Pixhawk able to do what the Solo does?

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p40whk

Member
I started a quad about 2-3 years ago using a Pixhawk controller for the sole purpose of aerial photography. Life got in the way and I set it aside never finishing it or getting it flying.

I've been eyeing the 3DR Solo and a lot of what it can do photo wise like the Orbit and cable car feature and Amazon has these now on sale for $599 for the complete package.

I looked at the Yuneec and DJI options as well but then realized I had this project packed away.

Was wondering if you can achieve the same sort of flight/photography characteristics with a home built drone and Pixhawk controller that you can with the RTF option out there?
 

Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

Member
No. I can make a Pixhawk do most of the things the SOLO can do but it takes much longer, you have to be a wizard with Mission Planner and it still won't do it as well.

So if your going to fly a GoPro you can't beat the SOLO. BUT, if you want to fly anything bigger than a GoPro then the SOLO isn't an option anyway.

So it all depends on the problem your trying to solve..
 

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p40whk

Member
Thanks Chuck

What I'd like to do is film small fireworks shows from the air, Plan the flight and have the drone circle the shoot site and do some type of "orbit" around the fireworks.

I have all this gear and figured I'd look into seeing if it was capable before thinking about investing.

I don't have a GoPro so one of the other camera equipped platforms may be a better option.
 

Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

Member
If your not using a GoPro then you can't use a SOLO anyway. Have you used or looked into Mission Planner? There are smartphone apps like Tower but I haven't used that in over a year.

The Pixhawk is plenty capable of doing what you want but its going to take a little figuring it out on your part, it won't quite do it the way you've explained what you'd like to do out of the box.

The bigger challenge is for you to not become part of the fireworks is your going to need to be fairly high and probably require a pretty big orbit, so flight time is going to be the real gating factor to your success.

GoPro's suck in low light anyway but if you were to use something like a Sony a5100 with a three axis gimbal, that would weight approximately 1.5Kg (3-pounds). On a quad you'd need at least 15" props and with 10,000MAh battery you'd only have about 8-10 minutes of flight time.
 



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