Learn from my fail
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In the interest of perhaps saving someone from the same mistake, I submit this failure as a cautionary tale.
Having just purchased my very first quadcopter (for reference: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KI03U8Q/) I was very excited to try it out (some of you may already see where this is going). I was particularly interested in getting some aerial footage of my neighborhood under what is just a massive amount of snow. All I had in mind was basically a 360 rotation from above the rooftops. After setting it up, getting everything charged, and quick test inside (side note: not an inside toy) including pictures/video, I bundled up and took it outside.
Up we go! Before liftoff I get video rolling, then clumsily get a few feet of altitude, back and forth, rotate in place, getting a feel for it. Get a little bit higher, little more looking around. Higher still... wait, no, shit, stop, come back, fuck fuck fuck, mayday, out of range and goodbye. I did some brief searching but it went down over a block away and is probably buried in 10 feet of snow right now. Short of lighting three twenties on fire I can't think of a quicker way to go through $60.
TL;DR: quadcopters are harder to control than you think. Until you know what you're doing, stay in a wide open area so if shit goes south you can still find the thing. And if you live in Watertown and find mine, can you let me know please?
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I have a little one I bought a couple years ago, pretty much used it just to chase the cats. They can be tricky to control if there's any wind at all, even the furnace running was enough to make it nearly unflyable inside.
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It was just out of range, right? And you knew in what direction it went, right?
Couldn't you just walk in that direction and take it off again to see where it was? How far did it fall?
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Why do these things not do a slow descent when they no longer have a signal.
$60
Oh....
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I actually tried that - I do have a rough idea where it landed and was able to get closer enough for the remote to sync. When I tried to take off, nothing. I'm assuming it's either stuck in snow or caught on something. Either way the battery is long dead.
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Serious question, are you saying it was cheap and/or crappy? I'm not being defensive, I didn't want to get one of the more expensive ones for exactly this reason. I just didn't know it would happen so fast.
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When I tried to take off, nothing. I'm assuming it's either stuck in snow or caught on something. Either way the battery is long dead.
How about looking for a quadcopter-shaped hole in the snow? I don't know much about terminal velocity of those things, though - might be that the only working parts are the now dead electronics.
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How about looking for a quadcopter-shaped hole in the snow?
Yeah, I looked where I could see. Thing is it's probably in someone's backyard/roof or otherwise not visible from the street.
might be that the only working parts are the now dead electronics.
Yeah, about the only thing that I have any hope for (which is slim to none) at this point is the SD card with the video. Which is probably awesome, I actually would really like to see it. The copter itself may have survived the crash (or maybe not, it was probably about 50' up) but the climate here right now isn't really ideal for electronics.
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I suppose they don't accept quarters?
Not unless you want to "make it hail", instead of making it rain...
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Trying to resist "coin slot" joke, failing....
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TRWTF is not placing a badge on the drone. Now your neighbor will find it and won't know to whom it belongs to.
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My girlfriend also made that point. After I lost it.
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My girlfriend also made that point. After I lost it.
Well, you know what they say: hindsight comes with a full core dump.
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Well, you know what they say: hindsight comes with a full core dump.
This is why I only eat the fruity bit of my apples.
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Sorry to hear that man, it sucks that you didn't manage to find it.
I've got a friend at work who is a professional photographer / film maker and he's been getting into quadracopters. He's got 3 now and his newest stuff is quite serious kit.
He said that the cheap quad that he bought first was harder to fly and more difficult to repair than the more expensive stuff. He said he'd recommend looking for one that takes modular spares that are quite cheap. The cheaper copters use proprietary parts which are therefore more expensive to replace.
One of the cool things he can do is get real time POV video to a headset that he wears whilst flying. It's very very cool.
Unfortunately in the UK you're not allowed to fly within a certain distance of residential areas, so most of his flying is done at parks. He's made some very cool videos so far.
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We have 8mm film of my Dad futilely flipping the rudder control left/right/left/right nothing as his plane flies majestically over the woods and into the sunset...
Once, he went into a swamp to recover a plane and came back with a fantastic upgrade to his flying kit. ;)
I think he lost an old flipper (name escapes me - basically single-channel AM, rudder only) and came back with a nice new 4-channel servo set
EDIT: Also, old problem, RC flyers know to tape on a card/badge - in this case tho, the other guy hadn't done that...so, win for Dad.
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Did he find a holey stone there?
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Did he find a holey stone there?
You kidz. Over my grey head...
Odd tho... we never considered a swamp curse... even tho there is an actual temple out there.
Filed under: I guess that's cuz nobody said "I just crashed into a swamp - I'm cursed!!". They said "I guess that's what happens when I fly in the middle of a stupid swamp... at least we don't get noise complaints out here "
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Put up some "lost quadcopter" posters?
http://i.imgur.com/XLVlmWw.png
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FaithInHumanity ++;
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TRWTF is that the snow has melted there already.
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Luckily we've had a couple >40 days, it's starting to recede but it's far from "melted".
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TRWTF is that the snow has melted there already.
Here, I was not the only one mowing my lawn this weekend. ;P
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I can see most of my front lawn, but the back yard is shadier, so that'll take a bit longer. Starting to thaw out, though. 40s and 50s mostly this week. Lots of rain, though.
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We usually get something like an inch of snow a half-dozen times, maybe, during the winter. At least that's been my experience since I moved here. This year we got only one snowfall of something like two inches. I'm not sure the lawn ever even stopped growing.
And not to hijack @mikeTheLiar's topic, congratulations on getting your drone back.
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We got our biggest snow of the year this year in March.
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congratulations on getting your drone back.
Not to keep playing with everyone's emotions, but I just heard back from the craigslist poster, and apparently the drone they found wasn't mine. How many drones are flying around this town, anyway? At least somebody else is going to get their toy back.
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EPIC NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!your quadcopter!
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The Universe is a git.
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The Universe is a git.
No kidding. I tried cloning it once. Too fucking big. And no one respects my locks, either, the bastards.
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What is the origin of the Universe? Also will they accept my pull requests for the commits I made to solve stupidity and death?
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What is the origin of the Universe?
Opinions differ. People tend to get upset when discussing it though, so I think I'll pass on that one.
Also will they accept my pull requests for the commits I made to solve stupidity and death?
Personal experience says "no". Some people keep trying though. Some success was reported, but it usually involves objects no bigger than car keys.
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He updated me again so I could spread the word if I knew any other enthusiasts... The drone he found is worth close to $1000 O_o So I don't feel so bad.
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Ouch, that is an expensive toy to lose.
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This reminds me, I should dig out my quadcopter and see if it has sufficient lift to carry my Raspberry Pi + battery + camera module. I suspect not, or if so not for very long, but it would be interesting to try.
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Also will they accept my pull requests for the commits I made to solve stupidity and death?
Death solves stupidity.
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Death solves stupidity.
Not so sure about that. I'm still being assaulted by stupid shit dead people once said.
