Drone Photography

[TonyC]

For some time I've had a hankering for taking aerial photos and started off with suspending a camera from a kite. I had some success earlier this year building a quadcopter drone after initial failure. The first one disappeared out to sea with a GoPro camera slung under it. With Mark2 I've had some good pictures, but it's been difficult to fly as the controller board is quite primitive and cost about $85. The cost of all the parts was about $250.
Mark3 (which is the attached photo) which I've just finished and test flown this morning has GPS, position lock and return to home. The controller cost NZ$280 so all up it's about $500 of parts. The camera is a Rollei Bullet cam (German) with a 120° fisheye lens. It's capable of 20mp still images and takes a photo every 3 seconds. It's a matter of setting it going and picking the best shots out of a couple of hundred pics during the 10 minute flight which is the time you get out of the drone battery.

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[gabba]

Nice. Looks fairly complicated to fly?

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[TonyC]

Maybe as a first timer, but having trained myself on the more unstable Mark2, this is a doddle to handle.  With GPS, it has position hold and altitude lock and even lands itself if the battery voltage drops too far. You need to keep an eye on the clock and  keep watch on flashing warning lights when the voltage drops around the 10 min mark and bring it home so that it doesn't land itself  in a tree or gully by itself. Any wind over 5kmh makes it harder to handle.

[intrepid]

Good job Tony!

I have just bought myself a quadcopter too (and the camera part is on its way in the mail) but a lot less heavily built than your one. 

I have played around with it outside for a bit and is much better than the toy gyro helicopter I had previously!  It takes a little while to get used to flying the thing but its a lot of fun! Will be fun to see how the video/camera part goes.

All the best with it!

[TonyC]

The camera is capable of HD video and weighs 115g and the all up weight with a 4000mah 3s Lipo is 1.5kg.
The problem with video (and even the still shots) is the "jello" effect where you get picture distortion. I found the best place to locate the camera is under the battery which tends to absorb most of the vibration. It does mean you have to a decent undercarriage for ground clearance.  I've also found that motors of the same type can cause a different amount of vibration. With mark2 I eliminated the jello, but on mark3 it was back and only by swapping the motors between the two did it disappear.
The controller is a NAZA Lite. The original Naza with GPS was too expensive for me. The feature that appeals to me is the "intelligent orientation" which means forward and back on the stick works no matter which way it's facing. Losing orientatin is the fastest way to lose the thing

[gabba]

Looking forward to being buzzed when you do a reccy of the western hills

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[intrepid]

Haha, I don't think so.  I think my one only has a range of 100-150m from the radio controller!

Am looking forward to giving it a good go though!

[TonyC]

The more expensive version of the NAZA controller allows for programming routes to fly, but I don't think I'd trust it. Like you Intrepid, I wouldn't like to put the transmitter range to the test too much. I tested the failsafe return to home feature with a certain amount of trepidation (pun intended) today, but it came home as it should ( a bit speedier than I was comfortable with).

[intrepid]

Hi All,

This is the first video recorded from the new quadcopter...



A rather ignominious ending! LOL

[TonyC]

Hope you got it down in one piece!.
If you want to remove the sound or change it to soothing music (and you have a Windows PC), load your video into Windows movie maker which comes free with Windows. To remove the sound altogether, save the video with the volume control set to zero. Otherwise, find some music and link it .

cheers
TC

[intrepid]

I did thanks.

Good idea about resaving with the sound turned down. Might try that.

Cheers

[TokWW]

Very clever guys!  Yes, wind would be your enemy, and trees and powerlines... LOL!  Oh and swimming pools and rain and clothes-lines.  Colours in the video look fine.  A GPS go home feature sounds real good, if you think the wind is getting up as it can with elevation, it may be safer to disable the remote control!!  Neighbours may not like it in summer...
 
Cool!!

[TonyC]

Hobbyking is the place to go if you are looking to make up your own project.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/index.asp
Great place to spend your second childhood (in my case anyway). 

[ato2]

I was impressed with the work done by drones in the NSW bushfires.