First of all, I would like to thank everyone on this site that helped me within the past few weeks! Y'all's advice definitely helped me make some decisions in moving forward with these UAVs. With that being said, I wanted to give an update to anyone who is interested in what I finally purchased.
I definitely wanted to get something Arduino-compatible, and first looked into getting a hexacopter. However, I had an overwhelming amount of feedback to start out with a quadcopter instead, which I've learned also tends to be more efficient than a hexa anyway. I was also told to get something cheap and durable to practice flying with, since this is my first experience with copters. So, I purchased two drones, one for beginner's training and one for experimentation.
The copter I purchased for practicing with was recommended to me by a user on DIYD. This is the UDI U818A Quadcopter that I bought from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/U818A-2-4GHz-Axis-Quadcopter-Camera/dp/B00D3IN11Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403121723&sr=8-1&keywords=udi+u818a). It has so far proven to be very durable, and I can get some practice with it inside my office.
The second copter (just came in today) was also recommended by a number of users here, the 3DR IRIS. After opening up the packaging, it seems to be somewhat intimidating, but I'll get started putting everything together tomorrow.
I thank you all again for your help, and I'm looking forward to working with these copters!
Kate
Comments
Kate...I am a little over a year into multis, but I have previous experience with other RC flying things. I have managed to wring a lot of varied use out of some of the, "toy" quadcopters I have collected along the way. Of course, I have learned to fly with them, but I have managed to poke and prod at them and get them to do things for which they were not originally intended. I am a bit of a DIYer and tinkerer myself. Great choice to start with the basics using the UDI (a good quad for cheap) and then work up. The biggest thing, and I cannot stress it enough is...safety! But, you seem on the right path. Welcome to the fold!
Wow, those are really great choices. Congrat's!
Any ladybird etc will teach you flying. But 3DR IRIS is just a waste of money IMHO.
Congrats Kate, I'm shure you are going to enjoy them.
Hi Kate,
Glad to hear you got the little UDI, everybody can have fun learning to fly without having to spend a lot on replacement parts (or a lot of time waiting for them).
The better you can fly the UDI the easier and quicker (and less expensive) it will be to deal with the Iris.
If you are going to be carrying a gGoPro and gimbal or other additional weight on the Iris you might want to consider 4 cell battery operation instead of stock 3 cell.
I have separated out the learn to fly section of my drones are fun website and even if you don't follow it you might want to look through it or at the video for some hints.
http://quadcoptersarefun.com/HowToFlyAQuadcopter.html
Learning how to take off and hover and move around is pretty easy.
But actually learning to fly around freely with the copter pointing in the direction of flight is more challenging.
If you can do pretty well at that, the Iris will offer few surprises.
Best Regards,
Gary
Awesome! I am new to the UAV world as well. It is really cool to see more diversity in the hobby! I will work on getting my sister into it. So far she flies it around for a while and then crashes it into the garage and then spends 5 minutes laughing about it. She about fell over the time she about gave me a hair cut with it lol. Lucky me it was a little Traxxas QR1 that is pretty harmless.