Cinestar ???

R

Rail Ghost

Member
Jim in Massachusetts said:
So now I'm going for a DJI 550 and the questions is... buy a kit or RTF? I'm confident in my ability to assemble it and I can solder. However, setting up the radio and tweaking everything to make it fly right is my concern. I may call the hobby store that Ken recommended.
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I've been looking at the DJI flame kits. They seem fairly simple. WIth the knowlege and expirience you gain from putting together one of these it would be a stepping stone to building your own..

I'm with the crowd on starting simple and limiting your initial money output on this. I bought a DJI 450 with Naza and in the process of getting it flying. There is a lot to to know.... and now for more reading and learning. Thank goodness for forums. 20 years ago when getting into another venture it was sure was a different story on finding info on an obscure hobby.

Steve
New Hampshire USA
 



Jim in Massachusetts

Jim in Massachusetts

Member
Ken, The NEHC Phenomenon in Mansfield Friday the 14th and Saturday the 15th, I plan to attend!. I'd be there mid-to late morning on Saturday.

Some questions:

1) Is the public allowed to attend? I can bring my wife and daughter? Parking? Directions?

2) What time / day is the world record attempt?

3) I'll look for you in your tent at the south field.

4)You'll let us know here if the weather causes a cancellation of the event?


Sounds like there'll be some great photo and learning opportunites for me there.

From the field I'd go to the nearby hobby shop you mentioned. I'll call them first to make sure I can pick up everything I need to build... then fly a DJI 550.

I've long been an aviation enthusiast. I also love photography and filming. They say follow your dreams... Getting a camera airborne will be a dream come true for me. Thanks for much for everyone's help and advice.

BTW, I still yearn for a Cinestar to get pro level cameras airborne, on a vibration isolated, 360, 3 axis Radian stabilized platform, FPV etc etc... Hopefully the DJI 550 will be the right first step.

Hopefully weather will be nice Saturday.

Can someone point to Ken's YouTube videos?
 
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R

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
Jim in Massachusetts said:
Ken, The NEHC Phenomenon in Mansfield Friday the 14th and Saturday the 15th, I plan to attend!. I'd be there mid-to late morning on Saturday.

Some questions:

1) Is the public allowed to attend? I can bring my wife and daughter? Parking? Directions?

2) What time / day is the world record attempt?

3) I'll look for you in your tent at the south field.

4)You'll let us know here if the weather causes a cancellation of the event?


Sounds like there'll be some great photo and learning opportunites for me there.

From the field I'd go to the nearby hobby shop you mentioned. I'll call them first to make sure I can pick up everything I need to build... then fly a DJI 550.

I've long been an aviation enthusiast. I also love photography and filming. They say follow your dreams... Getting a camera airborne will be a dream come true for me. Thanks for much for everyone's help and advice.

BTW, I still yearn for a Cinestar to get pro level cameras airborne, on a vibration isolated, 360, 3 axis Radian stabilized platform, FPV etc etc... Hopefully the DJI 550 will be the right first step.

Hopefully weather will be nice Saturday.

Can someone point to Ken's YouTube videos?
Click to expand...


1) Is the public allowed to attend? Yes, the public is invited. I can bring my wife and daughter? Yes you can, we don't charge admission either! Parking? Onsite, plenty of room and also free. Directions?
Location: The entrance to the field is: 41.991608,-71.243052, which is located across the street from 408 Elm St., Mansfield, MA 02766.

Directions:
From I95
•Take exit 7A - 140 South towards Mansfield, MA.
•Travel 2.3 miles and take a right onto School St. It'll be the second set of lights after Home Depot. You'll see The Mansfield Crossing shopping center on your left right after the turn onto School St.
•Travel 1.6 miles and School St. turns into Elm St.
•Travel .6 miles and the entrance will be on down a banking on your right. The entrance to the field is located across the street from 408 Elm St., Mansfield, MA 02766. If you see Coach Road on your left you went to far.

From I495
•Take exit 12 - 140 North towards Mansfield, MA.
•Take your first left onto School St. It'll be the first set of lights. You'll see The Mansfield Crossing shopping center on your left right after the turn onto School St.
•Travel 1.6 miles and School St. turns into Elm St.
•Travel .6 miles and the entrance will be on down a banking on your right. The entrance to the field is located across the street from 408 Elm St., Mansfield, MA 02766. If you see Coach Road on your left you went to far.

2) What time / day is the world record attempt? Saturday @ 2:00 PM

3) I'll look for you in your tent at the south field. Just look for the popup with a table full of multirotors, it will be somewhere on the other side of the brook from the parking area in among the scale helis.

4)You'll let us know here if the weather causes a cancellation of the event? Unless it's total washout the event is on. Pilots have committed, plane tickets purchased and hotel rooms reserved, we don't cancel or postpone unless its a hurricane...

Here's a link to an FPV flight done with my TBS Discovery on Labor Day, some good aerial views of the NEHC field... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1CpdV2TGAI

Ken

 
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Jim in Massachusetts

Jim in Massachusetts

Member
As a follow up to my initial start of this thread... I've been flying my DJI 550 for about two months now. Mostly on weekends. I'm more into still than video. Flying in GPS postion hold mode is a breeze. Other than some flip overs while attempting my first take offs, I've had no crashes. Trimmed the top branches of the big maple next door, but the bird kept flying!

Below are links to some of my photography:

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=1044453

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=164656


https://plus.google.com/photos/104688579048759425474/albums/5800083779192696801

I found the GoPro WiFi back to be almost useless unless the craft is less than ~50' away. Screen updates are too slow otherwise.

When I shoot stills I use the interval timer in the GoPro Hero 2. This leaves my with tons of images to delete after each flight.

I still yearn for a Cinestar to bring up my Canon DSLR cameras and camcorder. Maybe in the spring...

Thanks for all the advice and input you all made to this thread.

I'm looking forward to the long, warm, well-lit days of summer to return. The low angle of the winter sun is not great for aerial photography.
 

H

hairball

Member
Jim, I have a Cinestar 8. I live in Albany NY. If you are ever in the area pop by for a fly. I too am a photographer who got into this with no RC experience. I did it backwards from what these guys are advising. I just recently bought a BumbleBee after I have had the Cinestar for several months. I consider the BumbleBee a disposable unit. I am glad to see you learned from their wisdom. If I had it to do over I too would buy a little one to mess around with first. When you get to the point of investing in a Cinestar I suggest buying a kit instead of an RTF. It is a lot more work, true, but the experience you gain by building it yourself is valuable. The guys who fly as a hobby at the local field have been a great source of knowledge and support.
John
 

Jim in Massachusetts

Jim in Massachusetts

Member
Thanks for the reply Hairball. If a Cinestar comes my way in the spring, I'll follow up in this thread.

A bumblebee looks nice. All carbon fiber? I'd love to see any media you have on the Web made with the Cinestar. What is your gimbal set-up on the the C8?

The 3 axis Radian stabilization looks amazingly effective. I'm leery of how difficult the set-up and tuning of that would be.
 
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H

hairball

Member
The bumblebee is mostly carbon fiber. The dome is plastic. It is an ok unit, nothing great. If I had that to do again I would go with Naza becasue it will take a GPS.
No media yet to post. Still learning to fly it. I have a few stills of Albany but nothing great. So far everyone who has aproached me wants video, so I am learning that now.
The Cinestar came with a 2 axis. I just invested int eh 3 axis and Radian. Haven't built that yet. I wanted to get the BumbleBee in the air before I dismantled the big one.
 


H

hairball

Member
Speaking of Come Home. I read on one of the forums a while ago about two fellows, one fired his heli up for the first time and it took off and he never saw it again. The other sharpied his name, phone and email on it, had it do the same thing. A few days later the second fellow got a call from a confused farmer wondering what in the heck he had found in his field. He go it back completely intact. Come Home or not, mark your bird.
 


H

HPL

Member
Jim in Massachusetts said:
As a follow up to my initial start of this thread... I've been flying my DJI 550 for about two months now. Mostly on weekends. I'm more into still than video. Flying in GPS postion hold mode is a breeze. Other than some flip overs while attempting my first take offs, I've had no crashes. Trimmed the top branches of the big maple next door, but the bird kept flying!

Below are links to some of my photography:

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=1044453

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=164656


https://plus.google.com/photos/104688579048759425474/albums/5800083779192696801

I found the GoPro WiFi back to be almost useless unless the craft is less than ~50' away. Screen updates are too slow otherwise.

When I shoot stills I use the interval timer in the GoPro Hero 2. This leaves my with tons of images to delete after each flight.

I still yearn for a Cinestar to bring up my Canon DSLR cameras and camcorder. Maybe in the spring...

Thanks for all the advice and input you all made to this thread.

I'm looking forward to the long, warm, well-lit days of summer to return. The low angle of the winter sun is not great for aerial photography.
Click to expand...


Howdy Jim!
You are giving me hope after all the warnings posted. I've been looking at the DJI 550 hex also. I, however, have NO experience with RC other than a toy coaxial heli. Do you know what your altitude was on those wide landscapes? Some of the reading I have done lead me to think that there was a 400' ceiling in the US. Can't figure out if that is high enough with a medium wide angle like a 24mm. You look plenty high in those photos.
 

Jim in Massachusetts

Jim in Massachusetts

Member
Hairball. If a runaway craft causes damage somewhere and your name is on it, victims know who to sue.

HPL, 400' is plenty of altitude in most situations. I can only estimate altitude.

Don't put too much stock statements saying crashes are common. I've had good luck,
 

H

HPL

Member
Jim in Massachusetts said:
Hairball. If a runaway craft causes damage somewhere and your name is on it, victims know who to sue.

HPL, 400' is plenty of altitude in most situations. I can only estimate altitude.

Don't put too much stock statements saying crashes are common. I've had good luck,
Click to expand...


Hey Jim! Thanks for the reply!
I hope the ones with the more sophisticated controllers are easier to fly than the little Walkera ladybird I got the other day. Already crashed it hard enough to need some replacement parts. That little bugger really zips around!!
 

ChrisViperM

ChrisViperM

Active Member
HPL said:
Hey Jim! Thanks for the reply!
I hope the ones with the more sophisticated controllers are easier to fly than the little Walkera ladybird I got the other day. Already crashed it hard enough to need some replacement parts. That little bugger really zips around!!
Click to expand...


If you can control your Ladybird, you can fly almost anything (Multirotors). Everything small is difficult to move around in the air, the reason is not so much the "sophisticated controller" but just the size and mass of the aircraft. Many years ago I tried to learn how to fly RC single rotor helis with a size 450 heli.....althought everyone told me to start with a small heli, it was a nightmare....decided to dump all the advice and got myself a 750 size heli.....what a difference. Just had to overcome the respect for that beast....those blades had a diameter of 1,5 meters and the sound makes you scream for some fresh underwear....The only drawback: If you crash, there is a lot more cash involved for spare parts than with the "small birdies".....


Chris
 

H

HPL

Member
ChrisViperM said:
If you can control your Ladybird, you can fly almost anything (Multirotors). Everything small is difficult to move around in the air, the reason is not so much the "sophisticated controller" but just the size and mass of the aircraft. Many years ago I tried to learn how to fly RC single rotor helis with a size 450 heli.....althought everyone told me to start with a small heli, it was a nightmare....decided to dump all the advice and got myself a 750 size heli.....what a difference. Just had to overcome the respect for that beast....those blades had a diameter of 1,5 meters and the sound makes you scream for some fresh underwear....The only drawback: If you crash, there is a lot more cash involved for spare parts than with the "small birdies".....


Chris
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Well, at the moment, the problem is I can't control it. A 10-20 sec flight is really something. I started in the house and THAT was instantly a bad idea (smacked the ceiling and then caromed off the book case and the back of the sofa before landing upside down on my desk). Took it outside into my back yard, but only have about a 20X20X10' high box in which to fly there, so decided to take it out to an open field. Well, could keep it airborne longer, but also built up much more speed (translate into "momentum") and ended up cracking the frame allowing one of the arms to twist. Fortunately the frame is only about $4.00 so am going to buy several ;-).
 

Jim in Massachusetts

Jim in Massachusetts

Member
In a previous reply to this thread I wrote: "Don't put too much stock statements saying crashes are common."

I must say that because I'm flying mostly full GPS mode crashes are not common for "me". Multi-rotors without GPS position hold are certainly more difficult to fly and I'd assume more accident prone.

I learned to fly on a manually controlled an Blade MQX, prior to the first flight of my DJI 550. I adjusted (though trial and error)my DX8 so that stick input to the MQX was more tame.
 

ChrisViperM

ChrisViperM

Active Member
HPL said:
Well, at the moment, the problem is I can't control it. A 10-20 sec flight is really something. I started in the house and THAT was instantly a bad idea (smacked the ceiling and then caromed off the book case and the back of the sofa before landing upside down on my desk). Took it outside into my back yard, but only have about a 20X20X10' high box in which to fly there, so decided to take it out to an open field. Well, could keep it airborne longer, but also built up much more speed (translate into "momentum") and ended up cracking the frame allowing one of the arms to twist. Fortunately the frame is only about $4.00 so am going to buy several ;-).
Click to expand...


What you describe is something I saw a lot with people beginning RC hobby, regardless if it was cars, helis, boats...and especially Multirotors. They are all amazed how little input it takes from the transmitter side to have a huge effect on the vehicle. I bought a ladybird for my 12 y. old, and the first takeoff was like a Space Shuttle.....took us 20 min to find that thing. I could have him warned, but that way he would listen afterwards with a lot more attention. Just try to get the bird in a hover....maybe 2-3 meters away from you and on eye level.....hold it there....once you feel comftable and your puls comes down, try to give it just a liiiiiiiiittle imput from the stick to go lower.....don't get too close to the ground as this will create "down-wash".....now you do the opposite.....slooooooowly lift it up again to eye level......do that many times, until you feel comftable. You have to get a feeling for your stick movements and what effect it has on your bird....next step is similar.....from the hoover, try to sloooooowly fly just 1-2 meters away from you and stop it....and back ....and so on.......over and over again.

Try it, and you will soon have good results...


Chris
 

H

HPL

Member
ChrisViperM said:
What you describe is something I saw a lot with people beginning RC hobby, regardless if it was cars, helis, boats...and especially Multirotors. They are all amazed how little input it takes from the transmitter side to have a huge effect on the vehicle. I bought a ladybird for my 12 y. old, and the first takeoff was like a Space Shuttle.....took us 20 min to find that thing. I could have him warned, but that way he would listen afterwards with a lot more attention. Just try to get the bird in a hover....maybe 2-3 meters away from you and on eye level.....hold it there....once you feel comftable and your puls comes down, try to give it just a liiiiiiiiittle imput from the stick to go lower.....don't get too close to the ground as this will create "down-wash".....now you do the opposite.....slooooooowly lift it up again to eye level......do that many times, until you feel comftable. You have to get a feeling for your stick movements and what effect it has on your bird....next step is similar.....from the hoover, try to sloooooowly fly just 1-2 meters away from you and stop it....and back ....and so on.......over and over again.

Try it, and you will soon have good results...


Chris
Click to expand...
Thanks for the encouragement. That was basically what I was trying to do in my backyard but I couldn't get it to hover without drifting quite a bit and don't know if it was due to wind or imbalanced thrust. The instructions are so cryptic that I have no idea if there is some way to adjust trim if the drift is inherent. There were a lot of potential hazards in the yard, so I thought that taking it to a large open area might give me more time to respond to mistakes, but unfortunately it also gave me more time to really get in trouble and due to the drought, the ground is pretty hard around here. I think I'm going to have to find some place indoors to fly it once I get it repaired.

Thanks again,
HPL
 

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