What would you buy for £10k-£15k

[swisser]

I fear you're getting swept along here and getting advice from people who love multirotor kit for the sake of it; if people are answering without having a defined "mission profile", as full-sized aviators would call it, then I debate the usefulness of the answers (however knowledgable and/or well intended they are) and frankly it shows. You can do very high quality real estate photography with a DJI 450 frame, Naza controller and an Nex 5N, for a total only just getting in to four figures. For another example, why do you need a brushless gimbal to do stills? It's debatable you need a gimbal at all.

If you have a £15k budget for this it's obviously a pretty serious professional project. Why not employ someone who knows what they're doing and at least then you can learn from them if you do want to do it yourself in the future, particularly if you're in a rush, which it sounds like you are.

 

[Dewster]

After much consideration I have decided to go with an S800 with Zenmuse gimbal, would you say the Sony nex7 is a big improvement over the nex5n, also what transmitter is good for having all the functions for 1 man operation, maybe with remote gains etc.

I would wait until things calmed down with the S800. DJI has their new WKM V2 coming out, stiffer framed S800 and better S800 ESCs etc. I would hate to order a problematic first gen and see money down the drain. I like DJI's flight controller. I've flown mine successfully without control issues. Is easy to assemble and has been reliable for me on my platforms. I question the reliability when combined with the S800 and the fixes that were implemented to keep the craft from falling out of the sky.

I have the Sony Nex5n. It takes great pictures. People look at me crazy when I told them that I put the camera in the air because of its cost. If you have confidence in your ship then you are willing to take the risk. Anytime i make changes to the craft's firmware, props, FPV equipment etc. Ill test the craft for unusual behavior. (It was during a test of new props that a failure occurred destroying my flat hexa). My expensive Sony missed that expensive flight.

I would look at weight, image optical stabilization and connectivity when comparing the Sony cameras. I use GentLed to trigger my Sony Nex 5n. I have to use a small FPV camera to frame my shots.

I like the Futaba Super 8fg. I think it has more than enough channels for a one man op. I keep it simple though. I have my flight modes, return to home, Intelligent Orientation Control and Home Lock programmed. I use another channel to trigger the GentLed for taking pictures and the knobs for rotating the gimbal. I wish the Futaba had telemetry so that I could keep monitor the craft's battery power from the transmitter.

I like the look and concept of the S800. The Zenmuse is impressive. I am glad that I already spent money before the products came out after hearing and seeing posted videos of it crashing.

 

[midnight999]

I fear you're getting swept along here and getting advice from people who love multirotor kit for the sake of it; if people are answering without having a defined "mission profile", as full-sized aviators would call it, then I debate the usefulness of the answers (however knowledgable and/or well intended they are) and frankly it shows. You can do very high quality real estate photography with a DJI 450 frame, Naza controller and an Nex 5N, for a total only just getting in to four figures. For another example, why do you need a brushless gimbal to do stills? It's debatable you need a gimbal at all.

If you have a £15k budget for this it's obviously a pretty serious professional project. Why not employ someone who knows what they're doing and at least then you can learn from them if you do want to do it yourself in the future, particularly if you're in a rush, which it sounds like you are.

Hi Swisser, I see what your saying but I'm not new to multirotors, I joined here a few years ago and had a homemade airframe running the WKM when it first came out, using a standard Nex5 with mikrocopter gimbal it flew brilliantly and got very good photo's, unfortunately I don't have that rig anymore, I am managing a huge construction development of upto £700 million and trying to go through the process of becoming a chartered engineer, so as you can imagine I have very little spare time so the prospect of messing around building from scratch again is out of the question, I have some opportunities to get some people interested and I need to do it now, so I want to buy a rig that will work right out of the box maybe cover a bit of video if required. I haven't kept current with developments over the last couple of years so asking for help on what is currently the best airframe/ gimbal combo to just get up and photographing. I have looked into things and lowered what I am willing to invest in just the rig so would be looking to get it operational for £6-7k

 

[Carapau]

I did, so I'd say that's not correct.

Swisser, I stand corrected- I got a very clear impression that this wasnt allowed on my BNUC course but obviously it is.

Im not going to start a this v that debate but another good radio for a one man operation is the Spektrum DX18. Both this and the Futaba are excellent. My advice would be to try and get to play with both and then choose the one that best fits your hand and where the switches etc seem more naturally positioned. The Jeti line of TXs also look amazing and might be worth looking at.

 

[midnight999]

Whats the general opinion on the Vulcan Mantis 900mm airframe ?

 

[Bowley]

Whats the general opinion on the Vulcan Mantis 900mm airframe ?

Most people seem to be happy with their Vulcans, the range of eqpt is improving all the time with the introduction of adapter mounts, anti vibration kits, battery trays, new landing gear, etc etc.
Certainly happy with mine, I would go for the larger motor prop set up and 6S though.

 

[midnight999]

Certainly look to be good value, what would you say on this airframe running on 6s setup, with WKM and Zenmuse?

 

[Bowley]

Certainly look to be good value, what would you say on this airframe running on 6s setup, with WKM and Zenmuse?

I'd say that would be pretty awesome, Zenmuse? wierd thing going on right now...high end manufacturers selling brushless at prices proportional to the improved performance while the fact is actually that brushless gimbals are now available at less than the cost of previous servo gimbals. ie Hoverfly gimbal - £300 ish.....Alexmos + IMU - £150 ish. savox servo - £60 ish...brushless motor - £40 ish. and a lot les gubbins,,pots belts wheels etc involved.
Maybe there is tech involved at the higher end that I am unaware of, but when your going into 5 figures I cant help but think WTF.

 

[DennyR]

If you want to be totally confused then there are quite a few MR's that can do a reasonable job if you know what you are doing. The fact is that almost all MR's have some level of instability in certain flight conditions. If you fix one end of the envelope then the other end will suffer. It is basically due to one factor and that is that the control concept is based on a fixed pitch prop. that is controlled by an increase or decrease in RPM. The level of reliability is far from that which is considered anywhere near that which should be allowed to fly in a pubic place for hire or reward. It is however possible to build a variable pitch MR device that is based on current SR technology controllers. However why punish yourself with that idea when it would still be well short of the lift efficiency of a well made conventional Single Rotor Helicopter. Something like this will beat any Multi Rotor on Efficiency, Reliability, Stability, Camera Position, Ease of Orientation viewing, Cost and now with some good controllers they are just as easy to fly as MR's. As far as Danger goes it is about 99% less likely to fail from Electrical problems which are the hardest thing to predict and in the event of a power failure they can autorotate. View attachment 11863IView attachment 11864 I built this one for less than 3K:tennis:

I see the penny has dropped with some of your favorite MR dealers

For those who don't understand the aerodynamics of the MR weakness, it is in a nutshell to do with the fact that a descent starts with a slowing down of the blades which in conjunction with a yaw input will cause the slowest blade to begin a partial stall. If you fly a SR helicopter in a non idle up (non constant head speed) then it too will encounter a descent wobble when the blades start to reach the critical angle of attack.

 

[midnight999]

If you want to be totally confused then there are quite a few MR's that can do a reasonable job if you know what you are doing. The fact is that almost all MR's have some level of instability in certain flight conditions. If you fix one end of the envelope then the other end will suffer. It is basically due to one factor and that is that the control concept is based on a fixed pitch prop. that is controlled by an increase or decrease in RPM. The level of reliability is far from that which is considered anywhere near that which should be allowed to fly in a pubic place for hire or reward. It is however possible to build a variable pitch MR device that is based on current SR technology controllers. However why punish yourself with that idea when it would still be well short of the lift efficiency of a well made conventional Single Rotor Helicopter. Something like this will beat any Multi Rotor on Efficiency, Reliability, Stability, Camera Position, Ease of Orientation viewing, Cost and now with some good controllers they are just as easy to fly as MR's. As far as Danger goes it is about 99% less likely to fail from Electrical problems which are the hardest thing to predict and in the event of a power failure they can autorotate. View attachment 15111IView attachment 15112 I built this one for less than 3K:tennis:

I see the penny has dropped with some of your favorite MR dealers

For those who don't understand the aerodynamics of the MR weakness, it is in a nutshell to do with the fact that a descent starts with a slowing down of the blades which in conjunction with a yaw input will cause the slowest blade to begin a partial stall. If you fly a SR helicopter in a non idle up (non constant head speed) then it too will encounter a descent wobble when the blades start to reach the critical angle of attack.

Hi Denny, thanks for that, I have a heli A cert from the BMFA here in the UK and flew them for years, never really considered using one in the UK I wonder is it still covered under the BNUC-S. what is the gimbal technology like and how about vibration etc, I suspect they would perform better than an MR in windy conditions. What rig would be good for use with a Nex5n/Nex7?

The only problem is the rig I am going to get needs to be operated by 2 different people, the other one can't fly heli's

 

[Droider]

Aye Up Midnight,

Just get a RTF from Geoff at QC.co.uk, something that will lift the Nex5. Job done you dont need to spend anywhere near your 10K/15k.

For my other job I just launch the F450 and GP3 if you want examples Ill post some or you can look on here save me time www.energyworx2.co.uk.

The only thing with the GP is the distortion, but I guess it depends on what you want at the end of the day. BH a Phantom and GP3 will do the same job as my F450 no mither.

Dave

 

[midnight999]

Hey Dave, well after much deliberating I've ordered a Vulcan Mantis 1080 to run on 6s. Together with a WKM and Zenmuse. Going to run a Nex7 and Spektrum DX18. Can't wait to get it in the air now.