Comments on: Anyone bought a quadcopter yet? https://habitablezone.com/2015/02/14/anyone-bought-a-quadcopter-yet/ Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:15:13 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: SDG https://habitablezone.com/2015/02/14/anyone-bought-a-quadcopter-yet/#comment-32311 SDG Wed, 25 Feb 2015 06:04:00 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=48823#comment-32311 Its not as stable as I expected, but I'm getting better at flying it. I spent almost $200. It comes with a camera that you can shoot video or stills onto a SD card, but I bought the wifi camera as well that streams to my android phone. I fly it indoors, but once the weather gets better I'm going to take it out and try some aerial photography. I got this as a test to get me into it at a fairly low cost, so that eventually I can convince my company to drop money on the really nice one. I want to start using it for capturing building geometry and as-built conditions. Now that the FAA is finally starting to get reasonable about allowing commercial use, this is going to be a very useful tool in the Architecture business. Steve Its not as stable as I expected, but I’m getting better at flying it.

I spent almost $200. It comes with a camera that you can shoot video or stills onto a SD card, but I bought the wifi camera as well that streams to my android phone. I fly it indoors, but once the weather gets better I’m going to take it out and try some aerial photography.

I got this as a test to get me into it at a fairly low cost, so that eventually I can convince my company to drop money on the really nice one. I want to start using it for capturing building geometry and as-built conditions. Now that the FAA is finally starting to get reasonable about allowing commercial use, this is going to be a very useful tool in the Architecture business.

Steve

]]> By: bowser https://habitablezone.com/2015/02/14/anyone-bought-a-quadcopter-yet/#comment-32274 bowser Sun, 15 Feb 2015 04:58:11 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=48823#comment-32274 Depends on what you spend. Depends upon what you spend. They are electric, battery powered. They have an endurance of 7 to 10 minutes, and the batteries take 25 to 30 minutes to charge. Extra batteries often cost as little as $4. They don't report speed, direction, or altitude that I'm aware of. They are visually controlled. At least the ones I've read about. The one I ran sent back the camera pictures to a laptop. There are some things in common. They all seem to have a default of a level hover. So if you lose control just lift your thumbs. It will go into a hover. The range is that of a garage door opener, about 300 feet, and is limited by the power of the transmitter and receiver. If you send it out of range, it will crash into something. The more expensive ones will return to its' last launch position, being guided by an onboard GPS. They take pretty good film and either transmit it back to a receiver, and/or record it to an SD card. The one I flew was rather sophisticated, but took about 20 seconds to learn the basics. The owner trusted it to me and a number of other people and it survived them all. Depends on what you spend.
Depends upon what you spend. They are electric, battery powered. They have an endurance of 7 to 10 minutes, and the batteries take 25 to 30 minutes to charge. Extra batteries often cost as little as $4. They don’t report speed, direction, or altitude that I’m aware of. They are visually controlled. At least the ones I’ve read about. The one I ran sent back the camera pictures to a laptop.

There are some things in common. They all seem to have a default of a level hover. So if you lose control just lift your thumbs. It will go into a hover. The range is that of a garage door opener, about 300 feet, and is limited by the power of the transmitter and receiver. If you send it out of range, it will crash into something. The more expensive ones will return to its’ last launch position, being guided by an onboard GPS.

They take pretty good film and either transmit it back to a receiver, and/or record it to an SD card.

The one I flew was rather sophisticated, but took about 20 seconds to learn the basics. The owner trusted it to me and a number of other people and it survived them all.

]]> By: hank https://habitablezone.com/2015/02/14/anyone-bought-a-quadcopter-yet/#comment-32273 hank Sun, 15 Feb 2015 03:49:28 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=48823#comment-32273 Are they gasoline powered, or electric? (How noisy are they?) What is their range? Their ceiling? What is the range of their control signal, and their video output? Do they transmit real-time video, or do you download their camera memory after you recover it. Do they return to their operator information on course, speed, altitude? Do you fly them like a model airplane (by watching them from the ground) or by monitoring the video signal they send back? What is their payload capacity? I could look it up myself, but I figure you've already researched it. 8) Are they gasoline powered, or electric? (How noisy are they?) What is their range? Their ceiling? What is the range of their control signal, and their video output? Do they transmit real-time video, or do you download their camera memory after you recover it. Do they return to their operator information on course, speed, altitude? Do you fly them like a model airplane (by watching them from the ground) or by monitoring the video signal they send back? What is their payload capacity?

I could look it up myself, but I figure you’ve already researched it. 8)

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