SUPER beginner - need advice!

[Casey]

Hello Quadcopter masters!

My boyfriend has been very interested in getting a quadcopter lately and seeing as Christmas is coming up I'd like to buy him one. Neither of us has time to build one, as awesome as that would be, and for now I just want to get him a simple one he can have fun with. So, I was wondering if anyone here could suggest a brand or type of quadcopter that I could purchase for $100-$150. I realize that's cheap for these things, but it's all i've got for now. ANY advice would be very greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much,
Casey

 

[Mike]

For $100-150, you're not going to get anything too fancy or powerful, but if you search a site like Ebay for "RTF Quadcopter", a lot of options come up for anywhere from $60 on up. Even some with cameras. None of those will likely hold a gopro though. Another good place to search is Amazon since most everything has a lot of reviews and you can get a good idea of the quality that way. In fact, if I was in your position, I would go the amazon route at least to figure out which one to buy, then you can search for the lowest price elsewhere. As far as brands go, the only very major brand of ready to fly quadcopters that I'm familiar with is DJI, but the Phantoms cost $500-1000+, even used. Everything else is pretty much something generic from a random factory in China, except like Air Hogs and stuff, which I think are more kids' toys, but I'm not sure.

Also, make sure you get one that comes with a transmitter (the remote control). Sometimes they don't and expect you to purchase your own.

 

[Mike]

This is a little more than you were looking to spend, but someone in another thread mentioned this:

http://www.amazon.com/Hubsan-H107D-...7&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=husban+quadcopter+fpv

It looks very cool for the price and all of the Husban copters seem to have good reviews.

 

[Fred modesta]

HI
new to the forum.
was looking at the parrot ar drone.
key things I like:
the video it send back to the tablet.
push button for smooth take off/landing
size.

but what confuses me is says it uses wifi.
but then says should be flown where there isnt alot of wifi terminals.

confused over where it will actually work?
need wifi but not too much????HUH

 

[Mike]

It uses 2.4Ghz (I assume) WiFi to talk directly between the tablet and the copter. If there are a lot of 2.4Ghz WiFi signals around, they could interfere with that communication. I like in a somewhat urban area and my home WiFi was all 2.4Ghz. Any time a lot of people would be active on their WiFi connections, my connection would degrade and become almost unusable. I swapped it out to 5Ghz on the access point and all my clients and I don't have that problem any more because there aren't as much people on 5Ghz and there are more channels. The Parrot AR Drone may run 5Ghz as well - but I wouldn't think so because it doesn't travel as far as 2.4Ghz.

 

[holtneil]

Hello Quadcopter masters!

My boyfriend has been very interested in getting a quadcopter lately and seeing as Christmas is coming up I'd like to buy him one. Neither of us has time to build one, as awesome as that would be, and for now I just want to get him a simple one he can have fun with. So, I was wondering if anyone here could suggest a brand or type of quadcopter that I could purchase for $100-$150. I realize that's cheap for these things, but it's all i've got for now. ANY advice would be very greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much,
Casey

Hi Casey forget the big quads for now, he needs one that easy to fly but fun I was the one in the other post that said about the hubsan x4 quad, the basic x4 quad is a micro so will fit in your hand but flys well in doors and will in expert mode fly out side too, it will flip do loops etc but the main thing is he will learn stick control and balance so later on he can fly the bigger 450 quad or helis ,
i would say get a mpqx or nano qx quad but the cost will be over as you will need the spektrum transmitter as well
So if you go for the hubsan get some spare blades too they even do the x4 quad with a built in camera so you can record the flight
The new hubsan quad FPV is the biggest they do but is not cheap about £150 but that has a monitor in transmitter so you can see where your flying i hope this helps its a great hobby to get into and quads are the best way to fly

 

[Hugh Hemington]

Fred, I have a Parrot (2.0). The quadcopter IS a WiFi "access point". So instead of connecting to your home WiFi, you connect your phone or tablet to IT and use the pretty good software from Parrot (iStore or Google Play) , you fly it by moving your thumbs on the screen. (you can also tilt the unit to fly, but it's more challenging) The range of that WiFi is impacted by the number of other access points close by. That's why they say WiFi but stay clear of other WiFi. I can't speak to what frequencies it uses. I can fly it using my Samsung S4 phone, and Asus Transformer 700 tablet. But my iPod gen.4 can't connect to it, for whatever that is worth. The software is currently only on Apple handheld devices and Android, but I think Windows 8.x is coming.

The video it sends back is quite low quality and resolution. The stills it captures are basically thumbnails -- around 340 x 200. The video it captures to a thumbdrive you plug into it is "720p" (1280 x 720) and isn't bad at all. There is no way to capture higher resolution STILLS to that thumbdrive though -- they only capture back at your phone/tablet.

The Parrot is a toy, pure and simple. It's a pretty neat implementation, with spare parts and upgrades available, but you'll only go just so far with it. My range is less than 100 feet, usually far less. It gets you up above the houses and trees for a look -- that's about it. Of course, I'm in "RF Central" with twelve access points visible according to my portable devices, so this is probably your worst case scenario.

Now if you buy the GPS "Flight Recorder" (another $100) it will use GPS not only to stabilize, but also to fly waypoints, outside of WiFi range (using QgroundControl software) really limited only by battery capacity then. The Parrot software also allows you to plot waypoints, but does not send the quad outside of WiFi range. But by that time you've spent close to what you would for a conventionally controlled craft. Well maybe not that close, but you'd be well on your way.

The Parrot isn't particularly good for learning to fly either because you're not using a conventional radio -- you're sliding thumbs on a smooth screen. It may get you past the head-trip of "head-in" control -- where left becomes right and back becomes forward, but so would a cheaper quad using a conventional radio transmitter.