Quadcopter Questions

[Bobmic]

So I was thinking about FPV and quadcopters for while and I have a few questions.
The setup I was thinking of was something that will have a GPS and good stabilizing system with a return to home option which will use a GoPro on a tilt and pan gamble (not sure if pan is required with a quad but maybe)
I will definitely want to be able to fly it in an FPV mode but nothing too far.
I was thinking of a setup with a monitor mounted on the transmitter.
Now the questions:
1. How do I controll the pan and tilt function (I am not sure if I can use the side levers on the 11X separately from the sticks but I haven't tried)
2. Which quad (or more) make the best bang for the buck ? How stable are the quads specifically in wind
3. How stable are they in a locked position.

Thx,
Bobby

[bfeist]

Welcome to the bottomless pit of time that is GPS quadcopters

I'd break up your interest into three pieces, and tackle them incrementally:

1) quadcopter itself. If you want all of those fancy features, I recommend what my friend just got: a Blade 350QX with a GoPro Hero3+ on it. You can get a cheap stock mount for the gopro. Start here. The 350QX is a knockoff of the much more expensive DJI Phantom system. It has GPS hold, compass heading modes, altitude and position hold functions etc. It will take you a while to get a feel for it and to stop crashing it. Don't learn with the gopro on it.

2) Gimbal: The latest gimbals that reduce jitter a lot are brushless gimbals. There's a very expensive one for DJI, or you can get a cheapo knockoff on ebay (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/DJI-Phantom-Gopro-Brushless-Camera-Gimbal-w-Motors-Controller-for-Aerial-movie-/130969477202?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e7e63a052&_uhb=1). Again, this is what my friend did and he got great results. Don't get this until you've stopped completely stopped crashing your quadcopter.

3) FPV: A whole nother topic. I suggest 5.8Ghz to work with your 2.4Ghz radio system. This is a serious rabbit hole. Monitor on your transmitter will be too dark in the sunlight for example. You're looking at goggles, ground stations, diversity receivers, antenna strategy as a whole including polarity, TX/RX system type and power, interference with GPS/gopro, etc, etc. And again, I suggest waiting until after an entire season of flying your quad with a gimbal before getting into this. Pan and tilt may be part of the Blade electronics. You'd need to use goggles and a head tracker. I'd say that kind of thing is the very last thing you try to get working.

[Ededge2002]

I offer to get you some sunglasses painted black and every time you want to go flying I give you a rubix cube to try to do with the glasses on. Then at the end of five minutes you hand me $100 and I with a sad expression on my face explain that you crashed.

I think this will be cheaper and less painful in the end.

[Bobmic]

I offer to get you some sunglasses painted black and every time you want to go flying I give you a rubix cube to try to do with the glasses on. Then at the end of five minutes you hand me $100 and I with a sad expression on my face explain that you crashed.

I think this will be cheaper and less painful in the end.

That's a good one - and I am exactly at the point where I can just drop this subject off
I guess I need to investigate a bit more Ben- I was hoping you we're going to tell me that these copters don't crash with all the available stabilizers and GPS control.

Thx
Bobby