Australian Phantom Flyers!

[Driffill]

Seems like everyone else has a local thread, I thought I'd start ours!

I'm from Melbourne Victoria. I know of one other phantom pilot in Melbourne, but I'm sure there is more of us. I'm still fairly new and learning but I'd be up for catching up with others

 

[boat chaser]

I'm from Perth but travel to Melbourne to visit friends. I'll let ya know when my next trip is planned. Would be good to meet you guys (Driffill/martcerv)

 

[marcus_canada]

As you guys are south of the equator, do your Phantoms exhibit the toilet flush the other way round when your compass is out of cal?

 

[boat chaser]

Haven't had to calibrate the compass yet, my imu compass number sits around 500 when doing an advanced calibration. I've luckily had zero flight issues so far (fingers crossed).

 

[martcerv]

Im from Melbourne and would be cool to have a phantom jam session one day with some other guys from here. :mrgreen:

 

[Branko]

Hi guys!

I´m from Brazil, I am getting a Phantom in the next couple of weeks.

However there is one question I believe you guys can help me with.

A local store in Brazil that sells tha Phantoms charge an extra amount of money to reposition the GPS antena inside the Phantom, so that it will work properly in Brazil. Aparently this would have something to do with Brazil being in the south.

It does not make any sense to me, I think they are just trying to rip off some more money.

Have you guys heard anything about this?

They even have a video online showing what they do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrDdJKCzCBY

Thank you!!

 

[boat chaser]

I have never heard of that. It should be right to fly straight out of the box. I feel they may be trying to rip you off. The phantom is put together in the factory with the gps in a certain position by DJI. People who have moved it out of place usually encounter problems. My Phantom has flown with no problems after many modifications.

 

[martcerv]

Moving the GPS antenna wouldnt have any effect I think, this is done on regular NAZA with compass and GPS built in to the one unit. What they do is rotate this direction slightly to get it aligned properly with magnetic north in that location.

The Phantom compass and GPS are separate units, the GPS is just an antenna and the way is designed it really cant be moved easily and I dont see how moving the GPS antenna would have any benefits as it is just that an antenna.

Now the compass could quite likely be adjusted as is common practice in the regular DJI GPS/compass unit but I dont think it needs to be as mine fly's fine down south in Australia even though it is setup in the northern hemisphere. So to sum up I think they are just trying to rip people off as this doesn't seem to be something you need doing on a phantom.

 

[mroberts]

Canberra here!

 

[Driffill]

I don't understand the video, but I think this is the reasoning behind it

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1667248

At a quick browse from posts made in 2012 it would appear the naza firmware had an issue with Southern Hemisphere GPS and/or the magnetic declination in a particular country, I'm not sure if that's resolved, but I guess their mod would be turning the GPS how it needs to be for the mag dec in brazil?

On another note, I got my tri-blades today! I bought 5 sets to trial (both the blades and the seller) as the postie pulls up to my letterbox, he crams the bag in as best he can and bends two of my blades! What's worse is they are both the same direction! So I bought 5 pairs but can only use 3 pairs

Canberra hey! I went past there just over a month ago, went up to Goulburn for a track day at Wakefield park. It's actually why I bought my phantom.

 

[Branko]

Hey guys!

Thanks for all the replies.

I really do feel its a ripoff, and I´ve never heard of a GPS antena orientation issue before on any type of GPS.

Cheers!

 

[PTCX]

I'm in Newcastle.
I've not seen any other multi copters flying anywhere here but the Phantom attracts a lot of interest from people,including some from a local RC flying club so I probably won't be on my own for long.

 

[martcerv]

I have seen a few other multi's around, near my place there is a field used by all sorts of RC guys but I am yet to see another phantom yet. Most of the guys there have never seen one in person either and think its pretty cool even though mine is pretty heavily modified.

I did here that one of the Melbourne hobby shops got cleaned out of phantom with the emergency services buying all their stock to use them for training people on flying quads. They will likely be using multi's for all sorts of search and rescue purposes but they use the highly overpriced quads for that. I saw one on the news that the firebrigade is using and it was supposedly 20k+ and it looked like a big AR drone with a camcorder strapped to it and the video was jello city. :lol: For that sort of money you'd want at least jello free or also a stabilized gimbal I would think.

Here is a link only $27,000 actually and it is a big brother to the AR drone.

http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/techn ... 56098.html

That one is actually a better video then was on the local news, but really for that much money its a 1 axis gimbal, 1km video range using a DX9 radio. Someone is making some good money selling these to the government. :lol:

 

[boat chaser]

20 g's ... I would expect the thing to at least be able to carry a fire hose for that price, and perhaps stay in the air for over an hour. I wonder if they need their UAV operators license to fly them. It would be interesting to find out what drone they are using and the performance of it compared with other drones like the s800.

 

[martcerv]

If you see the video the guy said they are allowed to fly to 120m so that would be the 400ft number most commonly quoted and 1km LOS but he said thats just because of the crappy video link range. You'd think for that sort of money they'd at least make a better camera then simply mounting an off the shelf camcorder to a very basic 1 axis pitch gimbal.

The cost of building that would be well under $1,000 including the radio and they probably bought used SD handycams off gumtree to keep the costs down and profits up. :lol:

 

[martcerv]

Just came across this which seems like an interesting deal considering the price of the DJI gimbal on its own.

http://www.multiwiicopter.com/products/ ... combo-deal

For aussies it $745 compared to other places where I have seen the gimbal on its own for the same price on its own, if anyone is thinking of the gimbal then they can sell the Naza or use it for their next larger DJI powered multi.

I am not getting the DJI gimbal though having got one coming from XPG instead due to the DJI gimbal seeming to be a little weak under load and not being able to take filters without it freaking out.

 

[mroberts]

I have seen a few other multi's around, near my place there is a field used by all sorts of RC guys but I am yet to see another phantom yet. Most of the guys there have never seen one in person either and think its pretty cool even though mine is pretty heavily modified.

I did here that one of the Melbourne hobby shops got cleaned out of phantom with the emergency services buying all their stock to use them for training people on flying quads. They will likely be using multi's for all sorts of search and rescue purposes but they use the highly overpriced quads for that. I saw one on the news that the firebrigade is using and it was supposedly 20k+ and it looked like a big AR drone with a camcorder strapped to it and the video was jello city. :lol: For that sort of money you'd want at least jello free or also a stabilized gimbal I would think.

Here is a link only $27,000 actually and it is a big brother to the AR drone.

http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/techn ... 56098.html

That one is actually a better video then was on the local news, but really for that much money its a 1 axis gimbal, 1km video range using a DX9 radio. Someone is making some good money selling these to the government. :lol:

There is a little more to it than that, although the differences are shrinking between the "commercial" and the hobby gear. The CyberQuad pre-dates a lot of the high-end hobby stuff, so to an extent they're getting back their investment. They also *should* be offering a more robust control system - I think they run a micropilot, which runs around $10k per unit. Integrating cameras properly isn't trivial, and they're getting about 25-30 minutes of flight time.

Factoring in a robust and integrated GCS does add to the cost. In order to sell to people who want an OC you have to be able to provide training, as well as having an OC of your own ,so there are a lot more costs involved that buying a bunch of bits.

 

[martcerv]

Did anyone see the quadcopter they are using at Bathurst? I saw it in qualifying and pre race but looks like its a bit too windy for them to use it now during the race. I wonder what they are using and if it will come out again with the gale force winds.

It would be pretty cool to get an aerial flyover of a full lap of this awesome track.

 

[Driffill]

Did anyone see the quadcopter they are using at Bathurst? I saw it in qualifying and pre race but looks like its a bit too windy for them to use it now during the race. I wonder what they are using and if it will come out again with the gale force winds.

It would be pretty cool to get an aerial flyover of a full lap of this awesome track.

I know they use cable strung camera along the straights, to use the cable strung they may need to be certified to fly/use drones too, so i think they are giving coptors a shot lol

 

[boat chaser]

That would be cool, i'm working on a dual battery fpv setup at the moment, got 14.5 minutes yesterday at 1388g with no vtx.
today is 1300g with vtx and naked gopro. I'll post results and setup later. Go Holden!