Bought my first proper Drone

PatP

PatP

Member
Hello all. I have just bought a Hubsan H501S-S. I thought it was an H501S but have since found out it's an S-S which I believe is better but who knows.

What can I say. I love it. Lots of replacement Li-Po batteries on order already plus a range extender kit. Slowly but surely I have been testing its limitations and so far have take it 100 metres away at a height of 50 metres with no problems at all. The RTH function is amazing, always landing withing a few feet of where it took off from. I was even brave enough to fly it 100 metres away, then turn off the transmitter and put it on teh ground in front of me and watch in amazement (after a few seconds of pure fear) as it turned and flew back to me, again, self landing gently a few feet from where it took off. I'm seriously impressed with this. I had an issue initially with the 1080p HD recordings but Hubsan support were brilliant and explained how the SD card formatting requirements for the H501S-S were slightly different than those for an H501S. Once reformatted correctly, pictures and videos were amazing, sample shown here.
 

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HiDesertHal

HiDesertHal

Well-Known Member
Hello PatP,

I bought a Hubsan H501S and have had it for over a month, but have never flown it. I've ordered an extra flight battery and a higher-capacity TX battery.

I may fly it sometime in April after it warms up here in the High Desert.

I've been watching the many YouTube flights of this quad, and your experience seems to confirm what a great bird this is for the money. (I paid $219 including shipping from Amazon)

HiDesertHal
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PatP

PatP

Member
It really is amazing. I much prefer the Li-po battery in the TX as the previous version apparently just used normal AA batteries. My new batteres arrived today, 2 x drone batteries and a double balance charger so I can charge the TX battery and drone battery together. I am awaiting a second TX li-po battery too to ensure I have suitable spares as the 20 minute flight time goes so quickly. I only ever seem to be able to get 5 satellites on the TX yet 11 on the drone itself. Not sure why but hoping that the range extender will help. I need to find somewhere to try a greater range to see just how far it will go before I add the extender. Someone on you tube said he got 2.1KM on the standard setup. Now that I am more confident with the RTH setting I'm more likley to push it safe in the knowledge that if it goes out of the range of the TX, it should (in theory) return safely to me.
 
Jackson

Jackson

USA member at large
Cool pic.

hubsan_snap-jpg.3935


BTW you can get get your uploaded images right in your post (like this) by clicking 'Full image' once they are uploaded. :)​
 
CarlJames72

CarlJames72

New Member
The H501 is fun. Look for the mod on YouTube regarding the FPV antenna. I did it to mine and it made a big difference. Enjoy
 
HiDesertHal

HiDesertHal

Well-Known Member
Hey PatP,

I also thought about adding the Range Extender, but being almost 82 years old and increasingly more cautious and conservative in all my activities, I decided to stick to the stock transmitter configuration, since I want to limit my flying to no more than 1/4 mile from the launch point and no more then 400 ft in altitude.

This means I must stay within 1320 ft. (402 meters) and under 400 ft. (122 meters) as indicated on my FPV screen. Hey...402 meters is more than 4 football fields away, which is enough of an adventure for me!

A 1/4 mile radius gives me the volume of a cylinder 1/2 mile in diameter and 400 ft. deep, which is still plenty of flying space for this old timer!

Cheers,
Hal
 
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PatP

PatP

Member
Yes, I'm hoping that adding the range extender will help keep the connection between the TX and my H501S. I've had a few occasions where the screen goes blank and it seems to lose connection, only for 2 or 3 seconds but enough to give a scare when you are near trees or buildings and suddenly you have no control. I have had two crashes only and both of these were due to losing connectivity to the TX at a critical moment. I've the quad is simply hovering at altitude at the time, it's fine but if it's in motion, it continues with the last TX command until the connection re-estabishes a few seconds later. I know from testing that if it loses connection for more than a few seconds, the quad will default to RTH mode and return to me, which is impressive. I've also never been able to get Follow Me to work. I have since read a few reviews where people say you must be more than 10 mentres from TX and Quad before you can activate it which I wasnt but have also read that you need more than 6 GPS satellites for it to work, yet I never seem to be able to get more than 5 on my TX despite getting 11 on my Quad. Again, I'm hoping the ranger extender may help to pick up more satellites on the TX.
 
PatP

PatP

Member
Well my range extender has now arrived so I need to take my TX apart and see if it helps as I was out again today and still couldnt get more than 5 GPS satellites on my TX whilst getting 11 on my quad. I'm hoping the new aerials will help. On the positive side I flew mine today on a standard battery with constant 1080P recording and frequent photos for 25 minutes before the lights indicated low batteries. I was impressed by that.
 
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