Wow that looks pretty amazing !

This sounds good, but it looks to me like they are trying to get advance orders and maybe haven't quite got it ready yet.

The idea seems to be the way to go and if they do get it working right, its going to be a big seller.

nextlevelaerialfilming.com/

OK I will probably sound like the fun police, but here goes:
I fly Multiiwiicopter UAV's (www.multiwiicopter.com) and currently have three. They are an Australian company and know what they are talking about, so if you are interested maybe talk with them. They are awesome fun but the reality is that they don't cut the mustard much over 20knots and even if you spend 10k on a DJI s1000 or S800 or similar set up you are still going to struggle in 30knots.

In my experience this is a hobby or profession (if you get a UAV control certificate and operators licence) that should be way more involved than just sticking something up in the air. You wouldn't get in a plane and just try and fly, and the same should apply to a UAV. If you don't invest the time in learning to fly manual/Acro modes, understand how they work etc you are asking for trouble.

For all those interested I would suggest the following:
1)Do research...
2)Don't expect to be flying in 30knots
3) try and find someone that can show you the ropes ( this will save you a lot of time and money)
4) Get a sim or $100 toy mode 2 quad to learn orientation
5) Understand the CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) guidelines
6) Triple the amount you think it will cost you
7) Fly safe

Ready for the first test flight.
Now the fun/crash/rebuild begins!

Looking good Westoz!

What frame is that? Good to see you're going the custom route, it's way more fun that way. Those Afros are a good deal, I've had to flash all my speedies (before the afros came out).

I've built several custom frames so far, here's my latest: (designed for FPV, been getting into that a bit lately)





For high wind you really want to be running 8" props, so that means 1200 kV on 3S, or 900kV or so on 4S. Higher disk loading means that it gets buffeted around a bit less in wind. You pay for it a bit with battery life though.

Sweet video! Does anyone know what kind of drone was it filmed on? Are the DJI's the only ones with white blades?

Micah and Phil are on their medium boards in the clip so I'm guessing it's up around 20 knots; footage is pretty smooth I thought.

Sunnysky are a great motor, I've only heard great things about them.

Cripes what batteries are you using? My current tri in flying trim with battery, FPV video link, GPS on screen display, and recording camera on the front is only 980 grams...

Just a fixed mount for me right now, I have enough trouble flying the thing through goggles without worrying about pointing the camera in a different direction to the way the craft is flying!

Turnigy nano-tech 4500mah 3S 35~70C Lipo Pack battery 372g
gopro in waterproof housing. Just swapped to skeleton housing and dropped close to 200g
Motors are 54g each, plus another arm. When you subtract that, it's not far off yours.

I've upgraded to the phantom2 and it's great, Much better flight time then the original phantom. Naked (the craft, Not me) you get 20-25 mins of flight time depending on conditions, With all the gear including gimbal and FPV you get a solid 15 but you can push it to about 17...I choose to land when the low voltage indicator first come on. It weighs in at 1.2kg with all the gear on it and is larger and heavier then the original phantom which I think helps in the wind. I'm happy to fly in about 15 knots, Above this you really need to think about what you are doing as changes in direction can cause the craft to fly a bit wild but easy enough to get under control as long as your not in a confined area.....It picks up speed quickly when you turn down wind. I'm sure 20 knots would be ok but it's just going to shorten the battery life, I choose to fly in manual mode most of the time when filming as I feel it gives much steadier footage. GPS mode it great when you get lost in the sun and you don't know what way the craft is facing, I've pushed it out to sea on more then one occasion thinking I was bringing it back to me. With the 2 axis gimbal you get good stuff straight out of the GoPro but it does get a little side to side rotation that you need to fix with editing software. With the new ones coming with a 3 axis gimbal it's only going to be better, Super smooth straight out of the camera.

here is a fun surf check from the other day - its always terrifying flying over water - and airborne salt spray isnt great for your electrics...




A little bit of background from my 14 months or so of flying:

i am running the 2 axis zenmuse stabiliser (i use a little bit of post stabilisation where nescessary - but also have set up expo on my yaw response (basically this means you have to move the stick a lot from the centre position to get response out of the craft) on the controller to give smoother movements .

The 3 axis looks like the bomb. I actually use my quad powered up and hand held as a 2 axis handheld stabiliser for some shots - works a treat.


I fly a DJI fw 450 on a futaba 8fj . 3700mah batteries give me around 7-9 mins flight time depending on style and energy demands. AUW is around 1250 grams with cameras and gimbals all attached.

Have had that for around 9 months now - trouble free.

I have had a lot of mates get into UAVS - most of them(in fact all) come back with a pretty good crash / write off / user error story pretty quickly after purchase and initial flying.

Having had 6 years of aerobatic / 3d plane flight experience prior to getting in to this really helped. Believe it or not multi rotors fly more like planes than helis...


You really need to always have a real time back up plan for when you get into a situation. Usually this is throttle! But that doesnt help if you are flying hard
into your battery capacity as throttle response drops off as you get into the lower 35% of your capacity- and you NEVER want to go less than 20% capacity.

Basically always try and be 1 or 2 steps ahead of your craft.

Getting into this requires some real discipline and will work your brain pretty hard - especially when you are trying to fly the camera cinematically - your are
multi tasking pretty hard.


I'd love to get 15 mins flight time - looking at higher capacity (5000mah) batteries with 4s instead of 3s.

Orientation via line of sight is a real issue - there is a smart mode you can flick to to bring the quad to you by pulling the left stick back - but as an RC flyer of 7 plus years now i dont like handing too much control to the autopilot.
Some bright color coded leds would help but i am always shy to add weight to my set up.

The Phantom 2 with 3 axis gimbal is a bargain for those that arent in to tinkering.

There are some interesting developments currently happening in the sub 2kg UAV space with regards to regs here in Australia.

DJI are stepping up nicely with some nice geo fencing features (GPS area restrictions) to keep the clowns out of controlled airspace (usually airports).

Mine was still running after retrieving it from waist deep water, I didn't try to fly it though. I was told by a service guy from DJI that they often survive crashes in fresh water but saltwater on the other hand is a death sentence. Mine flew for about a month after the crash into salt water then it started doing funny things, after opening up the shell it was very obvious that corrosion had set in and it was starting to fail. If crashed into saltwater you need to flush it out with fresh water ASAP, Within minutes corrosion starts on the electrics. Flush with heaps of water, I'm talking fill a bath tub and submerge, Then spray everything with a water dispersant and let dry. This will be your best chance of recovering from a salt water crash.

The gimbal upgrade would give you excellent results, The only thing you need to look for is if your phantom has a hole in the bottom to allow the new 3 axis gimbal to fit. If it doesn't have the hole you need to buy and adaptor as well which are readily available, The gimbal itself is pretty much plug and play. The FPV kit can be purchased from places such as...

camzilla.com.au
sphere.net.au
helipal.com (china, but awesome service)

The kit comes with everything you need to get it to work including the cables for the GoPro, You just need power from the Phantom which should already be poking out through one of the phantoms arms (if not open it up and you'll find 2 wires that supply power and earth). The range is ok with the standard antenna that you get but these can be upgraded to give you 1km of range (so they say) but why you'd want to fly that far away is beyond me, Asking for trouble me thinks.

I think it's money well spent on this upgrade.

Cheers.

As not to "reinvent the wheel", have any of you considered contacting Galactic Empire ?. I'm pretty sure they will have something that suits your needs "off the shelf".






You could gaffa tape a Go-Pro onto one of it's manipulator thingies. (and make sure you lick the camera lens before flight)