Drone for a Go-Pro?

[eblend]

Hey guys,

Want to get a drone so I can attach my go pro to it and go flying. Any recommendations?

[Xtrema]

Isn't Phantom 2 is the go to model right now?

[jacky4566]

There is some new fully autonomous drones.
HEXO+ seems really cool.
http://hexoplus.com/
ahd the Airdog should be shipping soon
https://www.airdog.com/

[Crazyjoker77]

Your gonna want to be a bit more specific in what you are looking for, as pretty much every decent sized drone is capable of carrying a go-pro. Its like asking for a recommendation on a car and your only requirement is that it can seat two people.

-What size?
-What configuration? (quad, tri, deadcat, hex, octo, x8, y6, H quad, v-tail, A-tail)
-How long of a flight time?
-Budget?
-How advanced of a flight controller are you wanting?
-Do you want a ready to fly(rtf), bind and fly (BNF), or a kit that you plan to build yourself.
-Do you plan on FPV? (flying through the onboard camera) and if so do you want/need a On Screen Display?
-Do you want/require a gimbal?
-Do you want to be able to do acrobatics?

I always recomend people to build there own for the first craft as you WILL crash and you will break stuff. If you can build it you can fix it(and alot of the stuff like DJI are not easily repairable after a crash) and more importantly troubleshoot when something goes wrong. Not to mention you will usually end up with a much more capable craft for much cheaper than a off the shelf unit.

[eblend]

Thanks for the info so far.

Half the stuff Crazyjoker77 said I don't understand haha.

I guess I will go into more details.

Really all I want is for it to go up pretty high and capture what's out there. I don't know how much these things go for, but I guess my budget is about $500. I would love to be able to collapse it so that I can shove it into a backpack. I don't really want anything too small and dinky, and flying by video would be pretty cool. I don't know what these things go for and willing to spend up to $1000 if need be.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by eblend
Thanks for the info so far.

Half the stuff Crazyjoker77 said I don't understand haha.

I guess I will go into more details.

Really all I want is for it to go up pretty high and capture what's out there. I don't know how much these things go for, but I guess my budget is about $500. I would love to be able to collapse it so that I can shove it into a backpack. I don't really want anything too small and dinky, and flying by video would be pretty cool. I don't know what these things go for and willing to spend up to $1000 if need be.

for $500 you are going to be pretty hard pressed to find all that. If you find it, buy a second one for me too.

The $1000 mark is a way better and more realistic budget. DJI just released their new "Inspire 1" so that is lowering the costs on the Phantom II, which has everything you are looking for, minus the collapsing (which will be hard to find anyways). I have seen a couple on kijiji now for ~$900 and you could probably haggle that down a bit more.

For the complete beginner, go with DJI. it will allow you to fly right away, and be pretty fool proof, although complete idiots can still crash it. It has a built in compass, altimeter, and GPS lock. All these things help you stay in control, and make it much easier to fly. as you get better and more comfortable, you can turn these features off 1 by 1. The biggest downfall these have is Batteries, as you will have to buy specific ones from DJI as they are brand specific to fit into the drone. You can hack and slash it though to get it to fit other batteries. But flight time on them is pretty good. I constantly hear of people getting between 25-40 mins on a battery. Just remember, slinging a camera under it will decrease flight time as well due to the added weight.

Here is one.
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-hobbies-craft...ationFlag=true

[RX-7_TWINTURBO]

$399 with everything you need (Old Stock) http://www.greathobbies.com/producti...od_id=BLH7800A
$600 newest version(everything Included) http://www.greathobbies.com/producti...rod_id=BLH8100

[flipstah]

I'm also looking for one that's easy to pack since I want to take it up the mountains for snowboarding videos.

[RX-7_TWINTURBO]

Originally posted by flipstah
I'm also looking for one that's easy to pack since I want to take it up the mountains for snowboarding videos.

Not a ton of options for super portable like that, but there's a few.
http://www.immersionrc.com/fpv-products/xugong-v2pro/
Wont give you a price as it's $100-200 for this frame alone
power system/ Flight control/ AP setup/ TX&RX would be extra, and up to you.

[Crazyjoker77]

Using them on pretty much any ski hill in Alberta is not allowed and will get you kicked off really quick. All provincial and national parks you cant fly in either. I got kicked out of sunshine and I was only unpacking it and hadn't even taken it up yet. Not only that the batteries have to be kept warm and don't work very well cold.

Getting into the hobby, unless you go with a complete off the shelf system is gonna be hard on a 1000$ budget as the initial purchases add a significant amount but each subsequent craft gets cheaper. You can look at spending anywhere from 100-1000 for a transmitter(controller), batteries are 50$ a pop, a decent charger is gonna run you at least 60$, if you want to get into FPV the goggles start at about 200 and go up to 800, video transmitters are 70$ a pop and you gonna want lots of extra props as you WILL break a ton.

But as far as portability goes I would look at pretty much any tri-copter as they almost always fold down to a small size. There are very few folding quads out there.

I would look at the 250 "race quads" they are tiny and ridiculously powerful and maneuverable. I've built over 20 rigs now(including some that are over a meter wide) and all I want to fly are my little 250's. They fit in a backpack easily enough along side the transmitter and some batteries no problem.

heres a video that can show what a budget mini quad is capable of (acrobatic type flying)




And here is an amazing FPV pilot with a QAV250 (FPV proximity type Flight)


The only bad thing about the minis is that they tend to have short fight times ~8min but trust me after 8min of flinging these things around you will want a break...

I highly recommend checking out FLiteTest on youtube they do reviews and informative videos and they are actually pretty entertaining to watch as well. They also have several complete build videos from a basic scratch built out of plywood to a complete autonomous filming platform. Hell they even threw some motors on a toolbox and made it fly. (they also have put wings on a toaster, cinderblock, toolbox, and a microwave (that actually cooked while it was flying)

Flitetest

[flipstah]

Oh shit, good to know.

[Unknown303]

Originally posted by Crazyjoker77

I highly recommend checking out FLiteTest on youtube they do reviews and informative videos and they are actually pretty entertaining to watch as well. They also have several complete build videos from a basic scratch built out of plywood to a complete autonomous filming platform. Hell they even threw some motors on a toolbox and made it fly. (they also have put wings on a toaster, cinderblock, toolbox, and a microwave (that actually cooked while it was flying)

Flitetest

Flitetest is an amazing Youtube channel for learning about quadcopters. They tend to stick to cheap build your own stuff which I like and you'll never hear those guys ever recommend getting a DJI product as a starter. They are advocates of learning to fly before getting all the extra flight controller features to keep it in the air.

[mdeleon]

Originally posted by Crazyjoker77
Using them on pretty much any ski hill in Alberta is not allowed and will get you kicked off really quick. All provincial and national parks you cant fly in either.

Damn, snowboarding woulda been the biggest reason for me to get a drone.

[djrocketodd]

Phantom 2 is way easier to fly then the blades, a bit more expensive but they preform better in wind as well.

Local Calgary dealer

https://www.droneshopcanada.ca/shop/...enmuse-gimbal/