First Automated Drone GoPro Mission

It's been a huge learning curve trying to control, fly, and film from my 3DR Iris+ drone. But today was a minor milestone in that progress, as I completed my first fully automated mission flying around a park, and it was completely from my Android phone.

My remote control transmitter was powered on, and now I'm not sure that was even necessary.

I used the Tower (Mission Planner 3) app for Android. After some test runs of riding around on my bike and letting it follow me, I drew a simple squiggly line waypoint route for it to follow.

I launched and landed it from my phone and didn't have to touch it otherwise, except to hit the safety arming switch and push record on the GoPro.

It's not awesome footage or anything, but it's a cool step in where I anticipate going with my new video capabilities.

By the way, this backpack is great for toting it around, otherwise I'd have an awkward big box of parts to carry on my bike.

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Oh and I'm walking to my launch point and I see somebody else's broken propeller blade. Bad sign? ha ha

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Ugh, still gotta fix that flippin' tilt to the left.

So here's the path I drew on my phone, I can set the height for each point, time delay and speed to get to the next one, and where I want the camera pointing each time, as I set #9 as the point of interest.

I'm really impressed with the whole setup. Arming the droid, launching, landing, everything possible from the phone. At first you're just a nervous wreck trying not to crash. But you get through a few of the items on the list and it's a lot of fun even if you aren't filming.

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Then here's the mission I set from the phone. I was pleasantly surprised when the drone actually came back to me and didn't go to some other GPS waypoint on the globe by accident. :scared:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vya...ature=youtu.be


Here's just a quick follow on the bike. At first the gimbal is kind of spazzing out for some reason, but once it gets a purpose in life it seems to get steady. I'm holding the phone and antenna in my hand. I'll have to figure out a pouch I can put it in up front when I ride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z7G9YX80_0&feature=youtu.be

Little by little I'm able to branch out and take more "daring" missions. Only daring because of the price tag if I end up losing my Drone.

I set this one all up through the Tower app on the phone, I planned a simple fly through of the neighborhood. I launched it from my phone and drove behind it as it flew, just in case.

The landing was a little sketchy because the wind was blowing it towards the neighbor's fence, so I had to grab it. But usually it will land within 3 feet from where it launched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uJW780yfDs&feature=youtu.be

Right on.

Was the last video all controlled from your home? Or were you following it the whole time?

I was following it but I didn't need to. It just would have been out of my line of sight so I just followed it to feel better. Otherwise I would have waited 2 minutes for it to circle back around.

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Oh and I think I finally fixed the tilt, now I just need to roll the camera downward a bit to get the props out of the frame.

I'd love to get one but, by the time I had the time to figure it out, learn and practice, it would be obsolete!

Yeah I hear GoPro is officially starting to make drones. I figure when they are available, and if it stacks up pretty well to this one, I'll just sell this one.

But at the current time, there's no reason to sell this. It's not missing any features that I'd like.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tallsteve

I'd love to get one but, by the time I had the time to figure it out, learn and practice, it would be obsolete!

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Speaking of.... heck I just bought mine and it looks like they've got a new model coming out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMhfQayEiXI