what to buy? Medium lift (1.5-2kg) for aerial photo/video

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ryan_m

Member
First, a bit of background... I've been playing with multi rotors a while now, though my primary RC interest is in airplanes and a bit in traditional heli's too. I've had an XAircraft X650, and a tricopter from fpv manuals, as well as played with a gaui and rusty rev 8 quad with a Paris board. I'm familiar with ESC's, motors, batteries and all that fun stuff. I've done some FPV on airplanes, and understand what I need there pretty well. I also have some experience with various lower end flight controllers too, having used the XAircraft stuff, and an Ardupilot on my tricopter. This project will be a step up, and I'm in the research phase right now.

On with it: I have a need for a heavier lift vehicle. At least a hexa or maybe octo in order to lift an FPV rigged copter carrying an NEX 5 for aerial photo purposes. Ideally some video too, though primarily photo. Will be mainly operated as a 2 man setup.
Must have GPS capabilities with RTH, and position hold would be nice. Mainly RTH though.

I've been looking at some of the stuff out there, both multi-rotor craft and FC's and want to get some opinions on what a good setup is. I'm not really looking to spend $5,000 if I can help it.
I've considered the Droidworx AD-6HL or Skyjib6, and briefly looked at some Mikrokopter offerings. The new DJI S800? What else is there in this range? And - if you were going to build something to fill this need what would you get?


Flight controllers are the next question, was leaning towards a WooKong, though now I see that Naza is getting the GPS capability. I've heard Mikrokopter electronics are very tricky to get configured and flying well. What would be your preferred FC for a craft like this?
 

redridinghood

redridinghood

Member
If you only want to lift a Nex then get a DJI 550 frame, MT2216 900KV motors, Graupner 10x5, Simonk 30amp esc's a YS-X6 or Wkm system and one of Gary's gimbals.

I have the heavy Skyjib 8 and almost never take it out to shot (its hard to fit in the car) . I always grab my F550.

Also get the Sony CX730 instead if you are leaning more into video than just aerial photos.
 

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ryan_m

Member
mainly photo, video would be a nice addition though.
Any thoughts on the newer nx-4008 style flat pancake motors? Seem like they would be ideal for multi-rotors. I'm about to outfit my tricopter with them I think and see if it gets any smoother.

Can you point me to Gary's gimbals?
 


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ovdt

Member
If the main purpose is photo shooting, I recommend Mikrokopter route. I own both MK amnd WK-M. I'll list the reasons why I'm recommending MK:

* Waypoint is cheaper with MK. Some clients will want shots from specific height and coordinate periodically (Which instruction sites can ask for). Waypoint is sometimes a saviour.
* Telemetry solution is built in with MK. If you get MX20 tx, you'll have some sweet telemetry data
* MK still handles windy conditions better then WK-M IMO.

For shooting with Nex5-N, a decent quad would be more than enough. If the budget is the main concern:
* MK Quad XL frame
* Droidworx Extended Landing Gear. Or HiLander landing gear. The standart quad XL landing gear sucks.
* Take a look to averticalviews camera mounts.
* Tiger / Avroto 2814 motors.
* Wood props (Xoar or JXF)
 

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ovdt

Member
I also don't agree about MK configuration. The hard part is the soldering. If you get pass this stage, you're good to go. I'm spending much more time with WK-M settings.
 

redridinghood

redridinghood

Member
Height hold and position hold of DJI and now YS-X6 are much much better than Mk's. Just for stationary pictures and not video MK is not so authoritative in staying put.
 

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ovdt

Member
redridinghood said:
Height hold and position hold of DJI and now YS-X6 are much much better than Mk's. Just for stationary pictures and not video MK is not so authoritative in staying put.
Click to expand...

With my current setups, I can't see any differences between PH and AH on MK setup and WK-M setup. They're both rock solid. Especially after 0.88, AH of MK is very close to WK-M. For GPS, no difference.

On the other hand, for photo shooting, if you are over 30 meters, holding the kopter in 0.5 meter circle won't affect the shot.(If the kopter is configured properly and there's no wind, and got enough satellites, there won't be circling). (However, what makes the shot worse is micro vibrations; to fix it, we need higher shutter speeds)

But built in telemetry and waypoint which MK provides is far more important features. With WK-M, you need to pay lots of extra for waypoint and telemetry. These are more benefical for photo shooting and MK offers with less price.

I do shooting for construction sites, which are more than 300.000 m^2, and what they need is exactly the same height and coordinate. I handle this with my 2500$ MK Quad. What I only do is just load the previous map and hit the waypoint switch after taking off. Wtih WK-M only the controller and Waypoint suite costs around this.

redridinghood, the link you provided for camera mount looks promising. Have you had any chance using it?
 


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ryan_m

Member
mikrokopter looks like a bit of a nightmare just to figure out what parts to buy...
Bit up there in price too, looking at specs, the quad is rated for 1kg payload. Does that include lipo? Some do, some don't...
given that I would probably want the hexa-xl, it lists 1500g. And you appear to be in the 2500 price range before a camera gimbal and gps/mag/navi boards. So easily 3800-4k after those.

Seems like a flamewheel f550 could be built a lot less,
frame 60 bucks
esc's 6xhobbyking f-30, plus programmer, $75
motors - 350
even a with a wookong I'm under 2500 with a camera gimbal.
With a Naza and the upcoming GPS for it it would be closer to 2000, or about half.
A stock f550 arf kit would be a bit cheaper even.
 


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Raceraustria

Member
ovdt said:
With my current setups, I can't see any differences between PH and AH on MK setup and WK-M setup. They're both rock solid. Especially after 0.88, AH of MK is very close to WK-M. For GPS, no difference.

On the other hand, for photo shooting, if you are over 30 meters, holding the kopter in 0.5 meter circle won't affect the shot.(If the kopter is configured properly and there's no wind, and got enough satellites, there won't be circling). (However, what makes the shot worse is micro vibrations; to fix it, we need higher shutter speeds)

But built in telemetry and waypoint which MK provides is far more important features. With WK-M, you need to pay lots of extra for waypoint and telemetry. These are more benefical for photo shooting and MK offers with less price.

I do shooting for construction sites, which are more than 300.000 m^2, and what they need is exactly the same height and coordinate. I handle this with my 2500$ MK Quad. What I only do is just load the previous map and hit the waypoint switch after taking off. Wtih WK-M only the controller and Waypoint suite costs around this.

redridinghood, the link you provided for camera mount looks promising. Have you had any chance using it?
Click to expand...

How high did you fly to take a foto for 300.000m^2???
 

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ovdt

Member
Hello Raceraustria,

Taking photos of fairly large areas from bird's-eye-view sometimes hard. I need find a good angle and then I shoot it. Let me explain with examples:

This photo is taken from about 350 meters high:

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/333055_278671072170697_254603201244151_728094_21474192_o.jpg

This is birds-eye-view from almost 800 meters:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/478931_367787136592423_254603201244151_959922_1449238572_o.jpg

200.000 m^2 shipyard from ~380 meters:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/412281_381460078558462_254603201244151_994599_1021117021_o.jpg

This is 900.000 m^2 factory from 250 meters:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/469247_337785486259255_254603201244151_880175_856924842_o.jpg

The most challenging shoot is the birds eye view.
 

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Raceraustria

Member
Wow, really nice pics.

I fly a Wookong M and a MK but the problem with the MK is that you have to buy a commercial license (very expensiv ) , when you want to sold the photos and make waypoint flights over 250 meters .
 

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