come loose. Seems like something good to have spares of - but where to buy? It appears they are "Anti Vibration Rubber Dampers."