Drones

Sky Viper 2450 GPS, Opinions please, it uses Ardu Pilot software, I think it comes from Arduinos open source. https://www.arduino.cc
https://www.youtube.co​m …Yge1sSZBYVA&fea​ture=share

I have not used that drone specifically but those little micro drones are fun if you keep your expectations low and realize their limitations.

Battery life sucks on these things even without an FPV camera, so I'm guessing you'll get approximately 5 minutes of flight for every 90 minutes of charging. For that price the video quality is going to be bad at best, but very likely unusable for real FPV flying at anything faster than a snail's pace. Finally, while these drones are good training tools before moving up to a real drone they are not designed to withstand any amount of wind, so they're pretty much relegated to indoor or wind-less outdoor flying, as even a moderate gust will send one of these things flying off to find a new home.

Recognize and accept the limitations and these little micro drones can be fun, useful training tools but I would go for a model with no camera - worry about filming or flying fpv once you graduate from the toy quads.

-Joe

Thanks for the reply, would the sky viper 2450 be any better than the 50 to 79 dollar ones.

It would be better controlled with Ardupilot on board but any FPV camera system that cheap is going to be worthless and it probably only displays to the proprietary remote at low frame rate and resolution. If you want a micro sized quad I would suggest either buying a cheaper one with no camera or investing more in a real FPV system as I doubt you'll be happy with that system. However as I said I'm not familiar with that quad in particular so maybe I'm wrong and it's just the best deal in FPV.

-Joe

TreeburnerCT wrote in post #18504131
It would be better controlled with Ardupilot on board but any FPV camera system that cheap is going to be worthless and it probably only displays to the proprietary remote at low frame rate and resolution. If you want a micro sized quad I would suggest either buying a cheaper one with no camera or investing more in a real FPV system as I doubt you'll be happy with that system. However as I said I'm not familiar with that quad in particular so maybe I'm wrong and it's just the best deal in FPV.

-Joe

Thanks Joe, I have a GoPro camera, maybe I need to look for a drone made for it,.
I did notice that the video of the Sky Viper was wavy, that’s not good, but there is things I liked about it, like GPS, and ArduPilot.
Thank you for the information Joe

If you're looking for a drone to carry a GoPro I might be able to help. Before I bought my DJI Mavic Pro I flew a Quanum Nova (aka Cheerson CX-20) with a storm32 gimbal and SJCAM5000. I have the gimbal calibrated but have not connected the tilt controls. The Nova uses Ardupilot which I have tuned for the quad with gimbal and camera and I have 3D printed landing gear on it to add height for gimbal clearance. There's also 6 batteries although I haven't flown it in 2 years so I'm not sure of the health of the batteries, but they were stored with 50% charge as indicated.

This is a good entry-level drone that could give you experience with Ardupilot and piloting a drone without a large investment. The sticks are not set up for altitude hold so you have to center the left stick to hover or switch to Alt Hold mode to use the GPS to hold position, however the controller does make the quad very stable in the air. Also there's no camera controls on the RC so you have to turn the camera on before takeoff then turn it off once you land. With a higher-end RC it could be setup for camera controls but I'm not sure about that process.

It's all yours for the price of shipping if you're interested. It's just been sitting since I got my Mavic and I don't see myself using it even as a backup, so it would be nice to see it go to use. It comes in a large padded bag, and includes the following:

1. Quanum Nova Quadcopter
2. 2 sets of upgraded props
3. 3D printed extended landing gear
4. Quanum Nova Remote Controller
5. 6x Turnigy Lipo Batteries
6. B6AC Charger
7. 6-slot balance board
8. GLB Storm32 Gimbal (installed and tuned)
9. SJCAM5000 Camera
10. Multistar Deluxe Bag cut to fit everything

It will probably be around $50 to ship everything but If you're near SW Connecticut I could always meet you somewhere local. Let me know if you're interested, I spent over $500 for all this a few years ago so it's definitely worth the cost of shipping. If DigitalDon is not interested I will open up the offer to everyone else.

-Joe

TreeburnerCT wrote in post #18504322
If you're looking for a drone to carry a GoPro I might be able to help. Before I bought my DJI Mavic Pro I flew a Quanum Nova (aka Cheerson CX-20) with a storm32 gimbal and SJCAM5000. I have the gimbal calibrated but have not connected the tilt controls. The Nova uses Ardupilot which I have tuned for the quad with gimbal and camera and I have 3D printed landing gear on it to add height for gimbal clearance. There's also 6 batteries although I haven't flown it in 2 years so I'm not sure of the health of the batteries, but they were stored with 50% charge as indicated.

This is a good entry-level drone that could give you experience with Ardupilot and piloting a drone without a large investment. The sticks are not set up for altitude hold so you have to center the left stick to hover or switch to Alt Hold mode to use the GPS to hold position, however the controller does make the quad very stable in the air. Also there's no camera controls on the RC so you have to turn the camera on before takeoff then turn it off once you land. With a higher-end RC it could be setup for camera controls but I'm not sure about that process.

It's all yours for the price of shipping if you're interested. It's just been sitting since I got my Mavic and I don't see myself using it even as a backup, so it would be nice to see it go to use. It comes in a large padded bag, and includes the following:

1. Quanum Nova Quadcopter
2. 2 sets of upgraded props
3. 3D printed extended landing gear
4. Quanum Nova Remote Controller
5. 6x Turnigy Lipo Batteries
6. B6AC Charger
7. 6-slot balance board
8. GLB Storm32 Gimbal (installed and tuned)
9. SJCAM5000 Camera
10. Multistar Deluxe Bag cut to fit everything

It will probably be around $50 to ship everything but If you're near SW Connecticut I could always meet you somewhere local. Let me know if you're interested, I spent over $500 for all this a few years ago so it's definitely worth the cost of shipping. If DigitalDon is not interested I will open up the offer to everyone else.

-Joe

I sent you a message, I’m interested in the drone.

Hello TreeBurnerCT I want to thank you again for the gift of the CX20 Nova, I haven’t used it yet, I’m not to concerned about take off it’s the landing that I’m not comfortable with. I’ve been watching YouTube videos for the CX20 and they show different ways to calibrate the drone, some using Mission Planner with a usb, will have to get a longer usb cable for that, i saw two videos, one showed flipping the top right switch back and forth to get into calibration mode, the next one showed holding the joystick to bottom right to get into calibration mode, these two videos didn’t work for me, so I guess I will get a longer usb cable and calibrate it in Mission Planner.
Thank You

Everything should be calibrated, will just take a minute or two to pick up the satellite coverage over your area. To recalibrate the easiest way is with Mission Planner on a tablet so you can hold them together while doing the necessary calibration dance.

Hope you enjoy the Nova as much as I did and that you find the package well worth the cost of shipping!

-Joe