Parallax Elev-8 V3 - first flight
Just finished building and flying an Elev-8 v3 - this seemed like the place to make some notes about it.
The Elev-8 is my first serious drone - sure, the market has other drones with a lot of new sexy features - but I wanted an open source product that I could modify. The technical detail and advice in 'Build Your Own Quadcopter' by Donald Norris is a good resource too.
This is a great kit. Everything you need is in the kit - and the instructions are detailed and very thorough. Very few kits in any industry meet this standard. I added the light kit to improve orientation. I built in my spare time over a couple of months.
First flight was about 10 minutes - in 10-15mph winds. Not more than 10 feet AGL and within 30 feet of the transmitter. The craft was stable and responsive - but definitely not for first time quad pilots. I landed and took off several times - ground effect didn't seem to be a problem. As with most drones - you have to stay on top of it all the time - it's like a 3 dimensional air puck.
Orientation, even with the light package, was difficult - probably because I wasn't used to the lights - I'm more accustomed to using the physical shape of the aircraft for orientation. I may add a ping pong ball.
I have several hours practicing with quadcopters - first with a simulator and then with small indoor drones. That practice made a lot of difference - I'm certain that without it my first flight would have been my first crash.
The Elev-8 is my first serious drone - sure, the market has other drones with a lot of new sexy features - but I wanted an open source product that I could modify. The technical detail and advice in 'Build Your Own Quadcopter' by Donald Norris is a good resource too.
This is a great kit. Everything you need is in the kit - and the instructions are detailed and very thorough. Very few kits in any industry meet this standard. I added the light kit to improve orientation. I built in my spare time over a couple of months.
First flight was about 10 minutes - in 10-15mph winds. Not more than 10 feet AGL and within 30 feet of the transmitter. The craft was stable and responsive - but definitely not for first time quad pilots. I landed and took off several times - ground effect didn't seem to be a problem. As with most drones - you have to stay on top of it all the time - it's like a 3 dimensional air puck.
Orientation, even with the light package, was difficult - probably because I wasn't used to the lights - I'm more accustomed to using the physical shape of the aircraft for orientation. I may add a ping pong ball.
I have several hours practicing with quadcopters - first with a simulator and then with small indoor drones. That practice made a lot of difference - I'm certain that without it my first flight would have been my first crash.
Comments
Happy to hear your experience so far has been positive, and if you have questions or feedback there are a bunch of lurkers here who like that kind of thing. If the questions are specific to the code or platform, most people post that in "robotics", though that's not a hard rule or anything.
I don't suppose Parallax would consider making an Elev-8 category?
Yes - slow is the right approach. I was fortunate - some material online convinced me to get a Blade Nano - nice little BNF (see, no background in this and I'm already using the acronyms). It didn't take many attempts to realize that a quadcopter can get away from you in a hurry.
I'm interested specifically in agricultural surveying - quadcopters may or may not be the right approach to this problem, but a solid kit like the Elev-8 has at least made me aware of the complexity and issues involved.
Welcome to the forums!
Elev8 questions normally go the Robotics Forums. Would you like me to move it?