I've been having great fun flying my 2nd drone after the first one got away from me. Mostly because I couldn't see it at a distance. In daylight, I could not see which way my Syma8C was facing. The little LEDs on bottom were invisible. Then the wind took it over the trees and out of sight. A cop called soon after asking, "Did you loose something?" He told me an irate homeowner, called when my drone slide down his roof over quarter of a mile away. I figured the irate person, took my quad and smashed it. Two of the motor pods were cracked as if someone took an arm and smashed the quad on the ground. I've crashed it many times, sometimes from quite a height. Never, did such damage. Also the video from the getaway drone, shows everything. It sure doesn't seem from watching that it violently hit something that might have caused such damage. Some people! hurrrumph!
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Runcam2 Syma8C Aerial Footage of Lipoa Park, Maui Hawaii
I've been having great fun flying my 2nd drone after the first one got away from me. Mostly because I couldn't see it at a distance. In daylight, I could not see which way my Syma8C was facing. The little LEDs on bottom were invisible. Then the wind took it over the trees and out of sight. A cop called soon after asking, "Did you loose something?" He told me an irate homeowner, called when my drone slide down his roof over quarter of a mile away. I figured the irate person, took my quad and smashed it. Two of the motor pods were cracked as if someone took an arm and smashed the quad on the ground. I've crashed it many times, sometimes from quite a height. Never, did such damage. Also the video from the getaway drone, shows everything. It sure doesn't seem from watching that it violently hit something that might have caused such damage. Some people! hurrrumph!
Friday, February 5, 2016
Lots of crashes later, the Syma 8C is still in great shape
I am having so much fun learning to fly this Quadracopter (Drone). As long as I can see it, I'm doing fine - but the problem I'm having is during the day, when I can't see the little LED lights at a distance in order to tell in which direction the bird is positioned? That's how I lost track of it twice today.
Above is the video from the second "run away drone" that began its flight from my favorite Sunset Spot: Kilohana Park, in Kihei Maui HawaiiI'm also having problems with the camera mount. there is too much vibration for a clean image. A friend who is an expert at damping vibrations, worked for two hours to adapt the pod from the camera the quad came with, to support the RunCam2. It turned out that it was too heavy and did not successfully dampen the vibrations, which might of been a result of unbalanced props them vibration in XY and z Axes.
I thought I had the camera rigged pretty well on this flight - the second one that got out of control and wound up in somebody's yard. That "somebody" was very "irate" the police told me when I got a call from them asking me if I lost a drone. Will that saved the day I was so happy to hear that it had been found if it if it was involving the police!
That means that it flew twice as far as I've ever seen it fly before ...in fact it was out of control. I had totally lost the ability to see it no less control it!
I had been hiking through the underbrush looking about an hour and a half during sunset for the drone, to no avail. Of course I would have to buy another one I was thinking to myself including another run cam after all that would be under a $200 investment. Not too bad for so much fun. I must say I am happy to have the drone back even though it looks like it was manhandled by the irate people that found it and called the police rather than calling me.
I had been hiking through the underbrush looking about an hour and a half during sunset for the drone, to no avail. Of course I would have to buy another one I was thinking to myself including another run cam after all that would be under a $200 investment. Not too bad for so much fun. I must say I am happy to have the drone back even though it looks like it was manhandled by the irate people that found it and called the police rather than calling me.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Enjoying My Learning Curves Flying My Syma 8C Quadracopter Christmas Gift to Myself
So far lots of hard knocks have banged up and bruised this bird, but it continues to fly like a champ!
For under $90, I can't think of a better quadracopter for the price, as the Syma 8C (which also comes in several different formats) that includes a small camera. Many complain of the "jello" produced by the vibrations and prop wash. I have found that opening up the mounting pod the actual camera is packaged in, and making the following modifications will increase your enjoyment enormously.
First, take a nail clipper or needle nose pliers and break away some of the plastic above the SD Card slot. This will enable you to see the RED and Green, Recording and Standby lights (in that order) during daylight flights. Before putting the camera back in its mounting pod, secure with masking tape so the top and sides are tightly jammed with tape on the camera top and sides with the pod enclosure. This should eliminate the "jello" (a ripple that meanders thru the video recording). You might have to secure the pod in a similar fashion with tape or rubber bands to prevent any "slop" in this fixture with the main 'copter body.
I had it up about 150 feet and a wind came out of nowhere and took the quad higher and downwind, making it way difficult for me to tell direction of travel and orientation. I put the quad into a spin to try and hold its position. Then cut the throttle to drop it, just a little before giving power to the throttle to make for a controlled dissent. This strategy worked well.
The other thing that has saved my ass, is to cut the throttle immediately when losing control near the ground or before colliding with something. That has preserved the props; one of which was bent from a crash to cause more damage. In trying to straighten the bent prop out, I cracked it. Even with superglue over the weakened plastic, during this out of control flight, the prop broke off and had to be replaced.
While we're on the subject, the Syma 8C instructions did not make clear that there are "A" props AND "B" props. Two of the motors spin these props, which are cut differently, in the opposite direction as the other two props and motors. You have to get the right props on the right motors or the bird won't fly. I learned this from a youtube video after experiencing such a mis-installation.
I expect to show loads of great footage of Maui with the new camera I got to replace to one that comes with this drone. Its heavy and must be treated with respect as it will do some damage if you connect with one of its spinning rotors, or god forbid it drops from the sky and lands on somebody?!
Be careful. Start flying on a large, grassy field so when you do crash it, the injury if any, will be small. Its unbelievable how much crashing this flying camera platform has indured and still gives great flight.
Here are the details about the results of this highest flight:
https://youtu.be/Ux1D4k0P3nM
that resulted in my first abusive crash on Jan 5, 2015. There have been other repercussions, but I'll probably not write about them unless someone comments and or asks for a laundry list of what has been repaired in the first month of flying.
Here's the video from the crashing copter:
https://youtu.be/T5PXlOedpi4
Cheers and Blessings,
Peter, Curious About Quads
For under $90, I can't think of a better quadracopter for the price, as the Syma 8C (which also comes in several different formats) that includes a small camera. Many complain of the "jello" produced by the vibrations and prop wash. I have found that opening up the mounting pod the actual camera is packaged in, and making the following modifications will increase your enjoyment enormously.
First, take a nail clipper or needle nose pliers and break away some of the plastic above the SD Card slot. This will enable you to see the RED and Green, Recording and Standby lights (in that order) during daylight flights. Before putting the camera back in its mounting pod, secure with masking tape so the top and sides are tightly jammed with tape on the camera top and sides with the pod enclosure. This should eliminate the "jello" (a ripple that meanders thru the video recording). You might have to secure the pod in a similar fashion with tape or rubber bands to prevent any "slop" in this fixture with the main 'copter body.
I had it up about 150 feet and a wind came out of nowhere and took the quad higher and downwind, making it way difficult for me to tell direction of travel and orientation. I put the quad into a spin to try and hold its position. Then cut the throttle to drop it, just a little before giving power to the throttle to make for a controlled dissent. This strategy worked well.
The other thing that has saved my ass, is to cut the throttle immediately when losing control near the ground or before colliding with something. That has preserved the props; one of which was bent from a crash to cause more damage. In trying to straighten the bent prop out, I cracked it. Even with superglue over the weakened plastic, during this out of control flight, the prop broke off and had to be replaced.
While we're on the subject, the Syma 8C instructions did not make clear that there are "A" props AND "B" props. Two of the motors spin these props, which are cut differently, in the opposite direction as the other two props and motors. You have to get the right props on the right motors or the bird won't fly. I learned this from a youtube video after experiencing such a mis-installation.
I expect to show loads of great footage of Maui with the new camera I got to replace to one that comes with this drone. Its heavy and must be treated with respect as it will do some damage if you connect with one of its spinning rotors, or god forbid it drops from the sky and lands on somebody?!
Be careful. Start flying on a large, grassy field so when you do crash it, the injury if any, will be small. Its unbelievable how much crashing this flying camera platform has indured and still gives great flight.
https://youtu.be/Ux1D4k0P3nM
that resulted in my first abusive crash on Jan 5, 2015. There have been other repercussions, but I'll probably not write about them unless someone comments and or asks for a laundry list of what has been repaired in the first month of flying.
Here's the video from the crashing copter:
https://youtu.be/T5PXlOedpi4
Cheers and Blessings,
Peter, Curious About Quads
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)