Quadcopter Archives - Electric Dragonfly

JXD 392 Mini Camera Aerocraft Quadcopter

March 2, 2015 James Sorsby

The JIN XING DA, JXD 392 Mini Camera Aerocraft is a mini quadcopter with a built in mini camera. It comes out of the box ready to fly (RTF). And I do mean ready to fly. When I opened the one I purchased from micro center, the battery already had a charge. After putting four AA batteries in the controller, I had it synced up and flying in less than five minutes. My first flight was in beginner mode and I had no problem getting it up and flying it around. It was easy to fly and very stable. http://youtu.be/jZt8MhXh7Uk

Mini Camera Aerocraft

Flight time is approximately 5.5 minutes and it handles well in a light wind.The aircraft itself only weighs 52g and fits in the palm of your hand. The body has a nice red metal flake color with black trim and a little spoiler on the back. The rings at the bottom of the motor mounts look nice but offer no protection for the propellers. Each motor has a foam pad on the bottom for softer landings. On the right side is a convenient On/OFF switch and on the left side is the slot for the included 2 gigabyte micro SD card. The card is not necessary for flight but, it does need to be removed from its reader and inserted into the slot before pictures or video can be saved.

ON/OFF Switch

The frame has eight LED lights and they can be remotely turned on or off with the controller. Two white and two blue are mounted on the motor arms for orientation. Two more lights are mounted in the fuselage as head lamps and look like beady red eyes. On the bottom of the body are two more LEDs. The blue light indicates that the micro sd card is in the card slot. The red light flashes when the card slot is empty and if it’s a steady red then the camera is active. Mounted in the nose is a 640 x 480 micro video camera that’s capable of taking pictures or video.

Bottom View

Internally the little quad has a precision 6-axis gyro stabilization system, which I found made for very stable flying, and a replaceable 3.7V 380mAh LiPoly battery. The battery is recharged with the included USB charger and battery recharge time is 1.2 hours
The included controller is a 2.4 GHZ full function radio transmitter that requires 4 AA batteries. Unfortunately, a small phillips head screw driver was not included for opening the battery access panel. The unit has a nice feel to it. It has eight buttons, but only five are functional. They control flight modes, flip, On/Off of LED lights, snap photo, and video camera ON/OFF. The three remaining buttons are not functional and are probably used when packaged with a different flyer.

2.4 ghz controller

There are two joy sticks: one controls power and yaw and the other controls pitch and bank. In addition there are four multi-function trim switches. Blue LEDs at the top of the controller indicate whether or not it’s synced with the quad and a lighted LCD display shows rotor speed, trim settings, mode, and battery life remaining for the controller. The controller has multiple modes, one is a left hand throttle mode, 3 are selectable flight modes for speed and an auto flip function, the lowest setting is for beginners and is very stable and slow to move, this is an excellent way for the beginner to start.

For expert users, the highest setting is very responsive and fast to react and one button activates a flip function for aerobatics. Unfortunately, there is no built in warning for low battery power and without warning the aerocraft will lose power and sink to the ground.

In the box you’ll also find four replacement propellers and a user manual written in English and Chinese. Unfortunately, the English portion of the manual was not written by a native speaker and the translation is so bad it’s almost unusable. I found that the manual diagrams were enough for me to find my way around the controller but the poor quality of the manual was definitely a disappointment. Overall this was an inexpressive, easy to fly, entry level quad copter.

In the box you’ll find:
The JXD 392 Mini Camera Aerocraft Quadcopter
2.4 GHZ full function controller that requires 4 AA batteries
3.7V 380mAh LiPoly battery
USB battery charger
2GB micro SD card and USB micro SD card reader
4 Spare propellers (taped to the bottom of the plastic insert in the box, I almost missed them)
User manual (so bad it’s almost unusable)

Hubsan X4 H107L RC Quadcopter Unboxing and Flight

January 17, 2015 James Sorsby

Hubsan X4 LED Lights

http://youtu.be/RBSPPaqoYF4

The Hubsan H107L X4 Mini RC Quadcopter comes out of the box ready to fly. It has a Durable one piece main frame. That has a bottom half and a top half. Crash packs can be bought for as little as $15 and have a selection of colors so you can change the original color of you aircraft. It is a very stable platform with a Precision 6 axis gyro flight control system that is adjustable for sensitivity. Of my other two quad copters this is the most stable and the fastest. It really zips along and reminds me of a large June bug on crack. Well, at least, that’s how I would imagine one would look and act like. Each of the rotor post has an LED light mounted in it for orientation and night flight and there are two small blue LEDS mounted in front that look like two beady eyes.

IMG_4813 Hubsan X4 H107L RC Quadcopter Motor and Prop

X4 Motor and Prop

The motors are Micro Coreless Motors and provide plenty of smooth power. This little flyer is powered by one High capacity 240mAh 3.7V LiPO battery that slides into an opening in the back of the fuselage. Make sure the battery is all the way in and the wires stowed as per the instruction manual. With its small size a shift in the center of gravity from battery or wire misplacement can affect its flight performance. The battery can be left in or removed for charging with the supplied USB charger. Charging Time is roughly about 50-60 Minutes and this gives on average Flight Times of 7 to 8 Minutes.

X4 Controller

A 4 channel 2.4 Ghz controller comes in the box and it requires 4 AAA batteries which are not supplied. The controller has an LCD display which shows trim, power level, modes and other settings. Normal and expert modes are selectable and it will do flips. The Controller range is about 33 meters but, the X4 with its small size does not have to go far to be out of sight. Out of the box the X4 does not come with a rotor guard so care must be taken to cut the power when it comes into contact with a solid object. If not, there is the possibility of injury but also, if the prop stops and the motor is still powered the motor will burn out very quickly. Replacement motors are available. Four replacement rotors come in the box, two are black and two are white and are easy to replace. The old prop just pops off and a new one pops on but, don’t mix them up or your craft will not fly till you get the right prop on. Each prop has an A or B on it and you have to match the prop letter not the color.

Hubsan X4 Quadcopter

A Prop cover/guard is also available but must be purchased separately. I had a couple of crashes where the X4 didn’t fly as well as it did before the impact. Upon closer inspection I found that the lower half of the frame arm had popped loose from the motor mount. The arm just snapped back in after applying a little pressure and it flew as well as before. No permanent damage done. For the price, about $40, this is a fun relatively easy to fly quad copter.

This morning’s news 1/26/15 reported that the secret service says a two foot wide radio control quadcopter crashed onto the White house lawn. Hobbyist flying small drones or UAV’s in the Washington, DC area should remember that the White house is surrounded by a No Fly zone.

Xtreem Maxi Quad Starship, RC Quadcopter by Swann

January 17, 2015 James Sorsby

Rotor Guard Removed

The Maxi Quad Starship by XTREEM is an easy to fly, RTF radio control (RC) quad copter. In the box you’ll find the quad rotor, 4 GHz wireless controller, four spare rotor blades, USB charging cable, operating instructions and the landing pad game. The game is a fluorescent green paper target to land the mini drone on and is of such little value it should in no way be a part of your decision to buy this drone or not. Four AA batteries are required for the remote control and are not included. The controller has a range of 330 ft. and provides four axis control of the aircraft. It also has trim stabilization adjustments and a button for 360 stunt and tumble flying and a power on LED.

This little quadcopter is RTF (ready to fly) right out of the box and takes very little time to master. But, during outdoor flight it does have a tendency to be blown by a slight wind. Xtreem’s easy-fly Gyro technology aids stabilization of the aircraft in level flight and allows for easy control. The Built-in 350mAH Li-poly battery is charged with the USB cable and takes approximately 50 minutes to charge. The cable has an LED indicating light that illuminates when charging and extinguishes when charging is complete. The charging lead on the aircraft does have to be plugged into its port on the fuselage in order for the craft to be powered by the battery.

There is a convenient power on/off switch on the bottom of the frame body. With a full charge you can get 7-8 minutes of flight time. This little quadrotor is a delight to fly and only weighs 2.4 oz. It has a durable set of rotor protectors to protect the spinning rotors from impact damage and has a pair of White led head lights that help in position orientation and night flying.

During test flights the rotor protector popped loose easily during crashes and should be checked after an impact if controllability suddenly becomes an issue. It easily pops back into place. The starship looks exactly like the Syma X3 with the same controller, I suspect it’s the same ship, the only difference being the packaging and the colors used in the molding of the plastic parts.