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I had no idea they called the racer "fpv" sorry! With that being said these days Karans are everywhere and have zero knowledge of tech... Before I moved I showed a few neighbors how to fly my Mavic 2 so they would understand how silly it would be and how big a risk to fly close enough to spy on anyone.. Their whole demeanor changed after they watched and understood...
I now fly from a projector in my basement with an Amp and external antenna.. pretty good range and fun! (I moved away from the city and the few neighbors I have give zero fucks or have drones themselves...) |
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Have you seen the resolution of 99% of the cameras on the drones out there? Unless they are 20' or less away from you, it's really a non-issue. Even if I were walking around naked in my backyard and a drone flew over, the camera would likely show nothing more than a person walking that is all the same color vs. multicolored.
The FPV drone the OP mentioned isn't a hover around lazily type of drone either. They are used to perform aerobatics and to fly around very fast. Below is some video of a 4k DJI Mini3. Even at 4K resolution, you can see the people in the video are barely discernible. DJI Mini 3 Pro - 4K footage | Algarve |
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Quoted: I would like to post the recording of me flying, to be honest, but people have already been talking about doxing me here.... So I think I'll pass. The scale was purposely skewed. View Quote Just so I'm keeping up, you're uncomfortable sharing any photos or videos you took with your drone because you don't know what the intention of the person viewing that may be? "Dur, I wonder why my neighbors are so concerned / upset that I'm flying this camera near their homes." JFC lol |
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Quoted: Have you seen the resolution of 99% of the cameras on the drones out there? Unless they are 20' or less away from you, it's really a non-issue. Even if I were walking around naked in my backyard and a drone flew over, the camera would likely show nothing more than a person walking that is all the same color vs. multicolored. The FPV drone the OP mentioned isn't a hover around lazily type of drone either. They are used to perform aerobatics and to fly around very fast. Below is some video of a 4k DJI Mini3. Even at 4K resolution, you can see the people in the video are barely discernible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CeYKqvICL0 View Quote I just tell people it’s basically the same camera that’s in your cell phone, not some super telephoto spy cam. |
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Quoted: Just so I'm keeping up, you're uncomfortable sharing any photos or videos you took with your drone because you don't know what the intention of the person viewing that may be? "Dur, I wonder why my neighbors are so concerned / upset that I'm flying this camera near their homes." JFC lol View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I would like to post the recording of me flying, to be honest, but people have already been talking about doxing me here.... So I think I'll pass. The scale was purposely skewed. Just so I'm keeping up, you're uncomfortable sharing any photos or videos you took with your drone because you don't know what the intention of the person viewing that may be? "Dur, I wonder why my neighbors are so concerned / upset that I'm flying this camera near their homes." JFC lol I don’t think any of the neighbors were afraid of him using the footage to dox himself…. |
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Quoted: For a stationary multirotor to hover, you’re looking at about 45m max for off-the-shelf. You might be able to get that to an hour and a bit if you build it yourself and know what you’re doing. For a fixed-wing that circles, you could get 2-3 hours relatively easily. … but why do you need powered flight for this? Use an aerostat (a tethered balloon). It’ll stay up as long as you want. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: What's the motor endurance on those... like if you fed them from a constant power supply? I think it'd be neat to run a medium-large 6-rotor surveillance drone a couple hundred feet over your house for persistent surveillance. Hours or days at a time as needed. Run a PTFE thin jacketed 240VAC 28AWG lines to it buddied up to some lightweight high-test fishing line and stick a a small transformer & rectifier up top. Wire weight wouldnt be but a couple ounces and a transformer/rectifier wouldn't be bad either. It wouldn't qualify or need licensed as a "drone" because it's tethered. For a stationary multirotor to hover, you’re looking at about 45m max for off-the-shelf. You might be able to get that to an hour and a bit if you build it yourself and know what you’re doing. For a fixed-wing that circles, you could get 2-3 hours relatively easily. … but why do you need powered flight for this? Use an aerostat (a tethered balloon). It’ll stay up as long as you want. What’s the limiting factor... motors burn out after just an hour? That doesn’t seem right. |
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Quoted: And the time is coming where gun laws will be ignored just as much as drone laws. Oh my 250+g drone needs to be registered? I will get right on that. Just because I do not post videos of flying anymore does not mean I have stopped. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: And blithely ignoring and discounting a real issue is what is going to get drones (and guns) taken away. Don't point guns or cameras at me or my loved ones in my backyard and we're good. And the time is coming where gun laws will be ignored just as much as drone laws. Oh my 250+g drone needs to be registered? I will get right on that. Just because I do not post videos of flying anymore does not mean I have stopped. OK then, but that means I'll be shredding any unidentified drone with a 12ga that I feel like is harassing me or invading my privacy. You should be fine with that, right? Fly all the drones you want as long as you aren't invading my property or privacy. |
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Quoted: If it's tethered and loitering might as well go weather balloon or blimp type craft. The thought has crossed my mind a few times. View Quote Size and discreetness... Get a 6+ motor drone with larger blades (slower RPM) a couple hundred feet in the air and it’s likely to mostly go unnoticed. Having enough helium lift to carry a decent camera and stuff is going to be like a 10-20ft balloon. Plus, balloons aren’t stabilized, so you need a camera that has much nicer gyro stabilization and 360-degree rotation and then storage and handling becomes an issue. And you need a stronger tether because of lift dynamics and reeling it in and stuff (you can’t turn off the helium lift to descend). And helium isn’t cheap, long term. A drone makes much more sense for small single sensor platforms at only a couple hundred feet. |
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Quoted: OP I'm curious - how did McMansion Karen identify which house the drone came from? Do you have a neighborhood reputation as the "drone guy"? View Quote The voice to text in my OP messed up a little bit on the friends' neighbors part. My daughter had friends who live in the McMansion neighborhood. We told them about the drone the day after I got it. Their kids came over and watched me fly it around. Their neighbors told them it was creepy and they are scared for the children. A few days later this note shows up in my mailbox. We think the daughters-friends-parents told their karen-mcmansion-neighbor about the drone and she dropped off the note. I went through 10 hours of video to see if anyone messed with my mailbox and while I saw about 4 dozen dog walkers, nobody stopped at the mailbox long enough to mess with it, and the high-resolution PTZ wasn't looking that far up by about 5 degrees. |
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Quoted: Just so I'm keeping up, you're uncomfortable sharing any photos or videos you took with your drone because you don't know what the intention of the person viewing that may be? "Dur, I wonder why my neighbors are so concerned / upset that I'm flying this camera near their homes." JFC lol View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I would like to post the recording of me flying, to be honest, but people have already been talking about doxing me here.... So I think I'll pass. The scale was purposely skewed. Just so I'm keeping up, you're uncomfortable sharing any photos or videos you took with your drone because you don't know what the intention of the person viewing that may be? "Dur, I wonder why my neighbors are so concerned / upset that I'm flying this camera near their homes." JFC lol Not even the same thing. My videos I made are for my personal use, whether its to publish on youtube, facebook, or simply delete. I choose not to post those videos here because: A) people in this thread have talked about doxxing me, B) people in the past have tried to dox me, and C) I have received death threats from this website in the past due to me being a LEO. There is a clear difference between me taking video while occupying a public airspace versus me protecting my identity and preventing myself from shooting the motherfucker that rings my doorbell because I said something disagreeable on the internet. |
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Quoted: Size and discreetness... Get a 6+ motor drone with larger blades (slower RPM) a couple hundred feet in the air and it’s likely to mostly go unnoticed. Having enough helium lift to carry a decent camera and stuff is going to be like a 10-20ft balloon. Plus, balloons aren’t stabilized, so you need a camera that has much nicer gyro stabilization and 360-degree rotation and then storage and handling becomes an issue. And you need a stronger tether because of lift dynamics and reeling it in and stuff (you can’t turn off the helium lift to descend). And helium isn’t cheap, long term. A drone makes much more sense for small single sensor platforms at only a couple hundred feet. View Quote I actually did the math a while back on an aerostat design that had a very simple plunger tank internal to it. You could draw the gas into the cylinder and compress it slightly to change the lift enough to make it descend without having to reel it in with much force. it was a very simple lightweight solenoid design connected to what amounted to a giant syringe. never got around to building it though. An esp32 could pretty much control everything. figured it could be done in such a way that helium loss would be insignificant. But it was all theoretical. I'll have to see if I still have my design notes anywhere. |
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I think you need to decide which is more important to you, flying your drone at home or maintaining good relations with your neighbors. I don't really see a third option.
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I’m gonna dig my Mini 2 out later today thanks to this thread.
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Quoted: Lots of freedom haters in here. View Quote Wonder how many of the chest thumpers are going to shoot down all the manned helicopters and fixed wing aircraft carrying telephoto lenses over their property. Oh wait, they just target drones because they think they can get away with it. Taking out an actual surveillance bird would be dangerous ETA: Also funny how gun safety rules suddenly go out the window when a multirotor discussion arises |
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Quoted: OK then, but that means I'll be shredding any unidentified drone with a 12ga that I feel like is harassing me or invading my privacy. You should be fine with that, right? Fly all the drones you want as long as you aren't invading my property or privacy. View Quote And if you back up in this thread you will see me be fine with that. I DO NOT support calling a hobby drone an "aircraft." That distinction is fucking retarded to me. If somebody is being an ass with one over private property and shooting it down can be done safely, does not bother me one bit. I would love to go back to drones not being considered aircraft and letting nature sort things out when encroaching happens. If I lost a drone because I was being stupid flew in an area and such a way that somebody could shoot it down, taking my losses and an apology to the property owner is how it should work. Not calling some law enforcment unit to sit there and rub the property owner's face in it because I deployed some facet of the law to thumb my noses at them. |
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Quoted: I have footage somewhat similar to that from flying during 4th of July a few years back. Small little palm sized bugger with an IR sensitive night vision camera. 1/2 mile out and back while watching mortar shells going off. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: It should be FAA law that land owners can shoot down drones flying over their land by use of shotguns only. Like that's the no go zone below a certain altitude. Fair is fair. Landowners taking back their personal airspace. Flying low over the neighborhood culdesac should be as hot with triple A as a night mission over Hanoi. Look if tHeY dOn'T oWn ThE aIrSpAcE either, and a homeowner's Basic Human RightTM to operate their AAA battery (and test it) costs someone a drone, tough shit right? https://hazlitt.net/sites/default/files/gulfwar1.gif ETA: Peak libertarianism? I have footage somewhat similar to that from flying during 4th of July a few years back. Small little palm sized bugger with an IR sensitive night vision camera. 1/2 mile out and back while watching mortar shells going off. That's awesome |
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Quoted: What’s the limiting factor... motors burn out after just an hour? That doesn’t seem right. View Quote It is not the motors. It's the battery. 2x the battery does not equal 2x the flight time due to efficiency losses. Bigger the drone the more effcient it can be but it gets pretty hard to get flight times above 30minutes for many smaller sized multirotors. To get 40+ minutes is exceptionally good. Getting an hour is pretty unrealistic and very remarkable. Best I have done on home builds is around 22 minutes for a 7inch drone and around 25 minutes with a larger 13inch drone. 7inch drone was running an 18650 pack that I built rated for 5600mah @ 24 volts weighs in at 645g for the battery alone. The 13inch drone used 2x of those packs for 1300g and 11.2 AH of battery. Constant cruising at 50mph doing very large laps of 1/2 mile to either direction from take of yielded nearly 25 minutes of flight time. There is something bigger in the works that will fly with almost 24ah of battery life using 4x of the packs above, 2.5kg of battery alone. Goal is 40+ minutes and the ability to cover massive amounts of ground while piloting from inside a vehicle using the drone as a chase vehicle with multiple cameras. That build will use 22 inch props with motors that are nearly 3hp each. |
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Quoted: Wait so the ~$9k quadcopter (with 640 thermal) sitting in its case beside my desk right now is a "toy"? Well, shit. I had no idea. Guess I'll have to let the guy I'm doing a solar inspection for this week that I'm gonna have to cancel on him, since all I have is a "toy". View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Don't fly it in your neighborhood genius. Go play with your drone somewhere else where it doesn't irritate your neighbors. Would you say the same thing if it involved shooting guns on your own property? Stop shooting guns on your property, go to a shooting range. Shooting guns on your property doesn't cross the property line if done right. This "all airspace is public" shit needs to be fine tuned, as does "all drones are aircraft". They're toys. No different than if I bought a big remote control car, put a gopro on top and drove it around the neighborhood. Current law, if it's not touching the ground it's not trespassing. Considering what can be done with the cameras that's ridiculous. Wait so the ~$9k quadcopter (with 640 thermal) sitting in its case beside my desk right now is a "toy"? Well, shit. I had no idea. Guess I'll have to let the guy I'm doing a solar inspection for this week that I'm gonna have to cancel on him, since all I have is a "toy". |
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Quoted: OK then, but that means I'll be shredding any unidentified drone with a 12ga that I feel like is harassing me or invading my privacy. You should be fine with that, right? Fly all the drones you want as long as you aren't invading my property or privacy. View Quote If the local news heli stops by to record something in your neighborhood, you going to do the same? FAA says there is no difference and consequences are the same. This is because drones will become part of everyday life eventually. Your privacy ends at your door. |
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Quoted: Quoted: After a lot of research, and a lot of studying, last week, I finally bit the bullet on a nice quality drone to compliment my part 107 license. Except now all my neighbors are mad. The neighbors a couple doors down told my wife they didn't appreciate the drone buzzing around, and claimed it scared one of their dogs. Some people a couple streets over, who are family. Friends, said their neighbors are worried about the creeper flying the drone around. And today an anonymous typed letter showed up in my mailbox claiming that my drone was scaring children and that people no longer have privacy in their backyards. I think the people a couple streets over and the letter are from the same, but my wife thinks they are different. I'm following all the necessary rules and regulations as dictated by the FAA, including obtaining flight authorization are necessary. I don't necessarily want to tick off all my neighbors, but at the same time they need to understand that the airspace is public. Fly higher |
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Quoted: If the local news heli stops by to record something in your neighborhood, you going to do the same? FAA says there is no difference and consequences are the same. This is because drones will become part of everyday life eventually. Your privacy ends at your door. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: OK then, but that means I'll be shredding any unidentified drone with a 12ga that I feel like is harassing me or invading my privacy. You should be fine with that, right? Fly all the drones you want as long as you aren't invading my property or privacy. If the local news heli stops by to record something in your neighborhood, you going to do the same? FAA says there is no difference and consequences are the same. This is because drones will become part of everyday life eventually. Your privacy ends at your door. I forget what the case law is but I believe law enforcement is forced to be above a certain elevation if they wish to use aerial photos for evidence purposes in a crime. I THINK it is 500ft or higher so it would seem like there is some recognition of an expectation for privacy. It will be interesting to see if as we move forward with delivery drones if companies like Amazon are doing Ring style videos as they fly around. Will law enforcement be able to subpoena that footage? Will Amazon become another tier of rat for the sake of "security" sending video evidence to authorities? I do not view any of the laws that changed drones to "aircraft" as beneficial. It was all done thanks to politicians being bought off along with the .gov not wanting civilians to develop their own drone capabilities. |
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The last time we did this type of thread there was mention of a pretty innovative clothes drying system consisting of criss-crossed monofilament lines covering the backyard area.
You can save a lot of electricity by hanging your clothes out to dry in the sun. The only downside is it makes your backyard very unfriendly towards creeper drones flying below the level of your roof. |
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Quoted: Have you seen the resolution of 99% of the cameras on the drones out there? Unless they are 20' or less away from you, it's really a non-issue. Even if I were walking around naked in my backyard and a drone flew over, the camera would likely show nothing more than a person walking that is all the same color vs. multicolored. The FPV drone the OP mentioned isn't a hover around lazily type of drone either. They are used to perform aerobatics and to fly around very fast. Below is some video of a 4k DJI Mini3. Even at 4K resolution, you can see the people in the video are barely discernible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CeYKqvICL0 View Quote Someone in my area has flown a drone over my place just over tree top level a few times, the first time I noticed it I was mowing and it followed me for a minute. I guess it was a new toy and they were just playing with it but I did think of mooning it. I'm thinking now they wouldn't have seen much if I did. |
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I don't care what my neighbors do.
But.... If they were flying big drones I would walk over to there house and say "If I give you 5-10 bucks could you fly it low over my house and blow the leaves out of my gutters?" |
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Quoted: If gun owners went around pointing their guns at people and then saying "I wasn't pointing it at you, I was pointing it at something behind you", or "it wasn't loaded, what's the big deal?", you don't think that is an issue? That analogy utterly fails to address the invasion of privacy I described. What's the recourse for someone who is harassed by some rando flying a drone over their yard, or worse taking pictures to do who knows what with? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Trust us, we're not murderers. Not singling you out MacPherson but this is the same argument that get used all the time. For every ONE story of a weirdo or perv, there are hundreds of people just flying around enjoying the hobby. Just like for every gun crime, there are hundreds of law abiding gun owners. Quoted: And those people are right. There have been plenty of stories about Nefarious gun owners hurting people. Maybe that firearm has a large magazine or maybe it does not. I'm no friend of government regulations but it's astonishing to me how many of the pro-gun crowd are ignoring these very significant issues, because right now their answer just sounds like "trust us, we're not killers". If gun owners went around pointing their guns at people and then saying "I wasn't pointing it at you, I was pointing it at something behind you", or "it wasn't loaded, what's the big deal?", you don't think that is an issue? That analogy utterly fails to address the invasion of privacy I described. What's the recourse for someone who is harassed by some rando flying a drone over their yard, or worse taking pictures to do who knows what with? Better outlaw collapsible poles and telephoto lenses, cause I can use those to invade the fuck out of some privacy. |
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Quoted: I don't care what my neighbors do. But.... If they were flying big drones I would walk over to there house and say "If I give you 5-10 bucks could you fly it low over my house and blow the leaves out of my gutters?" View Quote Not only would I do it but I would reply with "if I can chase the goddamn pidgeons off your roof I will do the leaves for free". Goddamn solar being put up in my neighborhood has drawn in every fucking goddamn pidgeon for 20 miles as they try to look for nesting spots on the spanish tile. Wish I was in an area with neighbors cool enough to deploy pellet guns to deal with the winged menace. I have pestered a couple pidgeons in my own yard/roof but have to give way to not flying over the other houses. Especially do not want to smack a solar panel at 40-60mph and break a 300 dollar panel. But I can do an initial pass to herd a pidgeon towards an open area to then engage. Seeing a giant poof of feathers as a pair of 20k rpm spinning props fuck it's world up could be kinda fun. |
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Quoted: What if...now stay with me here...you rigged up a drone for air-to-air and went after the OPs drone? Drone Dogfights...Drone Top Gun competition...the possibilities are endless! View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Don't laugh at some of the ridiculous laws that are in the books. "Turns out, under 18 U.S. Code 32, whoever willfully "sets fire to, damages, destroys, disables, or wrecks any aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States" may be fined and/or imprisoned for up to 20 years. The definition of "aircraft" for the purposes of this statute is incredibly broad, and could certainly cover drones" https://abovethelaw.com/2020/05/is-it-illegal-to-shoot-down-a-drone-same-as-plane-faa-says-as-minnesota-man-charged-with-felony/ What if...now stay with me here...you rigged up a drone for air-to-air and went after the OPs drone? Drone Dogfights...Drone Top Gun competition...the possibilities are endless! That would be a mid air collision and the FAA would come out and investigate the crash site, rope off the area and limit traffic, write up a preliminary report, and about a year later the full report would be published online...... |
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Quoted: Quoted: I need to 3D print a release mechanism for "things" mounted to my drone as seen in the Russo-Ukraine war. Gannet release systems |
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Quoted: Quadcopters like FPV racing drones are way better. I can chase down pidgeons at the park and both out climb as well as out turn them at every point in the chase. The pidgeons wind up getting driven towards the ground because often times their ownly evasive maneuver is to bank towards the ground. Here is one of the best FPV pilots flying at full uncork... Some of these kids reach Formula 1 style muscle memory to do this Gifted level of skill Having the FPV feed slapped on your face you can actually get an adrenaline rush while flying. I was spending more money on FPV from 2016 through 2018 than on 3 mustangs in my garage. That includes 2017 when I bought my 1966 project car. Almost got as good a rush flying FPV as taking the cars out for a good drive in the back roads or a karting session at the track. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quadcopters like FPV racing drones are way better. I can chase down pidgeons at the park and both out climb as well as out turn them at every point in the chase. The pidgeons wind up getting driven towards the ground because often times their ownly evasive maneuver is to bank towards the ground. Here is one of the best FPV pilots flying at full uncork... Some of these kids reach Formula 1 style muscle memory to do this Gifted level of skill Having the FPV feed slapped on your face you can actually get an adrenaline rush while flying. I was spending more money on FPV from 2016 through 2018 than on 3 mustangs in my garage. That includes 2017 when I bought my 1966 project car. Almost got as good a rush flying FPV as taking the cars out for a good drive in the back roads or a karting session at the track. |
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Quoted: Quadcopters like FPV racing drones are way better. I can chase down pidgeons at the park and both out climb as well as out turn them at every point in the chase. The pidgeons wind up getting driven towards the ground because often times their ownly evasive maneuver is to bank towards the ground. Here is one of the best FPV pilots flying at full uncork... Some of these kids reach Formula 1 style muscle memory to do this Gifted level of skill Having the FPV feed slapped on your face you can actually get an adrenaline rush while flying. I was spending more money on FPV from 2016 through 2018 than on 3 mustangs in my garage. That includes 2017 when I bought my 1966 project car. Almost got as good a rush flying FPV as taking the cars out for a good drive in the back roads or a karting session at the track. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quadcopters like FPV racing drones are way better. I can chase down pidgeons at the park and both out climb as well as out turn them at every point in the chase. The pidgeons wind up getting driven towards the ground because often times their ownly evasive maneuver is to bank towards the ground. Here is one of the best FPV pilots flying at full uncork... Some of these kids reach Formula 1 style muscle memory to do this Gifted level of skill Having the FPV feed slapped on your face you can actually get an adrenaline rush while flying. I was spending more money on FPV from 2016 through 2018 than on 3 mustangs in my garage. That includes 2017 when I bought my 1966 project car. Almost got as good a rush flying FPV as taking the cars out for a good drive in the back roads or a karting session at the track. Better for dogfighting? I would disagree strongly. A fixed wing aircraft has to fly within quite limited performance constraints and it's the envelope of those constraints that make dogfighting interesting. Better for just flying around? Sure. |
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I fly my drone in my neighborhood sometimes. Just due to camera angles, if I'm getting a decent looking picture or video of your house, I'm over the public street.
I don't generally fly below 100ft unless I'm inspecting my own roof, windows, or gutters. Often times, when I am spying on myself, the drone is actually over the neighbor's property. It isn't legal to shoot a dude standing at the street taking pictures of your house with a telephoto lens. If it was, then I suppose a drone shootdown would be just dandy. |
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Quoted: Better for dogfighting? I would disagree strongly. A fixed wing aircraft has to fly within quite limited performance constraints and it's the envelope of those constraints that make dogfighting interesting. Better for just flying around? Sure. View Quote If you want to actually play a game of cat and mouse having fun with somebody? That linear behavior could be kinda fun. But it isn't about playing fair, might as well be Gen 1 fighter flying against a thrust vectoring Gen 5 fighter. With one of my FPV racing drones I can out turn anything fixed wing. Can also flat out run down most hobby fixed wing right out of the sky. Not to mention you can target scan behind you with a quick flick of the pitch or yaw axis without really changing your vector before flicking right back to forward orientation. That is why I can win against pidgeons, they are closer to a plane in having to obey thrust/lift/momentum physics. A fixed wing RC plane plane is like Gen 1 and the Pidgeon is Gen 5 and thrust vectoring. Enter the racing quad with like 5:1 thrust to weight ratio of not better. Go watch the racing video footage I linked. Imagine all the dudes that want to shoot a drone down with a shotgun trying to hit that spastic little bastard. RotorRiot made two series regarding Drones Versus Guns. Was actually really funny to watch while also figuring out how and when to make hits. |
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Quoted: It is not the motors. It's the battery. 2x the battery does not equal 2x the flight time due to efficiency losses. Bigger the drone the more effcient it can be but it gets pretty hard to get flight times above 30minutes for many smaller sized multirotors. To get 40+ minutes is exceptionally good. Getting an hour is pretty unrealistic and very remarkable. Best I have done on home builds is around 22 minutes for a 7inch drone and around 25 minutes with a larger 13inch drone. 7inch drone was running an 18650 pack that I built rated for 5600mah @ 24 volts weighs in at 645g for the battery alone. The 13inch drone used 2x of those packs for 1300g and 11.2 AH of battery. Constant cruising at 50mph doing very large laps of 1/2 mile to either direction from take of yielded nearly 25 minutes of flight time. There is something bigger in the works that will fly with almost 24ah of battery life using 4x of the packs above, 2.5kg of battery alone. Goal is 40+ minutes and the ability to cover massive amounts of ground while piloting from inside a vehicle using the drone as a chase vehicle with multiple cameras. That build will use 22 inch props with motors that are nearly 3hp each. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: What’s the limiting factor... motors burn out after just an hour? That doesn’t seem right. It is not the motors. It's the battery. 2x the battery does not equal 2x the flight time due to efficiency losses. Bigger the drone the more effcient it can be but it gets pretty hard to get flight times above 30minutes for many smaller sized multirotors. To get 40+ minutes is exceptionally good. Getting an hour is pretty unrealistic and very remarkable. Best I have done on home builds is around 22 minutes for a 7inch drone and around 25 minutes with a larger 13inch drone. 7inch drone was running an 18650 pack that I built rated for 5600mah @ 24 volts weighs in at 645g for the battery alone. The 13inch drone used 2x of those packs for 1300g and 11.2 AH of battery. Constant cruising at 50mph doing very large laps of 1/2 mile to either direction from take of yielded nearly 25 minutes of flight time. There is something bigger in the works that will fly with almost 24ah of battery life using 4x of the packs above, 2.5kg of battery alone. Goal is 40+ minutes and the ability to cover massive amounts of ground while piloting from inside a vehicle using the drone as a chase vehicle with multiple cameras. That build will use 22 inch props with motors that are nearly 3hp each. I’m talking about running a powered tether (like a lightweight extension cord) to the drone. No batteries at all. AC up the line with a mini transformer-rectifier up on the drone instead of a battery. |
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The drone is the ultimate penis in the sky.
The male home owner with his entire female population outside and naked constantly for unknown reasons has the ultimate cuck because he knows there's nothing he can do about the drone pilot owning him. |
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Quoted: I’m talking about running a powered tether (like a lightweight extension cord) to the drone. No batteries at all. AC up the line with a mini transformer-rectifier up on the drone instead of a battery. View Quote I am aware. I mentioned tethered drones on another page. Foxtech has them. The brushless motors are actually pretty darn good quality and can take a beating and keep on running for a long time. Also, I would likely want a small battery that matches motor/esc voltages to help smooth out any power issues while keeping it maintained with a charge controller. High voltage low current going up the line to the drone with power conversion on the drone is a fine idea. If you put everything on the ground voltage supply wise you could likely drop the voltage into the 60V range. The upper end of very large racing drones are running on 50v and the current draw is naturally a lot lower for whatever wattage is needed to fly. |
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Quoted: If the local news heli stops by to record something in your neighborhood, you going to do the same? FAA says there is no difference and consequences are the same. This is because drones will become part of everyday life eventually. Your privacy ends at your door. View Quote The stupid thing is the news helicopter has a 300X lens and is gyroscopically stabilized. Look what they do with them during police chases from a mile away. Can you imagine what the government has? Most drones are 0.6 to 0.8 wide angle lens. There is a consumer drone with a 2x lens. |
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Quoted: I fly no lower than 125 feet and have zero issues. View Quote That's what I do. My drone stays above 100 feet if I'm near people. When I see people I head a different direction. If I'm flying from my backyard, I'm flying away from the neighborhood heading out and back through a gap in trees to kill noise. neighbors don't mind and think its cool. |
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Quoted: Better outlaw collapsible poles and telephoto lenses, cause I can use those to invade the fuck out of some privacy. View Quote Germany did that and I think Australia as well. Google Street Maps cameras are above normal expected eye-site line so they could have potentially seen over fences. I don't recall the outcome, only the dust up. Everyone worried about their 14-year olds in the backyard, NO they're in the front yard flashing the Google camera truck. Happened in the mid-west village I was born in. Google blurred out her kitties eventually. It was a news event eventually, should Google have liability? |
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Quoted:Not only would I do it but I would reply with "if I can chase the goddamn pidgeons off your roof I will do the leaves for free". View Quote I've found if you can get a bald eagle breeding pair from the lake to hunt your property there aren't any pigeons left. Took a pheasant and crow too. The squirrels and bunnies are much more afraid the last few weeks too so I think something snagged some of them. |
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Quoted: Where do I find one for my mini 2? View Quote @MadeintheUSA try Etsy where they custom print them. Happy Shopping That mini smoke machine looks awesome! |
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Quoted:But it isn't about playing fair, might as well be Gen 1 fighter flying against a thrust vectoring Gen 5 fighter. View Quote We have to be working on anti-aircraft/anti-tank drones now. They might just deliver a small AA battery forward hovering and popping up as needed or they might be BattleField 2 capable replacing manned fighters flying around armed with AA missiles and being flown by some 24 year old SSTg in Iowa remotely via military satellites. I can't think of a limiting technology now so it's only time and money and the US government has lots of money. I think I need a FPV drone now. |
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Quoted: I've found if you can get a bald eagle breeding pair from the lake to hunt your property there aren't any pigeons left. Took a pheasant and crow too. The squirrels and bunnies are much more afraid the last few weeks too so I think something snagged some of them. View Quote There is some kind of hawk that comes through seasonally and wipes out pidgeons for a month or two. Found some exploded pidgeon feathers on my backyard lawn a few weeks back. Wanted to brofist that hawk. |
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Quoted: High voltage low current going up the line to the drone with power conversion on the drone is a fine idea. View Quote AC power possibly if the wire is long and thin enough. DC power doesn't like little wires and high current - you get what are called I-squared*R losses. That dang squared thing is expensive because as the DC current increases the losses go up by the square. |
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Quoted: We have to be working on anti-aircraft/anti-tank drones now. They might just deliver a small AA battery forward hovering and popping up as needed or they might be BattleField 2 capable replacing manned fighters flying around armed with AA missiles and being flown by some 24 year old SSTg in Iowa remotely via military satellites. I can't think of a limiting technology now so it's only time and money and the US government has lots of money. I think I need a FPV drone now. View Quote I would work for free or even pay for the opportunity to fly racing drones that are loaded with a claymore. Seen Aliens? Do face huggers creep you the fuck out? Does it give you nightmares thinking what it must be like to see one of those running and leaping for your face? Well... imagine a racing drone coming across the battlefield at 60mph just 1 foot off the ground. It sees you and then comes right at you only to do a last second flare/leap for your face before boom... Drones should be nightmare fuel for our enemies. You can run but you will only wind up screaming and out of breath before dying. What I would really like to do is be on board a helicopter with the ability to drop such drones one at a time for building searches or clearing roof tops before anyone ropes down. First drone blows the door off the roof access. 2nd drone starts flying down the stairs or clearing the building while the helicopter orbits or people rope down. That or having some fun with Somali pirates. Some simple drones go full Divine Wind/boom while other drones fly around with an M16 and a 60rnd drum or an M249 strapped to it... Have already flown from inside a moving car a few times, friend cruised at 35-50mph while I explored up to a 1/4 mile to either side from the car while terrain following and popping up over the trees. Learning how to prepare for signal line of sight on a moving vehicle and terrain is an interesting mental exercise. Covered/cleared 3-5 miles of road with the car with a limited flight time of 5 minutes on the drone sweeping back and forth. |
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