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A more complete video of an autonomous flight

Posted by Steve Maller on July 30, 2013 at 9:00am

Filmed an end-to-end flight using my Panasonic GH3 on a tripod showing my Mac ground station (running Parallels) and using a GoPro HD Hero3 BE on the copter. The GoPro was just velcro'd to the copter frame, which is obviously not ideal. But these are just initial flight tests, so I'm not concerned with video quality. I'm so excited about the prospects for this kind of semi-guided flight, and I'm looking forward to more like this!

Tags: gh3, gopro, hd, hero3, panasonic, tripod
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Comments

  • Steve Maller July 31, 2013 at 12:37pm

    About to do another blog post, but to answer @Euan’s question, I just did a 12.5 minute flight with a mix of pre-programmed moves (up to 100m altitude) and just flying around the field. More details in the next blog post...

  • Moderator
    Nathaniel Caner July 30, 2013 at 5:36pm

    Hey Steve,

    There is a simpler way for you to record your MAC, use VLC Media Player to record your 'desktop'. VLC is available for MAC OS X 10.5 and later and makes it super easy to make recordings like this! Check out the youtube video on how to use VLC to make a recording of your desktop here, and you can download VLC here. Best of all it's free!

    Nice flight, have fun!

    Regards,

    Nathaniel ~KD2DEY

    .

  • Sean Tierney July 30, 2013 at 3:25pm

    Really like it, well done!  I have not yet ventured over to autonomous flights...maybe one day soon.

  • Steve Maller July 30, 2013 at 3:00pm

    Mine is a standard 3DR quad frame. Got it as a complete RTF package from the 3DR store including the cheapo radio. But that APM is a magic box. Really impressed with the level of engineering in it. Haven't measured the flight time yet. I suspect 8-10 minutes, but that's a guess. Running one 4200 3s LiPo now.

  • Euan Ramsay July 30, 2013 at 10:30am
    Is this a standard 3DR frame? What sort of flight time can you get with it?
  • Euan Ramsay July 30, 2013 at 10:26am
    Lol - Yeah - bit heavy and complex too. Borderline hex territory, but the flight time is better in quad. I've got a smaller one - 11000mAh 3S powering 2216's and 11" props, but no FPV, video etc - just 1.9kg of simple trainer quad.
  • Euan Ramsay July 30, 2013 at 10:20am
    I found the easiest way to stabiles descent was to set the auto descent speed to very slow.

    Descends smoother now, but you do chew the fingernails a bit when doing an RTL at the end of the pack...:-)
  • Steve Maller July 30, 2013 at 10:19am

    Whoa, that's one bigass bird. :-)

  • Euan Ramsay July 30, 2013 at 10:18am
    Flies great in stabilize, in a big, powerful way. Toying with upgrade to 3515's to get better flight times (solid 20 minute hover right now).
  • Euan Ramsay July 30, 2013 at 10:16am
    A quadframe quad, with 10900mAh 6S powering Tmotor 3508-29's and 1455 CF props. With gimbal and FPV it's 3.9kg. Currently grounded, since it's "failing" compassmot, and I'm still waiting for the external gps/compass parts from 3DR.
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