When you mentioned that you "veloed one of my cameras onto it and flew around, nothing clever like FPV" I interpreted that to mean that you had to maintain line of sight, but once the drone was far away, the orientation (as in is it pointed towards you or away from you) of the drone was difficult to discern, hence the suggestions of the navigation lights.
Now that you explained your LED photo, I understand that it was mounted on your drone and it would do what I was suggesting with the navigation lights.
I cannot speak of other drones other than DJI, but in spite of the legality of it, the camera/gimbal allows you to fly your drone for miles away from you.
You also wrote you, "prefer a controller over phone control." On DJI drones, the controller controls the drone and the Phone or Tablet runs the app and deploys the camera view, but the phone of camera can be turned off and the drone is completely controllable with just the controller… You just will not be fed the telemetry (camera view, battery status, height, distance, speed, etc…)
You can even turn off the controller too and drone will sense this and go into Return to Home Mode…
Most folk who fly their drone out beyond "line of sight" use the FPV to fly the drone back to their location. If they were stupid and did not turn the drone around before leaving the area to see what their location looks like from the air, they can then select Return to Home, and the drone will very likely land within a foot of its launch site…
Also, the Fly App (software) has the google map of your location stored in it (you might have to load the map from home first…). The Google Map of my home actually shows me in the driveway (well my shadow…), there is that much detail. If you do not preload, it will show a blank screen, but it will show the Home Point (where the drone took off…), it will show the controller's position (you holding the controller and it case you've walked around, your distance from the Home Point…), and best of all, it shows every inch of the flight path your drone has flown since it took off. If you flew in circles, it will show all the circles, if you've flown all squiggly like a 3-year old with a crayon… you will see that, but "Wait for it…" it show the location of the drone and its orientation to the controller (you…).
The drone is depicted as an "arrowhead" and if you just hover the drone, and then Yaw it in circles, you will see the Arrowhead spinning. You can simple yaw the drone so the arrowhead is pointed back to you or the HP and fly back (blind so to speak…). Just make sure you are high enough so you do not fly into an obstacle (tree, building, pole, etc…).
As for, "Are you the only one here?" no, I'm not, but honestly, this site does not get a lot of traffic. My guess it that is because it too general in nature, not drone specific, sort of a catch all, especially for those off the wall drones that are not name brand. Look at the General Discussions and the Photos and Videos areas and you will note there is not much traffic.
On the bottom of this web page are links to other makes and models of drones and I would imagine that you would find more traffic in those web sites.
You mentioned that you also logged onto MavicPilots, check out those same forums and you will see a lot more traffic.
I log onto this site as well as a few others that probably see me as one of the more active members. I do this as they served me in the past when I first started out and it is my way to pay it forward.
Good Luck and have a Happy New Year!
