9
votes
I would like to get into drones, any tips?
I bought one of those cheap miniature drones that are flimsy but overall pretty fun to start with. Now, I have the bug to get something with a camera, more flight time, and can withstand the wind. Any suggestions on what I could get <$150 that would be a good investment.
Any maintenance tips or flying in public tips?
Assuming you're wanting to get into FPV, I recommend getting a transceiver, one that can interface with your PC, and picking up an FPV multicopter racing game. Put lots of hours into it, at least 20. Once you are reasonable comfortable there, consider actually getting one. They are much more difficult to pilot than it seems, and the high speeds means one bad crash can wreck hundreds of dollars of equipment.
Once you're ready, I'd fly in a nice open area and tweak flight settings and get comfortable with your drone. I started flying in local football practice fields when no one else was around, or baseball fields. Big open areas to traverse and learn FPV handling. Branch out wherever your heart desires from there.
Second this. With $150 budget I would get a Jumper T8SG+ with hall sensors and a copy of Liftoff (available on Steam), and practice until FPV mode is second nature, no more crashing unless you are trying crazy stuff. Then as budget allows get some cheap goggles (a $30 box pair) and a $100 drone (remember you also need batteries and charger!). Then again as budget allows upgrade goggles, and then drone.
If you are 100% hooked already skip the budget goggles and go straight to some Skyzone/FatShark/AOMway goggles in the $350 range. But you will crash that first drone (and badly), so don't spend too much money on it. Also that second pair of cheap goggles can be nice to have so other people can "ride along" when you are flying.
Any recommendations for an FPV game? Thank you so much for the suggestions!
Back when I did it, I really liked DRL Sim, but I see that is now $20 on steam... FPV freerider was $5 back in the day. If it's still that low, I'd go for that one.
It looks like LiftOff and Velocidrone are well regarded, but both also cost $$. I;d look around and read reviews and see which one you think will fit your needs best. Steam has a 2 hour no questions asked refund policy, so if you go the DRL or LiftOff route and it doesn't feel right, you can always refund it.
+1 to this. You could get an RTF kit for less than $150 but you're likely to end up very frustrated with broken parts. The 20 hours is a good suggestion, and honestly I would recommend practicing virtually until you can fire up FPV freerider or LiftOff, or any of the others, and fly through any gate without wrecking.
I've picked up most of my FPV gear from the classifieds section on RCGroups, mostly from people who are frustrated with the hobby and selling their equipment cheap. If you're going to stay into the hobby at all, you really do need a good transmitter. With the newer Taranis models out in the last couple years, you should be able to find a good condition x9d for relatively cheap. It will interface with your PC and any of the games listed above, and grow with you when you're ready to transition.
For instance: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3107453-FrSky-Taranis-X9D-Transmitter
Have you ever flown any radio control anything?
If not, I would start with getting a very cheap indoor drone and practice the stick skills. It’s all about tiny stick movemts and then reversing the controls left/right when the drone is flying at you.
Another thing to start with is some phone app that simulates the stick control. But that only goes so far. The cheap indoor drone is a good place to start IMHO. Something $50-$80 should be good.
Yep! I got a little drone from Brookstone on a whim and have been flying it around my apartment. The biggest learning curve for me was figuring out which direction it is facing when controlling it but overall, I think I have done pretty well with it. I can land it where I need, hover in place, make trim adjustments, etc. Its about the size of my palm so it doesn't fare well in the wind at all so I have avoided taking it outside.
Do you have any recommendations for an outdoor drone?
I honestly don’t know the latest and greatest models, but it depends on the mission. What do you want to do? FPV? Racing? Aerobatics? Videography? I am just saying, think about the mission you want to accomplish.
Also, check out https://hobbyking.com for deals and a huge variety of decent quality stuff.
Edit: with hobby king, just be aware of the warehouse you are ordering from. More selection and better prices in Hong Kong, but it takes much longer to get to you.
Thank you!
I honestly didn't know there were so many different types of drones. FPV and Aerobatics seem cool but I think I will need to do more research. Right now I am just getting satisfaction out of flying.
also banggood is great.
Buy more replacement props than you think you'll need. Also getting spare batteries is a good bet for getting un-interrupting practice in.
The hubsan/syma ones are pretty good to get started with from what I've seen/used. syma x8 i think it was.
Thank you for the suggestion. The Syma drones look pretty inexpensive, do you know what I would be able to expect build quality wise?
Nothing too stellar, but honestly some of the more "plasticy" feeling ones survive crashes better bc of how they squish, but the propellers will snap/pop off if the propguard deforms out of the way.
The quality is more than good enough from what I can remember, but having a look at them now they seem to have updated their lineup a bit so hopefully it's improvements all around.