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Drones? Help a newb.

a mile line of site?

it sounds like you should be investigating building your own, and probably fixed wing if you need to travel that kind of distance.
what do you want to use it for?

you're firmly out of the 2.4/5ghz consumer quad shit here.

honestly my long range fixed wing shit is still 72mhz on an old futaba 8 channel computer radio.

just build your own. Use the pixhawk. do whatever you fucking want.
 
Appreciate the insight. Trying to figure it out. I was thinking I could set way points to a half dozen spots on the the mountain without spending almost 2 hours making the loop checking. Guess I'm turning in to a fat fawk.
 
I bought a Mavic Air 2 for checking my trapline and I'm very happy with it. Saves me about 4 hours of hiking in the cold and dark after work each week. I've flown it 3.5 miles one way while out ice fishing and still had good signal.

Edit- I started out thinking I'd buy one like you listed on Amazon, but I decided to go with the Mavic for the obstacle avoidance feature. I trap on the mountain and have a lot of trees around where I fly.
 
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muleskinner said:
I bought a Mavic Air 2 for checking my trapline and I'm very happy with it. Saves me about 4 hours of hiking in the cold and dark after work each week. I've flown it 3.5 miles one way while out ice fishing and still had good signal.
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That's what I'm looking for. Do way points put you close enough to be useful?
 
Chzbrgr said:
That's what I'm looking for. Do way points put you close enough to be useful?
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I don't use them, I just fly it to each trap. I did mark a couple of them once on the map as I flew to them, but the waypoints weren't there the next time I flew so I didn't save them apparently. I haven't really got in to the mapping stuff yet.
 
It is nice to have the camera zoom on the Air 2, I hover near each trap and zoom in so I don't have to drop in the trees very far.
 
I downloaded an app called Maven yesterday, it's really easy to map out a route. I made a 2 mile loop to test it out and it worked great. You can define your path, elevation, gimble direction, when to record etc. Very simple google earth overlay on your phone with gps markers.
 
Looks like that app is iOS only right now but they are working on Android. From what I'm reading you can at least refly a mission with the built in hyperlapse. For the most part that would probably cover me. The MA2 looks like the machine to get.
 
Unless is search and rescue, this is the best thing that can happen to a drone
9090621A-06AF-4557-9672-D4C95AA25828.jpeg
 
Mavic 2 zoom is easy and awesome. Use it for work and to see if my local Costco was being looted this summer during blm... it wasn't but have flown it 4 miles out. Stay away from the wifi ones if you want to keep it
 
i bought a phantom 3 standard a couple of years back, it’ll probably reliably do 3500’ straight line before it gets goofy, but i just use the litchi app with it, you can get on google earth with the overlay, set the waypoints/speeds/camera angles, and let her rip. I’ve gone several miles like that before, although it’s mildly nerve racking sending your hundred dollar bills off on their own, then looking up fifteen minutes later hoping your program wasn’t fucked up and it’ll come back home..

I know you can do the same with mavics, etc., it’s just emulating the onboard waypoint program, and just “injecting” waypoints that you would normally have to go to first..
 
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I Jedi mind tricked myself hoping to not screw up. Seasons almost over, I'm not getting one til it's over. I'm thinking that way I will have plenty of time to take baby steps and not just woopow into the mountain straight out of the box.
 
Chzbrgr said:
I Jedi mind tricked myself hoping to not screw up. Seasons almost over, I'm not getting one til it's over. I'm thinking that way I will have plenty of time to take baby steps and not just woopow into the mountain straight out of the box.
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This may also not be the best time to get one: the FAA just put the hammer down on drones above a certain weight (.55 lbs or less takes it out of the registration, etc.), and passed a rule that they've got to have a identification transmitter onboard.. Of course, nothing like that actually exists as of yet, so all the drone people are just kind of holding their breath to figure out just what that's going to mean with cost, battery life, etc... There's plenty of "grace period", something like 3-4 years, but if that matters to you that may be a concern. And for anybody that pops up with "well I'll just fly without it, what are they going to do", they force those rules down your throat in their app updates.. Drone won't fly without an update, and they won't fly after the update without seeing a transmitter active, or whatever.. It kinda sucks..
 
Saloon65 said:
This may also not be the best time to get one: the FAA just put the hammer down on drones above a certain weight (.55 lbs or less takes it out of the registration, etc.), and passed a rule that they've got to have a identification transmitter onboard.. Of course, nothing like that actually exists as of yet, so all the drone people are just kind of holding their breath to figure out just what that's going to mean with cost, battery life, etc... There's plenty of "grace period", something like 3-4 years, but if that matters to you that may be a concern. And for anybody that pops up with "well I'll just fly without it, what are they going to do", they force those rules down your throat in their app updates.. Drone won't fly without an update, and they won't fly after the update without seeing a transmitter active, or whatever.. It kinda sucks..
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which is why I advocate building your own frame with your own flight controller.

pixhawk gives no fucks.
and you'll end up with something that performs better and costs less.

for the investment in time. that you're gonna make anyway the first time you crash it.

flamewheel clones are like $15.
 
87manche said:
which is why I advocate building your own frame with your own flight controller.

pixhawk gives no fucks.
and you'll end up with something that performs better and costs less.

for the investment in time. that you're gonna make anyway the first time you crash it.

flamewheel clones are like $15.
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Well, you're still going to have to legally have the transmitter, if you don't want to do it that's between you and the FAA. They really seem to be getting pissy about it.
 
Not trying to be ****y at all . .. . :flipoff2: . . is that legal to hunt/trap with there ? because it is not in several western states.

edit: the electronic limitations apply to Big Game. So yotes, trap line size stuff not regulated the same ???
 
Saloon65 said:
Well, you're still going to have to legally have the transmitter, if you don't want to do it that's between you and the FAA. They really seem to be getting pissy about it.
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the FAA doesn't care about your radio gear.
just a registration number and you following the LOS and airspace rules.

which he's already looking to violate anyway with his proposed flight distance.
unless you're super human an can tell a 450 sized quads orientation at a mile.

the new radio identifier shit isn't in effect yet, and will probably change before it's implemented anyway. it's 18 months away for everyone not a manufacturer.
 
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