Taxation and regulations on drones

a reply to: Edumakated

There is very little signal noise now. It isn't like in the old days where if someone got your signal by mistake you'd lose control.

Like I said, I don't know about now. BuBack in the day, passing cars or motorcycles with magnetos , cb radios, the frequency produced by lawn mower spark plugs (spark gap generators) could provide just enough interference to disrupt signal or worse make a turn into the ground. Besides that I personally witnessed a theft one day. A car drove by with an antenna out the window, took over flight control on an expensive model plane in flight and everyone watched helplessly as the plane followed the receding car down the road.

The reason they also monitor frequencies beside noise or jamming is to detect if someone else is going to try to steal a plane.

Broad band interference or spikes that merge with operating planes are monitored on an oscilloscope on site.

Planes that fly at the same time checked in with the person monitoring.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Edumakated

There is very little signal noise now. It isn't like in the old days where if someone got your signal by mistake you'd lose control.

Like I said, I don't know about now. BuBack in the day, passing cars or motorcycles with magnetos , cb radios, the frequency produced by lawn mower spark plugs (spark gap generators) could provide just enough interference to disrupt signal or worse make a turn into the ground. Besides that I personally witnessed a theft one day. A car drove by with an antenna out the window, took over flight control on an expensive model plane in flight and everyone watched helplessly as the plane followed the receding car down the road.

The reason they also monitor frequencies beside noise or jamming is to detect if someone else is going to try to steal a plane.

Broad band interference or spikes that merge with operating planes are monitored on an oscilloscope on site.

Planes that fly at the same time checked in with the person monitoring.

Yeah, I recall. It doesn't really work that way anymore. Transmitters use 2.4ghz instead of FM signals like before. Pretty much the transmitter is bound to a receiver in the vehicle (plane, drone, boat, or whatever you are operating). The signal is completely random and not duplicated by another transmitter. The odds of any transmitter catching interference by another transmitter is like hitting the powerball.

How 2.4GHZ works

It used to be when I would go to car races, someone would inadvertently turn on their transmitter in the pit area and a racer on the track would see his car veer off the track uncontrollably because they shared the same frequency. That doesn't happen anymore. You no longer have to monitor frequencies.

This is not to say that there can't be other types of interference, but generally it isn't a huge risk. More a chance of your battery dying but even that isn't a huge issue with LIPO batteries these days.

a reply to: Edumakated

All digital now. Does that prevent theft, too?

Yeah, I recall. It doesn't really work that way anymore. Transmitters use 2.4ghz instead of FM signals like before.

When I was flying, it was analog, CB frequency, somewhere around 27 Mhz.

originally posted by: Eilasvaleleyn
a reply to: starfoxxx

Point 1: You are generalizing all teenage girls as attention whores. Classy.
Point 2: It is a matter of choice. If someone wishes to go to the beach in a bikini, that is their prerogative and they are aware they may get a few surreptitious looks. It is another thing altogether being recorded while in your own backyard. If you are in a private pool and not the beach, then it stands to reason that you may not want others looking at you.
Point 3: This is also applies to young children, not only teenage girls who "love the attention."
Point 4: A shotgun's ability to solve this problem is dependent on what airspace the drone is in. If it is not on your property, then the owner may sue you for damaging it.

As a final note, before you say my argument is dumb, please correct your grammar. Thank you.

Hail eila (nazi salute) grammar nazi

a reply to: Edumakated

I have a blade 350. The DJI Phantoms, (if you believe the YT vids out there) can go a mile+ up.

HOWEVER.

What most ppl won't tell you is that (at least on the Blade, I assume the same for Phantoms) is that you can set the "ceiling" for your drone (I hate that word, mine doesn't have hellfire missiles) for any number of feet you want.(Using a laptop & software that is made for it) Since it is illegal to go above 400 feet, I have mine set to 380.

ETA: You can't even se it past 200 feet (I can't anyway) unless you have a cam on it & you're doing FPV flying. (First person view)

a reply to: schadenfreude

ETA: You can't even se it past 200 feet (I can't anyway) unless you have a cam on it & you're doing FPV flying. (First person view)

Sounds like one of those "software updates" that someone else mentioned earlier in the thread probably disabled that feature. Don't you just love it when the vendors help you protect yourself from yourself?

I expect that some type of open source program will emerge in the near future that restores the owner's freedom to operate their purchase in whatever way they see fit.

-dex

originally posted by: Freeyourchains
It has begun already...the taxation, registration, limitations on drones... www.popsci.com...

If you build a drone fron scratch or buy one, you have to give money to the FAA? What the hell? Soon they'll be charging us all $5 per window we own again.

Got my grandkids "pocket drones" for X-Mas and they love them.

Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, light enough to be exempt from regulation, rechargeable in the field and cheap enough to almost be considered disposable at under $20 each.

Just saying.

Model airplanes over 8 oz are also required to be registered.

Here is an FAA document the provides some examples of drones that require registration.

Have fun!

-dex

originally posted by: DexterRiley
Model airplanes over 8 oz are also required to be registered.

Here is an FAA document the provides some examples of drones that require registration.

Have fun!

-dex

Pocket drones are way smaller than those pictures in your link and they're way under 8ozs.

The ones I bought actually store away in a compartment located on the remote control itself and there's another compartment that holds spare blades, guards and landing gear for those who choose to use them.

I bought what's called the SBEGO "Pocket Drone Quadcopter 124" FQ777. Check it out!

Did I mention how much fun they are?

a reply to: Flatfish

SBEGO "Pocket Drone Quadcopter 124" FQ777. Check it out!

That looks like an interesting toy. And less than $20.00 for copter and remote is a good price. I might buy one just to hack.

But it's pretty small though. How hard is it to fly? One review I read said that it was not easy, so not recommended for the novice.

Pocket drones are way smaller than those pictures in your link and they're way under 8ozs.

Most of the drones in that PDF are examples of what drones don't have to be registered. Only the last two, at the bottom of the document, are examples of drones that must be registered. I don't think the combined weight of an entire fleet of Pocket Quadrocopters would amount to 8 oz. LOL

-dex

a reply to: DexterRiley

I'm not at all experienced in remote controll flying and I found them quite easy to fly. For someone with experience, I would imagine they're simple as they come.

I actually bought two different brands because my granddaughter wanted pink and the brand I mentioned above didn't come in that color.

They both have red & blue LED lights and once you figure out which side needs to be facing you, you'll quickly get oriented and you'll be flying all over the place.

The two brands I bought are opposite each other. With one of them, you need to be looking at the blue lights and red lights with the other.

IMO, Both are easy to fly indoors or out. The only downside I've experienced is their propensity to pick up hair off the floor when flying indoors. It gets wrapped around the blades and you have to pull the blade off and remove the hair before it's gonna fly right again. It only takes a few seconds to clear it though.

ETA; There are some short demo videos about the model I mentioned above on YouTube where you can see how well they fly and do flips, etc. They're worth checking out.

a reply to: Flatfish

That's what I've been having trouble adjusting to, is which lights are front and which are back. They're fun as hell to fly though. I have a Quadrone XLC.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Flatfish

That's what I've been having trouble adjusting to, is which lights are front and which are back. They're fun as hell to fly though. I have a Quadrone XLC.

I figured mine out by giving it just enough power to be weightless, ( but still touching the floor) while I worked the side to side control knob to see which way it tried to float off to. If it's not oriented right, spin it around and try again.

You'll know it the second you get it right.

a reply to: Flatfish

I spent the first night doing that and chasing the dogs around our hotel room. Haha.

originally posted by: DexterRiley
a reply to: schadenfreude

ETA: You can't even se it past 200 feet (I can't anyway) unless you have a cam on it & you're doing FPV flying. (First person view)

Sounds like one of those "software updates" that someone else mentioned earlier in the thread probably disabled that feature. Don't you just love it when the vendors help you protect yourself from yourself?

I expect that some type of open source program will emerge in the near future that restores the owner's freedom to operate their purchase in whatever way they see fit.

-dex

No you misunderstand. You can't see it bc 200 feet is really high for something 10x10.

This is what I have, minus the gimball. (camera) Blade 350qx3 w/ gimbal

Nothing is disabled, it just lets you limit the ceiling (height) of the aircraft so that you DON'T go above 400 feet if you want to. FPV is flying by camera. (There is a screen on most remotes, though you can use a tablet too) You can literally see through the camera pictured.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Flatfish

I spent the first night doing that and chasing the dogs around our hotel room. Haha.

Yeah, my daughter's cats love them too!

I did have to trim out my grandson's once, but that was mainly due to his willingness to push every button in sight at all times.

Both models I bought have trim buttons and if they're trimmed out right, they should be able to hover in a semi-stable fashion without too much tweaking in flight.

If yours "always" wants to take off in the same direction, it needs to be trimmed.

I honestly see this as something that just gets ignored and fizzles. I just can't fathom how and who would police it. It is outside normal police jurisdiction AFAIK as it is an FAA thing. I'm not advocating ignoring it, but I just think that will be the reality due to just plain ignorance of the law as well as those that just don't care.

I see this as being a situation where enforcement takes place only when there are specific complaints/incidents. Just my opinion.