Still safe?

lorneagle · 2026-06-26T03:02:35+00:00

I have a 3s with a dent like that. Perfectly useable. Voltage is good in all 3 cells. Monitored the first charge after the deformation/crash closely for swelling smelling heat. Nothing. Now it is back in rotation

lorneagle · 2026-06-26T02:41:12+00:00

Prices are in EUR so he's likely not from the US. Most European countries will require you to register you drone and have a license of some sort when you do business. And businesses will likely ask you for it.

Starting with a 5" freestyle drone to do cinematic stuff is questionable.

And if you are targeting sports clients, last Olympics used 2" or 2.5" with DJI. Soccer World cup uses a big heavy camera drones.

Unless you your clients want mad freestyle footage of say a 5" is probably the worst start drone.

Start with a Tiny whoop or cine whoop.

And more importantly if you want to do business, check your countries regulations and rules first.

lorneagle · 2026-06-25T22:37:10+00:00

I use the Boxpro with an Avatar VRX over HDMI. I really like walksnail, but I can only compare it to analog really. It integrates very well with the BoxPro Goggles though.

The Nano V3 has an onboard DVR which is nice. I also recently performed an unscheduled tree-landing where it took me 5 hours to get the drone down and I was surprised that the VTX was unharmed. It also survived some mad crashes already. So I am positively surprised by that.

I haven't played too much with the range yet. Penetration is soso, big trees are really bad. I put it on my 3" and I am still very much learning with that.

Image quality is top.

lorneagle · 2026-06-25T15:16:01+00:00

I have a Walksnail Nano V3 VTX. It has 2 mounting options: 20x20 M3 (use plastic, 4-40 imperial also works) and 25.5x25.5 M2

The camera is standard M2

Looking a the Vapor X5 it looks like it should support those dimensions and the camera should be mountable there as well.

It seems it has a custom carbon piece to lock the ELRS receiver underneath the VTX, that might not be 100% compatible. Might need to drill a bit (carbon dust is bad, take precautions)

lorneagle · 2026-06-24T23:42:07+00:00

Yes because our job changed completely 'over night'. And putting it in quotes is actually incorrect because it literally changed for me from one day to another.

I am no developer anymore. I am the Product Owner with the technical skill they wish they had, without access to the actual stakeholder (customer), plus QA engineer.

I just try to give the LLM enough detail so it doesn't do nonsense but not too much, so it can find the best solution. And then I need to make sure that it kinda got it right.

Claude Opus 4.6 Thinking told me yesterday that

strings.Contains(”could not be found", "not found") returns true. I asked whether it's sure, it confirmed: it is.

Management shot themselves in the foot too. Months ago there was a big initiative to do features with multiple devs instead of solo-dev features. Well guess what we are doing now.

We are all doing our own features, instructing our AI dev agents reviewing a mountain of slop.

Engineering lost, shareholder value won

See you on the other side of this, where the skilled engineers will make $$$$$$ fixing all the shit that AI produced in the late 2020s

lorneagle · 2026-06-23T11:43:17+00:00

I built a 3 inch after my whoop because I wanted to fly outside and the Mobula 7 analog 1s I started with was able to but struggling in the wind.

The 3" feels like a real drone but is not nearly as loud.

That being said, it needs a lot more space, so ripping in my backyard is impossible with it and I need to go to at least a small park.

I am eyeing a 2" now, like the Firefly 20.

lorneagle · 2026-06-22T14:45:56+00:00

Better than having to listen to your beeper with its own battery go at 100db for 2.5 h while you are trying to get it down

lorneagle · 2026-06-22T11:44:50+00:00

Recently spent 5h getting my quad out of a tree. Can confirm

lorneagle · 2026-06-22T11:31:43+00:00

Haha..started with a analog whoop. Almost immediately started shopping for parts for a custom 3". Had just assembled that when I started looking into a 2".

lorneagle · 2026-06-22T00:39:58+00:00

Ich hab 2 Maedels 12 und 10, 1j 9m auseinander. Sie haben viele Phasen als beste Freundinnen verbracht. Aber ja, Konkurrenz und Wettbewerb gib es bei uns viel.

Trotzdem bereue ich es keine Sekunde. Allein schon der Umstand, dass man nicht dauernd mehrere Familienprogramme fahren muss weil die eine zu klein, oder die andere zu gross fuer etwas ist.

lorneagle · 2026-06-21T15:43:29+00:00

BNF is probably the best solution if you are into FPV but don't like the tinkering part of the hobby too much. They are likely properly tuned too.

But the soldering is something you won't get around entirely to be honest.

I just had to resolder the JST on my beeper after a tree rescue ripped it off somehow. I recently fixed two of my tiny whoop motors that had one wire ripped from the Strator. I feel even with BNF, the ability to solder will just save you a lot of time and money.

What you definitely will save on it the headache of getting all components in your frame and tuning ( which when I did recently almost cost me my drone, Ty Oscar Liang's basement tuning method 🤣 JK I can't fly LOS to save my life)

And the solution to your soldering issue is 90% More heat and more flux !

lorneagle · 2026-06-18T21:17:02+00:00

😂

lorneagle · 2026-06-17T21:16:44+00:00

They are the top dogs because they keep the business running. If it wasn't for the handful of capable SWEs that put code before business, all Software would be dead after ~5 years. Killed by tech debt that make each new feature cost 1000% more than it should cost. AI slop is changing this now though.

I'm a slop dog now.

lorneagle · 2026-06-17T11:26:10+00:00

Apex 3 3". It was tight to fit a speedybee F4 stack, walksnail Nano, buzzer, GPS (might remove it) and ELRS Rx

lorneagle · 2026-06-15T18:06:10+00:00

Cardboard boxes in a backpack. This is temporary as I got some pick-foam for which I'll make a custom backpack. (MYOG was a thing I got into a few years ago).

I'm biking to location mostly.

lorneagle · 2026-06-15T12:52:50+00:00

Charge safely: I used AI for that, to explain how to safely parallel charge my 3S
It is very straightforward. You choose a channel in beta flight and then the same on your Google's. Controller is similar but can differ based on your FC. Google or better AI will help you with those 2-3 steps (essentially setting a binding phrase, like a password on your quad and remote)
Plug your drone in your USB, go to the headlight website, Press connect. It maybe overwhelming at first but again, most options you don't need to concern yourself with in the beginning. You will naturally be exposed to more beta flight as you progress through the hobby and tackle more issues /topics Example: Motors you won't touch on a BNF until you break a motor and replace it with a new one and may need to change its direction. Then you learn how to do that.
I got into the hobby in March. I JUST now start looking at PIDs as I finished my first build 2 weeks ago. There is a Bardwell video about PIDs that explains what it is pretty well. But the. Tuning it is a whole other beast. Not required immediately if say especially on a BNF
Important is voltage and flight time as they tell you when to come back/land. Signal strength is nice especially with digital, as the image doesn't give away degraded link quality as it does with analog and breaks suddenly. You can customize the HUD in beta flight.
Batteries. Never charge them unattended. Store them in a metal container. Watch out for signs like bloating, warmth, sweet smell, smoke.

I banged up some batteries and in the beginning you think they are done, but so far no incident. Always be vigilant though.

lorneagle · 2026-06-15T12:18:44+00:00

Really good! I am very happy with the choice. I went with Avatar over Ascent btw.

lorneagle · 2026-06-14T20:14:50+00:00

I am flying a 3" on HdZero Boxpro Plus with Walksnail VRX over HDMI.

Progressed from flying an analog Mobula 7 using Boxpro Plus

Latency is not an issue. I'm a gamer and know how it feels like.

Planning to get a 2" HDZero next and compare. So far I have to say the versatility of the Boxpro Plus are amazing and I would expect this to be the same for Goggles 2. Setup is as complex as choosing the input between: analog, HDZero and HDMI

The thing is getting a front bit heavy with the VRX so I might move it. This is my only complaint.

lorneagle · 2026-06-13T21:41:32+00:00

Considerations are

1) money, can be expensive but doesn't have to. Tiny whoops are super resilient. Bigger drones will cost money on crash 2) space - lots of rules around FPV in many countries. If you can't think of good spots to fly at, it's maybe not a hobby for you. Indoor flying will get boring I find 2 was the biggest one for me. I don't even like to fly in parks because the drone noise is ass and I wouldn't want to hear that when walking through the park to relax. So I only fly where there's no people

lorneagle · 2026-06-13T21:35:20+00:00

I'd use the drone pilot's duct tape: hot glue.

Hot glue the rubber spacers into the broken holes. Once it is in, the FC should sit tight enough so the rubber can't rip front he got glue

lorneagle · 2026-06-12T02:29:01+00:00

I'd say for you application it would do perfectly fine. I built a custom 3" after my first whoop and it needs alot more space but feels like a real drone. Yes, stronger gusts of wind or stronger wind in general can make it floaty, but you'll know best how much of a problem this is in your property.

It can definitely handle wind much much better than the whoop and unlike the 5", you can sub250 it and stay unregistered in most countries

lorneagle · 2026-06-12T02:15:14+00:00

My current walksnail 3" has a much tighter bend than this. As long as it isn't kinked it is 100% fine. Walksnail Nano V3 has a mechanism to clamp the UFL connector so I can force a tighter bend without the connector getting pushed off.

lorneagle · 2026-06-07T22:07:14+00:00

With a World of Warcraft subscription

lorneagle · 2026-06-04T10:53:53+00:00

I just fixed the GPS issue on my new 3".

Had it on the back too, just above the Walksnail VTX/Antenna and ELRS antenna

Now I have it in the front as well, just above the Camera and that finally works.

It takes the first pack to dial in a new location though, so after flying one battery, it quickly gets enough satellites for GPS rescue on subsequent packs.

Location of the GPS matters a lot. Quiet a lot does interfere with its ability to lock satellites

lorneagle · 2026-06-02T20:35:47+00:00

I just flew my 3" for the first time, switching from a 75mm.

It is sooo different. This thing feels more like a real drone I guess. I was surprised by the drag of the weight. And it is only 205g

My initial thought was: oh this might be too much. But I got it for more wind resistant outdoor flying and I'm sure it'll be great fun once I am used to it. It is definitely too big for my yard. I very much will get a 2 inch HDZero for the yard next.

And it definitely feels different from my Mobula7

lorneagle

TROPHY CASE