Big Country Expat is experimenting with a couple of low-cost entry-level quadcopter drones. He suggests it's a good idea for everyone to get to know at least the basics of how to operate them.
The Scout is a good practice drone, and small enough to get in and around the interior of the house (or any house for that matter) for recon pretty well.
The problem is that it’s so lightweight, ANY and ALL breezes affect its flight. One time I was working on going room-to-room in the house, and the Central Air Conditioning kicked on, and the bird ‘lurched’ across the room in the draft of the AC blowing out of the vent.
So I’m not sure of the utility of it outside in real crosswinds.
This is a standard problem for the cheap ‘practice’ drones if you will. No real weight. One of my early $30 Amazon Chinesium drones I actually lost when practicing outside with the Redhead Nukular Gran. If you recall while I was flying it, I had a BIG gust of wind show up unexpectedly, and grab it, and last I saw of it, it was headed due south towards the Publix a quarter mile away…
Never did find out what happened to that ‘un LOL.
It literally faded to a teeny-tiny dot and then >poof<
So tonight, I tried to to fly this new quad inside BUT had a minor issue. Or maybe not minor per se…
The doggos.
Chili AND Stella both seem to think that the quadcopter is something they need to ‘fetch’ out of the air… I tried to get them to leave it alone, but nope. They weren’t listening at all. In fact Stella got too close while lunging at it, and the rotor blade caught her on the nose. She yelped pretty loudly as it must have hurt, but did that stop her?
She’s a ****ing rockheaded Pittie…
What do you think?
Riiiiiiiight.
Now it’s a challenge apparently.
Must. Snatch. The. Flying. Thing.
So this means in the future, I’ll have to either practice in the bedroom for the initial ‘tuning’ of it and getting a feel for the flight characteristics, or take it down to the park at the elementary school we used to take the Grans to after school or on a Saturday and give it a try there.
When I say ‘tuning’ I mean that the controls and servos need to be dialed in for accuracy, otherwise it might have drift already in the settings, and I need to make sure that it does a steady hover, and do some other things, to include getting the 4k Cameras ‘dialed in’ as well.
Seeing that drones are the future and at least trying to learn how to use them is a good and necessary thing. Better to learn on the short $$$ models than to spend a grand on a nice DJI Drone like the Ivans and Krainians use and have that get wrecked?
I’d rather burn through a half a dozen ‘practice drones’ learning how to ‘fly’ a drone rather than buying a $$$$$Mondo-Expensivo$$$$$ one and wasting/crashing/destroying it by accident.
There's more at the link, including pictures.
I think he makes a very good point. While cheap entry-level quadcopters are still freely available, I think it's an excellent idea to learn to use them. They may not be Predator- or Reaper-class weaponized drones, but one can use them to fly around one's property, or up and down the street, and see what's going on in the neighborhood. If there are reports of rioting or unrest nearby, one can keep an eye on the situation, and if one sees "undesirables" heading in one's direction, one can be proactive in responding to them, either by "getting out of Dodge" before they arrive, or getting together with neighbors to greet them, in full readiness to protect one's loved ones and property, when they arrive.
I think I have a new project for the next few weeks . . . Finding a low-cost drone that can cope with North Texas winds might be a challenge, but I'll do my best. If anyone sees a drone heading for the wild blue yonder, coming from my general direction, let me know, will you, please?
Peter
Amazing how quickly the prices have come down on these units. I remember 20 years ago, a tiny little helicopter (maybe 5" in rotor diameter ?) design cost about $50. Our house cats were terrified by it for some reason - wide eyed, crouched down, hissing. Is why we gave that up.
ReplyDeleteSending that up above your house and doing a 365 perimeter check for crowds would be nice to have for heads up. But we have strong winds from the Gulf of Mexico and would likely frustrate us in recovering the unit.
Excellent idea, I look forward to reading your findings. My neighborhood doesn't have an organized watch group, but we do have a pitifully lame NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH sign at the entrance to our subdivision, but no real personnel behind it. I've tried to talk up an actual watch group, but people here just don't understand how the criminal mind works.
ReplyDeleteI thought your medical issues had you so broke you couldn't even pay your bills?
ReplyDeleteMedical bills make things tight, sure enough: but with entry-level quadcopter drones available for literally less than $10 on Amazon, buying one won't break the bank.
DeleteI have one that I routinely fly around the homestead's area. It can fly over a mile away before it loses signal. The recon value alone is worth it.
ReplyDeleteJust remember not to fly it straight to and from trouble makers, or they can simply follow it to you. When TSHTF, fly circuitous routes to and from the base camp.
Peter,
ReplyDeleteI use a Holy Stone brand drone which costs <$200.00 on Amazon. It does ok in moderate winds, doesn't have a lot of range, but is handy for looking over the property. It's brought a lot of peace of mind during the late summer fire season when I go outside and smell smoke. I just pop the drone up a couple hundred feet and pivot around to see the source of the smoke.
Drones are not "the future" but they will be an integral part of it...they are already an integral part of the present. Learning how to use them and finding strategic uses for them is not a waste of resources. Also finding ways to counter them is a useful effort.
ReplyDeleteHaving been a radar operator/maintainer in the military and then on our various missile ranges and research areas, my thoughts went not to the drones, but the methods to "remove" them from the air. Since they require a control unit (transmitter) to fly, another transmitter can "unfly" them. If you discover a drone hovering outside your bedroom window with its camera scanning your wife, it would be poetic justic if that drone suddenly shot off up into the sky, performed a few marvelous cartwheels, and then nose dived into the ground. And guess what? Such units already exist, although a wee bit more expensive than your average camera carrying drone. One might be a very good item to have for your home security. Your wife and family just might - one fine day - be thankful that there's one around the house. Another point: the drone operator will have no idea what happened to his little spy in the sky. You can't see what direction radio waves are coming from.
ReplyDeleteToo bad I live too close to an airport to make good use of this. I could give one as a gift to my kids, but they both have dogs and one of them is a large Golden Retriever who would certainly be willing and able to 'fetch' this fragile toy.
ReplyDeleteWhile drones can be useful in low wind daylight use, thugs tend to like nighttime operations.
ReplyDeleteThat and the real issue is having folks that actually will have your back when you alert them.
Like my old joke about car alarms. You buy them because you don't trust people BUT you're expecting some stranger to respond and thus protect your vehicle.
The smaller no FAA registration required sub 250 grams IIRC are not going to handle breezes that sway the trees. I've found none so far with low light cameras let alone real night vision.
People that will have your back and police style whistles and a laminated code card could be useful for neighborhood security.
I've got a cheap one I bought to use on our rural property in the mountains. It's also VERY susceptible to winds and I can only fly it when it's dead calm. The problem is the property is in a valley (the property line is on the ridgline) so it will feel calm on the ground, but get the thing up over the trees and away it goes.
ReplyDeleteHaven't lost it yet, but it's been close a couple of times.
The other issue I have with the one I bought is that the camera zoom is fixed and it's set to zoom too much. Trying to see anything within 50 feet and it's way too close. Even at a distance, it's zoomed in so much the field of view sucks.
You get what you pay for. But it's my first drone and I didn't want to waste a bunch of money on something I was probably going to crash or lose anyway. After a bit more practice, I may spend more money and get something better.
It’s very educational to build your own “Ukrainian” style drone that works with Mission Planner or other PC based flight control software. You can set up pre-planned paths for your perimeter, or scout out for miles. I’m a beginner but my first drone is almost ready for its first flight. I have a mentor and have seen what his homemade drones can do! There is a
ReplyDelete