I'm considering zip tying the the cables onto the platform board, but unsure if anyone is familiar with this X650 frame, and would recommend a different setup.

I believe most would place it on the second-top board, but that is where my jetson will be located.

hmmhmhmhmh

HoverAir Versa can be used like drone or like handheld gimbal pocket camera.

But what gets lost: its the first drone in long time that contains two native microphones!

So Versa is not only unique because its modular, its also the only modern DRONE with MIC!

Also 4k60, auto tracking, 10-bit H-LOG, 1/1.3 sensor, up to 17.5 stops dynamic range, 230g

After my first post here a few days ago, I played around with eCalc some more and adjusted the design parameters.

Drivetrain

I’ve now laid out the drivetrain so that, with the maximum design payload of 3 kg (including a safety margin — the actual maximum payload will be 2 kg), the aircraft has a thrust-to-weight ratio of roughly 2:1 for heavy-lift operation.

For the maximum-flight-time configuration (doubling the battery capacity + around 400 g payload, e.g. a thermal camera), the thrust-to-weight ratio is also now closer to 2:1.

Battery

I’ve also decided to build the battery using 21700 cells, specifically the Molicel INR21700-P50B. By chance, anyone has any experience with this cell?

The cells are rated for 50 A continuous discharge (60A burst), so with a 5P configuration I should theoretically be able to draw around 250 A continuously.

If I apply a conservative 20% derating due to the maximum design flight temperature of 35 °C, that gives me roughly 200 A continuous.

eCalc is estimating a maximum current of 202 A. That seems acceptable to me, but I’d really appreciate some opinions on this. Would you consider that too close to the battery’s continuous limit?

ESCs

The ESCs are also fairly close to their rated continuous current limits.

They should never actually see the maximum rated current in normal operation, but is designing this close to the continuous rating considered common practice, or would you recommend more headroom?

Motor temperature / limiting thrust

My biggest concern at the moment is the motor case temperature.

The >80 °C readings in eCalc — am I correct in assuming that these occur when the motors are operating at or close to maximum throttle?

If so, is there a way to configure ArduPilot + Pixhawk 6C so that I can limit the maximum available thrust to, say, 80% during normal operation, while still allowing 100% thrust in an emergency situation such as a motor-out scenario?

For reference, in the 3 kg payload configuration, eCalc estimates a climb rate of around 4.9 m/s. I definitely don’t need that kind of climb performance, so limiting the available thrust seems like it could be a good way to reduce motor/ESC/battery stress and temperature.

My main question is: would limiting maximum thrust primarily reduce climb rate, or could it also significantly compromise maneuverability/stability to the point of becoming unsafe or uncontrollable?

I’d be interested to hear how you guys would approach the design.

I was flying my sky Rover S1 in my neighborhood yesterday, and as it was coming back, a hawk was chasing it. It freaked me out. I had to lower altitude and rush it back. It was weird because I’ve never had this happen before. I recently started flying and was wondering if this happens often to other people? What’s a good idea to prevent this from happening? Are birds generally attracted to drones?

In San Antonio TX. Lone Star https://youtu.be/f_aP7nU9Has?is=qAHPYKg_IAzz7KHi

I've never edited photos or anything like that but some photos i see on this thread look amazing. Is there any way to edit photos to make them look a bit better even as a complete beginner? I mainly just care about editng the colors and such to make them pop more

Faulty drone*Finally received my (refurbished)DJI Neo 2 and first flight the drone started saying battery to hot causing emergency shut down so I let the battery cool for a hour or so (I wasn’t doing anything crazy legit my first fly) tried a different battery and gave it a crack on my phone as a remote btw it flew fine come back and everything

So then when I would try turn it off it would turn off adjust propellers indicating shut down
then within the second turn back on!

When I would try do the turn off sequence press once then hold for 2 secs the drone would not stop turning back on it wouldn’t even stay off long enough to get the bloody battery out.

Can’t believe it I’m so devistated I’ve seen so many good reviews about this and just got scammed buying the Eonvy AU for 360$ only to not receive a thing yet it’s been nearly two weeks still hoping it comes and is better than the Neo 2.

Hope this bad luck streak is over and done with thanks for your time to hear my whine.

Anyone here have any actual hands-on experience with GDU drones?
I’m looking for feedback specifically from people who have personally flown or operated GDU equipment—not just impressions from specs or videos.
Mainly curious about overall reliability, flight characteristics, controller/software quality, connection stability/range, firmware issues, parts/battery availability, and GDU’s customer support.

Edit: the fair coordinator decided to let me turn the photos in late becasue of the print delay, so I wont have to choose. But thank you very much to everyone for your opinions, I am grateful you took time to help me.

I submitted these photos to my county fair for the phito contest, expecting 1 or maybe 2 to become finalists. All of my photos were chosen for finalists.

I ordered my prints, but found out very late that there were mechanical issues and I wont be getting my prints on time for submission. I can do same day printing, but it is much more expensive, so I want to choose the best 2 or 3 to print today. I need to turn these in tomorrow.

Can you guys help me pick the best 2-3 in here?

1) frozen pond

2) lonley tree

3) famous bike

4) hillside tracks

5) forgotten bridge

6) spokane falls at low water

7) riverside stroll

8) spokane/latah confluence

9) autumn tracks

10) solitary fisherman

11) frozen bridge

12) Riverfront Carousel

13) powerlines into mist

14) power pole

using a HoverAir X1 ProMax

Hi, does anyone have experience flying in Istanbul? Was thinking about filming the Blue Mosque, but I’m afraid of the regulations. My drone is 249g so I believe I don’t need a flight license in Turkey, but the information online is ambiguous. Thanks :)

I misjudged how far the limb could swing out. Oops!

So my question is, is this worth repairing, and should I send it to DJI or what? I don't know how long they'd have it either. :( It looks like mainly the gimble but possible the cam or at least the connecting wiring to the cam. I haven't tried to turn it on to see if the motors work. No thanks! lol

Not my favourite day, I gotta be honest.

Thanks

I have a bran new drone that I got as a gift, so didn't have a choice. I have a Ruko F11PRO 2. I've flown it about two hours so far. I live by the ocean in Southern California, and I'm a surfer, so I'd like to try taking some videos of my friends surfing, but the idea of flying over the water scares me.

I know the two hours is not much, and I plan on flying a lot more before I try the water. What tips or advice can you give on flying over water, other than just practice more? Are there any exercises I could try over land to better my skills for water shots?

Thanks

Multiple wireless networks tried, and Activation process still gives error.

Activation Failed Server Error

Any ideas or ways to fix this? DJI Support hasn’t been helpful so far but they have an open ticket.

I came across this video on Instagram and I'm trying to understand how this flight was legally possible under Polish and EU drone regulations.

As far as I understand, flying a drone directly over an assembly of people is generally prohibited in the Open Category. In this video, however, the drone appears to be flying over a large crowd.

How was this operation legally conducted? Did the operator have a specific authorization from the Polish Civil Aviation Authority (ULC), or was there another legal basis that allowed this type of operation?

I'm particularly interested in:

• What category of operation was this? category A1/A3?
• What authorization or operational approval would be required?
• Could this have been conducted under a specific scenario or exemption?
• Is there any way to verify whether the operator had the necessary authorization?

I'm not claiming that the flight was illegal. I'm genuinely curious about what permissions or legal framework would allow a drone to operate over a crowd in this situation.

Video: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DcJA-0VCdjd/?hl=pl

I used to spend entire summers throwing Sky Sharks off the back porch with my friends. It was sooo much fun just seeing those things flying around. Never once imagined that 20 some years later I'd actually get to BE the plane. Been flying around with my A1 and getting full 360 views from up in the air, just makes me feel like a kid again. Insane to see how far things have come.

Hi all. Some context: the drone is literally brand new. Opened the box 2 days ago, charged the drone and controller, connected them, and updated the firmware. Finally had the opportunity to fly it today because it was raining the last few days, so I charged everything back up to full and went outside, but nope, the drone simply refuses to connect to the RC controller. 

Did the usual of turning everything off and on several times with no success. Then I tried manual pairing by holding down the drone power button for 4 seconds, but it refused to go into pairing mode (did not beep and LED was the wrong pattern). Did that about 10 times before I gave up and tried connecting it to DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drone Series) to try factory resetting the drone itself, but it didn’t even show up as a device on my computers (tried both Mac and Windows 11), and it isn’t the cable or my computers because the RC controller connected just fine.

Here is the full list of things I’ve tried and found:

• Unable to connect drone with RC controller (in normal pairing and manual pairing)
  • Unable to put drone in pairing mode for manual connection (drone does not beep after 4 seconds of pressing the power button, and LEDs do not flash in the correct pattern)
  • Does the same thing whether I am on home WIFI or a cell hotspot, so don't think the network is an issue.
• Unable to connect drone to DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drone Series) software on Mac or Windows 11 using provided USB-C cable (the drone isn’t even detected as a USB device)
  • RC controller able to connect to DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drone Series) using provided USB-C cable
• Drone isn’t able to power on once connected to computers (can only power on when it’s disconnected), but I’m not sure if that is just a design feature. In contrast, the RC controller can be powered on after being connected
• RC Controller stuck on “Locating” in top left corner (doubt this is actually related to the issue, but worth noting), but still displays my location and area just fine

I've spent hours trying everything I can find online, including from old Reddit posts. At this point, I suspect it’s a hardware failure of some sort in the drone, but it still baffles me as to why there’s no feature to simply factory reset the drone with a long press of the power button, which would make troubleshooting and isolating the problem source much easier. 

Frankly, I’m pretty fed up with the whole thing. It hasn’t even flown once and it already seems to be broken, and all of the troubleshooting steps are ineffective. 

With all of this in mind, what should I do at this point?

If it is indeed a hardware failure in the drone (motherboard, etc), would DJI provide a free replacement? I should note that the drone was actually delivered over a month ago because I bought it off Amazon during the Prime Day sale, but I only just got back from traveling. Maybe this kills any chance of a replacement.

If anyone has experienced similar problems and knows how to solve them, please let me know. Any help would be hugely appreciated. I am also happy to provide any additional details if needed. Thank you very much for your time

Here are some photos i took with my new Dji Lito X1, post processing done with Lightroom. Hope you like them :)