DIY Drones Area

[Hoender]

Hello,

I am from Garsfontein Pretoria where is everyone from? And how active
are you with diydrones

[Louis van Niekerk]

I am from Douglasdale in Sandton.

I just started in this sport so i fly every weekend.

---

Louis van Niekerk

[Christiaan van Vollenstee]

Hello,

 

Did you buy from diy drones or netram?

 

And have you gone full autonomous flight?

[Louis van Niekerk]

No i bought my ArduCopter 3dr from Hein. He has a website vlap.co.za

No i am still playing around with my copter settings. I only have a DX6i radio so i needed to play with mix 1& 2 to get more switches.

I now have 5 modes. Only tested alt hold yesterday, in our complex. It worked very nice.

Will be going to a park not far from my home tomorrow to play with pos hold and lioter.

Full autonomous flight.... no still to new to this sport.

Would love to see it !!

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Louis van Niekerk

[Bam um]

Hi guys . 

I Ran Ardidrones. Com and was the main supplier of DIY products . But die to lake of intrest and people buying direct from DIY I was forced to close down shop . Wessie from clowns hobbies in CT is running it now , but for any advice help and setups I'm willing to help. Im in Randburg and fly regularly aswell  

Please safe our environment and do not print this email.

[Graham Dyer]

Have been flying drones since 2008 starting with the first ArduPilot, quads for about 6 months using first APM1 now APM2. Have done full autonomous & RTL flights, FPV (huge fun!) and aerial video.

I’m a moderator on DIYDrones. Fly Saturday mornings early on a cricket field in Northcliff, JHB – two quads & two tri’s now flying with us, (BTW, Johann when you coming to fly with us again?)

 

Graham

[Christiaan van Vollenstee]

Ja I totalled mine trying to do full autonomous. I order a brand new 3dr from diydrones with the new APM2 and the new 3DR telemetry and OSD. I have that X450 on the old APM 1 but my motors are busted from crashing the X525 frame.

 

So I am not flying at the moment and waiting for new motors and parts from DIY drones.

[Louis van Niekerk]

Hi Ran,

Then we are close to each other, woulkd like to meet soon.

I need a bit of help with setting in the planner

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Louis van Niekerk

[Christiaan van Vollenstee]

I would love to join you because I am very scared of full autonomous and would love to chat with some pros.

[Louis van Niekerk]

I would like to join you, are you flying tomorrow ?

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Louis van Niekerk

[Graham Dyer]

You’re very welcome, but I’m far from a pro . Flying tomorrow morning as long as it’s not too windy, normally go early (7am) to avoid possible wind and cricketers who come play around 9. Want to test a wing with APM1 tomorrow. Entrance just north of Matebele Str and O’Brien Ave (-26.15145, 27.97939)

 

 

Graham

[Graham Dyer]

Yes, you very welcome too, if it’s very windy we may postpone to Sunday but so far it’s on tomorrow.

[Bam um]

Hi Graham yes.

I will join you tommorow aswell , have that new NAZa to show you but will only be short one as I have date with the dentist at 9 .

Best 

Johan

Please safe our environment and do not print this email.

On May 18, 2012, at 10:48, "Graham Dyer" <graha...@gmail.com> wrote:

You’re very welcome, but I’m far from a pro <wlEmoticon-smile[1].png>. Flying tomorrow morning as long as it’s not too windy, normally go early (7am) to avoid possible wind and cricketers who come play around 9. Want to test a wing with APM1 tomorrow. Entrance just north of Matebele Str and O’Brien Ave (-26.15145, 27.97939)

[Christiaan van Vollenstee]

Yes I will join once I get my outstanding parts and is up running.

 

I just wondered what do you think about the following idea.

 

I have a couple of servers running at my company and I can create a host name and host a forum for South African diy droners.

 

I can make Graham the moderator and administrator of it so that we can try and get a south African community up and running because I get very lonely in this big country of ours J.

 

Tel me what you all think and if everyone agrees and is willing to use it I will do it.

 

Regards

Christiaan

[Petrus Botha]

I am in Lyttelton Centurion, Fly when I have time. Busy with a big project

 

Petrus Botha

Managing Member

 

[Louis van Niekerk]

Great I will join you guys at 7. Wind permit.

I will bring my quad and you guys can give it a look over, if all settings are good.

 

 

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Louis van Niekerk

On 2012-05-18 10:52, Bam um wrote:

Hi Graham yes.

I will join you tommorow aswell , have that new NAZa to show you but will only be short one as I have date with the dentist at 9 .

Best 

Johan

Please safe our environment and do not print this email.

On May 18, 2012, at 10:48, "Graham Dyer" <graha...@gmail.com> wrote:

You’re very welcome, but I’m far from a pro . Flying tomorrow morning as long as it’s not too windy, normally go early (7am) to avoid possible wind and cricketers who come play around 9. Want to test a wing with APM1 tomorrow. Entrance just north of Matebele Str and O’Brien Ave (-26.15145, 27.97939)

[Bam um]

Hi Christian 

The was two forums about drones one was my own and other called SAdrones.com 

They only attracted spammers and no real concrete bloggers . But I will be more then happy to also be part of it and help people .

Please safe our environment and do not print this email.

On May 18, 2012, at 10:55, "Christiaan van Vollenstee" <cvanvol...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes I will join once I get my outstanding parts and is up running.

 

I just wondered what do you think about the following idea.

 

I have a couple of servers running at my company and I can create a host name and host a forum for South African diy droners.

 

I can make Graham the moderator and administrator of it so that we can try and get a south African community up and running because I get very lonely in this big country of ours J.

 

Tel me what you all think and if everyone agrees and is willing to use it I will do it.

 

Regards

Christiaan

 

From: gaut...@googlegroups.com [mailto:gaut...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Graham Dyer
Sent: 18 May 2012 10:49 AM
To: gaut...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: DIY Drones Area

 

You’re very welcome, but I’m far from a pro <image001.png>. Flying tomorrow morning as long as it’s not too windy, normally go early (7am) to avoid possible wind and cricketers who come play around 9. Want to test a wing with APM1 tomorrow. Entrance just north of Matebele Str and O’Brien Ave (-26.15145, 27.97939)

[Graham Dyer]

That sounds like a good idea but hasn’t been very succesful in the past. Another easy one is to start a SA group on DIYDrones (although I’m not a huge fan of the interface) but it does work and keeps it in one place. I can do that in two minutes if anyone’s keen, maybe when it gets bigger go to a proper forum format?

 

There aren’t that many of us flying hobby drones yet but it’s definitely growing, there are quite a few who have gone fully commercial with quite a bit invested.

 

Heard Aerial Concepts in Kelvin, JHB will be stocking DJI ‘copters soon too.

[Christiaan van Vollenstee]

Hey, that is 100% with me. Let’s get this wheel rolling and see where it end up.

 

Later on I can create a domain like sadiydrones.co.za or something more appropriate.

 

I think for a very successful group chat one has to ask all the local suppliers of diydrones parts to add the group discussion links to their website e.g netram.

 

I think the issue is anybody trying to get into the sport does not get the local information the he/she wants.

[Taqyon]

Sounds great, we need to involve the many Cape Tonians as well.

Any other Capies on this group??

[Graham Dyer]

OK, the “South African DIY Drones User Group” on www.DIYDrones.com should be up soon, I’ll let everyone know here when it’s ready.

 

Graham

[Graham Dyer]

Group now up and accepting new members.
Graham

[Anton Grobbelaar]

Hi there
I have just started with multicopters and am starting to get all the equipment.  I would like to get a Pixhawk locally but most folk seems to stock APM.  Even looked at NetRam.
Anyone know where one can find these at reasonable prices. 
Regards
Anton

[Christiaan van Vollenstee]

Hello,

 

All prices here will correlate those of 3DR and Shipping and 30% mark-up.

 

So the best is buy direct from 3DR.

 

On a second note I would rather go for the APM 2.6 and GPS/Mag for now because I feel all the kinks is out, where as there is still a lot of kinks in the pixhawk.

 

Kind Regards

Christiaan

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[Hein du Plessis]

I agree with Christiaan re. giving the pixhawk a skip this round, but I have found that it's cheaper to buy 3DR products at local hobby shops than having them shipped (which is very pricey), and duties paid from 3DR directly. Also, you can walk in and walk out with one. For example, Clowns Hobbies sell the new GPS + Mag unit for less I can buy it from directly from 3DR.

Regards,
Hein

[Graham Dyer]

I agree too, the annoying problem is that many of the new features and improvements that are going into the ArduPilot (ArduCopter) code will only run on a 32 bit platform ie Pixhawk, VRBrain, XUAV-X1. They will keep APM going for as long as possible and even run firmware parallel to Pixhawk. The APM lifespan for fixed wing should be longer with APM (but there's even work being done on new things going into ArduPlane that will not run on an APM). For multicopters the code is moving ahead quite quickly, but I hate being an early adopter and sitting with potentially undiscovered problems with hardware.

Graham

[Christiaan van Vollenstee]

Let me ask you a question, how many of the current features are you using?

[Graham Dyer]

I've argued the same thing Christiaan, all these new things get added and there are still some bugs and features that aren't working 100%, I wish for a stable, bug free, 100% working firmware that lasts about 6 months to a year. However, the technology and firmware marches along relentlessly. I still lament the death of the original Ardupilot as it was only being used at about 70% potential but had just run out of space for the new features.

Hein, we've got a 20cc 2.6m Hugin, similar to the Mugin, but it's sitting unused at the moment as we're concentrating on the foam Super Skysurfer from BananaHobby (the one we did 116km with). The big stuff is heavy and flies fast, it's hard to look at something carefully with a (relatively) low res camera at 80km/h, much easier at 40km/h. (My 2 cents worth)

Graham

[Michael M]

Hi All

Just acquired a drone and need to hang with some guys already skilled on using and flying these. Anyone here in the Sandton Area of JHB can connect and give me some pointers. Main thing I need is to just get the tips and tricks of the controls and all buttons switches and gadgets. Have been using the copter but for now just getting used to lift and basic fwd rev etc. Now keen to learn about the Mission Planner and some tuning (Loiter) etc. Regards. Michael