I’ve been diverted to another interesting subject…drones! One day I was casually drinking a beer when a friend of mine mentioned how drones can come right back to their launch point. So, I started looking into the low budget end of the drone market to see if I could learn something before I jump in and spend thousands on a new high tech gadget.
My very first result was a tiny helicopter (v911) for about thirty five dollars. It looked so cool I instantly bought it! Please don’t repeat my mistake. On the second flight, it was so light that the wind just caught it up and carried it away, never to be seen again. Now all I have it the transmitter. So, I figured bigger would be better, I kept looking and found a V912…but WAIT! there’s even a V913! Again in frenzied excitement I pulled the trigger for another seventy dollars. For less than twenty bucks, I also added an 808 key chain camera and 16Gb micro SD card.
Now I’m flyin! Oh crap, I crashed!
Of course the first V913 I bought made it through hover training, but then I slapped some velco on the canopy and attached the key chain camera. Again, hover testing went fine, but while doing it’s first high altitude camera shoot, I turned it back into the wind and pitched the nose down to head home upwind.
crash and burn!
The steep pitch must have moved the fly bar beyond its hover travel and it contacted the 808 key chain camera with enough force to tear the Velcro loose and sheer all the connection between the main blade and the main drive shaft. Now all hell breaks loose and debris is falling all over the road.
I spot the detached camera quickly and hope for the best, but get the worst….almost. The good news is that I taped the MicroSD card into the camera slot. The bad news is that the force was so great that the card shot right through the tape and again, was gone forever. Maybe I should just hang this new hobby up before I’m broke!
At this point I was pretty much hook on the few seconds of excitement and even the crashes, so back to Amazon to buy a parts kit for the heli. Unfortunately it is delivered on the slow boat, and wouldn’t be here for a few weeks, so I just popped for a second V913 because it’s such a great value for a mere seventy bones.
So far just practicing with the V913, hovering and low level flight, but I was still looking for a inexpensive yet stable camera platform…maybe even something that could lift my GoPro camera for less than a hundred bucks. I searched around and found a UD 818 with camera, but too small and it arrived with no yaw control, so back it went. Next I went back to the WLToys line and found great reviews on their V262 Quadcopter. I just got mine yesterday, but while doing my own QC check, I found it had a bad LED (red/blue). The circuit worked, but the LED was shot, probably because the battery had come loose in the package and bashed the LED a few times. Who knows?
Regardless, it flies great! It’s 6 axis gyro makes it a breeze to fly, even in moderate winds. Very responsive and a heavy lifter! The V262 also has a camera for around 20 dollars and you’ll want to buy another 850 mAh Lipo battery pack for it right away. Maybe even a motor, blades or other assorted parts. It’s almost as fun working on them as flying ’em. So, if you’re looking for a fun hobby, take a look at the models mentioned in this article. There are many others, but this is simply an account of my personal experience as I explore the toy/hobby RC helicopter and quadcopter market.
My next step is the Phantom quad with FPV for around five hundred dollars. Thinking back, if I would have skipped all the messing around with the toy copters while loosing and destroying them, maybe I could have saved enough to go right the Phantom! Hope that gives you a good idea for where you want to start.