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 Peregrine wrote:
Boo, building from a kit. Real men program their own control software!

God no. That just seems like reinventing the wheel - I feel like OpenPilot is already good enough. Even at work I try not to touch anything that even smells of coding.

 Ouze wrote:
God no. That just seems like reinventing the wheel - I feel like OpenPilot is already good enough. Even at work I try not to touch anything that even smells of coding.

What, don't you love doing the math to figure out the stability problems? Do you really hate imaginary numbers that much?

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
I never got why anybody would want to buy a drone from a store. I mean it's sort of cool but it looks unsafe and actually kind of dangerous and i can't tell a real use for it. I mean people often buy things because they have a use but these things are fairly expensive, seem to have no use far as i can tell and they are dangerous. It's like a flying toy helicopter except bigger and more dangerous and i just don't get the point. Why would people want them? Keep in mind i don't mind the idea of drones if they could actually do something but far as i can tell they currently have no real use. Military drones have a defined purpose but civilian ones so far don't seem to really have one esp. for personal use.

People have been flying model airplanes for fething ever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_aircraft

Fun is one thing, but as said you can also get video and pictures from new angles. Not only that, a drone means you don't have to trudge through a swamp or some other difficult terrain in order to have a look at something. Maybe there's no reason to have a look at that place but since you can why not?

Also spying on your hot neighbor.


Allegedly.

Taking the OPs question seriously for a second, what practical uses (barring photography) could a drone have?

That's probably a billion dollar question. What's the next step outside of toys and photography?

Home delivery gets talked about a lot. It's not quite 'personal' use but I can see it happening. Driverless or remote piloted cars might be better though. But they can't get to your door step. Maybe a driverless car that pulls up and launches drones to doorsteps on the block?

Some sort of Quiddich-derived sport?

I can certainly see the day we all have personal selfie drones we wear on our shoulders that take off and snap a photo on command. Photography again, but a bit different from what use them for now.

Security? An alarm system that can launch a drone to take a better look at something? Good for large facilities/land.

And maybe someday after massive improvements in battery life, weight and such a 'drone' will just be something the size of a coke can that hovers around you acting as your smart phone, your wallet, your keys, your camera, a taser-armed body guard and whatever else.

Jehan-reznor wrote:Gives pervs a whole new avenue of exploration

Yeah and this.

We have considered them for remote-hands in server rooms. Keeping a steady hand would be difficult, but all it needs is a camera for diagnostics. Over remote Wifi, and in the same room, they'd be perfect.
Home surveillance too.

Practical use #12: Aerial Wedding Photography.

Practical use #13: looking for a lost animal in a swampy or otherwise difficult terrain.

Practical use #14: inspecting a steep roof for damage after a storm.

 kronk wrote:
Practical use #12: Aerial Wedding Photography.

Practical use #13: looking for a lost animal in a swampy or otherwise difficult terrain.

Practical use #14: inspecting a steep roof for damage after a storm.

Practical use #15: Allows a small town in Colorado a new source of revenue by selling drone hunting licenses

Hillbillies are in every state, it seems!

Practical use #16: Making like Godzilla on a kite flying competition!


Hey, where on the boards did I see the post with the drone flamethrowing a turkey? Anybody remember?

There was also the dude that had a "Death Spectre" slung under his drone, scaring old people at the park.

"Death is coming for us!"

Hehehe.

 kronk wrote:
There was also the dude that had a "Death Spectre" slung under his drone, scaring old people at the park.

"Death is coming for us!"

Hehehe.

Flamethrowing turkey, scaring old people...sounds like Practical use #17 & #18 to me.

Flamethrower Drone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-I088QS6yM

And Chainsaw Drone-cause more awesome is needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Viwwetf0gU

And Machinegun Drone-this one worries me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPJMk2fgJU

A forum about playing with toy soldiers is the last place I'd expect to see a "what's the point in X?" thread...

Meh, a hobby of mine is building and flying radio controlled aircraft, and nonbody has said to me that they're worried about being strafed by a Me109 or a Spitfire

Other people I know in the hobby are also amused by the civilian drone 'controversy,' because people like us have been putting cameras on model planes for years...

Wake up Sheeple! Obamer s'gonna steal our homebrew androids!

---

I'm all for civilian bought drones. What I'm not for are civilians... or specifically gak heads who buy gak because its hot or new ...but then don't take the time to understand it and then they pass it off or take 'short cuts' then we end up getting shoveled with lowest common denominator crap.

 messhallcook wrote:
Wake up Sheeple! Obamer s'gonna steal our homebrew androids!

---

I'm all for civilian bought drones. What I'm not for are civilians... or specifically gak heads who buy gak because its hot or new ...but then don't take the time to understand it and then they pass it off or take 'short cuts' then we end up getting shoveled with lowest common denominator crap.

Which in this instance means what exactly? I'm not familiar with the drone industry so I'm *guessing* that the popularity means quality has gone down, or at least that's what you're saying. Is that right?

I was walking my dog the other day, and some kids were flying a drone around the park, and they were flying it end to end of the park, probably a solid quarter mile away. I was personally pretty damned impressed RC vehicles have that sort of remote signal range.

The Phantom 3/4 (which are very common consumer drones) have a claimed range of about 4 miles. You won't get that in the real world out of the box, but you can usually get 2 miles stock without any issue, depending on interference and line of sight.

You can get an aftermarket booster to go substantially further, there have been documented 9 mile flights. At that point the battery life is the limiting factor.

Note that FAA guidelines for consumer drones require the operator to keep the drone within (unaided) sight at all times. These long range tests are generally done in open desert areas.

The same "need" for a civilian to own a firearm.
Practical use OR for the plain fun of it.

It also can feel like a helicopter simulator without the simulation since you are looking out from the camera.
I always loved "flying" helicopters but just could not see getting the license of the insane cost of getting/renting/borrowing one to fly.
Wonder if you could "upgrade" some drones for paint-gun battles in the air?

My company bought one just to film some of our more mobile product in action.

Some relatives up north like using them to look for poacher's vehicles along the "road" to avoid getting shot at.

To irritate/scare various invasive wildlife on your property.

Hehe, Christmas is coming, to help put the star on the top of your overly large tree.

Plus yes, the Halloween flying scary monsters is a stroke of genius.

At the very least the device can be used to chase kids off my lawn...

To give the future Paytreon supporters of my YouTube channel access to some 4k drone footage as a thankyou.

It's not all fun and racing you know.


But yes i will totally be racing it through the local woods for kicks.

Jacksmiles wrote:

 messhallcook wrote:
Wake up Sheeple! Obamer s'gonna steal our homebrew androids!

---

I'm all for civilian bought drones. What I'm not for are civilians... or specifically gak heads who buy gak because its hot or new ...but then don't take the time to understand it and then they pass it off or take 'short cuts' then we end up getting shoveled with lowest common denominator crap.

Which in this instance means what exactly? I'm not familiar with the drone industry so I'm *guessing* that the popularity means quality has gone down, or at least that's what you're saying. Is that right?

Actually I was kind of ranting about tech and consumers in general. I'm actually not familiar myself. For all I know maybe the 'drone' crowd are a better lot...

 Talizvar wrote:
The same "need" for a civilian to own a firearm.
Practical use OR for the plain fun of it.

Yes but there are people trying to disallow guns or restrict gun laws. While drones probably don't cause the same amount of danger i did hear about one that either dropped a package of guns or drugs in the middle of a prison somewhere (was it mexico?) and probably caused a fight. Safer i'm sure but when you can attach a chainsaw on one it's kinda distressing. I mean we already have fething Killer Clowns now and we don't need self aware gun-toting robots too. It's like we're back in 80's to 90's horror action movies. All we need is some big discovery of alien life in Antarctica ('The Thing').

 kronk wrote:
There was also the dude that had a "Death Spectre" slung under his drone, scaring old people at the park.

"Death is coming for us!"

Hehehe.

No where near as scary as this abomination:



And yes that was at one point a live house cat.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:

 Talizvar wrote:
The same "need" for a civilian to own a firearm.
Practical use OR for the plain fun of it.

Yes but there are people trying to disallow guns or restrict gun laws. While drones probably don't cause the same amount of danger i did hear about one that either dropped a package of guns or drugs in the middle of a prison somewhere (was it mexico?) and probably caused a fight. Safer i'm sure but when you can attach a chainsaw on one it's kinda distressing. I mean we already have fething Killer Clowns now and we don't need self aware gun-toting robots too. It's like we're back in 80's to 90's horror action movies. All we need is some big discovery of alien life in Antarctica ('The Thing').

The drone that can carry a chainsaw or fire a gun without destroying itself with the recoil is larger than any private drone I've ever seen. Also I have a sneaking suspicion that trying to arm a drone is already very, very illegal.

(I checked, the current FAA rules on drones don't specifically prohibit arming them but I suspect that falls under the more general prohibition on "carrying hazardous materials". I expect trying would carry charges of some sort of reckless endangerment, depending on jurisdiction (I checked New York (Class D felony, 1-7 years in prison) and Washington State (gross misdemeanour, up to 1 year in prison)))

Back to the OP's question everyone I know who's got one uses it for aerial photography.

I wonder how long before we see more land based drones. Mouse/spiders to check out between the walls on in drain pipes.

Wheeled drones would basically be RC cars with a camera, maybe add a claw and you have something very useful.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
Safer i'm sure but when you can attach a chainsaw on one it's kinda distressing.

Why? Putting a chainsaw on a drone is a ridiculously impractical thing. If someone wants to kill you there are much easier ways to do it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
(I checked, the current FAA rules on drones don't specifically prohibit arming them but I suspect that falls under the more general prohibition on "carrying hazardous materials". I expect trying would carry charges of some sort of reckless endangerment, depending on jurisdiction (I checked New York (Class D felony, 1-7 years in prison) and Washington State (gross misdemeanour, up to 1 year in prison)))

IIRC the hazardous materials stuff refers to things like dangerous chemicals. Where the FAA would get you is the "careless or reckless operation" rule, which is essentially the FAA's "we know you did something stupid and you need to be punished, but we can't figure out any other regulation to cite" rule. The burden of proof on criminal charges would be significantly higher and probably depend on actual reckless use of an armed drone rather than the mere existence of one.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I wonder how long before we see more land based drones. Mouse/spiders to check out between the walls on in drain pipes.

We had this discussion at work quite recently, actually. We had an impromptu meeting with management about fire safety, and were asked how comfortable our team was about going out onto the server floor area to check on a fire alarm. See, right now like most datacenters we have an automated fire suppression agent dump in the event of a fire, but that's a pretty spendy thing to do, especially if it's a very small flareup that could be handled with a fire extinguisher. I don't want to sidetrack the thread with what is essentially an OSHA debate but I suggested getting a telepresence robot to go peeking, which is not too expensive and is essentially a land based drone.

 Ouze wrote:
See, right now like most datacenters we have an automated fire suppression agent dump in the event of a fire, but that's a pretty spendy thing to do, especially if it's a very small flareup that could be handled with a fire extinguisher.

Not to mention such suppression agents usually make it unsafe for humans to enter the room, so a little drone could be useful in any case for preliminary inspection while the gas is being drained out.