The categories for posts are a touch restrictive so I opted for posting this as interesting as it does not really go well anywhere else…
I am guessing I am not the only person on the planet to dive head first into Quadcopters, Autonomous drones and all things rotary wing shaped with the IRIS. As a complete and utter noob to this brave new world you all have created I have found it rather a daunting experience but the mist is starting to clear.
With hindsight scanning the supplied manual and then binning it in favour of online documentation would have been a good idea because there is sooo much more to this thing than first impressions give - not that first impressions were in any way lacking because they were absolutely not but reality is much better than I anticipated.
One thing that I was a bit disappointed with was the flight modes, Stabilize - yeah good, ALT and Loiter - superb, full auto - that was the one that sold it for me; but before buying an IRIS I checked out a lot of competition and one thing which I thought it really should have was the Intelligent Orientation Control of the DJI Phantom - being a noob I could see that being VERY much easier to get the hang of.
But the GPS waypoint navigation swung it so I got the IRIS, and now I have decided to check the online documentation I discover it does indeed have the exact same thing as IOC in the form of simple and super simple modes. A quick fiddle in the mixer screen of the TX, quick param change in the PID’s and I have it all set up.
Of course it is becoming quite apparent that it is not possible to cover all the features of IRIS in an advert, or a web page, or quite a lot of webpages it would seem, but I am somewhat surprised to find features such as this hidden away in the background especially with respect to an RTF drone which surely will attract attention from the less experienced out there.
Thanks for the useful post about your experiences with the whole process! If you ever have any other questions please let me know and I will try to help. Its kind of difficult to list all of the features of the arducopter code, and more and more get added each month! The next release of the arducopter firmware will feature the auto tune process which will be great for anyone looking to build their own quadcopter! check it out below
As for the categories, there is also the option for no category if you feel it does not fit anywhere. Otherwise for now I have kept the number of categories to a minimum as the forum is still quite small, as it grows bigger I will add more relevant sections/subsections. If you (or anyone else) have any category suggestions please let me know!
I was checking out the autotune yesterday… Watching the vid I thought it was going to crash into the trees
Yes I agree the feature list is too long and distinguished, but what I was aiming at was the fact that for a beginner IOC or the simple modes are a very desirable feature, and other manufacturers of RTF quadrotors have made a point of making a point about it because, I would assume, it is a fairly strong selling point.
At the end of the day IRIS is being sold to generate revenue and I think especially when the consumer version starts shipping it is reasonable to target those with little experience looking for something more than a toy, covering ‘Simple’ modes (the name says it all really) in advertising would make it even more attractive to those people - I bought mine anyway because I don’t really need it, but had I realised it had the simple modes I would have jumped in much quicker.
