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Accessories
“Accessories are important and becoming more and more important every day.” – Giorgio Armani, fashion mogul.
Why should the fashion industry have all the fun? Accessorize your gift with one of the ideas below.
Goggles $299.95
Who wouldn’t want to look as cool as Vladimir Putin as he checks out the view from an unmanned aerial drone?
Source: AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Pool
Now you can give a gift that will have your friend or loved one be the envy of all of his or her Prime Minister buddies. Take that, David Cameron.
The FatShark Dominator 3rd Generation Modular FPV System is a complete package.
They come with options for a 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz transmitter and matching receiver for the aircraft. For ultra-awesomeness, you should go for the head tracking module. More on that below.
What it Does
OMG! WTF is FPV?
It’s First Person View flying, and it’s getting closer and closer to making you feel like you’re right in the cockpit. Go for a near total immersion experience with these goggles. FatShark is perhaps the most experienced at making goggles specifically for FPV flying.
Why it’s Cool
The optional head tracking module for these goggles actually detects when you move your head, and can move a servo mounted camera on your aircraft up and down and left and right. You see where you look! This is about as good as it currently gets for feeling like you are in the seat of your aircraft.
The Parrot AR.Drone is a fantastically capable platform, but I wouldn’t call it a complete package. Until they include a remote control or make it compatible with standard RC controllers out of the box, it will remain an iPhone accessory to me.
Kudos for ease of repair and spare part availability.
Fair point! You do need to supply the smartphone or tablet to control the AR.Drone. Parrot has a compatibility tab on their support page, which tells you exactly which devices it will work with.
http://ardrone2.parrot.com/support/
I don’t see the HoverFly kit listed !!! Those are awesome kits !
Yes, that’s a good one to add to the list. Thanks for mentioning it. Hoverfly makes some very nice flight systems, boards and accessories. I almost included the Parallax Elev-8 quadcopter (http://www.robotshop.com/parallax-elev-8-quadcopter-uav.html), which uses a Hoverfly control board.
Interested readers can find out more at http://www.hoverflytech.com.
I really like that tricopter build. Although the component table needs a correction for the speed controller cost – 3 of those will be $23.40 (the table shows $9.40). its still a lot of tricopter for the money. This will go onto my list of new years projects, thanks for posting this.
Whoops! Good catch, Michael. I’ll see if we can get the cost table updated. I’m hoping to make this one in the new year too. Let me know how yours goes!
Walkera has a new model called the Infra X, which is slightly bigger than the ladybug. It has sensors that allow it to avoid walls and the ground. Around $100.00, hard to find, but the videos look awesome.
Nice find. That does look really cool. Did I mention that the market for small quadcopters is evolving at an incredible pace? You should definitely shop around and see what is out there before you buy. Be sure to check for independent reviews so you can be reasonably sure you are getting a quality product.
Aerial Drone Gift Guide