2 issues of Hover Camera you should know

As you’ll know if you’ve watched the official product introduction video, Zero Zero Robotics’ Hover Camera is rather impressive. So was I, but after trying out the drone’s flight capabilities, I’m somewhat disappointed in its real-world performance and have to say that this so-called selfie dronie is severely limited in the following two areas.

Issue 1: Unreliable Positioning System

Unlike most other drones in the consumer market, the Hover Camera uses a downward-facing 3-megapixel camera and a sonar underneath to help stabilize the aircraft, instead of GPS or GLONASS. This creates a problem in stability that means that the small drone can neither maintain steady flight, hover stably, or even maintain its altitude while in flight. Anything that passes under the aircraft will affect its positioning as it flies.

Here’s an example. Put your hand underneath the aircraft and the sonar system will measure the distance between the aircraft and your hand and use that to re-position itself, instead of maintaining its actual height above ground. In practice, this means that when you fly the Hover Camera across uneven ground, its height will fluctuate up and down.

I  tried placing an object underneath the Hover Camera while it was hovering and then lifted the object upwards toward the drone. Guess what happened? The aircraft speeded up and kept flying upwards until it crashed into the ceiling. To land it, I had to open the mobile app, connect to the drone via Wi-Fi, and manually land it, or it wouldn’t land until it run out of charge.

Issue 2: Positioning Greatly Affected by Lighting Conditions

As it turns out, the Hover Camera’s flight performance depends largely on lighting conditions which means its use is limited in many situations. Without enough light when flying indoors, the drone is not able to position itself accurately or to hover stably. Instead, it becomes hard to control during flight, not to mention using it to take selfies.

When I tried flying the drone indoors, its hover performance was acceptable with two lights turned on. When I turned off one of the lights, the drone started to drift as a result of not being fully able to calculate its position. With both lights off, it was unable to position itself or hover at all. So, because of its visual positioning system, light conditions are a huge factor in the Hover Camera’s flight performance.

Reliable, steady flight performance is a fundamental condition for aerial photography. If the drone is not able to fly properly, how can it be used to take photos and videos? Therefore, my conclusion after trying out the Hover Camera is that rather than the groundbreaking selfie drone I’d expected, it’s more like an overpriced toy.

( Source )

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DJI Drone Flying through Fireworks

It rises from the ground with glowing light. Hundreds of feet in the air you see flashing colors traveling through the sky. No, it’s not a firecracker, it’s a DJI Phantom 4, the most recent incarnation of DJI’s most popular line of crafts, flying steadily through fireworks.

Before consumer drones were available to the public, spectators have had to watch fireworks displays from the ground. Fireworks most commonly explode 200 to 1500 feet from the ground so there is a significant amount of distance from the audience to the magical display.

In the past few years, UAVs (aka drones) have allowed filmmakers all over the world to get a perspective never before available. Getting up close and personal with the fireworks, the drones fly around, through, and over the incendiary spectacles with perfectly stable professional quality cameras.

The most common drones we see taking the footage that photographers and videographers need are DJI’s Phantom series and Inspire 1series crafts. With the range and stability necessary for safety in flying, cameras that can capture the low light footage with no grain necessary for nighttime fireworks shows, and a number of smart flight modes that allow pilots to maneuver in complicated situations easily, DJI’s aircrafts are proving to be the best tool for a large number professionals and amateurs alike.

Popular vlogger Devin Graham, aka devinsupertramp, recently released a video showing his use of a Phantom 4 at an event run by Firestorm Pyrotechnics in Utah. Inspired by an incredibly popular video released in 2014 showing a Phantom 2 flying directly through a large fireworks display, Devin decided to take on the subject with a much more powerful tool.

In many of Devin’s videos on his popular YouTube channel, he successfully uses his Phantom 4, but shooting fireworks from so close is unlike anything he’s done. “[For] most of this video with the DJI Phantom 4 we actually filmed it with an ISO of 1600. And I was a little scared to kind of push the ISO that high, but there was no grain on the image whatsoever so I was like mind blown stoked about that.”

Other popular and up and coming vloggers like BFvsGF and DeathByVlog have also recently released their own drone captured fireworks footage using DJI crafts getting over 1 million views in just a few months.

Like any good pilot, safety is Devin’s crew’s highest concern when flying at public events like this. “Because there were going to big fireworks going off we also made sure that we were in a designated area where we were not above people, so lets just say if one of these drones did get hit, which they actually [did] get hit several times, but if one got shot down it wasn’t going to land on someone or hurt someone.” With the Phantom 4’s collision avoidance and return-to-home functionality Devin and his team had no problems flying their quadcopter home amidst the hectic environment.

As drone and camera technology is advanced by companies like DJI, filmmakers will continue to test the limits of these tools for the sake of their audience to provide footage never deemed possible.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28nHbglR8Xo

source from: http://ift.tt/2jUPSKY

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If you’re an experienced,you could try

Some experienced pilot that’s able to properly control the Q500 in Angle (Pilot) Mode, and they do not exceed any altitude/distance limits or fly in any ‘no fly zones’ in your area, they are willing to disable/turn off Typhoon Q500 gps. So how?

WARNING: Smart Mode and Home Mode, along with their corresponding features, only work when GPS is active and the Q500 has a suitable GPS signal/lock. If you disable/turn off Typhoon Q500 gps the Q500 can only be flown in Angle (Pilot) Mode. And if you cannot properly control the Q500 in Angle (Pilot) Mode the aircraft may crash or even ‘fly away’.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Yuneec drone Crash damage and ‘fly aways’ are NOT covered under warranty.We do not typically recommend disabling Typhoon Q500 gps for any reason, especially if you’re a first-time or low-time pilot. However, if you’re an experienced,you could try.

And do NOT disable/turn off Typhoon Q500 gps unless you accept ALL responsibility and liability for crashes or ‘fly aways’.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Every time you turn the Q500 on it will default to having Typhoon Q500 gps active/on (even if you disabled GPS the last time is was powered on).

Step 1) While the ST10 and Q500 are powered on and linked (and the motors are NOT running), move the Proportional Control Rate Slider on the right side of the ST10 to the uppermost (rabbit) position.

Step 2) Move the right-hand stick all the way to the right and hold it there until step 3 is completed.

Step 3) Move the Flight Mode Selection Switch from Smart to Home and Home to Smart mode 4 times in 3 seconds.
When GPS has been disabled successfully the Q500 will emit an audible indication and the Typhoon Q500 gps status on the ST10 screen will show ‘Disabled’. Also, the Main LED Status Indicator will flash purple and the Below Motor
LED Status Indicators will flash three (3) times per second then will stay off for one (1) second.

 

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