I took the hexacopter out for a video mission today. I flew it around the sides of Silver Falls State Park Campground. Laura took a couple of photos of it in flight, and I also posted the video of the aerial tour of the campground area below.
I am gradually getting the hexacopter setup tuned to make better video – adjusting the flight computer settings, getting rid of vibrations, stabilizing the images, messing with the camera mount. It's getting better each time.
The next step is to mount a video transmitter on the hexacopter so I can fly it by watching the video signal on the ground (using video goggles, which are the propeller beanies of the new generation. I'm gonna look SO stylish!) That kind of flying is called "First Person View" or "FPV". Apparently it's difficult to set up and to master flying that way. I'll report back – or I'll post pictures of a crashed hexacopter, or I'll tell stories of how it flew away into the sunset never to be seen again.
Then, after FPV is working, I plan to install a stabilized video camera gimbal underneath. That should significantly improve the quality of the video and photos we can take with this thing.
(Posted by Kevin)
Where did you get this? How much are they?
Hi Rolland,
The hexacopter comes from a company called DJI. It’s a kit, which includes the frame, motors, electronic speed controls for the motors (ESCs), and the “brains” of the hexacopter which is a “flight controller” module containing a computer attached to sensors such as accelerometers, altimeter, etc. The hexacopter has no moving parts except the motors with props attached directly to the shaft. (Unlike RC helicopters which have TONS of complex mechanical moving parts). All of the flight control of the hexacopter is done by changing and controlling the speeds of the six motors.
To fly, you also need a good-quality RC radio controller and a receiver (which are not included in the kit) and Lithium Polymer batteries along with a good charger for them.
The total cost starting from scratch is probably $1500 or so? $600-ish for the hexacopter kit, and a bunch more for radios, batteries, chargers…
If you don’t already fly RC – I’d recommend getting a smaller, safer, cheaper “starter” helicopter like a Blade MCX2 – which you can easily and safely fly indoors and learn the controls and orientations. A hexacopter this size is dangerous and could easily hurt people, plus you don’t want your “learning” crashes to be $500 each… Crashing a small indoor heli ususally costs zero – or most of the parts are under $10 if you happen to break something. It takes many hours of flying to get proficient enough to fly one of these safely and to avoid spending a lot on parts and repairs.
Kevin