What is your current hobby and why that one?

[setishock]

I'm an old fart at 62. Due to the nature of my line of work I have a lot of down time. So having way too much time on my hands, bored to tears, I got in to a rather exciting, albeit expensive, hobby. You know them as drones thanks to a brain dead media. The proper name for them is multi rotor platforms.
I have a couple of the older DJI Phantom 1's which is a 350mm ready to fly platform.
Also in the fleet is a couple of DJI Flamewheel 450. Those are 450mm quad platforms. You have to put them together and program them. Those get a little complicated but not bad.
Then there's my baby. A DJI Flamewheel 550. That's my 550mm camera platform. It's got some impressive flight electronics. Stable has a whole new meaning with that one. It's sporting a Tarot 2D gimbal with a GoPro white parked in it.

I respect my gals. I know they are expensive and are not toys. The props on the F450 at full throttle are doing over 16,000 rpms and can slice you open quicker than a razor knife. My platforms all are camera ready. Any of them can carry a GoPro and the F550 can carry a DSLR. The neighbors seem to be cool with that as long as I'm not making a nuisance out of myself. Which I go out of my way not to.

I have a Tarot 650 Sport in the works. It's a 650mm frame. I'm putting on a motor kit that has low speed high torque motors swinging 12" props. This one will be able to lift around 5 pounds.

I'm controlling all that with 2 Spektrum transmitters One is the DX7s and the other is a DX9. Serious investments there. The DX costs a little over 400 bucks.

All total I have invested in my hobby so far around $7000usd. Here's some pics of my goodies.

I'm so in to these things I have my own forum: http://multirotorplatforms.com/forum.php and I'm a member of the largest RC flying model forum, http://www.helifreak.com/forumdisplay.php?f=400

What do you do?

 

[Draygoes]

Looks like you take some real joy in that!
What is the screen on the bottom of the controller for? A quad eye view I suppose?
What is coding for that type of thing like? Do you have your own IDE, or well... so many questions LOL
I have seen all of your videos on YT, and I must say that your builds are some of the more impressive ones. Props to yah.


Heh, you guys know my hobbies. But for those that dont, it pretty much begins and ends with Malware research and removal. I am completely obsessed with the topic. The largest reason is because I truly have a dark view on anyone whom takes advantage of other people, but secondary reasons include interest. Nothing thrills me quite as much as decompiling and recreating malware for study, as well as coming up with my own nasty little in house creations as proof of concept.

 

[cb600fshornet]

Draygoes, the screen is so you can alter the settings of the transmitter. You can alter how far the servos in the aircraft move compared to how far you more the sticks, you can assign functions to the switches, there's timers, a model memory so you can fly different models... you can make the stick movement exponential, reverse the travel...

The above paragraph barely scratches the surface of what a modern top-end transmitter can actually do, they're like a mini computer...


I've got a few hobbies, I won't go into huge amount of details with them though:
1. Motorcycles - Got my motorcycle licence (full) two and a half years ago, and I ride a 600cc sportsbike.
2. Aviation - I got my pilots licence about a year ago, so I regularly hire a plane with my brother and take family/friends for flights.
3. RC Aircraft - Both helicopters and aeroplanes (hence why I know about the transmitter), I love scale stuff mainly, like Spitfires and Tornadoes etc.

 

[Draygoes]

I have seen different types of people for things like this. People who prefer to see from the point of view on the device, and others that like to fly line of sight. So that is why I was confused.
Thank you for the explanation. That really is neat!

What about coding for one of those? Again, so many questions, and I know the coding question cannot be given a simple answer, so a dumbed down version is all I am asking for.

 

[cb600fshornet]

You don't really code it, it's already got it' sown proprietary menu system on it, it's usually calculator kinda style text, really basic. Just a bunch of menus with settings really. There are some open source software versions you can flash onto the device if you want, and the code for that would be maintained on a PC. No idea what the language is though.

 

[setishock]

The first person view or first person video, is awesome to say the least. I use goggles that have the receiver built in and a tiny screen in front of each eye. Your brain does the rest.

As for coding, I assume you mean writing your own flight software. There's open source flight software that you load on open source controllers and tweak till your fingers go numb. Those have their place such as quad racing. The processors and software are incredibly fast and are well suited for that.
I prefer to use closed source controllers with the software preloaded. Like the DJI NAZA flight controllers. You have options and settings that work rather well but they're meant for larger sized platforms. like camera platforms. A lot more features and a whole lot more stable. But open source is getting better and better for larger platforms. I got my eyes on one that just hit the market. Excellent features and the price is not too shabby either. I'll let others be the beta testers and let them get the bugs out.

Look, bottom line is, "It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on"

 

[cb600fshornet]

A popular software for transmitters here is OpenTX, never personally used it though.

A few guys here swear by the FrSky Taranis, so I might try that, or the Turnigy 9XR. I had a bad experience with the Spektrum brand (DX6i transmitter), as the potentiometers in the stick were prone to failure so they had to be recalled. Never bought Spektrum since. Their DSM and DSM2 technology always seemed quite prone to brownouts, though their DSMX technology had better reviews.

 

[Draygoes]

Thats a good explanation. Thanks.
And yeah, it sounds like it would be more fun to fly it first person. I dont know why others prefer line of site, but I know I would much more enjoy the feeling of flying.

 

[cb600fshornet]

Well, from my perspective (har har), I prefer flying models by line of sight, as I fly full size aircraft too and I actually fly those first person (obviously). It's quite nice to see how an aircraft looks from the outside.

 

[Celery]

My hobbies hmm....

It was guitar playing but I haven't touched my guitar since I made the videos and I haven't touched it months before that.

I like shooting at the range. Most of the time it was my pistols but since I got my AR15 it's all I've been shooting since.

I like word puzzles and I like to read trivia. I have two shelves full of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader books.

I like computers and built my own. I have two systems now.

best of all, I like chatting with my buddies online.