Hi folk I'm new here and almost a newby to RC flight and certainly to quads. I got a Turbo Drone (v949?) for Christmas and smashed it are the living-room for a couple of months trying to get to grips with it eccentric wandering characteristics. Needless to say I live in a tiny wee apartment with the smallest living-room in human occupation, just 8 ft by 14 ft, rather too small to get the feel of the craft! However, I have persevered and can now 'hover' from one end of the room to the other and am only on my second set of blades. My Turbo Drone is a horror to fly, nowhere near as stable as ones I have seen in videos on 'YouTube' but I am guessing than some are better put together than others and I ended up with a less-good one. Anyway, moving on. I received from Hong Kong yesterday a V959 with camera. All arrived in one piece and having previously bought four spare lipos (and several sets of replacement blades) I quickly launched into my first flight. The new quad is 10 times more stable than the Turbo Drone and will hover in one place, something I have never achieved with the older craft. The thing I really do not like about it is the overly springy landing skids. It is almost impossible to touchdown without it bouncing up and flipping over or springing into a wall or piece of furniture. (I do so look forward to going outside to fly when the weather is warmer and drier). So the point of this post is to say, that I have been busy with my screwdriver and have removed the skids (hence the avatar) and reattached the camera to the bottom of the (battery) lipo cage. The screw holes line up perfectly and an there is a good centimetre ground clearance, so no more chance of damaging the camera than with the skids attached. The good thing is I can now land without the fatal bounce. I have also noticed that the props on the 959 are big than those on the older machine ( and noticeably all my new replacements. They are 10mm longer and about 1.3 mm broader in the cord but other than that identical to the older blades. Perhaps the add to stability or just give added lift. I don't know at this stage. Has anyone tried the GWS GW/EP5443 Props yet? They seem a bit pricy and difficult to order a full set of four but I understand the reduce shuddering when descending.
Oh, wow, I just wrote a very long reply but accidentally closed the tab! I fly my 959 outside - it's too big to fly around inside except maybe to learn. But I know it is winter! For indoor flying you might like the Hubsan Quads X4: https://www.droneflyers.com/2013/02/hubsan-x4-micro-quadcopter/ There is a guy in UK who sells a rebranded version - he stocks a lot of parts also: http://www.heliguy.com/Electric-RC-Helicopters/Heliguy-Viper/Heliguy-Viper/ As far as removing the landing gear - that is probably OK, although when you start flying it outside you will not bounce like that (in grass). Another idea is to use a shorter landing gear which you can make - this provides shock absorbing, which helps the quad last longer. I did this on my Syma X1 using small zip ties. It was a mini-version of the well known AR Drone "Zip Tie Mod" detailed here: https://www.droneflyers.com/2013/02/your-first-ar-drone-modification-should-be-landing-gear/ You are correct that the stock 959 gear does bounce...on blacktop and hard surfaces. I noticed that, but since I intend to fly it outside over grass it is not as important. Still, I think I may remove it and try the zip tie mod. I have never used any other props - I can't seem to hurt any of the props on the mini-quads! I've never had to replace even one of them!
I only fly indoors because the climate outside is 'awah chilly' here in Scotland (and of course, I don't want everyone to see me crash every 30 seconds...) I am really just learning to fly these Quads at the moment and as soon as I have a grip of it, I wholly intend to go bigger, something like a Hexacopter or indeed a Octocopter (middle age crisis coming on, need to go bigger and faster!) I saw the Zip-tie landing leg mod several weeks ago but have not needed it to date but will probably go down that route if Spring ever gets here. Good idea this site. Thank you.
Hah, talk about weather - do you see the stuff that I have been flying outside in? The only thing I look for is no wind. Anything else is flying weather.... Don't buy that bigger machine until you have many hours on your smaller ones....outside and in various conditions. I've read about too many people losing their $1000 machines in a week after they buy them! I am currently putting a Dualsky Hornet together....I will write a long article on that. It's a mid-sized quad for about $400 US (with the TX and Battery)..... Here are some of my recent bad weather flights.... This is the 959: This is 959 also: This is in a blizzard with the Syma with a keychain cam... The great thing about low-cost quads is that you really can't mess them up too much! I'm going to be much more worried when I fly the Dualsky with a more expensive camera on it.
I thought I would post a couple of picture of the remounted camera but I don't seem to have permission to post images...?
Hmm, I will check.....I can't imagine why. I must have set the permissions wrong from day one. Sorry....should work soon.
I click on the wee tree button and put in the url and as you can see above I just get a cross in a box. The is the http://www.flickr.com/photos/25253412@N03/8640827847/ or you can try try to pick the bones out of this load of nonsense from flickr.... V959 ground clearance by George Anthony Maxwell, on Flickr Either way, the wee button does not seem to want to know.
Ok. I see. Just drop the 'nonsens'e into the text box and it sorts itself out.... Well here is the other picture; V959 with Camera remounted by George Anthony Maxwell, on Flickr
Oh, you can also directly upload pics (sized correctly) using the upload button...whichever is best That is a good way of lightening the thing a bit...my problem now is that my 9X transmitter works well with it - much longer range - but has no way of turning on the camera! I either need to install a small switch (someone needs to figure out the cam wire functions) or else bind 2 tx's to it (if possible) and use one to turn the cam on and the other to fly it..... Or, I'll just be done with it and put the keychain cam on - better resolution anyway. I have 2 keychain cams, one a cheapo and the other the good (HD wide lens) one.
