Gadgetory

I mean sure you might not get to blow things up in RL like the US military does with their unmanned aircraft but if simply flying things around for the fun of it sounds good to you you may just want to look into picking up a consumer drone a product category that has enjoyed a huge surge in popularity recently but what exactly is a drone how exactly do drones work and what do you need to know before taking off we'll start by fixing your terminology although the words are often used interchangeably most of the drones that you see on the market are actually just quad copters and as that name suggests that means that they have for spinning rotors arranged in a square or diamond pattern now quad copters work by varying how fast each individual rotor is spinning so if all the blades are spinning at the same speed then it'll either go straight up or down or just hang in the air in one spot but when some of the blades are told by an on-board controller to rotate faster than others it can cause the drone or quad to dive bank strafe or even do stunts like flips but while most drones function fairly similarly due to the actual physics of the usual four rotor arrangement they certainly aren't all created equal and you can get anything from tiny low powered quads for beginners for under $50 to heavy-duty drones with powerful batteries and crystal-clear cameras that will run you over $1,000 and could probably take over Luxembourg if you had enough of them but let's say that that's not your goal or I mean who knows maybe it is how do you shop for a drone what exactly should you be looking for that all depends on what capabilities you require your flying and technical skills and of course your budget there are plenty of ready to fly or RTF drones that come fully assembled and include a handheld remote transmitter just charge up the battery and you're pretty much ready to rock cheaper models will typically not fly as long on a single charge thanks to their little capacity batteries with some lasting as little as five minutes or so and usually feature very low quality cameras if they have one at all as you go up the price ladder you'll find drones that can fly around half an hour on just a single charge with cameras that can capture great looking stabilized HD video other features might include longer range the ability to mount your own camera with GoPros being a popular choice but some even accepting popular DSLR cameras the ability to livestream video directly to a smartphone or tablet for first-person control or even the ability to use the aforementioned tablet or other device to control the drones flight but pre-built sarn't for everyone and if you're a tinkerer the drone hobbyist community might be what you are after there are a number of build at yourself drone kits available in many different price ranges as well as individual parts that you can buy such as high-capacity batteries advanced remote transmitters and even auto pilots that turn a quadcopter into an actual bona fide self piloting drone also as we become more and more experienced you may even want to try out different flight controllers these are the PCBs that control the rotors kind of like a drones motherboard that responds differently to control inputs with some sort of more specialized for smooth flying and thus capturing prettier videos while others might be a bit more challenging to fly but will allow you to pull off much more impressive maneuvers so if you're interested in going the DIY route there's a lot of information available on selecting parts for your particular skill level and needs but before you jump into it remember that just like anything else that's fun there are some rules you have to follow both the American and Canadian governments have outlined regulations for flying drones for fun as they are technically aircraft these include but are not limited to not flying too close to airports getting the proper certifications if your drone is over a certain weight or size limit or if you're flying for commercial gain keeping your drone within sight not flying near an actual plane for what we hope are obvious reasons and this should go without saying not using your drone to spy on your attractive neighbor or to harass that troll who told you to fight me IRL besides if drone owners start misbehaving too much how will the drone industry ever get to the point where we get things like quadcopter Pizza Delivery which be awesome drone Pizza speaking of drone Pizza lynda.com lynda.com is one of our favorite partners around here because they're like freaking awesome you learn stuff online and that's like great in fact there are people here at - 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