DJI Phantom Christmas? Awesome! Now READ THIS!

I posted this last year…but there’s still a lot of good information in there and so I thought I would post again. I have learned a HUGE amount since the original post so please feel free to comment if you have questions that you would like answered.

Houldsworth's Random Ramblings

If you received a DJI Phantom for Christmas, then you are a lucky man…or woman, but I’m betting you’re a man.  

The Phantom’s are amazing machines.  They are great fun, produce really cool video footage and are super easy to fly as long as you have a good GPS signal.

But, before you fly, there are a few things you need to do, and a few things you need to know.  

Not following this advice is, in the opinion of many, the #1 cause of “flyaways”, which is when the thing takes off and is never seen again.  This is usually followed by people blasting DJI on Facebook and then deleting their post when people ask them about home lock.

Most of the details below are from my experience with an FC40.  You may be lucky enough to have a more advanced unit, but the information should be mostly the same.

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Drones: One year on

On January 2nd this year I took a flight over my neighbors house using a store bought drone (Phantom FC40) and a GoPro camera that arrived as a Christmas present.  I was very happy with the quadcopter and the footage I took.  Then, about a week later, I sunk the whole kit into a lake never to be seen again.

At the time I was pretty upset with myself – I made a rookie mistake and paid for it badly.  But I also reasoned that since I had enjoyed modifying the FC40 I should try my hand at building drones instead of buying them.

One year later and I’ve come a long way learning everything from soldering to PID tuning (don’t ask).

I eventually built two different copters, a quadcopter and then a hexacopter, although it feels much more than that because each of those has been built, rebuilt and upgraded numerous times.  Here’s a quick comparison:

 

	DJI Phantom FC40	F450 Quadcopter	F550 Hexacopter
Transmitter Range	800m	2,000m
Flight Modes	GPS Hold Altitude Hold RTL	GPS Hold (slow and fast) Altitude hold RTL Automatic (programmed) Land Guided (click on moving map) Manual Acrobatic Follow me Circle Mapping
Speed	22mph	~35mph	~55mph
Size	330mm	450mm	550mm
Real Time Telemetry	No	Yes	Yes
Moving map	No	Yes	Yes
Gimbal	2D	2D	3D
Camera Control	Manual	Manual or Fully Automated Point Of Interest Lock
Flight Time	9 Minutes	18 Minutes	15 Minutes

 

But probably the best way to show the difference is to compare two videos taken one year apart.  The video on the bottom was from a year ago with the Phantom. It took two separate 9 minutes flights and was then edited to keep only the best parts.  The video on the top was taken in one shot, no editing and took less than 3 minutes to complete from take off to the fully automatic landing.

In fact this year’s video even made it into the local news, and you can find the full version here.

I’ve learned a huge amount that past year, gained some great friends and had a blast doing this, particularly as my #1 son and daughter were very involved in the build of both machines.

Where do we go from here?  

The drone market is in a phase now where digital cameras were 10 years ago.  Their capabilities are increasing exponentially while prices are plummeting.  Even with how far I have come even the cheapest DJI Phantom 3 would outperform my hex in almost every way and these can now be had starting at under $700.  Just a year ago something with that capability would have cost nearly three times that amount!

For me to build the equivalent of a Phantom 3 Standard would cost around $450 in parts alone, and that is if I use cheap parts sourced from China that would need a lot of time to set up properly.  

Will I still build?  I think the days of building from scratch are over, it just doesn’t make economic sense anymore.  But I will continue to improve the ones I have as a way to learn and experiment.  There’s also talk of teaching kids how to build them as part of a maker space project and that is something I would really enjoy doing.

In the meantime, if you are thinking of getting someone a drone for Christmas, or have one and need questions answered…fire away!

 

 

Motorcycles I’ve Owned

100cc of raw power. At least it felt like that as my first bike. Smoked like mad!

My first 4 stroke and the bike I really started to learn about engines. This was my first carb rebuild

My first real bike and the one that really started the addiction of riding. Put many miles on this and then, one day, it was stolen!

Owned this bike for 3 days. It was powerful and fun but had an exhaust so loud I thought the neighbors would kill me. Traded it for the XJ600

The first bike I took intercontinental. Several trips to the south of France, LeMan 24 hr etc.

A work horse of a machine. Plenty of trouble free miles if you don’t count electrical issues 🙂

Owned this for one day. It was bought as a backup to the GS650. The first day I used it the bike had a complete electrical failure leaving me stranded on the M1 in the dark

Fun little bike until my girlfriend was t-boned by a van on it. My first valve job and first full brake overhaul. Horrible jobs both!

Amazing little bike. Kick start and electric start. Not much power but amazingly good handling. I wish I could find another one,

For a 200 this thing pulled like a train…as long as the train didn’t want to go more than 30mph

First bike I used for an enduro. It was terrible, unreliable, but it took a beating and could be fixed with wire and chewing gum

This bike was incredible. So capable it made me look half way decent off road…but only half way.

My first intro to BMWs and certainly not my last. I put 50k miles on this bike in just over a year and then sold it for what I paid for it.

My first bike in the USA. Reliable, cheap and easy to ride off road.

Capable, reliable, smooth, great value…and boring. Couldn’t wait to get rid of it.

My first GS. A butt ugly work of art!

I couldn’t resist – I paid $5 for this bike. Fixed it up. Had a friend use it on a trip to California and back and then sold it for $600!

My current ride. Bought new in 2001 and it has served me well ever since. It does everything so well I really can’t justify upgraded with the amount of miles I ride these days,