I did a similar mod: fly my Phantom 1 with a CC3D board inside. It works perfectly fine and now i can fly acro mode at insane speeds.
About to build a flying wing around a cc3d, hoping for similar results.
Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
41–50 of 52 posts
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#42After my last drone flew off never to be seen again I started looking into open source flight controllers. The open source platform has come a long way. I consider DJI to be the most advanced at FC firmware. But they intentionally limit you so much. My next drones will most likely be a Spark for the interior and an easily upgradable OSS DIY rig for aerial photography. Running Betaflight or iNav.
> After my last drone flew off never to be seen again How does that happen?
Maybe an annoyed neighbor shot it down.
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#43Looks like the price has raised since the article. Due to popularity maybe?
I bought it for £75 this morning where it said the lower price was for 2 more days. Now it's £95.
Must have generated a fair few purchases!
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#44If you're interested in a quad loaded with open source software right out of the box, take a look at the Sky Viper v2450 GPS. It runs about $150. It runs full ardupilot code, has a ublox gps chip, a taoglas gps antenna, and the video board and transmitter software is open source. It runs a tiny webserver that allows you to configure any of the ardupilot variables, and is compatible with most of the ardupilot ground c…
Best I can find in UK is £100 on Amazon, http://amzn.to/2jblHQP (affil), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viper-V2450HD-Streaming-Video-Drone....
Toysrus is £120, http://www.toysrus.co.uk/pdp/product.jsp?productId=TRUP21226... Smyths is £130, https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/construction-and-ca...
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it not a toy for grown kids? I'm pretty sure I'd get a kick out of messing about with one, and I'm an adult age-wise.
Maybe I worded that incorrectly. What I mean is that you would be fine giving a kid a brushed quadcopter without worrying that they're going to filet themselves (for the most part. Yeah they could cut themselves but the damage would be order of magnitude less than with a brushless). Giving a brushless quadcopter to a kid without any instruction would be totally irresponsible. They're still toys yeah but can be pretty…
I'm trying to understand the difference between the two types of motors and found this: https://lifehacker.com/are-brushless-cordless-tools-worth-th...
They talk about the more efficient battery use but not the added power or danger of brushless motors. Can you find a link that does explain it?
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#46If you're interested in a quad loaded with open source software right out of the box, take a look at the Sky Viper v2450 GPS. It runs about $150. It runs full ardupilot code, has a ublox gps chip, a taoglas gps antenna, and the video board and transmitter software is open source. It runs a tiny webserver that allows you to configure any of the ardupilot variables, and is compatible with most of the ardupilot ground c…
Best I can find in UK is £100 on Amazon, http://amzn.to/2jblHQP (affil), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viper-V2450HD-Streaming-Video-Drone... . Toysrus is £120, http://www.toysrus.co.uk/pdp/product.jsp?productId=TRUP21226... Smyths is £130, https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/construction-and-ca...
Your Amazon link I think is for an older model that doesn't mention GPS I believe?
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#47Its sad that the FAA has rules that don't allow any commercial use of a drone in populated suburbs. With real time insurance starting to take off. These rules ought to be revisited, at least for light weight drones < 5 pounds.
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe I worded that incorrectly. What I mean is that you would be fine giving a kid a brushed quadcopter without worrying that they're going to filet themselves (for the most part. Yeah they could cut themselves but the damage would be order of magnitude less than with a brushless). Giving a brushless quadcopter to a kid without any instruction would be totally irresponsible. They're still toys yeah but can be pretty…
I'm trying to understand the difference between the two types of motors and found this: https://lifehacker.com/are-brushless-cordless-tools-worth-th... They talk about the more efficient battery use but not the added power or danger of brushless motors. Can you find a link that does explain it?
In short brushless motors are a 3 phase ac induction motor for the ones used in quads.
Brushed motors are the classic motors that you may have played with as a kid, put in a dc current and they spin.
Brushless motors are much much much more powerful and essentially only wear out due to heat, or bearings failing.
Brushed motors can be damaged by stalling, heat, etc and much more easily.
The important part that the above poster was trying to make is that a brushed motor, any size that would be used on a retail drone/quad/ etc might spin a prop with enough force to cut..... maybe even need a stitch or two but unlikely that bad.
Whereas the brushless motors used in even small quads would most certainly need stitches, and maybe even sever a finger.
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#49This is why I don't understand why companies lock down their hardware! You're getting free software enhancements and support; unlock that thing! Why waste people's time in reverse engineering your crap, when they could be spending that time building new functionality. For example, Canon and the whole CHDK thing. Canon makes money from selling the hardware; so why lock down the software?
> why lock down the software?
I work with hardware (not quadcopters) that is limited by software and the software is locked down, so I can at least tell you the reasons we do it:
1. Warranty. We know the limits of the hardware and our customers expect us to warranty that hardware for a reasonable amount of time, so we can't have consumers pushing the hardware beyond the duration/temperature/speed/etc that is going to significantly reduce its lifespan. We're not trying to be jerks, we're just saying here is our warranty and these are the parameters/limits within which we can offer that warranty.
2. Hackers. Hobby hackers are cool and most of us that work on these products are hobby hackers too, so we can appreciate the curiosity, fun and legitimate utility of modifying the software. But, there is a rising threat of malicious hackers and many of our customers (and non-customers) expect us to protect society as a whole from our products being taken over by malicious hackers for the purpose of harming someone. If nothing else, nobody who makes the products want to find out their product was used for that from a moral standpoint, not to mention a liability standpoint.
As for Canon, I'm sure people have tried to return camera bodies they've tried to hack and have bricked or otherwise damaged and that's not fair to Canon either.
The right solution would be for the manufacturers to make some of their software open source so hobbyists could add features and submit official pull requests that can be vetted by the engineers that are responsible for the reliability of the product and the safety of the people around it.
That's my two cents on it anyways.
Re: Bayangtoys X16: Inexpensive, durable, hackable GPS drone
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Best I can find in UK is £100 on Amazon, http://amzn.to/2jblHQP (affil), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viper-V2450HD-Streaming-Video-Drone... . Toysrus is £120, http://www.toysrus.co.uk/pdp/product.jsp?productId=TRUP21226... Smyths is £130, https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/toys/construction-and-ca...
Your Amazon link I think is for an older model that doesn't mention GPS I believe?
Ah, yes, I think you're right - why do companies use the same model numbers over again. Do they really have more than 26000 models, or whatever.