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- HOTNESS UNHOT
Brookstone has the refurbished Parrot AR.Drone Wi-Fi Quadricopter (Blue, Green or Yellow) for $140 - $10 off in cart - $5 off with coupon code AF5 [Exp 12/31] = $125 with free shipping. Features beginner/expert controller modes, carbon fiber & high-resistance plastic construction, front & bottom cameras, iOS and Android 2.2+ compatible.
$125
A touchscreen is about the worst thing for controlling a heli. A quadcopter is the right idea if you're starting into hover-able RC, though. You'd be best to start off on a "U816A", Ladybird, or the like.
One warning about the world of RC right now - if you want to buy a decent radio separately, the whole 2.4Ghz DSS thing is proprietary for each manufacturer. Quadcopters pretty much have to have the receiver integrated, so you are stuck with one brand forever. That, or you can buy radios for all the brands.
^ Doesn't it have realtime video? You almost have to use a touchscreen if you want to operate in stealth mode (no line of sight), unless you hack together a separate controller along with the phone, tablet, or another device for video.
how much weight do you think you can strap to this?
^ According to the following topic. 250 grams absolute max (for stability reasons) but the more weight you add the more the motors will heat up and the more the battery pack life will suffer.
To me that suggests maybe 100 grams for a secondary battery pack if you want to retain good, if not better, runtimes, then around 100 grams or 4 oz. max payload, a little under 6 oz total with payload and/or extra battery would be best. That should be plenty for something like a mSD camera upgrade, since people have already done that.
http://forum.parrot.com/ardrone/en/viewtopic.php?id=260
Last time this was shown someone posted a youtube with a gopro strapped to it.
GoPro Weight: 5.3oz/150g incl. battery, 6.3oz/179g incl. housing
I'd say an Arecont av5115 with a picostation. Remove all casings and unneeded weight. Still need to power these things, even if for just a few minutes to get some nice areal shots.
If this thing is 12 volts perhaps replace the whole battery system to power everything with a silver oxide battery (ok, or li-on) using a timer to trigger the cam and radio for only a few mins.
Or just maybe need to an octocopter if ya know what I mean.
Bottom line is It'd be cool for the sole purpose of getting nice HD areals without having to get in a real helicopter/plane
Edit: That said, a gps would be nice to have to locate the thing. Whats the smallest pos 12v gps unit avail?
Holding out for the second generation refurb... camera is much better. Now if the camera could be upgraded on this then I would get it, but I'm guessing there are streaming limitations. This needs to stream fast if you want to fly by video alone.