[davidmc36]

Originally Posted by okhawaja

.....I found this Wifi router power booster which is 8W.....

I would not want that transmitting close to my body. It's like a miniature microwave oven.

http://hps.org/hpspublications/artic...radiation.html

Not to mention being technically way above what is legally allowed by RC equipment.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/En...3/oet63rev.pdf

IC rules are pretty much identical to FCC.

[okhawaja]

Found this image and thought I would share it.


Now with this said. Do our radio remote have SMA or RPSMA for antenna? I know that video tx and rx for FPV have RP-SMA...is this the case for radios as well? Also, that orange tx you guys posted link to on HK, is the antenna unscrewable?

[davidmc36]

Most do not have that type of antenna. It is just a small coax wire not much bigger than a hair and it has a very tiny connector or even soldered right to the board. The plastic part off the antenna is just hollow with the tiny wire inside.

More like this, smaller than a match head.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirose_U.FL

[okhawaja]

Originally Posted by davidmc36

Most do not have that type of antenna. It is just a small coax wire not much bigger than a hair and it has a very tiny connector or even soldered right to the board. The plastic part off the antenna is just hollow with the tiny wire inside.

More like this, smaller than a match head.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirose_U.FL

Aha! I just found a solution to it and was going to post it when I saw your answer. There is a way to do it. You can Ebay a U.FL to RP-SMA adapter and that will allow you to put the new antenna on.

[craneman32]

Originally Posted by travellerw

I know of no one in the D category that did not have someone helping them in real life (usually with a buddy box). Maybe they exist, but there are very few of them.

My goal is to increase this persons chances of succeeding and enjoying the hobby. Having someone with zero time on RC sticks attempt to learn on their own without someone physically helping does not offer a high chance of success. Its possible that it could lead to injury or property damage.

Haha after reading all of this I'm comin back to this quote to start. I bought a B400 a few years ago and taught myself to fly. Yes I'm a "D". No club and no buddy box. Hover and some crashes. 3 years later I'm on the 600 and 700s. Not a smack 3D pro but flips and inverted hovering is easy now. I read this article and have to agree there is way more tech to quads and FPV than I thought. I might just go buy a small one to get flying and to see how I do.

I'm considering a Trex 800 or a bigger hex/octo for FPV and photography. I have helis so I'm thinking hex or octo to change it up. Probably end up in $4000 range if I go with a big multi. I will search around here for more good reads. Nice thread guys. ALL great input!

[Max]

Originally Posted by okhawaja

I also looked at OSD (On screen display) and it seems pretty cool. Whatever I end up flying, I want atleast 15 min fly time because 10 mins of fly time probably feels nothing considering it takes 1-4 hours to recharge for each 10-15 mins of fly time..I just say the APM 2.5 with GPS for 170$ and I read somewhere that is one of the best flight controllers out in the market so what if I build everything from scratch? Take the APM 2.5 WITH GPS, take 30$ carbon fiber quad frame from hobby king, order the motors and power distribution board from hobby king, order the ESCs compatible. Get the Remote with failsafe, the orange remote that Max mentioned. Connect it all up and under 350$ I should have my own good quality quad. Then next year I can buy the FPV stuff. What do you guys think about this apporach? If I go this route then what info can I read to learn what I need to set it all up?

This is a good start.

As almost everyone here says, start with the basics and go one step at a time.

You should focus on getting a quad built and a decent radio. Then learn to fly it.

The other hardware should come later.

In the FPV section, my advice to everyone is the same. Too many people have 1001 gadgets all hooked up for thier first FPV flights and wonder why after 6 weeks they still cant get an FPV flight in the air because nothing is working right. Why? Because too many things going wrong at once.

My advice is: Start with ONE thing, make it work PERFECT, then add a device/feature.
The same is true to a beginner like you with your quad. Don't worry about SMA connectors, boosters, etc etc..
Just get the baiscs and make it work.
The basics is: A quad, a radio and some batteries. THATS IT (for now)

regarding your flight and charging times, you are of the mark. If you buy the charger I recommended earlier in this thread and several batteries, you can be flying almost non stop. 4 batteries and a parallel charge lead are ideal.
But when flying a particular site, 4 flights is enough. But if you did want to fly more, you can fast charge at the field.

At the field, you should be able to fast charge 2 packs at once in about 40 minutes.

[okhawaja]

Thank you everyone for all your awesome help. This is what I have decided:

For now I am going with the mini quad and will buy the bigger custom DIY next year with the radio remote (orange one) that you mentioned.

[okhawaja]

Okay everyone: I just got the Wl 262 yesterday and flew it at night in my room...Probably not a good idea since it was my first try. The wires for battery are sticking out on one side which causes a bit of imbalance towards one side but that issue should be resolved once I put a camera or weight on other side. I got my self 3 cuts already :P being a complete beginner, I had no clue about what throttle was so I thought, "80% huh? yeah! I want full power!" so you can guess that quad was going into my stove and stuff but I saw this brief review on wl 262 and saw that the throttle was how sensitive it is to your joystick. I certainly will be sticking to 40% for a while!

Today I took the quad out in the morning with a lot of wind but I got it to fly in random directions in my neighbhourhood. I am slightly confused on the orientation since it often switches based on the direction of quad so I know I will need more practice in my head on the orientation.


I don't get what a lot of the control mean on the tx. So far I only know of about 4 things: the stick on left controls altitude, stick on right is to tilt the quad to control direction, then in the right 3 buttons, the middle one turns the LEDs off. And then I know about the ON/OFF switch for the TX.

The rest of the controls I have no clue about....I am really trying to figure out how to rotate the quad at its position..Any idea what key that is? I have tried button mashing but nothing made it rotate.

Here is the picture of the TX controls:

http://droneflyers.com/wp-content/up...inedrawing.jpg

So what do these controls do?

Also, I saw that the control board has 4 plugs labelled, video camera, missile, sprayer, hoist. I know you can buy these items as accessories and plug them in to make it work with the quad but does anyone know how to control the accessories using the tx? I don't have the accessories but in the future I might want to use these outlets for controlling motors or other stuff.


It has a battery of 7.4 V and 850 Mah. Before this quad got to me, I ordered 11.1V 1300 Mah 20 C batteries, 4 of them....So could I use those on this quad or will it burn the motors? With the current battery I get about 8 mins of flight time.

[Max]

Wow. You have 0 skill and you are trying to tech yourself to fly quads and you have no idea how the controls work..

If you are teaching yourself to fly with no skill or anyone to help you, you really should use a simulator to at least LEARN the basics of orientation and control.

this might help:
http://droneflyers.com/2012/02/how-to-fly-a-quadcopter/
You should at least get some idea of what controls what.

Put away your dreams of flying around like a top gun going anywhere you want and fast, banking turns. YOU NEED TO LEARN TO HOVER IN ONE SPOT and get really good at it first

When learning to fly the quad, ONLY have it face OUT from you. That is the nose away and the tail facing you. Do not rotate the quad. Your first challenge is to hover an entire battery. Then do 5 more flights like this until you feel like you are getting bored. If you can do that and not lose control, then you are ready for the next step.

When you get good at that, your next challenge is to drift left and right, or forward and back, but never both(for now) always coming back to directly in front of you. When you drift forward and back, and left and right, never let it go more an 10 feet away from the center of the launch point. Do this for several batteries until you get so good at it, you can do it with your eyes closed. ONLY THEN are you ready to try some real "flying around"

Your 3S batteries? Forget them. I doubt you can use them on that 2S quad. You will most likely fry the circuitry. I wouldn't do it if it were me.

[Helno]

Originally Posted by okhawaja

It has a battery of 7.4 V and 850 Mah. Before this quad got to me, I ordered 11.1V 1300 Mah 20 C batteries

The left hand control stick is used to yaw (rotate) about the vertical axis.

You need to use batteries with the same voltage or you will potentially cook the motors or speed controllers. Getting larger capacity batteries does not always mean longer flight times as the quad now has to lift the heavier batteries.