747pilot

My Feedback: (4)

First off I have ZERO experience with electric flight but 25 years with airplanes that run on dead dinosuar juice.
My backyard is SO close and it's looking more and more attractive everyday as a place to fly something.

So I started to look at park flyers which then led me to these awesome looking things called Quadcopters.
I really like the idea of doing FPV with them as well.

So I began my own quadcopter research and education on my own via RCU, Youtube,Google, etc, etc....
The other day I came across a video series on Youtube that explained in great detail how to build a QC.
Link - HERE. The guy was from Hoverfly.

I was thinking, "Great, I'll go with this" and I watched the whole series. Then I went to the website, which Iam
sure you're already very familiar with, and discovered the control board he was using cost $450. !!!

Now from my research, I'm somewhat familiar with what these controll boards do and have seen them at
Hobby King and other places, so Ihave to ask this question and I am really hoping someone can fill me in.

What possible reason could explain why this control board costs $450 !!!!!!!???????

What does it do? My laundry? My taxes? Cut my grass? Go grocery shopping....it better....and more.
I could NEVER justify purchasing it. But I wanna know are there people out there that have?
Is it that much better? if so, why?


-Dazed & Confused in Charlotte NC.


PS- What board is the board the majority are using? That's what I really want to know.

randall1959

My Feedback: (11)

The best advice I can give you is to go to Hobbyking and get a KK board. Learn to fly it, fly the bejesus out of it and learn from that. IMHO the Rabbit is every bit as capable as the $450 board you posted about.
Here's what a KK board can do.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1zqLm0FoDA[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ7gY9Or-HI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apfV8l4tYyk[/youtube]

Now here's what a Rabbit FCB can do.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzIVfQjYbiA[/youtube]

747pilot

My Feedback: (4)

Thanks. I'll check out the videos and your others at Youtube.
Where do you purchase most of your gear from?

OK time for a newbie question. What does KK mean?

randall1959

My Feedback: (11)

KK is a brand of quadcopter flight controller. It's VERY inexpensive.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USA-Stock-KK...item3f17d82f8f
Here are some decent inexpensive esc's from the same guy too.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hobbywing-Pe...item4166567b77
And the programmer for the esc's
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hobbywing-Pe...item3f17bb321b
And the motors.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAWKING-HK28...item27c38ce8dc
And a cheap frame
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fiberglass-4...item20c44ac8b6
And for about 200 dollars you've got a complete quadcopter not counting the receiver and props.

Usually I buy most of my stuff from rctimer but it takes a while to get here.

irish_

yea buy KK board if you want to learn on junk.... you want quality stuff to start with buy mikorkopter and enjoy multi rotor life to the fullest. its easiest to learn on a system that flies great! dont bother tryn to learn on a crap kk fighting settings most newbs get agrivated because they cant tune a kk board. sure once you figure it out when you turn 100 u will enjoy them lol

randall1959

My Feedback: (11)

That's funny, the KK board has been flown with great effect by thousands of people everywhere. It's not hard to set up. In fact it's one of the easiest boards to set up and fly. I have yet to see any board that did not have a learning curve. I have also read lots of posts by people that were very frustrated with MK boards. They all have their supporters and detractors.
If you want to spend tons of money that's your problem but it's not something you absolutely have to do, at least in the beginning. At less than 20 dollars shipped, the KK board offers by far the most bang for the buck of any board out there and if you read the manual very carefully, almost anyone can set it up and fly it well.
I'm willing to bet that world wide, there have been by far, more KK boards sold out there than any other board.
There's a guy in Germany that goes by the name of "warthox"
Apparently he hasn't heard that the KK board is "junk" https://vimeo.com/14604109 https://vimeo.com/14192366 https://vimeo.com/14406475

And now Hobby King is coming out with a KK board that has 3 axis accelerometers and doesn't need a computer to configure. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...rol_Board.html

irish_

not arguing its not the most sold. i mean its $15 bucks lol doesnt mean its great or anything

true easy to just install and plug away. but newbs get stuck at that point because it doesnt just fly up and away you go lol. the tuning is easy only after you set them up a hundred times.

and warthox was a skilled 3D heli pilot before he got into quads. He could fly anything because of that. he didnt just start brand new with his skils in quads. most people dont know that. plus he doesnt even fly kk anymore he developed his own MWC that flies better then kk as well

however the new kk2 sounds promising. mine was ordered the other day. though knowone but KK has flown it i hope it performs well. we shall see soon as mine gets here. if it does it will change the game for sure

randall1959

My Feedback: (11)

I have seen people that never flew anything get a KK board had no trouble with getting it to fly. There are some that have trouble walking and chewing gum too but those are everywhere. Anyone with a reasonable amount of experience flying rc will have no real trouble setting up a KK board. Youtube and Vimeo are literally packed with videos of happy KK fliers.
Kaptainkuk literally brought multirotor flying to the masses with the KK board. Is it the "best"? No. It's a very basic board. No frills, no special abilities or anything like that. But you don't need a computerised transmitter to fly it. It works with any 4 channel radio no matter how cheap. It's also very acceptable of just about any esc or motor combo, unlike many of the "better" boards out there.
Just this page alone has over 1100 videos of very good flying quads. And I doubt that many of these guys are anywhere near Warthox's experience.
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc....0.7E9ssB3ioaE
My view is that at least in the beginning you can either spend a lot of money with no guarantees or you can spend your money wisely and get into this hobby economically. More expensive is not necessarily smarter.
This rationale is the same thing I ran into back in my glow plane days. Guys would show up at the field with these behemoth IMAAC planes that had all sorts of mixing, gyros, computerised radios, etc etc and honestly, in their hands they flew no better than the guys that had 10th of the expenditure in their equipment. What's the sense of having something that does your flying for you?
If you have to rely on technology over ability maybe you should consider some other hobby. I've had other flight controllers that cost me many times more than my KK but when I simply want to go out and thrash the sky, the KK quad is the one I always reach for.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1zqLm0FoDA[/youtube]

irish_

more then 2/3 of them moved on from it for sure