Custom Quad by Josh Matta

[JeffB]

As mentioned in another thread (that I can't find despite incredibly minimal effort) I asked @Josh Matta to build me a custom quadcopter, and to my surprise and delight, he agreed.

Pictured here is the result - a first person view quad designed with a limited talent beginner in mind, complete with controller, VR headset, many extra props and batteries, and 4 extra motors (he knows I'm gonna crash a lot). He sourced all parts from scratch based on his knowledge of what to build, then soldered the whole thing up and configured the electronic bits so that it's basically turnkey out of the box for me. I could not be happier about the outcome.

Let me also say this - have never met Josh and never once did I question this decision. He's been incredible responsive. Answering messages on the site and on the phone with text and calls. Sent me a ton of info explaining everything and the rationale for each part selected. And basically did a hell of a bang up job for a complete stranger.

All of this was for a price that I feel was way too low for the service and expertise provided.

So, if you're in the market, or even considering it, I highly recommend reaching out to Josh to see if he will build you one to your specs. It's phenomenal workmanship and a great person to deal with, for much less $ than it should be. I know when I'm ready for another, I'm going to implore Josh to build it -

 

[Josh Matta]

So glad this worked out.

I will say this though are some really cheap quadcopters out there, and they are fine for starting out but for flying FPV(First person view) this is about as cheap as possible for .

Did you start it up yet?

 

[JeffB]

Up and flying, but somewhat like Orville and Wilbur. The prop and antenna guards you suggested are earning their keep for sure.

Awesome stuff and great fun though.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Josh, have you been using one of those to take ski videos?

 

[Josh Matta]

I have not....

I very well might. when I got my first 30 dollar toy my goal was to learn to fly to take ski videos. I stupidly stumbled upon someone really awesome FPV video and was just like WOW.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7O8KgJdsE_e9op3vG-p2dg

FPV(first person view) flying is when you are watching a live video feed and controlling the quadcopter from the first person view from the quadcopter. You are a pilot. You are not watching it from the ground and controlling, you are able to fly and do thing that no one even 5 years ago could do with any RC flying quadcopter. It should be noted that the video posted is go pro attached to a FPV quadcopter. Our video we fly with is not nearly as good. Wifi and HD are both enemies of latency, so we use an analog 720p camera on 5.8 ghz video transmission.

2 cameras seems really silly to you understand that.

So what I thought was going to be owning on AP(aerial photo) quadcopter turned into building tons of FPV quadcopters because they are so damn fun.

This is my first self Built FPV quadcopter. Brushed motors, actually very similar to what I built for Jeff.

the one on the left was my first Brushless FPV quadcopter.

I split the frame of the Shuriken in Half, and moved its guts over to a Shendrones Tweaker.

The Tweaker is REALLY fast. Think like 70-80 mph fast. This is recording from the live video feed.


I then had a customer request this build.

and this little guys is a hoot. My best flying to date. again live video feed but the sun makes it appear better.


long and short of it, is I am liking flying so much, that taking video of something else might now happen. I really want to spend that money on national level Race copters.

 

[Core2]

These look like a lot of fun!

 

[Jim Kenney]

Was that a human sitting in white chair by gazebo in last video? I guess if you got hit by one of these doing 60mph it would smart?!?

 

[RachelV]

Are you turning your body to match the direction the drone is flying, or do you just have to deal with the controls being reversed when you're flying back towards yourself?

 

[Tricia]

As mentioned in another thread (that I can't find despite incredibly minimal effort) I asked @Josh Matta to build me a custom quadcopter, and to my surprise and delight, he agreed.

Here are a couple.
https://forum.pugski.com/threads/first-time-flying-with-a-gopro.2538/
https://forum.pugski.com/threads/anyone-flying-drone-here-or-any-other-rc-planes-helicopters.1920/

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Was that a human sitting in white chair by gazebo in last video? I guess if you got hit by one of these doing 60mph it would smart?!?

I think that's Josh in the chair.

 

[Josh Matta]

These look like a lot of fun!

they are! so much fun!

Was that a human sitting in white chair by gazebo in last video? I guess if you got hit by one of these doing 60mph it would smart?!?

it was me, the quad I was flying was only 90 grams, it would hurt but really wouldnt do much I am also pretty certain that what I was going to do would work. . I would never fly anything much bigger than that near me or near anyone else.

Are you turning your body to match the direction the drone is flying, or do you just have to deal with the controls being reversed when you're flying back towards yourself?

well yes if you are flying LOS(line of sight) you usually just deal with the control being reversed, I have seen many people with AP rigs do awkward thing when their orientation(which wya they quad is going) changes but......

I fly almost exclusively FPV First person view, I am flying the quadcopter from the quadcopter. The technology we are using basically makes us pilots. My orientation is always towards the front of the quadcopter so that. In fact all I see is what the quadcopter sees since the goggles are designed to block everything out. flying FPV changes the game in that fact that you range is determind by how far radio signal can go, not your LOS. I can fly behind obstacles and under thing because again I am flying though the camera on the quadcopter.

Rachel if you clicked on some of the flight videos you would see that this would just be impossible though Line of sight flying.

hI do some fly buy of myself in this video. You can see I am just looking into my goggles, no need to follow it though the sky.