The General Drone-Related Thread

I've located a DJI Phantom 3 Standard which will be more or less a straight swap for my 7d. Seem about right?

ta.
 
I have ordered the Air, think it will suit my needs ok. I have seen a couple of YouTube videos now of guys doing flight distance tests, 3 miles out now seems to be possible but why would you ever need that. All 3 guys almost lost their drones by the way, landing with only 1 or 2% battery left.
 
I have ordered the Air, think it will suit my needs ok. I have seen a couple of YouTube videos now of guys doing flight distance tests, 3 miles out now seems to be possible but why would you ever need that. All 3 guys almost lost their drones by the way, landing with only 1 or 2% battery left.

What country was the videos in? Remember there's different regulations for different countries. When looking at the max transmission distance, we're CE (in bold) in the UK. The US is FCC which have a much farther distance than us. IMO for this size of drone the CE regulations are more than plenty as you can loose sight of it quickly.

2.400 - 2.4835 GHz:
FCC: 4000 m
CE: 2000 m (1.2miles or 6336 feet if uninterrupted by other signals such as strong wi-fi etc).
SRRC: 2000 m
MIC: 2000 m

5.725 - 5.850 GHz:
FCC: 4000 m
CE: 500 m (0.31miles or 1636.8 feet if uninterrupted by other signals such as strong wi-fi etc).
SRRC: 2500 m

Specs URL: https://www.dji.com/mavic-air/info#specs
 
I have ordered the Air, think it will suit my needs ok. I have seen a couple of YouTube videos now of guys doing flight distance tests, 3 miles out now seems to be possible but why would you ever need that. All 3 guys almost lost their drones by the way, landing with only 1 or 2% battery left.

And such activity completely goes against the UK Drone Code where visual line of sight must be maintained.

Apologies for sounding like the Drone Police, but those guys on YouTube are complete cockwombles
 
What country was the videos in? Remember there's different regulations for different countries. When looking at the max transmission distance, we're CE (in bold) in the UK. The US is FCC which have a much farther distance than us. IMO for this size of drone the CE regulations are more than plenty as you can loose sight of it quickly.

2.400 - 2.4835 GHz:
FCC: 4000 m
CE: 2000 m (1.2miles or 6336 feet if uninterrupted by other signals such as strong wi-fi etc).
SRRC: 2000 m
MIC: 2000 m

5.725 - 5.850 GHz:
FCC: 4000 m
CE: 500 m (0.31miles or 1636.8 feet if uninterrupted by other signals such as strong wi-fi etc).
SRRC: 2500 m

Specs URL: https://www.dji.com/mavic-air/info#specs
And such activity completely goes against the UK Drone Code where visual line of sight must be maintained.

Apologies for sounding like the Drone Police, but those guys on YouTube are complete cockwombles

These were all Americans:eek:. I have no interest or intentions of flying as far.
 
Cool I’ve seen those videos already. BTW to be clear, at those max transmission distances you WILL lose signal. It’s not a ‘you’re allowed to fly this far’ comment. Not worth chancing it anyway by taking it outside of the drone guidelines. Also a good app if you’ve never flown drones before is NATS. It shows you information of high risk zones etc :)
 
Collected my new Mavic Air this afternoon, got it charged and all updates done this evening and took off and landed a couple of times in the kitchen tonight to see how things worked.
Looking forward to getting it outside tomorrow to try it out.
 
It's really not a good idea to fly indoors, you seem to have got away with it but anyone else reading please start outside with good GPS signal.
Indoors it stabilises with downward visual sensors and if light is poor or the surface doesn't have much pattern or texture it will drift.
Also avoidance sensor don't work as well if light is lower.

One of the commonest wails on Drone forums is "got it all updated for first flight and couldn't wait so tried in the house - got confused when it drifted and crashed into furniture/TV/Wall"
I've been flying them for nearly five years and still wouldn't do it unless it was a huge room.
 
Last edited:
It's really not a good idea to fly indoors, you seem to have got away with it but anyone else reading please start outside with good GPS signal.
Indoors it stabilises with downward visual sensors and if light is poor or the surface doesn't have much pattern or texture it will drift.
Also avoidance sensor don't work as well if light is lower.

One of the commonest wails on Drone forums is "got it all updated for first flight and couldn't wait so tried in the house - got confused when it drifted and crashed into furniture/TV/Wall"
I've been flying them for nearly five years and still wouldn't do it unless it was a huge room.

I’ve flown my Phantom and Air in the hall in my house a couple of times and that’s only about 2.5m X 3.5m roughly lol! Letters and all everywhere! Only one of the times was when I’d never flown a drone before in any setting nevermind ATTI mode without sensors. I don’t recommend it, I’m just saying it can be done and is thrilling! :)
 
It's really not a good idea to fly indoors, you seem to have got away with it but anyone else reading please start outside with good GPS signal.
Indoors it stabilises with downward visual sensors and if light is poor or the surface doesn't have much pattern or texture it will drift.
Also avoidance sensor don't work as well if light is lower.

One of the commonest wails on Drone forums is "got it all updated for first flight and couldn't wait so tried in the house - got confused when it drifted and crashed into furniture/TV/Wall"
I've been flying them for nearly five years and still wouldn't do it unless it was a huge room.

I literally lifted it a few feet off the ground, yawed it round and round a few times and landed again. Got it outside this morning and again this evening for a few practice flights, seems very stable and fun to fly. I only have 2 batteries at the minute so that is limiting me and I don't want to drain them completely.
 
Could some of the more experienced drone pilots here take a look at this and give me some ideas as to what happened. I was at 350ft, around 5000ft out and starting to turn left back towards where i was standing when it went slightly out of control.
There was very little wind and the whole flight had been very smooth up until then. I hit RTH a few seconds after it started to go funny and it took another few seconds to sort itself out before coming back to me. as you can see the horizon was still off up to the end point of the video.
The battery was still at 35% when it landed, i had been flying for 12 minutes before this section of video.

View: https://youtu.be/lZNroYiZbzA
 
Could some of the more experienced drone pilots here take a look at this and give me some ideas as to what happened. I was at 350ft, around 5000ft out and starting to turn left back towards where i was standing when it went slightly out of control.
There was very little wind and the whole flight had been very smooth up until then. I hit RTH a few seconds after it started to go funny and it took another few seconds to sort itself out before coming back to me. as you can see the horizon was still off up to the end point of the video.
The battery was still at 35% when it landed, i had been flying for 12 minutes before this section of video.

View: https://youtu.be/lZNroYiZbzA

It's hard to tell. Have you got the logs? That will give a better indication. Did you get any warnings on the screen etc? Lose signal? It could either be heavy, heavy winds (remember the wind is different to being on ground level), an issue with the props, motors or even a bird! The gimbal would have kept it straight so the drone has tilted far more than it should. Did you do the pre-flight checks? Checked the props for breakages, cracks etc? Ensured the motors can spin freely?Any damage to the drone just now?
 
It's hard to tell. Have you got the logs? That will give a better indication. Did you get any warnings on the screen etc? Lose signal? It could either be heavy, heavy winds (remember the wind is different to being on ground level), an issue with the props, motors or even a bird! The gimbal would have kept it straight so the drone has tilted far more than it should. Did you do the pre-flight checks? Checked the props for breakages, cracks etc? Ensured the motors can spin freely?Any damage to the drone just now?

No warnings and signal not lost. Can't see any issues with the props or anywhere else on the drone. I did put it up again this afternoon for 15 mins with no issues. Someone else suggested compass/IMU calibration so i will do that before flying again.
 
Is it DJI, you could upload the flight record to https://airdata.com/ for an easy way to view any sensor errors.
To me it looks like just the gimbal having a funny turn and the drone was proably flying normally.
A gust of wind might be enough to unbalance things, and sometimes it seems it can just get confused until everything is rebooted.
You can calibrate the gimbal on the ground wouldn't hurt, if compass and IMU don't say they need doing there isn't much point, however getting familiar with doing those calibrations in a suitable location is no bad thing.
 
I've had a couple of "toy" drones in the past that were £20-50, but I struggled to get them to fly any sense and as such never really used them. It was my 30th birthday last week so I decided to treat myself to something fun. I was going to buy a Leica M3, but I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos over the last few days of the Mavic Air, and it seems to be really good. They're about £750 or so everywhere I've looked, so I think I'll wait a few weeks and see if I can find any offers on them.

I have no experience of working with videos though, so learning to use a drone and edit videos at the same time should keep me busy :D
 
The DJI app has a basic video editor included for short clips, I've never tried to use it but some do get decent results.
Much better working on a computer though even if you run the app on a tablet.
They seem to be aiming at those who want to stick a minute or less on social media almost immediately uploading direct from phone.
 
The DJI app has a basic video editor included for short clips, I've never tried to use it but some do get decent results.
Much better working on a computer though even if you run the app on a tablet.
They seem to be aiming at those who want to stick a minute or less on social media almost immediately uploading direct from phone.

Thanks 4wd, I'll have a look at it and see how I get on. I've been watching YouTube videos on Final Cut Pro this week and am thinking it might be worth the investment at a later day. I really don't want to get tied into paying monthly for software so Adobe Premiere is out! I'll see how I get on with free/cheap software first though before I spend anything.

Just ordered my Mavic Air (in black) from Heliguy and it should be arriving tomorrow! :runaway:
 
By the way. If there's anyone here who is around Cardiff way and fancies doing a bit of drone work, I'm always on the lookout for spotters and assistants.
 
Thanks 4wd, I'll have a look at it and see how I get on. I've been watching YouTube videos on Final Cut Pro this week and am thinking it might be worth the investment at a later day. I really don't want to get tied into paying monthly for software so Adobe Premiere is out! I'll see how I get on with free/cheap software first though before I spend anything.

Just ordered my Mavic Air (in black) from Heliguy and it should be arriving tomorrow! :runaway:
Have a look at DaVinci Resolve 14. I think it's still free to download (from blackmagic guys). I use it for editing my footage and it's awesome. You do need a reasonably high spec machine though. (at least 8GB Ram and decent processor)
 
Have a look at DaVinci Resolve 14. I think it's still free to download (from blackmagic guys). I use it for editing my footage and it's awesome. You do need a reasonably high spec machine though. (at least 8GB Ram and decent processor)

Thanks Tim, free is my favourite price :D I had a look at some YouTube how to's for DaVinci Resolve 14 and it looks awesome. Does all the basic stuff that I'll need and then millions of other things that I don't even understand :LOL: Looks a lot more user friendly than the FCP as well from what I've seen.
 
Thanks Tim, free is my favourite price :D I had a look at some YouTube how to's for DaVinci Resolve 14 and it looks awesome. Does all the basic stuff that I'll need and then millions of other things that I don't even understand :LOL: Looks a lot more user friendly than the FCP as well from what I've seen.

I do have a few tips for it though. When you change/move/edit a clip in the timeline, if you just wait a few seconds the render will kick in and make the clip play smoothly (Otherwise it's quite jumpy). You need to make sure render cache is set to smart under the playback menu at the top. Also make sure performance mode is switched on when clipping and cutting scenes. (I tend to have this off when dumping media clips into the timeline, roughly clipping them to where I want, and then switching rendering and performance on and making another run at the timeline to fine tweak it.

I'm certainly no expert, but any problems give me a shout.
 
I have just found this thread. Very interesting.
I haven't flown my bird since last summer and I had planned to take the PFCO here in the UK.
But now new European and UK regulations have been announced, so I am really confused.
In your opinion, is it still worth taking the PFCO?
 
hi all, hope Im not repeating similar question here but I've looked for anything related and cant find any...im planning getting the mavic air but have read about issues with DJI software on android... is this an issue or is it an issue with ios too....dont wont to be spending hundreds of pounds only to have issues with controller...i was going to be using a moto g5plus

many thank
 
hi all, hope Im not repeating similar question here but I've looked for anything related and cant find any...im planning getting the mavic air but have read about issues with DJI software on android... is this an issue or is it an issue with ios too....dont wont to be spending hundreds of pounds only to have issues with controller...i was going to be using a moto g5plus

many thank
Hi Gary,

I am using a Moto G4 with the DJI Android app to control a Mavic Pro, I don't have much experience yet, due to a fault with the Mavic, but not noticed any problems with the Android app.

Chris
 
hi all, hope Im not repeating similar question here but I've looked for anything related and cant find any...im planning getting the mavic air but have read about issues with DJI software on android... is this an issue or is it an issue with ios too....dont wont to be spending hundreds of pounds only to have issues with controller...i was going to be using a moto g5plus

many thank

If it helps I'm using the Mavic Air with the Android app on my Galaxy S6 (which is getting on a bit), and it seems to work fine. Sometimes it's a little laggy or slow to load but I think that's just because the phone's on it's last legs!
 
So I downloaded Davinci Resolve 14 on my Mac, and it crashes on startup every time. I didn't realise how long I'd had my iMac (8 years!!) so it's really underspec for any sort of video editing I think. I've read that 4gb is recommended for the GPU, and I have... 256mb... lol. I'm trying to install Resolve 12 to see if I can get that to work, but it looks like I might be on the road to a new iMac!

This drone stuff is starting to get expensive!
 
So I downloaded Davinci Resolve 14 on my Mac, and it crashes on startup every time. I didn't realise how long I'd had my iMac (8 years!!) so it's really underspec for any sort of video editing I think. I've read that 4gb is recommended for the GPU, and I have... 256mb... lol. I'm trying to install Resolve 12 to see if I can get that to work, but it looks like I might be on the road to a new iMac!

This drone stuff is starting to get expensive!

Wondershare Filmora is quite popular for a basic editing package, not sure of the spec requirements but you can get a free trial :

https://filmora.wondershare.net/whats-new-in-filmora-video-editor.html

It costs for $59 for lifetime licence and worth that imo.
 
hi all, hope Im not repeating similar question here but I've looked for anything related and cant find any...im planning getting the mavic air but have read about issues with DJI software on android... is this an issue or is it an issue with ios too....dont wont to be spending hundreds of pounds only to have issues with controller...i was going to be using a moto g5plus

many thank
I'm using the Mavic Air with a Samsung J5, which isn't by any means a top phone, with no problems.
 
The app is quite demanding and they seem to keep adding more stuff to it, making it more and more bloated.
It runs more or less flawlessly on my old Samsung S5, you do need a reasonably good spec device though.
I like to restart the phone just before connecting so practically nothing else is running.
With Android the phone takes charge from the controller, there is no easy way to stop this.
The rate of draw is quite small and you can minimise it by having everything fully charged when you start.
 
So I downloaded Davinci Resolve 14 on my Mac, and it crashes on startup every time. I didn't realise how long I'd had my iMac (8 years!!) so it's really underspec for any sort of video editing I think. I've read that 4gb is recommended for the GPU, and I have... 256mb... lol. I'm trying to install Resolve 12 to see if I can get that to work, but it looks like I might be on the road to a new iMac!

This drone stuff is starting to get expensive!

Ah, that would be a problem. I have a 16gb MBP and it's fine, but understandably you don't want to fork out loads of money for a new computer if you don't have to. have you looked at the mac mini? I used to have one of these and it was fine for editing and things (Plus the RAM is user upgradable, so you can buy a 4gb one and upgrade to 16gb dead easily if you want to).
 
The app is quite demanding and they seem to keep adding more stuff to it, making it more and more bloated.
It runs more or less flawlessly on my old Samsung S5, you do need a reasonably good spec device though.
I like to restart the phone just before connecting so practically nothing else is running.
With Android the phone takes charge from the controller, there is no easy way to stop this.
The rate of draw is quite small and you can minimise it by having everything fully charged when you start.
Thanks for that,really appreciate it
 
I was using an iPhone 7+ and had more issues than I've seen on my Samsung S9+. There was an option on iOS to change the cache size amount but can't seem to find it on Android. Making the cache limit lower so the video storage on the phone stops recording quicker might help to speed things up on the app a bit.
 
It does a good job with Panos apart from every photo you see people post looks like that, ie the horizon straight through the middle which looks terrible imo.
Yeah there’s no way to drop the camera as it takes them automatically so no control over camera angle,
It’s not good I know
 
Yeah there’s no way to drop the camera as it takes them automatically so no control over camera angle,
It’s not good I know
Why can you not just take individual photos and move the gimbal down and stitch them after?
 
Back
Top