New Holy Stone HS270. Just about nothing seems to work.

I just bought a new HS270 and have been testing it out for about a week now. To say I am unhappy is an understatement. I have only flown sub $100 units before this, so my expectations are not unreasonable. I am used to crap. The issue is, aside from flying, none of the other advertised functions seems to work.
I did a lot of research before buying this thing. I read about twenty drone review sites that stated that the Holy Stone was the (and I quote) "Holy Grail" of entry-level drones.

I have read the manual from cover to cover ten times a day and done everything it says. I just will not do what it says it will.

Tap Fly. I only got this to work once and the thing almost crashed into the ground several times and I had to manually rescue it.

Follow Me. It totally does not work at all. It will not center on me. When it to Follow Me it faces me, but looks off to the side about 20 degrees, which leaves me on the edge of the FoV. If I move, it just stay right where it was.

Points of Interest. Never been able to get this work at all.

WiFi. It has about a 30-foot transmission range at max.

Extreme Stability (claimed in the ad). Every drone I have ever had, even $30 drones are more stable than this. When just hovering, it wobbles and starts making about five-foot circles over and over and over.

GPS. In an open field with a clear sky, it loses GPS signal about every minute or less.

GPS Auto return. This is the one thing that does work, some of the time.



What I need to know is, is this normal for the HS270, or is my unit defective?

TIA

Unless there is a drone god in control, you have s defective unit. Sounds like the ESC has issues. Perhaps one of our gurus has a better explanation.

LoneRCRanger said:

Unless there is a drone god in control, you have s defective unit. Sounds like the ESC has issues. Perhaps one of our gurus has a better explanation.

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I think I have been a victim of a very well-organized elaborate marketing scam. I spent hours reading user reviews after posting this yesterday. I found hundreds of user reviews that confirm every single problem I list here for the HS270. I think all the professional drone review webpages I read that said the HS270 was the Holy Grail of entry-level drones are fake and put out by Holy Stone. It seems like I bought the last HS270 on the planet because you cannot buy it anywhere and Holy Stone does not even have a sale page for it on their website. You can't find batteries or anything else for it anywhere.

This thing is a piece of junk.

Unless you build your own drone, I find most of the off the shelf drones crap as well.

Yeah they took you for a ride unfortunately. For all the features you want you'll have to spend a little more for something like a mavic mini or similar. I'm not too familiar with those as I build my own.

You can actually diy drone build and get all the features you want except follow me mode. That one is tricky for a home built kwad.

Dugdog47 said:

Yeah they took you for a ride unfortunately. For all the features you want you'll have to spend a little more for something like a mavic mini or similar. I'm not too familiar with those as I build my own.

You can actually diy drone build and get all the features you want except follow me mode. That one is tricky for a home built kwad.

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Thanks. Follow Me is my number one requirement since I am normally working alone. This is one reason I did not go with the Mavic Mini nor the Mini 2. Neither have Follow Me. I think the Air 2 ($799) is the lowest-priced DJI drone with Follow Me. It is not like I am not willing to spend that eventually (and I would go with the Air 2S), I just wanted some cheaper to practice with first. Not practice flying, I can do that with a toy drone. Practice using the features until the point that I develop memory comfort using them.

My plan is to eventually get my Part 107 and use my footage on my website and YouTube channel, which are monetized. I have my TRUST and just want to practice to get really good before dropping the big bucks on a serious drone. If a break or lose a $200 I am not going to break down and start crying.
I am not expecting perfection out of a sub $300 drone, but I do expect it to be more than just a $50 toy. The HS270 was basically just toy to fly around. Nothing else worked at all. Most features did not even try to work, and those that did, failed at all levels.

My question is, are there any other quad manufacturers besides DJI that make good drones?

"My question is, are there any other quad manufacturers besides DJI that make good drones?"

That's the real trick, DJI seems to have the market cornered that's why many of us prefer home rolled.

I could go on why I don't choose DJI but this isn't a smear thread lol.

There used to be a fairly good entry level kwad called the bugs 3. It seemed like a well build bird and I think it was the bugs 5 that had some of those gps features.

Check out the bugs line.

This one seems to check all your boxes:

Dugdog47 said:

You can actually diy drone build and get all the features you want except follow me mode. That one is tricky for a home built kwad.

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You could tie a long kite string to it and pull it along as you go, right?