>>>>I'm not usually much of a one for toys but I needed some aerial photos of a building and have a GoPro camera knocking around so I bought a DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter and gimbal.
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>>>>I've had it a couple of days and am hooked - easy to fly and pretty good results. Guess I'll be looking to add a FPV system to it.
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>>>>Anyone else tried this ?
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>>>I knew nothing about what you were talking about but searched by the name and found the product on Amazon.com. Pretty pricy for a toy (> $700) :) But I love everything that is flying. Especially when you can control it. How do you control it?
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>>It's seems to be pretty much bomb proof. It uses a standard type remote control with two joysticks but the beauty of it is that there's a built in GPS system. If you aren't touching the controls then it will just remain in it's current position. There's also a automatic 'return to home' - if you get confused just switch off the transmitter and it will automatically return to (and land) very close to where it took off.
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>> What is the range of flying?
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>>Haven't tested this to the limits :-{
>>Again you can set it so that it will not go beyond a certain radius/altitude from the take-off point but 1/2 mile away and a few hundred feet up or so seems pretty safe. There's also software/hardware available that allows you to pre-program a course so, in theory, you can send it off into the wild blue yonder and just wait for it to come back - but the battery charge only lasts about 15-20 mins (and spare batteries are expensive - about $100 a pop)
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>> > Maybe this is the toy my wife has been always asking me that I want (for years she wants to buy me something "expensive", like a watch, but it is not my thing) {g}
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>>Don't think these are much fun without a video shooting capability so if you don't want to do a lot of DIY it's worth looking at the Vision+ model - more expensive but gives you pretty much everything you need out of the box (plus the ability to view live video on an IPad or Android device whilst flying ).
>
>This is absolutely incredible in its capabilities. I am sure you have a lot of fun with this toy. I will read more about these things on-line. Thank you for sharing.

Tons of stuff on-line. There's also a developer API which I've signed up for - but don't know when I'll get time to play with it....

>P.S. The scary thing is that today with all the terror acts and the desire of evil people to do harm, someone can strap a bomb to this device and fly it into a building or some other structure with big population. Or maybe I am overestimating the possible danger.

The payload on something like mine is only a few ounces but there are obviously bigger, more expensive, options. Amazon are supposedly trialling them as delivery vehicles.....