Drones... Why the obsession?

[edro]

Flight!
I can't fly... but a drone can.
Slap a camera on it and I am basically flying.

Also, it's not traditional forward flight like a plane, it's hovering flight like a humming bird or Superman.
You can go ANYWHERE you want.

 

[Jeff7]

Half the tech stuff we buy we don't need. Why drones? Because they are fun & we can!

Thinking about all the research that went into developing computers in the first place makes most of our computer usage today feel like an indulgence.

5 million bytes of hard drive once had to be unloaded from a truck with a crane or forklift.

"My handheld wireless phone with over a billion transistors in it only has 1 billion bytes left. I guess I used up the other 31 billion on music, puppy photos, and some old Ice Bucket Challenge videos."

Millions of hours and billions of dollars in R&D, spread across a few generations, pushing computer technology.....to finally permit anyone to make and distribute worldwide, this:

That's it, that's the glorious endgame that it's all been leading up to. That, and flying smartphone brains, "the peace dividend of the mobile phone wars."



(If you've been living in a vacuum over 7 light years from Earth, don't be tempted by that GIF.)

 

[Raduque]

I simply enjoy buzzing mine around. I have several toy-class ones (even a big 350mm class toy), a nice GPS stabilized brushless with a gopro clone and self-stabilizing gimbal, an acrobatic Blade 200qx (upside down flight, if you're good enough!) and a scary-fast 250mm FPV racing quad.

I fly the smaller toys (my nanos and micros) inside, the bigger ones (the minis and the 350) outside in the cul-de-sac, the big camera bird gets used in an empty field, and the racer in a very large and empty field (seriously, it's fast. I bet it'll do 50-60mph in a straight line easy).

I just enjoy flying them. I even have a modified transmitter to control almost all of them with one radio (Devo 7E with NFRL module and DeviationTX software). Only two quads have cameras, my FPV racer and the GPS quad.

Edit: Yes, I am registered with the FAA and have my tail number and everything.

 

[Jeff7]

I simply enjoy buzzing mine around. I have several toy-class ones (even a big 350mm class toy), a nice GPS stabilized brushless with a gopro clone and self-stabilizing gimbal, an acrobatic Blade 200qx (upside down flight, if you're good enough!) and a scary-fast 250mm FPV racing quad.

I fly the smaller toys (my nanos and micros) inside, the bigger ones (the minis and the 350) outside in the cul-de-sac, the big camera bird gets used in an empty field, and the racer in a very large and empty field (seriously, it's fast. I bet it'll do 50-60mph in a straight line easy).

I just enjoy flying them. I even have a modified transmitter to control almost all of them with one radio (Devo 7E with NFRL module and DeviationTX software). Only two quads have cameras, my FPV racer and the GPS quad.

Edit: Yes, I am registered with the FAA and have my tail number and everything.

I'm hoping that the FPV issue can be worked out to permit FPV flying. (And also that more FCC-certified transmitters hit the market.)


Also: NFRL module?

 

[Raduque]

I spelled it wrong, its an NRF24L01 module, it allows the Devo to broadcast other control protocols.

 

[ignrock]

They're limited by power, as you said, but they're still great! I think the drone 'fever' is going to spread more and more with the improvements in power technology.

 

[BurnItDwn]

How is a drone really any different from a remote controll helicopter? Yes, some drones are quadrotors, but, really, why are they treated like completely differernt things.

 

[gorcorps]

How is a drone really any different from a remote controll helicopter? Yes, some drones are quadrotors, but, really, why are they treated like completely differernt things.

Quads are so much easier to handle it's silly. Plus at this point I think you can get more out of a budget quad than you can a helicopter. It's been a while, but I remember you had to spend a decent amount of money to get a heli with enough tail rotor control to remain stable.

I kind of get your point, the way they both achieve lift is the same. But in the RC world they just seem different.

 

[edro]

How is a drone really any different from a remote controll helicopter? Yes, some drones are quadrotors, but, really, why are they treated like completely differernt things.

1/10 the price, anyone can fly them and if you crash, it doesn't explode into 1000 pieces.

 

[RossMAN]

All of the sudden I want to buy a drone, visit Grand Cayman again and learn to kitesurf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je1CY8rgJ84

 

[Brian Stirling]

All of the sudden I want to buy a drone, visit Grand Cayman again and learn to kitesurf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je1CY8rgJ84

Drones are not permitted in any of the national parks and many other places. A few years ago an environmental group flew one past a ranch and caught the rancher dumping agricultural waste into a river. Did the rancher get in trouble -- no, he went to his paid for politician and within a few weeks there was an ordinance that made flying drones around such places illegal.

Most of the "obsession" with drones is the belief that every drone is being piloted by a peeping tom looking to video your 13 year old daughter. The media reports just about every incident involving a drone and it doesn't matter that no one was killed or hurt or that there was no property damage -- meanwhile, in nearly every town in the country a young man races his car down the street and crashes into someone else.

The sense of proportion is totally absent and all drone pilots are either peeping toms or ISIS members. So, yeah, there's an obsession, but not what the OP imagined.

As to the usefulness ... the low to mid priced ones get you into HD and 4K video with gyro stabilized 2 and 3 axis mounts. The mid and higher ones have very good 4K cameras including M43 cameras with full 3-axis stabilized mounts. There are things no other platform can do and that includes helicopters as they are too big to go many places a drone can go.

It's looking like the FAA and many MANY state and local agencies are looking hard to ban them entirely. The FAA not so much, but there are state and local agencies all around the country enacting all manor of limitations and laws. We could wind up with something that has more miles of paperwork than anything man has yet invented or conceived. There are rules being considered, for example, that would require anyone flying a drone to ensure that no one can approach closer than 500 feet and if they do you must land immediately. Fencing off an area that large or having to employ dozens of people to patrol that area are not reasonable. Rules like that could make flying a drone much more expensive than flying an actual helicopter.


Brian

 

[MongGrel]

I think Triumph on a drone was one of the funnier uses of one I've seen these days.

For the small ones.

 

[Cheesemoo]

Answer =

 

[motsm]

They're new, so they be the hot shit yo.

 

[Raduque]

The media has a new toy to vilify: hover boards. Haven't seen a single news story about drones being used to spy on underage girls in the shower since those hover boards started exploding. Literally.