Drones and wire antennae.

[WA1LGQ]

Anyone out there in AM land ever try using a drone to erect a wire antenna? There is a new outlet store in Manchester, Ct called Ollie's that is selling a drone with 2.4Ghz remote and camera for 80 bucks. I wonder if it might be useful for carrying up wire or fishing line and dropping into a tree? Have to figure out some kind of release for the line.
.......Larry

[flintstone mop]

could be a nightmare if the wires get tangled in the blades

[WD8KDG]

Quite the opposite. I stretch wire (antennas) across the yard to wreck drones

Craig,

[W1ITT]

I've been fairly successful with the tennis ball launcher at shooting pull lines up and over trees, but the method is not perfect.  I have often thought that a drone copter could be a better solution.
Weighted tennis balls drop reliably through trees and pull the line behind fairly well, but it would be nice to take the ball and line up to the treetop, pick a good spot and drop it down through the precise branch arrangement that looked most promising.  An escapement mechanism from the model airplane crowd would probably do well at triggering a drop.  We'd probably need something better than an $80 drone to get that lift capacity.
For the occasions when something gets hung up, or to remove old antenna stuff that's "grown" into the tree, I would like a small high speed rotary carbide saw blade that hangs down below the drone, within camera view, so it could be maneuvered over the object to be cut.  I know that this technology already exists because I have seen it in a couple James Bond movies.  Efforts to find a surplus dealer that buys old things from "Q" but have so far been unsuccessful.  It's only a matter of integrating it all.

[K1JJ]

Interesting on $80 drones in Manchester, Larry.

Any drone could easily lift 6 lb test monofilament line with a small bright orange sinker.  A small pulley on the drone could drop the sinker with the line controlled from the ground.  Progress to string and cord to rope once threaded thru tree.   It would be like a kite - two people to control it; one on the controls and the other to feed the mono-fil line.

Though, I've found a bow and arrow to do everything I could possibly desire. Practice on a target and you will be like Robin Hood in no time.


Question: Are youse guys in populated areas starting to see mischief  "spy" drones flying around, probably controlled by kids?  I've not seen or heard any in the rural areas, but how would I even know if they were flying high enuff?

T

[W1RKW]

Larry, Don't waste your money.  That little guy doesn't have the lifting capacity to deliver a 1oz weight and a line attached to it.

[Opcom]

I work with drones every day from repairs to modifications, but not those little ones. An $80 drone may have a difficult time with a long length of fishing line if the wind is strong. Or even without it, if the wind is strong. It might work for what you want.

Forget any decent size and length of wire with an $80 drone. Consider the weight of the wire or lead weight to be lifted, the drone's carrying rating, and any wind. And how will you 'release' the weight and like from it? Small units may not have any unused channels. You don't need whole 1 Oz weight if you drop it right.

Since you need the lift but for only a very few minutes, you can temporarily use a much smaller Amp-hour battery of equal voltage to gain some more lift, about as much as the weight difference between the regular and small battery. The battery is the heaviest single thing on the aircraft.

The slingshot or blunt-bolt 'indoor' crossbow might be a better way to set your line up in a tree.

[W2NBC]

With the proper tools...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV67DNXvTr0

[WA1LGQ]

Not even 1oz Bob? Pretty wimpy then. Just wondering if anyone has tried it before I waste my time. Fun idea anyway. I can still use my pneumatic popper. I lost it for almost a year. Forgot where I put it, but it showed up this week when I was tracking down a phone line problem in the basement.
Tom I have not seen any drones around at all. I expect to see some at upcoming outdoor events.

[Opcom]

Question: Are youse guys in populated areas starting to see mischief  "spy" drones flying around, probably controlled by kids?  I've not seen or heard any in the rural areas, but how would I even know if they were flying high enuff?

None around here except mine and it's not put back together yet. It's a Yuneec 4K destroyed by a customer who flew it into a brick wall. After finding out the cost of repair he told us to junk it and exited the hobby in disgust.

Best to learn to fly with the $50-100 model before spending $1200.

The flight controls and telemetry of almost every one of them are on various flavors of 802.11. Control and telemetry are usually on 2.4GHz, and air to ground video is usually on the 5GHz band. Caution must be used when flying near radiators in those bands. This includes mobile devices.

[Opcom]

With the proper tools...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV67DNXvTr0

That toy bomb can be lifted by a much smaller aircraft than shown. An old DJI Phantom 1 or 2 will do it. The toy bomb is designed to be partially filled with flour or baking soda. When it hits, the ground, the rubber nose pops off and the body splits in two making a 'puff' of 'smoke'.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__10624__Quanum_RTR_Bomb_System_1_6_scale_Plug_n_Drop.html

There is really no end to the fun.

The toy bomb's servo is mounted under the fuselage instead of the usual camera gimbal, exchanging the weight. The thing is very cheap and has an analog 9g servo inside. It must be replaced with a digital servo to function with most modern drones because the PWM from the receiver is too fast for the analog servo. It won't work long and will burn up the motor drive transistors.

I did this same 'drop' thing with an old DJI Phantom 2 using the gimbal elevation channel. pic shows a correct servo to mod the drop device. - others can do this to hand a pull wire as shown in the video.

Rotary wing Model AC are lots of fun just be careful with them, BTW a decent size one will chew someone up if it hits them, just like a fixed wing model will. A different kind of chew.

[WA1LGQ]

So someone has done it. I watched the Youtube thing, thanks. That looks like quite a better drone than the one for 80 bucks. And yes there has to be a spare RC channel for releasing or maybe I can rig up something else. I thought of using less battery to lower weight also. Supposedly the unit has 2 rechargeable  batteries, but don't know more than that. No Tom, I have not seen in the skies around here, but I would not be surprised if one or 2 show up at July 4th gatherings around the area. If nothing else, that $80 unit might be fun to play around with. I should grab one before they run out.

........Larry

[Opcom]

buy it, you will have a blast. If spare batteries are available get some because on the smaller units the charging time can be quite long compared to the flying time.

[kb2vxa]

"And yes there has to be a spare RC channel for releasing or maybe I can rig up something else."

You have an Amateur Radio license, use it. Here's an idea to get you started, an idea inspired by a member of the Old Barney ARC here in Ocean County, New Jersey who built an Amateur Radio robot and demonstrated it after a meeting held in the Elks Club Hall. It used 6M for radio control, 70cM ATV and 2M for talk-back. Adjacent to the meeting hall was the bar, we watched on a large screen monitor as he sent it through the door to talk with the bar flies who thought it was the cutest thing since Wal E. If he could build a robot from the ground up you should find it easier to modify a suitable drone with higher power radio equipment on frequencies less likely to encounter QRM.

BTW I like that bomb dropping thing, some years ago a friend rigged one to his RC plane to drop, er, let's say live bombs and leave it at that. (;->)

[Opcom]

Find out which drones and matching RC units use radio boards separate from the usual main board and it's simple to transmit and receive the signals with other radios. The high integration single board wonders make this a PITA and the old radio can't be thrown overboard so avoid those.

So far Yuneec has been more open and easily hackable than DJI, not sure about the many others.

The video transmitter is sometimes self contained in the camera unit and sometimes not, depending on model and brand.

The difficult part is the research as few details are published except from direct observation by hardware hackers. One thing, some equipment uses diversity receivers for flight control so don't overlook the benefits as well as the widening antenna spacing at frequencies <2.4GHz to take advantage of it. Power isn't everything.

Some people just buy their own parts and build a drone with the radios they want and it may be the best way to use ham radio onboard, because then you can define the power, weight, and volume budgets.

The flight control system can be had as a separate kit from several manufacturers including inertial, magnetic, and GPS navigation, motor controls, and other I/O. This is required as without a specific purpose onboard flight control computer a quad or hex is practically impossible to fly.

Nicely for hams, the I/O on almost all of this stuff are well defined signal levels and protocols as have been used in RC hobby for many years.

Here's a typical post clearly showing the inside of a modern quad having the separate 100mW radio. This one is ripe for hacking but mind the weight.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2592659
A $1K prosumer drone like this one can lift off with a lot of added weight but no aircraft fly safely when grossly overloaded. Bigger radios i.e. a ham radio XCVR board or whatever has got to be stripped down, every unneccessary gram thrown out.

Another thing make sure the new radio does not jam the GPS or flight electronics. Most ready-to-fly drones do not have much RF-proofing.

If you want to convert a ready to fly aircraft and do a really people job, a minimum level might be something well designed and powerful like the Yuneec H920 but the price is not attractive for the dabbler.

There is an older drone called the Cinestar, an octocopter, very powerful, used for cine work with heavy cameras like the RED Scarlet. A ready to fly used one may be a good place to start as a hobby. Right now there's one with upgraded flight electronics (DJI A2) on the unmentionable place.

[wd8das]

I've tried to use my quadcopter to carry fish line across the house and a tall tree for antenna purposes.  The problem I encountered was once the quadcopter was above the tree the wind was a lot stronger and the drone would drift off course very easily. At ground level the conditions were calm but above the trees there was a significant wind.

I didn't have a place off to the side from where I could see the entire flight path (neighboring houses to either side), so I was stuck watching from the front yard or the rear, from one side of the tree or the other (in the line of the proposed antenna).  So as the ship passed over the tree I lost sight of it and could no longer control to counteract the increased wind up there.

The quadcopter crashed into adjacent downwind trees several times, getting stuck way up in the top.  Fortunately my unit has a "go wild" mode that spins the props randomly backwards and forwards that allowed the quadcopter to fall down through the tree to the ground for retrieval.

A more advanced quadcopter with the GPS hover mode might make it practical in my situation. I could fly it above the tree, then tell it to "stay" in place.  It would take care of itself and resist the wind, allowing me time to run around to the other side into view of it again and guide it down again.

Steve WD8DAS

[Opcom]

Some of the latest ones around $1K+ will avoid obstacles like trees, stay put in place, even in annoying winds, when you go hands-off the controls, and have better radios. Each has a spec for the amount of wind it can overcome.

[KD6VXI]

I'm wondering what,  if anything,  will happen when someone uses a GPS enabled drone to lift a full length 80 or 160 qtr wave vertical up....

The end of a qtr wave can have some serious rf voltage!

--Shane
KD6VXI

[W3RSW]

Add another quarter wave length of monofilament up under the drone..

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Late to the thread, but I think Warren/K2ORS who is a member here has some experience with this. Pretty sure he has some youtube video of the attempts.

As for drones in the wild, maybe 2 months back I saw one pass over the NC house. It had to be large because it was up quite high and I could still hear and see it. They were clearly following the road next to the house on a straight line heading somewhere. This was a weekday, no one around in sight piloting it. Maybe it was an Amazon test drone.