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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @kepford OP 19 Nov \ parent \ on: Drones: Open Source Options? tech
Thank you so much for this detailed response. It sounds like there aren't any simple go buy this drone options that are open source? That's why I made this post btw. I'd love to dive into this as a hobby but time wise that's not gonna happen.
What do you think of Parrot drones?
It is the French version of DJI, with drones made for people who just want to see around and take pictures. A French neighbor I had said his father had used Parrot drones until it was taken by a bird (in the air, eagles for example tend to protect their territory).
I guess it is a good choice if your goal is just to fly around without adrenaline or feeling to fly. I knew someone who was flying DJI for his work but the videos were very slow, and it looked boring. But in his case it was for work anyway so it didn't really matter.
So I guess the drawbacks of Parrot are if you crash unless you know how to repair you may have to wait some time, and videos look slow and boring. The advantage is you have nothing to do by yourself, no particular know-how required.
The drawbacks of FPV drones is to repair you do it yourself, and it is harder to fly at first. The advantages are that you are totally free to fly like a bird, and you don't have to fear birds as you can just escape from them by changing quickly your path.
For quick kits, if you want quick recommendations for the later I recommend you this site and buy at first the cheapest drone until you don't crash anymore:
https://www.fpvknowitall.com/fpv-shopping-list-tiny-whoop/
If you want to support a US company there is newbeedrone. The batteries are cheap also so you can buy many. In my case I went with the Chinese manufacturer Happy model because I was racing and it was the cheapest with the longest fly time.
In the US you can buy with Racedayquad:
https://www.racedayquads.com/collections/all-pre-built-quads-wings/products/pre-order-happymodel-mobula6-whoop-hd-w-hdzero-eco-elrs-2-4ghz-racing
For digital signals of videos you will have to buy separately the goggles. For HDZero you can buy their goggles from their website:
https://www.hd-zero.com/product-page/hdzero-goggle
I don't know why it is not on Racedayquad as I fly only with analog images (I fly with other people around me and to avoid overlapping with the frequency of people surrounding me in my case analog worked better, but nowadays it seems digital systems have improved a lot).
Here you can buy the transmitter module:
https://www.racedayquads.com/collections/transmitter-modules
TBS transmitters is made by an Austrian who loves the hobby but it is closed source. ELRS is the open source system, any transmitter with a fan should work well.
There is also this radio transmitter with good gimbals:
https://www.racedayquads.com/products/radiomaster-tx16s-mkii-max-ag01-red-webleedfpv-edition?keyword=radiomaster
I am not in the US so I never bought anything on Racedayquad but I have heard they were sueing the US government for their new law to impose on people the necessity to buy chips to be constantly monitored, so I like them.
But I don't know, maybe you would prefer to test first and try one of these RTF kits which cost less:
https://www.racedayquads.com/collections/all-ready-to-fly-quad-combos
In my opinion you're good to go with Parrot just that when you're used to FPV it looks boring. But maybe for you it won't be boring if it is your first time flying a drone. Maybe you could also go to a racing club for drones near your home to ask for advice and asked to try. If you crash their drone they won't be to upset I think because people who race are used to repair.