Yuneec buying advice. 3D 360 VR. Typhoon vs Tornado???

[Erik Graham]

I've been a 3DR / DIY type for awhile and I really liked the Solo (in particular the Cable Cam smart shot)... but alas, 3DR just couldn't keep up with the industry.

I can't bring myself to buy DJI crap, so I thought I'd give Yuneec a try. My question is Typhon H or Tornado?

The catch is that I need to lift a 360 3D VR rig that weighs 2.2 pounds (~1,000 grams), for 12 to 15 minutes.

As intriguing as the Typhoon H is, I can't find any info on a recommended max lift weight. None-the-less I doubt it can lift a 2.2 pound 360 3D VR rig (for any length of time).

But I'm concerned the bigger (and older) Tornado doesn't have the features the H has (or will have soon).

In addition to the 2.2 pounds of lift I also need:

1. 3DR style Cable Cam. I think Yuneec people call it "Curve cable" Does the Tornado have it?
2. Options for optical flow.
3. Option for obstacle avoidance (does NOT need to be a full blown Intel Intelisense system).

I do not need waypoint mission planning, as long as I can record a Cable Cam and save it for use later.

I'm also considering pulling the guts of the Solo out (pixhawk 2, etc) and installing in a DIY heavy lift frame I have, but that would require a lot of work both in labor and tweaking params and calibrating in software. A huge pain in the arse, and still not a complete solution.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Slickit]

My recommendation would be to call Yuneec Monday morning. Talk to them, great people. post your findings here to share / future reference

 

[Drone Driver]

Wait till later this year and you can have pix hawk2. But if your after cable cam and optiflow now any apm/pixhawk can do it via Tower. Might be time to upgrade your 360 rig. Both Samsung and LG both have HD 4K 360 cameras that are comparible to the older Gopro style rigs.

 

[Erik Graham]

Wait till later this year and you can have pix hawk2. But if your after cable cam and optiflow now any apm/pixhawk can do it via Tower. Might be time to upgrade your 360 rig. Both Samsung and LG both have HD 4K 360 cameras that are comparible to the older Gopro style rigs.

Thanks. I thought about building my own with a pixhawk1 - since I come from a 3DR/DIY background and it would be fairly easy to add optical flow and some basic obstacle avoidance (not as good as realsense, but good enough for my needs). Unfortunately Tower/Pixhawk isn't quite enough. To get the full "cable cam" effect with logarithmic easing I'd need a companion computer on board - which is doable, but only in theory (a few guys have done it at DIYdrones). Who really knows when we'll be able to get our hands on pixhawk 2, but even with that I'd still need/want a companion CPU.

I really like the H, but it lacks the lift I need. I'm feeling the pull to the dark side... the DJI Matrice 600, with a Guidence module for optical flow and avoidance.

Anyway, with respect to the cameras, the Samsung, LG, Kodak, etc 360 cameras are just consumer devices. They are nice, but not 3D. For "flat" non-3D 360 video I will use the Home - Sphericam V2 , but for full immersive 3D 360 I use rigs with 14 to 24 4K cameras set up for stereoscopic 3D capture in all directions. Thus my need to be able to manage a payload from 2.5 to 5 pounds.

 

[GioPhoto]

Erik, rigs with multiple 4K cameras like that go for at leastt $5000, correct? I have the Typhoon H and it will lift the two Kodak 360 cameras, on one top and one below, just like the Solo. However, flight time will be reduced to a little over 10 minutes because of the added weight. I wonder if anyone else has tried mounting the Kodak 360 cameras to the typhoon.