Hi. I attached my iPhone to my hexcopter (PVC) -- and planned for it to go up about 50 feet, take photos and come back down.
... that didn't go so well ...
about 25 feet into the air, direction controls no longer worked as they should. It acted like the magnetometer didn't report valid directions. Sometime it would go the way it should sometimes it would not. Since I was flying in the mountains with trees around, I gave it a little altitude trying to regain control (loiter would not loiter). Last I saw my hexcopter for that flight, it was a tiny speck in the distance a long way from me taking a plopping itself in the forest somewhere below my horizon which was shielded by trees.
Well, since I had GPS on my phone, I tried to find it --- no response. I tried going to the area and calling -- went to voice mail.
After some searching and prayers -- I found my hexcopter -- praise be to God as I could not have found it without His help!
My phone seems to be working fine now. I'm not at all sure what went crazy. I found out later that search and rescue was looking for someone in the area. Their equipment may have interfered with my APM2.
At any rate, my hexcopter landed on it's feet with thud --- minimal damage except for my 4S battery which got down to around 9V.
So... now I'm hunting for an all carbon fiber 6X hex frame. The ones in the store are okay except they have aluminum arms. I would like carbon fiber arms. Does anyone have any recommendations for an affordable one?
The cheapest I found $117 was:
http://www.goodluckbuy.com/xaircraft-diy-hexa-gf-glass-fiber-frame-for-multicopter-flight.html
However, it looks like a heavy design.
This one looks good, but I'm hoping not to have to pay $240.
I'd also like to be able to add a 2 servo camera gimbal down the road.
Thank you.
Replies
If you want to do something like that again I'd recommend a lifeproof case (http://www.lifeproof.com/) for your 4S. I've had mine since I got mine in october and it's the best thing i've ever bought.
Also do you have Prey(http://preyproject.com) on your phone? If you did you could turn on the camera, and have the GPS report it's position.
Did you have the phone part of the phone switched off? That might have caused all sorts of interference as it kept talking to the local cell tower.