How Drone Racing Has Grown In The Last 2 Years

Some time around late 2015 or early 2016, we saw a transition in how people thought about and used drones. Once viewed as a sort of military or spy technology, drones had already made it into stores like Brookstone and the Apple Store, and had become widely available online. With this new availability, they were essentially high-tech playthings, some expensive and equipped with high-resolution cameras, others small, affordable, and not much more advanced than a toy helicopter. From that point, however, we saw people beginning to take drones more seriously as tools for competitive recreation.

Drone racing arose, built on a combination of small but powerful drones and in some cases cameras that could provide pilots with a “first person” view from the drone itself. We wrote about a drone racing series back in March of 2016, and while such events weren’t completely new at that time, they were really only beginning to emerge in a prominent way. But where has the drone racing business gone since then?

It was only a few months after we posted that article that another piece on drone racing surfaced and spoke to the potential of the activity to become a major business, akin to a sport. At the time, Drone Racing League was gearing up for their first Drone Racing World Championships the following October, and the piece suggested that serious bookmakers were keeping an eye on things. They weren’t opening betting markets for drone races just yet, but their attention was perhaps one of the most significant signs that a casual activity was evolving into a more organized and widespread phenomenon. One expert noted that bookies need to “have some statistics” in order to offer markets, but they were essentially starting the process of getting involved.

Later that same year, the Drone Racing League would get what amounted to a sort of test run on ESPN networks, being nationally televised for the first time. It still wasn’t a mainstream or primetime broadcast, necessarily, but it seemed to do the trick, as ESPN aired “Season 2” of Drone Racing League this past summer. Barely a year had elapsed from a time at which betting experts were looking to “see how the first race goes,” and already the league was gearing up for a second run on ESPN – this time a little more prominent than the first time.

Now it feels like drone racing, as a professional sport is here to stay. While it’s actually difficult to find comprehensive overviews of how it’s performing on television, we do know that it beat F1 and IndyCar on at least one occasion this past summer, which is pretty significant. A third season on ESPN now feels like a virtual certainty, and we could see more mainstream attention devoted to drone racing in the very near future!

An article from Edward Parker about the drone racing

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On 11 Nov Saturday I went to Racing Arena Limburg in Holland https://racingarenalimburg.nl/de/

I was there the whole day from 10:00 to 20:00 o clock and test Speedo and Motor.

Start:

4,5 Turn with Std. Rotor – feeling ok but it was just too fast and too powerful, so I change to 12,0 mm Rotor that it would be smoother, it was and also better to drive. Gearing with this one was 110/29 = 7,2

5,5 Turn with Std. Rotor – feeling for me was better than with 4,5 turn because of less power for sure and it felt directly better, so increase the Turbo I have to otherwise to slow. from 0 to 25 Degree in increase. here i also test the 12.0 mm Rotor which was also here way smoother and better to drive. More Top speed so I decrease Turbo to 18 degree and it was fine. Gearing here was 110/31 = 6,7

Than I Start to test with Speedo which is really awesome how many setting we have here. This day I want to test Drive Freq and Brake Freq:

Drive Freq: I know many people use 8 or 16 Khz I also start with 8 in the beginning but when you don’t know the track it is little bit to hard, so I went to 16 Khz which was way better and felt also easier to drive. Than I change to 32 Khz and it was just crazy the feeling how smooth the Speedo and Motor is absolute awesome. In combination with the 12.0 Rotor and the 32 Khz was really really good.

8Khz – for Stock and Mod Driver or Big Tracks with Medium to High Grip (Indoor and Outdoor) prefer Outdoor

16Khz – for Mod Driver Small to Big track grip level from low to High ( Indoor and Outdoor)

prefer Indoor Medium Track and Outdoor

32Khz – for Mod Driver small to Medium Track grip level low to Medium ( Indoor and Outdoor) prefer Indoor

Brake Freq: here I want to test between 1Khz and 2Khz when I use 1Khz I use in Transmitter only 95% brake which was ok an good feeling, than I went to 2Khz and with same 95% brake it was less braking it feels like less to me, iso I change to 100% in the Transmitter. for me to difference feels like that 2Khz is not so hard to Tires, so maybe 2Khz for Indoor and 1Khz for outdoor because Outdoor you have to brake sometime harder and stronger than Indoor. But to me 2Khz feels more smooth and better for the Tires.

Sunday I went to Erftarena http://www.erftarena.de/

I was there from 10:00 to 19:00 o clock to test again some things on Speedo

Here I Start the First packs with the same setting as on Saturday because it feld really good in the End. Also here it felt direct from Start very good and totally Normal. Also Motor and Speedo not so hot anymore after some finetuning.

So I try to test something with Punch today :

Initial Punch: Min

First Stage: 25

Second Stage: 50

this was the Starting point which I normally use, so first I try Initial Punch which I move to Max and it was way more Agressive to me and I dont like it but I think it is very good for Stock Driver. So here I play little bit with Min to 3 thats it for me up to the Track.

Small Track : Min

Medium Track : 2

Big Track : 2 – 3

First and Second Stage here I also play a little bit the hole day, because this I know from G Force Speedo in the Past, I saw that Meen use 100% for me it is not possible to use way to much punch than and overhaet Tires. So i normally play around from :

First Stage : 20 to 40

Second Stage : 40 to 60

this is normally what I am playing with, most of the time is use 25 and 40 or 50

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