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OK, so I'm lucky that I don't have any disposable income because otherwise I probably would have run out and bought a fancy drone.
But that doesn't stop me from leering at them on Youtube!

While I'm not about to get one today, I almost pulled the trigger on a ~$200 model with a steep discount on Prime Day and I'm not sure I'll have the same willpower next year.
So, who around here is a drone aficionado and would like to chime in on your recommendations for somebody who is looking for a starter drone?
The drones that interest me most are the camera drones as opposed to the "racing" drones too, although I'd welcome info from racing drone enthusiasts too.

From my passing knowledge DJI seems to be the big dog in this area but Yuneec is also a pretty big brand, and that both make some very strong drones in what I'll call the "prosumer" $1000 - $1500 price brackets. I'm looking at a lower-end drone for starting out but any drone experiences & recommendations would be great. Thanks!

Your lucky I no longer own any guns because I'll shoot down your drone. Should be much enjoyable then paper targets.

The only other forum i attend is a drone forum where i spend all day answering beginners questions. Ask me anything. But beware, i am heavily biased simply because i want more people in the hobby. Before the rest i will at least warn that this is best entered with an understanding that you're going to have to fix things occasionally. How often depends on what you buy and the nature of it. For example, my most recent flight one of a propellers blades, with no damage, flew off mid air. Since i have 3 blades per prop i was able to land safely, but a failure like that one a camera platform means the ground and fast. I do fly racers though so my failure rate is drastically higher than a camera platform. Anyway on to the questions at hand.

DJI is the big name right now. I used to own a phantom 3. The pro's, fairly easy to fly since it essentially flies itself. Your commands to it are more like asking it kindly to do things. The most recent model won't even do things you ask it to do if it can tell that they're dangerous. It does have some decent fail safe features to get it back safely in the event of a loss of communication too. The range is very good for a pre-built mostly due to their own proprietary tech of using a digital communication instead of analog which almost everything else uses. A mile over water at a decent altitude should be no problem. You'll see videos of people getting much more though.

The cons. The biggest one, whenever i flew i felt scared because if it crashed for any reason it's not designed to be easily repaired by the user, and what parts you can get are very expensive. More than they should be really.

First thing to break in a bottom down crash.
https://store.dji.com/product/phantom-4-gimbal-camera

This is mostly a con for me due to my lack of easy mail access because as long as you didn't cause the problem they will usually fix it under warranty. If you don't want to potentially have weeks or months of downtime during that process though then it can be something to consider.

They're also vulnerable to disruptions which can be unpredictable. For example they use a magnometer to tell their direction and orientation, in combination with a gps to self pilot. Extreme magnetic disturbances can cause very unusual behavior, this is most frequently seen around power lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TQ9pTSRVFE
During a cosmological event some years ago, i remember grounding myself when seeing the forecast of possible disturbances then afterwards seeing an abnormal amount of complaints of flyaways and crashes. Your mileage may vary on random events.

Also in the event that something goes very wrong with the gps unit for any reason, you could be dealing with a full blown fly away situation, where the drone takes off full speed because it's position is reading wrong. If it's responding and you can get it into a less automated flight mode you may be able to recover from these types of situations.

That said as a starter i recommend at least getting familiar with how to fly without gps based auto pilot. Doesn't have to be full manual without auto-leveling flight but something is better than nothing. A cheap durable dromida ominus or the like should work fine, but they have a limited motor lifespan since they're brushed. If you want something brushless i can recommend a few but they're designed for serious power and not necessarily a great starting tool line of sight being so small.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dromida-Ominus-UAV-Quadcopter-RTF-Drone-Yellow/45734658?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=4115&adid=22222222227033059435&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=69709040936&wl4=aud-310687322522:pla-116895212696&wl5=9017898&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=115794308&wl11=online&wl12=45734658&wl13=&veh=sem

Unfortunately there's no way around the, "you get what you pay for" as far as drone quality and likelyhood of failure goes. Also control with a camera view, or fpv, tends to add some cost on it's own. The cheaper version of that is cell phone wifi based drones, very short range, but cheaper. For example.

https://www.hubsanus.com/shop/h501a.html

A couple other popular companies you can window shop. Hubsan, cheerson, 3DR, Blade, Xiaomi. I can only attest to the quality of dji and blade as far as camera platforms go, i consider both very good. All of those names are commonly discussed on the forums. I left out all of the overpriced under featured tiny brands i see popping up in brick and mortar stores. I wouldn't recommend any of the newcommers just trying to quickly cash in on the trend, they will commonly last a few hours.

If you want to balls deep into the information side of the hobby head here and start reading/posting. You'll see me there under MoldyStain.
https://www.rcgroups.com/aircraft-elect ... rones-790/

Thanks Heiwashin! I will spend some time going through all those links and your expertise is appreciated.

Any thoughts about the GoPro line of drones?

Well ever since this problem they haven't been ranked highly by most enthusiasts.

https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/8/1356 ... -announced

I'm actually indifferent to that incident since DJI has had it's problems too that they didn't issue recalls for.

Feature wise differences are up to personal taste because there really aren't many with any drones at this tier.

I guess the logic most people seem to be going with is at least dji products are fairly heavily purchased and the reliability is at least understood. Might as well get a mavic with known variables rather than a karma with uknown. I think with these types of drones the repair support would be the most important feature. I have no idea how good gopros support is though.

yesterday (dont have it yet - waiting for it to be delivered) i bought myself my first drone a "toy" $50 drone to start with, a "VISUO XS809HW 720P WIFI FPV"

http://www.geekbuying.com/item/VISUO-XS809HW-720P-WIFI-FPV-RC-Quadcopter-RTF-Black-379824.html
a sample video with it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqB1hHyZLpI

i know it isnt a dji or anything good but it does seem like a great starter drone going by reviews of it and will let me know if im actually interested in getting something a bit more serious - at the very least it will be a fun cheap toy

the "Feilun FX122" seems totally awesome for $50 but i cant seem to find them anymore
check the review of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GIe-EYhz_w

Those look like brushed motors. If you find yourself enjoying it quickly order some more motors as they have lifespans like 5 to 10 hours if they're high quality. They're inexpensive usually just want to prepare for them dying.

Heiwashin wrote:

Those look like brushed motors. If you find yourself enjoying it quickly order some more motors as they have lifespans like 5 to 10 hours if they're high quality. They're inexpensive usually just want to prepare for them dying.

yeah i heard that brushed motors dont last as long but the parts are cheap (about $6 for a full set of motors) and as i said its just to get a feel to see if i like drone flying at all

cheap parts
http://www.geekbuying.com/Search?keyword=visuo&sort=3

Well I hope you like it. I'm gonna try to post some more videos soon. It occurred to me that I've had so many problems with keeping my camera mounted in the past or losing the camera now that I haven't posted a real video of my flying style in a good spot ever so I'm gonna try to get that done either with a go pro or just with the DVR.

Heiwashin wrote:

Well I hope you like it. I'm gonna try to post some more videos soon. It occurred to me that I've had so many problems with keeping my camera mounted in the past or losing the camera now that I haven't posted a real video of my flying style in a good spot ever so I'm gonna try to get that done either with a go pro or just with the DVR.

Awesome!

Incidentally, as I do more research something you posted above about the GoPro drone situation resonated with me. It looks like practically all of the drones (expensive or not) can be hit with QC and technical issues of one type or another. Considering how bleeding edge a lot of this technology is it's not a surprise you'll see bugs. It's the customer service (or lack thereof) of the manufacturer that can make a big difference in how the bugs are handled though.

Yep. I see outlier things like this which I'm still waiting for the guy's final updates.
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... GAIN%21%21

You can see his experience has been a nightmare but it's extremely rare and it's something you could experience with any of the others too. DJI has been disliked by many because they often don't acknowledge problems and fix them quietly in firmware updates. Mine actually had a problem where the iPad app would just crash the whole iPad while you were flying and you had to wait for it to restart or initiate return to home.

Like you said though, stuff like that is just a part of the hobby at this stage. I normally recommend building your own but I wouldn't recommend starting with a large expensive platform as your first build, especially as a first drone at all.

If you like the pre built you buy I'll start trying to convince you to get into building.

Heiwashin wrote:

Well ever since this problem they haven't been ranked highly by most enthusiasts.

https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/8/1356 ... -announced

I'm actually indifferent to that incident since DJI has had it's problems too that they didn't issue recalls for.

Feature wise differences are up to personal taste because there really aren't many with any drones at this tier.

I guess the logic most people seem to be going with is at least dji products are fairly heavily purchased and the reliability is at least understood. Might as well get a mavic with known variables rather than a karma with uknown. I think with these types of drones the repair support would be the most important feature. I have no idea how good gopros support is though.

Nice thing is their office is about 5 miles down the street from me, and I've got a friend who works in their engineering department I'd like to get into drones, but need to save up first

While I wouldn't call it a "drone" per se I did have a toy quadcopter lying around that I hadn't played with in a few years.

It's the Heli-max 1SQ:
quadcopter by Chuck Ula

Took it out to a big empty field and let me tell you something... I need some practice! This is a tiny and not overly stable drone but I found a bunch of ways to crash it and nearly lost it in some weeds too. However, I did make some progress and by the end of the evening I could get it to the point where I could walk along side the drone and keep it relatively stable for a minute or so. There was a very light breeze that you normally wouldn't think twice about but that breeze was enough to send it off on its merry way too.

Good news is this thing is pretty tough and pretty cheap. Practice continues!

Another avenue i'll give you guys to learn, some awesome simulators. Right now i use velocidrone. It's environments and race maps are absolutely outstanding and no other sim competes, but i'm not sure how learner friendly it is. I'm not even sure if it has a leveled mode or line of sight. I used to use freerider a long time ago, and i know it has leveled modes and line of sight, so it may be more suitable.

I think a 360 controller will work with all of these, since i'm not sure if you guys have a radio from airplanes laying around.

In addition to more flight time with my existing quad I'm semi-seriously looking at the U818A as a "real" quadcopter that includes a very basic camera. This isn't the newest U818 that has received a 1080p HD upgrade, but at this stage I'm still worried about flying more than pretty pictures.

At $53 (including a second battery) the price seems right and it gets positive reviews as a starter model. Any thoughts?

Looks like it has mostly good reiews, that means it works and is pretty durable at least. The return to home and headless functions that work exclusively using an accelerometer never work well, so don't depend on those and fly outside of your comfortable distance. I can't tell if it has a full manual mode or not, since it looks like it has a flip button it probably doesn't. That's not a big deal if you don't want to fly acrobatics or intend to get something later to fill that role. Looks like a good starter though, pretty cheap too.

Heiwashin wrote:

Looks like it has mostly good reiews, that means it works and is pretty durable at least. The return to home and headless functions that work exclusively using an accelerometer never work well, so don't depend on those and fly outside of your comfortable distance. I can't tell if it has a full manual mode or not, since it looks like it has a flip button it probably doesn't. That's not a big deal if you don't want to fly acrobatics or intend to get something later to fill that role. Looks like a good starter though, pretty cheap too.

I'll probably pick it up next month and do a mini-review. The cheapness + the numerous reports that these drones tolerate crashes well are big plusses.

I intend to fly like a grandma once I get the hang of this stuff!

Doing some more flying with my toy quadcopter and I snagged an extra battery.

The good news is that while I'm not an expert I am capable of controlled flight most of the time and I have had no need to replace any propellers for a while

Another positive sign is that the amount of time I spend out in the big field flying the drone around during each trip has dropped significantly because it is spending far more time in the air flying around and draining the battery instead of lying on the ground after I crashed it!

Phase 2 with a still-cheap but fancier drone begins next month.

If anyone wants an acro drone set let me know. Since I'm planning to pick up a paramotor soon I made some tough calls about space in the truck. One of those calls is that I'm ditching my 4s based quad gear.

I would explain the full specs but I think that wouldn't be very useful. So instead, ill summarize it's function. This whole thing is one fully completed and flyable frame and spare parts. Its a 21 cm motor to motor diagonal class flyer, most appropriate for aerobatics. The camera angle is adjustable which allows for skill progression. It uses 5 inch diameter propellers, namely dal props because they are the most durable. It's not leveled and it does not have a GPS. It is possible to add accelerometer based leveling in the flight controller software. Even with that enabled it will not fly like a DJI phantom 4. It will drift, a lot, and requires at least positional control. It will resist light crashes, or heavy crashes in grass quiet well. It has a top speed of 54 mph.

Comes with countless spare parts. Several body replacement parts, two or three cameras, two or three video transmitters, maybe an extra receiver, an extra flight controller, several motors, bearings, shafts, circlips, i think like 40 props, basically everything you need to crash hard 20 or 30 times with no problems.

What you'll need. A radio transmitter. An fr sky x4r sbus receiver is currently installed. I can recommend either the fr sky taranis plus radio or the qx7 as a cheaper option. 3s or 4s lipos of around the 1300 mah size. You'll also need googles if you want to fpv. The big huge face boxes tend to be cheaper and work fine but I don't have a recommendation. Fpv will also require several circularly polarized 5.8ghz antennas. You'll also need enormous patience and interest in the technical side of building, repairing, repairing, and repairing drones.

If I had to guess it's somewhere between 800 and 1k$ of parts, free, but only to reputable long-standing tr members. The one catch, who the heck knows when I'll get by a ups or something to actually send it out, given my living situation, so you could be waiting months however I'll be covering the shipping.

This is the picture except the thing on the back is now inside the frame and the antenna passes through a hole.

These guys made a 7 or 8 pound generator to power quads for long flights. They're doing a 3 hour flight soon. Generates 2kw.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthr ... ing-Flight

They said it'll cost 4500 dollars and didn't say what kind of fuel it uses. Based on the price im gonna say it's probably a hydrogen fuel cell engine.

Replaced the go pro i left in a field and got some time to mess around with my most recent build. I had a problem with the new propellers i was using exploding mid flight so i switched back to my old faithful durable ones for now. A little slower but i'll get the faster ones made by that company as soon as i get home again.

Here's a raw video of a flight at a little truck stop. The relatively small area made a pretty fun flying box. Lately i've been doing a lot of practicing to replicate the style of los flyers on fpv but it's really harsh to watch on video. Smooth flowing and wide sweeping movements look good on camera, but in person sharp jagged twitchy flying within an area of 150 feet looks the best.

Heiwashin wrote:

Those look like brushed motors. If you find yourself enjoying it quickly order some more motors as they have lifespans like 5 to 10 hours if they're high quality. They're inexpensive usually just want to prepare for them dying.

i must have a good one as i have used mine easy 20+ hours without issue (got 6 batterys for it so i can use it more than an hour at a time)
its mega tough too, i have smacked it into pretty much everything (cars trees buildings etc) with no damage done yet - it has even dropped from max height (im guessing 50-70 meters) onto concrete and survived.!

it could be more powerful though, if there is a strong wind it can get blown around pretty hard but a light wind can be handled with ease
i definitely recommend it
VISUO XS809HW $50 us dollars
https://www.geekbuying.com/item/VISUO-XS809HW-720P-WIFI-FPV-RC-Quadcopter-RTF-Black-379824.html

Thanks for the new videos! I'm still flying my quad a bit but I'm waiting for spring to get a camera drone and take the next step.

This is an idea I've had but due to the fact I live on the road this project would be impossible for me.

Fairly simple really, take a nice big empty space somewhere in your house you want to put something cool, power a accurately hovering GPS drone off of a power supply via cable, put a transparent case over it for safety reasons. The case could probably function as a sound dampener too depending on the material. Enjoy a drone that'll fly in the case until a motor fails, you could even use a UPS for short term power interruption stability.

I would absolutely do this project if I could come off the road just for funsies. Id say the more difficult part would be that the hover would need to be decent else it use too much space to encase. That means a really good GPS system and indoor signal or visual/audio positioning that would work in a case.

With CES being in full swing there are plenty of new drones.

This one looks interesting not for having high-end technology but for being a $99 drone that provides some degree of user programability.

Here's an overview of several new drones at the show including the Tello and higher-end models as well.