SteadiDrone

Legislation and laws differ from country to country but in most countries you may operate the unit within line of sight and below 400 feet above ground level. It is the pilot's responsibility to know the laws of the areas he/she flies in.

 

In some countries you do, in others only if you use it commercially and some countries you are not required to have a licence. Confirm with your local authorities before operating a drone.

 

The main limiting factors here are your radio's range and your battery life. Depending on the flying conditions and your equipment, the radio will normally give you up to 1km of range and under ideal conditions as far as 2km. If the drone is operated in the auto mission mode you are not limited by the radio's range as it used GPS, when using this feature please make sure you fully understand it and that you are legally allowed to operate it in this manner. Battery life is dependent on the drone you are flying and the equipment you have on it. Also remember that your power consumption will be higher when travelling at speed thus decreasing your flight time. Altitude above sea level would also effect your battery life. So in other words we can't give an exact battery life, it is advised that you test your battery life under your particular conditions. Always keep an eye on the battery voltage, this is the most important and basic rule of flying.

 

Check our website for up to date pricing or contact the sales department via [email protected]

 

Due to the wide variety of cameras used it would be virtually impossible to sell the unit with a camera that would suit every bodies needs, also, many people already own a camera that they would like to use. We attempt to design the units to be versatile so that you could use a camera of your choice.

 

This depends on many factors such as the design of the drone, motors, propellers, electronic speed controllers (ESC), batteries and altitude above sea level. Please see the specifications for each model.

 

The best place to fly is a wide open area were you do not endanger other people, animals or property. Also note that strong RF interference in the area might cause the drone to act erratically. It helps allot if the area is covered in grass as this often prevents damage to the drone should you go down.

 

The drones use Lithium Polymer (LiPo) battery packs. Battery pack are made up out of a number of cells in series which determines the voltage of the battery, we mainly use 2S (7.4V, 2200mAh), 4S (14.8V, 4200mAh) and 10S (37V, 10 000mAh) battery packs. Battery packs also have different storage capacities measured in mAh. The higher the value the higher the capacity of the battery and also the bigger/heavier the battery will be.

LiPo batteries are shipped with a storage charge of around 3.85V per cell. Before the battery is used it should be fully charged to 4.2V per cell. LiPo batteries should not be depleted to below 3.2V per cell as this will damage the battery and make it potentially volatile. Please note that depending or the specific drone, flying conditions and payload you might not be able to use the battery down to 3.3V per cell as the drone might not be able to fly with the decreased power as this directly also decrease the max RPM of the motors. Always make sure you leave enough head room to safely come in and land at the end of every flight.

 

Yes, there are a number of options for transmitting live video from the air to either a field monitor or video goggles on the ground. This allows you to frame your shots much better you can also fly the drone by looking at this feed instead of directly at the drone, this is referred to as FPV or First Person View.

 

This is affected largely by the drone, props used, payload, etc. Flight time will decrease the higher you go above sea level, the motors and the ESC will also become hotter in the same flight time compared to flying at sea level because the need to spin faster. You will see a noticeable decrease in performance when going higher than 3000m above sea level. 

The brushless motors that are fitted to our drones can operate in light rain. The flight controller, ESC and other electronics should not get wet. The dome and foam enclosure does provide some protection in this regard so should it start raining while you are out flying you should be able to bring the drone back safely. The units are not designed to fly in the rain, but if you are able to cover up the electronics sufficiently, it is possible.

 

If you lose control of the drone due to the signal between the radio and the drone being lost the drone will go into RTL (Return To Land) mode and return to were you took off from with the drone, that's if you had GPS lock when you took of and the drone is setup correctly, by default our drones come standard with this setting. Similarly, if you lose control of the drone due to pilot error or visibility you can also activate this feature via a switch on the radio and the drone will also come home if this feature was activated in time and the drone has not suffered a crash.

 

With the addition of fully stabilized flight controllers and the GPS capabilities of these controllers it has become much easier to operate these drones. Most people should be able to take off with a drone and keep it in the air. The difference comes when more advanced flying skills are required to navigate through obstacles and getting that perfect shot, here nothing can replace good old practice and spending more time flying will only be in your advantage.

 

The props of a drone can spin anywhere from 5000-15000 RPM and the edges of these props are very sharp making these spinning props potentially dangerous. It is therefore not advised to fly over people or fly where children or animals can run up to the drone when you land or take off.

 

The potential for drones are being recognized in numerous industries and the applications are ever growing. Drones are used for aerial photography, aerial video, surveillance, animal tracking, fire fighting, search and rescue, surveying, 3D mapping, industrial inspection, conservation, crop management, RC hobby and many more.

 

Drones rely on power to keep the prop spinning, if the battery runs out the drone will not be able to stay up any longer as multi-rotor drone cannot glide or auto-rotate and will thus go down. Some systems do warn you when the batteries are getting low and some can even perform a Return to Home when batteries are nearing the end of their capacity but it is always the responsibility of the pilot to keep an eye on the battery life of his drone.

 

Most of the flight controllers we use are capable of full autonomous missions all the way from take-off, flying a grid for example and then returning home and landing completing a range of tasks along the way like taking photos for example. The drone can be monitored from the ground by tracking it's progress with ground control software or viewing a live video feed from the drone.

What is the difference between the 10" propellers and the 12" propellers on the 2014 SteadiDrone QU4D?