Help! Looking to build a largish drone for security purposes

[Matthewdupreez]

i hear our guys points... but could we try to stick to the topic??
what would be the cheapest way to build a drone of the specs mentioned in the first post..
i have various reasons for choosing a drone, some of them i don't feel like explaining.

so ya... what is the minimum cost i'm looking at? excluding an actual frame, as i have acces to a cnc/laser that can cut me a frame for free.

 

[Piotrsko]

Home built could be done for the price of the motors, esc's, props and dedicated batteries. I favor C sized motors on a DIY X frame which could be made from anything, but you probably want the prop tips supersonic for the noise. Don't recall if you have FPV stuff currently, if not add that along with a failsafe return home reciever. Good scrounging online lowers the price but I don't know the current rate of exchange so $300 in your money is probably a 100 lite. @PsyBorg might be the best to help, but don't let him go all off the deep end. For monitoring, you may not need all that range if you can discern your targets.

Finally, fixed wing is longer-term for loiter and 1/3 the price of a quad

 

[Matthewdupreez]

Finally, fixed wing is longer-term for loiter and 1/3 the price of a quad

ya the problem thou with fixed wing is that it kinda need a runway... and i don't think my patio is big enough

Home built could be done for the price of the motors, esc's, props and dedicated batteries. I favor C sized motors on a DIY X frame which could be made from anything, but you probably want the prop tips supersonic for the noise. Don't recall if you have FPV stuff currently, if not add that along with a failsafe return home reciever. Good scrounging online lowers the price but I don't know the current rate of exchange so $300 in your money is probably a 100 lite. @PsyBorg might be the best to help, but don't let him go all off the deep end. For monitoring, you may not need all that range if you can discern your targets.

thanks... no i don't have any fpv gear. and i'll also need a new tx and rx as i'm currently using old 35mhz stuff.
but i can get a specktrum dx6 and receiver for R1000 == $70. so thats not too bad.

@PsyBorg @Piotrsko
could you draw up a rough list of the approx gear i would need? so i can do some scrounging??

thanks Matthew

 

[Matthewdupreez]

Home built could be done for the price of the motors, esc's, props and dedicated batteries. I favor C sized motors on a DIY X frame which could be made from anything, but you probably want the prop tips supersonic for the noise. Don't recall if you have FPV stuff currently, if not add that along with a failsafe return home reciever. Good scrounging online lowers the price but I don't know the current rate of exchange so $300 in your money is probably a 100 lite. @PsyBorg might be the best to help, but don't let him go all off the deep end. For monitoring, you may not need all that range if you can discern your targets.

Finally, fixed wing is longer-term for loiter and 1/3 the price of a quad

what difference does it make if the prop tips are supersonic or not???
..... ihven't heard of this stuff yet

 

[JasonK]

ya the problem thou with fixed wing is that it kinda need a runway... and i don't think my patio is big enough

what is this runway stuff? toss/go is most of what is needed there for most stuff, until you get fairly heavy...

 

[Quinnyperks]

sounds like you need some sort of non firearm ranged weapon

trebuchet would work lol

 

[Matthewdupreez]

YYa but I need something both of my parents can use... They're not very keen on aeries... They can fly drones

 

[Matthewdupreez]

sounds like you need some sort of non firearm ranged weapon

trebuchet would work lol

Please let's try to stay on topic?

 

[Quinnyperks]

you're not going to be able to build that for less than 300, Its not really feasable.

 

[Matthewdupreez]

you're not going to be able to build that for less than 300, Its not really feasable.

Maybe..... But I'm quite resourceful... I'll try

 

[Piotrsko]

what difference does it make if the prop tips are supersonic or not???
..... ihven't heard of this stuff yet

Part of a deterrent is knowing it's comming and being able to find it. Supersonic props wail like the proverbial banshees from Hades, to quote Irv Culver: tip losses just make noise, useless for thrust but you can hear it for miles
If it is loud enough you don't need the siren bit I think you have larger issues that even a drone won't fix

 

[Matthewdupreez]

My brother built an S500 kit. Its sounds about what your looking for. It will definately have enough power for lifting things (Like your siren). If you want, you can wait a couple of hours until I get home and I can send you some specs?

yes please

 

[Matthewdupreez]

here are a bunch of builds you could reference
https://rotorbuilds.com/

your going to want a LR style build given your flight time desire. Your going to probably want to look at the 7" LR builds given that you want to carry that noise maker.

Is your goal to fly it LOS or FPV?

• LOS - not really flyable at that range
• FPV - Do you have the relevent FPV gear?

Your probably going to want iNav or ardupilot if you want a bunch of auto pilot features for it. I think you can get full position hold with a baro + GPS on inav, which could let you fly it more like a phantom

given the range you want, you might also need a better TX/control link then I believe you have been using (1km is pushing it for stable connection for some control links if you have trees/buildings in the way)

sorry forthe late reply... only say your reply now..
thanks for the advice... i think i might use inav... i believe it is a bit cheaper than ardupilot..
my goal is to fly fpv, as i want a live video stream from the drone, to monitor the farm

 

[Matthewdupreez]

Part of a deterrent is knowing it's comming and being able to find it. Supersonic props wail like the proverbial banshees from Hades, to quote Irv Culver: tip losses just make noise, useless for thrust but you can hear it for miles

so for that i would need a 8inch prop spinning at 2200kv.... when running on 3s....
that sounds like either a 2628 or 3536 motor....

 

[Matthewdupreez]

so for that i would need a 8inch prop spinning at 2200kv.... when running on 3s....
that sounds like either a 2628 or 3536 motor....

although that setup sounds like a power chomper.......
the other alternative is to use a more efficient setup, and then to run a 0.5 am 12v siren if need be... as that'll be more efficient than trying to produce the noise with the props? am i correct in thinking this>

 

[LitterBug]

sorry forthe late reply... only say your reply now..
thanks for the advice... i think i might use inav... i believe it is a bit cheaper than ardupilot..
my goal is to fly fpv, as i want a live video stream from the drone, to monitor the farm

Ardupilot will run on a BUNCH of cheaper FCs nowdays. Don't rule it out. The feature set and reliability are well worth using it. I've used both over the years. not a big fan of iNav unless it is all that I can get to run on a board. Even then, not on birds I don't want to take chances with

 

[Matthewdupreez]

Ardupilot will run on a BUNCH of cheaper FCs nowdays. Don't rule it out. The feature set and reliability are well worth using it. I've used both over the years. not a big fan of iNav unless it is all that I can get to run on a board. Even then, not on birds I don't want to take chances with

ok... i'll do some sratching

 

[JasonK]

sorry forthe late reply... only say your reply now..
thanks for the advice... i think i might use inav... i believe it is a bit cheaper than ardupilot..
my goal is to fly fpv, as i want a live video stream from the drone, to monitor the farm

iNav and Ardupilot are both free. Now the hardware that each will run on, might put you in a spot were the hardware options for iNav would let you get something cheaper.

 

[LitterBug]

iNav and Ardupilot are both free. Now the hardware that each will run on, might put you in a spot were the hardware options for iNav would let you get something cheaper.

Except Ardupilot runs on a lot of cheap boards now too!
https://firmware.ardupilot.org/Copter/stable/

 

[JasonK]

Except Ardupilot runs on a lot of cheap boards now too!
https://firmware.ardupilot.org/Copter/stable/

yah, I was pointing out the only way that ardupilot _might_ "be cheaper" then iNav as both software packages are the same price (free). Not stating a believe that it was absolutely true either way. IIRC ardupilot's flash/ram requirements are higher then iNav. peripheral needs might be higher (not 100% sure what the minumum sensor set is for ardupilot is). Given the flash/ram there could be cheap boards that run iNav, but not ardupilot, but yes, most boards that you would want to use for the use case, should work for both.