Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#91

Post by baddox » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 2:51 AM UTC

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #81

tlrobinson wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you recommend DJI Phantom or are there other up and coming hobbyist drone manufacturers worth looking at?

You could make one from parts. It's what I'm doing now.

It's a great way to go, if for no other reason than it will give you a stronger relationship with your aircraft and thus make you fly more carefully. :)

That said, while assembly and setup is mostly trivial (the hardest parts are basic soldering and dealing with some open source configuration GUIs for some flight controllers), figuring out what to buy and where to source it is pretty challenging, especially for a first build.

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#92

Post by baddox » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 2:56 AM UTC

MiguelHudnandez wrote: post #76

grinich wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We really should also regulate pigeons.

Pigeons usually do not have fast-spinning blades attached to them. I am not really for regulation, but these things can actually hurt people [1]. RC Helicopters (with one large, main rotor) have actually killed people [2]. Hobbyists must take great care to operate their drones safely, and companies should assume some liability for runaway situations like this if they ever result in injuries. Warning, pictures of inju…

So can people with knives or swords, or baseballs propelled by a bat. Anyway, I suspect that all of those quadcopter injuries occurred while the owner was setting up the quadcopter. Every story I've read (mostly from my frequent visits to RC hobby forums) is from people attempting to test functionality on a bench with the propellers on, or perhaps a few people who attempt to take off with their aircraft right at their feet. The RC helicopter death is a valid point, but that's the only RC aircraft related death I know of, and helis like his pretty much self-regulate because they're expensive, require mechanical knowledge to setup and maintain, and will mostly likely never get off the ground if flown by someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#93

Post by Stratoscope » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 3:21 AM UTC

sbirchall wrote: post #31

cooper12 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Every sound you've ever heard That's a really broad claim. DO you have a source for this statement?

yeah I wouldn't say _Every_ but a very large majority most certainly are. I used to delight in ruining people's enjoyment of nature documentaries by pointing out that anything walking on snow is the sound of custard powder being crunched and twisted in a rubber glove! Yeah: I'm a bastard ;)

I think you would enjoy this wonderful old Jam Handy video called Back of the Mike:

https://archive.org/details/Backofth1938

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#94

Post by janinge » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 3:47 AM UTC

thanatropism wrote: post #64

sounds wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: Ninja'd by dronehire. Please refer to his answer. Educated guess here, but the article says it's a GoPro camera, so they probably have to get the drone back alive and download the video from the GoPro. On the other hand, wireless HD video streaming isn't that hard to do, especially in remote areas like volcanoes where the 2.4GHz band is pretty much all yours. To do better out of line-of-sight it makes sense to…

You can stream from a GoPro to an iPhone. There's an app for that. Not sure about that distance. (I didn't see the video) The GoPro opens a wi-fi connection.

Range with this setup and a Phantom isn't much more than 10 meters, from experience. The wifi module on the GoPro runs a web server where segments for HLS are published, so every packet and frame must be acked by the the phone and segments downloaded fully, which might not be the best when you want a bit range on the thing.

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#95

Post by Stratoscope » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 3:55 AM UTC

trevoragilbert wrote: post #69

This is really cool. Though seems a bit risky to have your drone flying around with lava shooting through the air. Any idea on how they avoided ruining their drone?

That's simple: none of the chunks of red hot molten lava flying all around the drone actually hit it.

If you want a technical term, I think it's called "sample bias".

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#96

Post by sk5t » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 4:10 AM UTC

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #7

Killah911 wrote: post #6

Footage got better by turning the sound off. I wonder if editors in general have poor taste in music or are simply trying to convey their excitement thru dub step background music.

Just curious, which music would you use? This happens to be important to me, so some analysis would be appreciated. EDIT: Assume only a visual feed was available, no audio.

This video of a booster rocket has excellent, mostly-natural sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aCOyOvOw5c

It came to mind due to the airborne / hostile environment combination...

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#97

Post by baddox » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 7:49 AM UTC

plaguuuuuu wrote: post #89

baddox wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I backed their Kickstarter, and have also met the guys and seen those airframes in person at their "Game of Drones: Flight Club" meetups in SF [0]. You're right that they still use normal propellers, and that those will be the weak spot when ramming into things. But the point is simply that the airframe itself is sturdy and nearly indestructible. They're designed to battle in the air against one another, which inevit…

Have they ever thought of using carbon fibre props, you can 3D print CF now

CF props are quite common for multirotors, but I don't think they'd be good for battling simply because they're significantly more expensive than plastic props, and for battling you're not really concerned with efficiency or prop deflection.

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#98

Post by sbirchall » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 8:04 AM UTC

tunap wrote: post #72

sbirchall wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah I wouldn't say _Every_ but a very large majority most certainly are. I used to delight in ruining people's enjoyment of nature documentaries by pointing out that anything walking on snow is the sound of custard powder being crunched and twisted in a rubber glove! Yeah: I'm a bastard ;)

I like the growl that is administered to every video cat larger than a fat tabby. IF I ever hear that sound IRL, I won't be thinking cougar or bobcat, rather how to deter the jaguar from crushing my skull.

There is a soundbite used to dub over the top of replays in Premiership football as broadcast on terrestrial TV here in the UK. Once you notice it's exactly the same sound every time it's something you can never not notice and it's infuriating! There are a few whoops and screams in it that get me every time and make me cringe.

In this vein there's an amazing line from Man on The Moon when Kaufman refuses to let canned laughter be dubbed over his show: "That's dead people laughing! You know all those people they recorded are dead by now, right!?"

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#99

Post by Killah911 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 8:22 AM UTC

mberning wrote: post #50

Killah911 wrote: post #6

Footage got better by turning the sound off. I wonder if editors in general have poor taste in music or are simply trying to convey their excitement thru dub step background music.

The fact that you think glitch mob is dubstep leads me to believe that you are extremely out of touch.

Actually, I happen to like glitch mob, not for all occasions though. I wasn't referring to this video in particular but a string of armature videos (UAV ones as a matter of fact) that either featured techno/dub step/other high tempo music which overwhelmed the visual experience.

This video was quite amazing to me. Hence I assumed the accompanying track to be in poor taste given the visual experience. I apologize if I have offended sensibilities by comparing glitch mob to dub step or techno, I shall promptly report to the closest rave to get back in touch (I think I feel something... Not).

FYI, your argument is ad hominem and hardly detracts or adds to my original observation (Wikipedia and HN discussion guidelines should help enlighten you on ad hominem argumentation if you happen to be out of touch with what that may mean)

Re: Drone Flies Into an Active Volcano [video]

#100

Post by Killah911 » Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 8:34 AM UTC

tomn wrote: post #90

easy_rider wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes seriously, this was my first thought. The funny thing is that it isn't even dubstep. It is some kind of subgenre that seems to have been the trend for 2013/2014. It sounds like a microsoft surface commercial. I coined the term "clubstep" for it. Looks like someone beat me to it [1]. I've also noted an alarming trend in latest sci-fi movies with this awful music being portrayed still being the hottest thing in clu…

Does it really matter if it's dubstep or not? I happen to quite like whatever that was, but generally dislike most dubstep i've come across. Maybe it would have been better without sound, but calling something "awful" or of "poor taste" just because you don't like it is a bit much, especially for something as subjective and personal as musical taste.

A valid observation. I actually like the music, independent of the video & I liked the video as well. Just felt that the music overwhelmed what was an otherwise great video to watch. The visual experience literally got better for me once I turned the sound off.

I only mentioned it since I've recently seen a few wonderful videos ruined by the "wrong" type of music. I understand music is subjective, but if you've got a magnificent piece of video, it's just a shame to edit in a sound track to try to communicate how cool it is. Case and point, fast 80's music background music, which generally tells me the editors really miss the 80's. This particular video IMHO would have been much better with a more muted background noise level or at least a background where the peaks coordinate with the video (yes, being an video editor in my past life I know how time consuming that is).