Following on from my other piece about choosing our drone, here’s a more technical look into the finer details of using the drone day-to-day.
Casual readers will find this monolithically uninteresting!
An action shot in Kyrgyzstan
Category: gear
Quite often when people have seen some of the videos we’ve been making the first question is often “What drone do you use?” So here’s a post to answer that very question.
I never went camping as a child. Indeed, to this day I don’t think I’ve ever seen my parents within 50 metres of a tent. I can recall setting up camps in my brother’s and mine bedrooms and the fun that ensued. A few times we even ventured out into the garden with some makeshift tent determined to camp out all night but then getting too scared as darkness drew near and returning indoors to the comforts of our beds.
Festivals, inter-railing, travelling, squatting, passing out on park benches et al soon put a stop to all that and now I really quite enjoy it 🙂
So here are my ‘once was a reluctant camper but reluctant no more’ 21 Top Tips and Equipment for Camping with Your Car:
Yesterday I broke one of the four wheel driving commandments:
thou shalt not attempt to cross an obstacle without first performing an inspection.
In short, we got stuck in the mud! My confession follows.
This weekend we got in our last practice camping mission before we set off for real in 2 weeks time!
We went to Nikkō (日光) and spent a few days randomly driving around in the mountains.
We also got to put in a few flights with our new toy, Brian. We bought him 2 weeks ago, but as there hasn’t been the light, weather or space to try him out he’d been confined to his box. But no more!
For a bit of practice video editing I cut together some of the video we shot on our practice camping trips in and around Japan.
Locations include Tokyo, Saitama, Okayama, Sagaminohara, Boso Peninsular.
Filmed on a hodgepodge of DSLR, GoPro and VHS.
Having worked up a design and installed the battery, isolator and circuit breakers I managed to get the last few bits finished off over the last few weeks.
Inside, the plan was:
• 12V to power our fridge
• 3 x 5V USB outlets
• Mains power via a 300W inverter
• A meter to monitor the battery’s voltage
All this will be powered by an Optima YTS4.2L deep cycle battery capable of delivering 55Ah. Theoretically, this should mean a couple of days of refrigeration without having to worry about charging the battery.
So having bought a 4WD car we thought it might be a good idea to make sure that the 4WD actually works. We had obviously tested that the switch worked but hadn’t taken Totty over anything higher than the odd kerb or two. After a bit of internet research we found a 4WD centre just an hour or so from Tokyo. We decided to book a place and also to take advantage of the camping that they offered too. The place is called Bronco (ブロンコ) (http://www.bronco4x4.net).
Exciting deliveries keep arriving.
Foremost is the fridge; a Japanese design called Engel. We decided on the MT17F which gives us enough room for milk, a small amount of fresh produce and beer – a total capacity of 15 litres. We oohed and aahed about whether we needed a fridge but in the end decided that it would be useful. Incidentally, the fridge weighs the same amount as the fat we want to loose over the next 6 months! He taketh and he giveth 🙂
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