Hey all newbie here from California

[Winny the pooh]

Hey everyone- I'm a mechanical engineering college student and over the past three months I've managed to teach myself enough to get a custom-built quadcopter based on the F450 into the air and flying. I'm sticking with a lot of 3DR stuff, as I'm pretty interested in the autonomous capabilities, along with integrating different types of sensors such as sonar and infrared cameras. But then again I am already planning on building a X8 for long range FPV.... yet I only have so much space in my college-sized bedroom, which has already lost all it's studying areas to soldering irons and disassembled motors so who knows where this great hobby will take me.

Considering this the only thing I've built besides dorm-room shelving, I've got lots of questions but am also looking forward to helping other young people get into the hobby as it matures into an industry.

Exciting times!

 

[kloner]

that looks a lot like my first multi rotor

 

[Av8Chuck]

Considering this the only thing I've built besides dorm-room shelving, I've got lots of questions but am also looking forward to helping other young people get into the hobby as it matures into an industry.

Exciting times!

Welcome to the insanity. Where are you going to school?

If you really want to help young people enter this emerging industry then go and join here: ACUAS.org. Getting people interested in this hobby is not that difficult, making sure there's an industry for them to work in is a whole other issue.

 

[Winny the pooh]

Welcome to the insanity. Where are you going to school?

If you really want to help young people enter this emerging industry then go and join here: ACUAS.org. Getting people interested in this hobby is not that difficult, making sure there's an industry for them to work in is a whole other issue.

Santa Clara University.

Cool- joined. Any other resources or advice you have for someone just hopping in like me?

 

[Av8Chuck]

Cool, Thanks for joining.

If you setup your PixHawk and its stable your already doing well. I have not use it yet but apparently it is a very good controller but a lot more challenging to setup.

The best advice I can offer is to fly, a lot, as much as you can. There's a lot of people on RC forums who talk a mean game but have not flown much, if at all and the only way to separate the wheat from the chaff is if you've got enough experience to know if someone is actually helping you.

Multirotorforums.com is a good resource, a lot of the members have been doing this since 2006, from a time before DJI, a simpler time before there were such things as ARF's, GPS and altitude hold...

But try to be active on two or three sites, they'll all offer different perspectives and you'll get a sense for which forums can help with which types of problems or ideas you might encounter.

Above all else, your in college, HAVE FUN...