Mayhem in the skies

[greatbear]

Okay, I'm a big geek, and for better or worse, a bigger kid at heart. As such, I like toys. Toys in the traditional sense, yes, but for me, the more grown-up sort of toys are what keep me happy. Cool tools are toys, yes, but they allow me to create, build and fix. Different things that are part of my myriad hobbies are toys. Cameras, for example. There are at least a half dozen digital cameras around La Casa, not including smart phones and computers equipped with them, or the surveillance cameras and whatnot. Even my vehicles are playthings sometimes, as roads near and far that have had rubber from my tires can attest. Then again, there are things around here that can only qualify as playthings. The small fleet of various sized cheap RC helicopters I would terrorize the dogs with, for example. Snickles would bark and jump at the tiny Estes Proto-X quadrotor I would fly around the living room. That is, until he got a little too close and it bit him on the ass, eliciting a loud yipe before he hid under the living room table. Last Christmas, Jeff bought me a GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition camera, something I had been wanting for a while, after seeing what people have done with them. It's an amazing little bit of kit, I still have a time wrapping my head around a camera not much bigger than an Altoids tin able to shoot high resolutions stills, HD video, and, in the case of this model, video in 4K. Many evenings were spent browsing the internets for really creative and amusing videos shot with these things. I became especially fascinated with video shot from RC aircraft.

I think you might know where I'm going with this.

Earlier in the week, I ordered up a DJI Phantom2 quadrotor "drone." I purchased a gimbal mount to fit my GoPro as well. So far, I have just been flying the Phantom by itself, sans camera equipment, until I get the hand of it. Big kid fun was had. The thing is a delight to fly, and even a noob like me was able to maneuver the thing as if I had mad skillz. With summer deciding to get all hot and humid after a season of unusually cool and pleasant weather. I had fun flying the thing directly overhead as I walked around the field, across the street and around my yard and driveway with the most awesome fan in the world keeping me cool. No crashes either, except for a bad landing once as the battery petered out. I can attest to the thing being quite usable as a lawnmower in the field of overgrown grass.

So, while I get some flight time under my belt and become pretty sure I won't crash my precious into the ground, hang it in a tree or have it suddenly fly off to parts unknown, I will rig up the camera mount and take some aerial shots of Mayhem Acres and the surrounding area. I might take it with me to PA when we visit Jeff's parents and family, and take some bird's-eye shots of the new house. If it turns out well, I will make a nice big print and frame it as a gift. I will do the same for her too, in order to compliment the aerial photo that was taken one day over twenty years ago by a commercial outfit. It will be fun to see the contrast. Alas, any photos I would have would not show Mom and Patches, as that commercial shot had as a sort of happy accident. Mom is working in the garden, and Patches was standing guard as she always did. It is now one of my most treasured photos.

Comments

[merlinwon.livejournal.com]

Wow.. !! Amazing stuff you do! I'd love to be a near-by neighbor! ;)

drones and camera's eh? You sure you don't have a little gov't alien soul inside ya, now? lol

Happy Weekend!

♥

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

As it so happens, I was born in Ft. Meade, in the shadow of Big Brother, and I spent most of my childhood tied to the base. Who knows what they implanted. ;)

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I'm always a bit surprised by what photos become "treasured" photos and what pictures fade into oblivion. Often, it takes time and hindsight to determine.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Well, the meaning of some of these pictures can change greatly. While I loved how that photo showed daily life at the house so perfectly, now that Mom and Patches the Dalmatian are gone, it's priceless. It also shows what the house looked like only a few years after it was built, around 1992. The little trees we planted are huge now.

I will take a picture of the photo, or if I can, pull it out of the frame and scan it. From what I remember, it's "sealed" in there pretty good.


ETA:

Okay, I couldn't resist. I freed the photo from the frame and I used the office scanner rather than digging out the photo flatbed scanner to see how it would come out. While the photo is bigger than the scanner bed, I got the primary focus of the photo centered on the glass and scanned it. It came out better that I expected, though if I use the "good" machine I can probably be able to have finer results in the cropped image.

The first is about 80% of the photo as a whole, the second is an enlargement of where Mom and Patches were working. Mom is watering the flower in the new bed, and Patches is dutifully standing guard.

Before anyone comments, yes, those are my underwear hanging on the clothesline among other items. Only shows better how this was a snapshot of daily life. Also, it was taken in the spring of 1995. I had the driveway paved the year before, and the row of tiny evergreens were leftover live Christmas trees from Home Depot I planted in January. They are all huge now.





And, yes, I absolutely lost it when I was cropping and sharpening that part of the photo.

[goldibehr.livejournal.com]

This entry almost cries out for a photo. People can see what it looks like here:

http://www.gizmag.com/dji-phantom-quadcopter-review/26812/

Seems like it'd suck up a lot of juice. How long does the battery last?

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

This is the actual model I have, and I equipped it with the Zenmuse HD-3D gimbal and mounted my GoPro camera tonight. Rather than get one already equipped with a camera, such as the Phantom 2 Vision, or the the Phantom 2 Vision+, I got the "bare" model with the gimbal separately.

Yesterday I spent some time flying the quadrotor by itself, with no camera or mount, as I didn't want my n00b flying skills crashing the entire rig or hanging it in a tree. The thing is a delight to fly, and when flown in GPS-assisted mode, it can't be any easier. It's very nimble and responsive, can fly at about 25mph maximum, and can leap into the air surprisingly quick. I had it up in low clouds until it faded from view (scary), but pulling the left stick down gives a nice, gentle decent. It maintains a solid stationary fix despite the cross winds and came down to the exact same point where I sent it up from. This model comes with a 5200mAH battery, and I had a good 20+ minutes of flight time on a single charge. No crashes or mishaps, unless you count when the battery became exhausted and I was maneuvering it back to where I was standing, which was in a field of high (<1ft) grass. I almost got it to the little bare spot next to me, but is slowly dropped on its way, becoming quite an effective lawnmower until it hit bottom and flipped over. It was more amusing than anything, and there was zero damage to the quad.

Here is a pic I took of the interior as I was installing the gimbal:



While I didn't have to open up the body of the drone, I had the option of installing a necessary power filtering board either on the bottom of the body with double-sided tape, or inside. The inside mounting was a more elegant solution, it kept the bare circuit board out of any harm's way, and it leaves room on the belly for more "payload."

The gimbal integrates with the copter and the remote control. The gimbal acts as a steadi-cam, maintaining the same viewpoint and angle no matter how much the copter tilts and twitches as it maintains position. Panning involves yawing the craft with the remote, and there is a small lever on the remote that allows you to tilt the camera straight ahead to almost straight down. All of these actions are buttery smooth. If the weather is good tomorrow, I will send it up here and around the neighborhood for video and stills. Unfortunately, as equipped, I can't remotely control the operation of the camera itself, so I have to start the recording before I send it up (I can hover it right in front of me and reach over and press the button) and stop it when I land. For stills, I will just set it for time-lapse, taking a shot every couple seconds. I can't wait! The one thing I will definitely add to the rig is a FPV (First-Person View) monitor and transmitter, this will let me see in realtime what the camera sees. This also can allow me to fly the rig without maintaining sight of it from the ground. Just send it up and fly from the cockpit.

This video uses the same setup I have, coupled with the FPV capabilities to frame the shots so nicely. You are undoubtedly aware of the crosswinds and buffeting at ground level, and once over the trees and building it's awesome kite-flying weather. The Phantom keeps its position, and the gimbal lets the quadrotor roll and pitch while keeping the shot perfectly aimed.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're about to have a hell of a lot of fun.

Just think: Quadrotor, several GoPros, your mini, and Tail of the Dragon.

You know what you have to do.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Oh, you don't know the half of it.

Early on me and a couple other guys were figuring out how to take multiple-viewpoint shots from tiny camera attached to various parts of a car. While it was easy enough to take a small camcorder and mount it to the roof or hood, getting those tight-in shots behind wheels, inside of grilles, cabin shots, tail shots and what have you was tricky. We used a series of little hobby cameras, a video switcher, and a camcorder set up as a VTR. There wasn't high def, but we totally rocked NTSC. Now you can plaster a car with a dozen GoPros, bundle them onto a single controller, and fire off the entire bunch from the get-go. Now you have perfect HD video at every viewpoint, all nice and synced. Make magic in postprod and Hollywood becomes green with envy. The last bastion of cinematic filming mortals weren't able to touch unless they had friends with airplanes or helicopters, or even boom rigs, has fallen. Now you can tote all the equipment needed in a suitcase.

DJI, who makes this little Phantom 2, has a turnkey octocopter (!) and a gimbal all set up to hoist a Canon 5D mkII or III (!!) into the air with full control over the camera. Amazing.

[notdefined.livejournal.com]

My brother up in Pennsylvania Dutch land got one of those a while back and has taken a cinema library full of fly over shots. Pretty impressive. I got a helicopter in a ball thingie and I can't even get it off of the ground for more than a second before I send it diving to it's death. No skills here I tell ya, no skills at all!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I have one of those Tiny Estes Proto-X quadrotors that's fun but frustrating to fly. Twitchy and wild, it takes some getting used to, but even though they are meant for indoor flight, you are better off in a gymnasium rather than a living room. The fewer obstacles the better. The battery only lasts for about five minutes before it slowly drops from the air. So, just as you were getting the hang of it, you have to charge the little bastard for an hour before you can try again. Cool thing is, you can get a bunch of these, and each one will find a separate channel to fly with, and you can have a group of folks buzzing these things all around. It's hilarious to see.



The dogs hate this thing. It sounds like a swarm of giant mosquitoes.

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

How freaking cool is that??

[jkusters]

Glee! Such a fun update to read. Geeks and toys are a wonderful combination. I look forward to more such fun.

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

That's a cool idea---my folks went nuts when I first showed them Google Earth. I spent an hour showing them arial shots of houses they and other family members lived in all around town. A closer arial print would have gone over big.