Ronnie
Jetboaters Fleet Admiral
- Messages
- 8,775
- Reaction score
- 12,188
- Points
- 667
- Location
- SF Bay Area
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2010
- Boat Model
- Limited S
- Boat Length
- 24
I looked at the parrot / ardrone 2.0 over a year ago , I think they have a premium or 3.0 out now. Basically it looks good for practicing especially indoors but it's not really in the same league as the dji or even the smaller quad copters you have because it doesn't have a dedicated conventional transmitter, it uses an iPhone or iPad so it shares the same 2.4 ghz spectrum for it's control and video. This may make it more apt to channel conflict where someone else's apple device could disrupt either or both the heli controls or video controls/feed. Also It cannot handle the wind as well because it is so light weight.
I think If you were to buy one you would out grow it quickly and end up getting a more conventional multi copter of some type so I recommend that you start there, specifically with the fc 40, the incremental $150 buys a lot of features and functionality over the parrot. I've seen used parrots for 1/2 price on craigslist most of the time it is because the user is upgrading or has upgraded to a bigger multi rotor copter. The fc 40 doesn't have all the Bells and whistles the phantom 2 does but it is still very tough especially if you add blade guards for another $20 and the flight time is around 15 minutes per battery. 15 minutes is a long time when it's your money in the air. One benefit of the gen 1 is that its batteries are only $20ish each instead of $160 for the gem 2s batteries.
Incidentally, I bought my son a ts1 mini quad copter by helimax (has a camera but no fpv) before I gave him my gen 1 phantom, it is much harder to fly than either the gen 1, gen 2 and parrot. It hovers hands free just fine, I think all multi copters do but actually flying it is hard and I started flying rc helis over 10 years ago. If you can "fly" a small quad copter flying a bigger one like a phantom should be easy by comparison.
FYI lot of the flyaways I have read about, at least where the DJI's are concerned, seem to be caused by failure of the user to wait for confirmation that enough satellites were supporting the flight. I think a lot of these guys just forget or intentionally pass on doing the preflight, then they take off without the gps assist working properly and without setting a "home" location. If all this is done, the chances of experiencing a fly away are slim to none. Some guys even use the return to home function as a default way to get the bird back. They just turn the transmitter off and wait for the phantom to do its thing.
Many of the crashes I've read about stem from people being confused about the advanced orientation mode of the DJI helis. When this is active, it doesn't matter which way the heli is actually pointed (which is the front end), the heli will always react in regard to how it is oriented to the transmitter, for instance, if you pull back on the right control stick it the heli will come back to the transmitter no matter which way the heli is actually oriented. I have a lot of old school rc heli habits that are hard to break so I don't use the advanced orientation mode as it confuses me. I've tried it though and it does work.
I think If you were to buy one you would out grow it quickly and end up getting a more conventional multi copter of some type so I recommend that you start there, specifically with the fc 40, the incremental $150 buys a lot of features and functionality over the parrot. I've seen used parrots for 1/2 price on craigslist most of the time it is because the user is upgrading or has upgraded to a bigger multi rotor copter. The fc 40 doesn't have all the Bells and whistles the phantom 2 does but it is still very tough especially if you add blade guards for another $20 and the flight time is around 15 minutes per battery. 15 minutes is a long time when it's your money in the air. One benefit of the gen 1 is that its batteries are only $20ish each instead of $160 for the gem 2s batteries.
Incidentally, I bought my son a ts1 mini quad copter by helimax (has a camera but no fpv) before I gave him my gen 1 phantom, it is much harder to fly than either the gen 1, gen 2 and parrot. It hovers hands free just fine, I think all multi copters do but actually flying it is hard and I started flying rc helis over 10 years ago. If you can "fly" a small quad copter flying a bigger one like a phantom should be easy by comparison.
FYI lot of the flyaways I have read about, at least where the DJI's are concerned, seem to be caused by failure of the user to wait for confirmation that enough satellites were supporting the flight. I think a lot of these guys just forget or intentionally pass on doing the preflight, then they take off without the gps assist working properly and without setting a "home" location. If all this is done, the chances of experiencing a fly away are slim to none. Some guys even use the return to home function as a default way to get the bird back. They just turn the transmitter off and wait for the phantom to do its thing.
Many of the crashes I've read about stem from people being confused about the advanced orientation mode of the DJI helis. When this is active, it doesn't matter which way the heli is actually pointed (which is the front end), the heli will always react in regard to how it is oriented to the transmitter, for instance, if you pull back on the right control stick it the heli will come back to the transmitter no matter which way the heli is actually oriented. I have a lot of old school rc heli habits that are hard to break so I don't use the advanced orientation mode as it confuses me. I've tried it though and it does work.
You can even see my boat on the side yard 
