Anyone have Parrot AR Drone 2.0?
 

Is it worth buying? It's around $250 here - is it decent enough to fuck around flying around the yard? Seems like the 50m wifi range is pretty low

No its crap because of the battery. Just when you get it up in the air and start to get the hang of it the battery dies. I bought a second but now for some reason it's not holding a charge. It would be awesome if it would stay in the air for more than 4 minutes.

Also you'll frequently lose connection with it then it just floats up in the air and you have to wait for it to run out of battery and land.

Controlling it with a smartphone also blows. If I ever buy another drone it will have a real controller.

Fuck it's that bad?

I have one - I bought it when they hit the market awhile back.

Worth it? Naw, not with the newer Phantoms out there. The parrot is a starter quad, basically. It won't take a GoPro (well, sorta...but I wouldn't trust it).

It flies okay with a tablet - but forget tryin' to control it on a smartphone.

Save your money and buy a better model.

Hey I have one with 3 batteries. Each one works for about 12 minutes.
It worth but the true is that you get tired after a few weeks. Last time I used it was a year ago. Yes, just 50 meters using internal wifi. There are new drones that can go higher. This drone comes with 2 integrated cameras and you can watch all live in your phone which is great. Imo is super easy to control it using any smartphone.

:thumbsup

Save your money a little longer and get a Phantom 3 Advanced for $999. It's 4x more expensive for a 100x better aircraft and camera.

Or spend $1260 on the 4k version (which I have) but then you'll find that you rarely, if ever, use the 4k on it. I shoot most everything in 1080p @ 60fps or most of the time I'm just taking still images.

Skip the standard version that was just announced.

What kind of battery life do you get on yours?

20 - 22 minutes

Flight time depends on a lot of factors. Hovering close to the ground takes less power than hovering high up. Forward flight takes less power than hovering. Making a lot of directional changes, climbing, stopping, all take more power than hovering.

I have it. I don't think much of it (but i have a DJI Inspire). Can go 50 to 100 feet or so. Where are you located i'll sell you mine with a massive RC controller to go with it :)

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A bit far :) The shipping and duty/etc would make it cheaper to just buy a new one here

That's interesting - the gfy template is broken. For me it shows:

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Seems like the Industry Role field shows YOUR industry roll, not the persons.

The Lily looks pretty awesome, hope it works as well as the demos make it look, though.
Or the Inspire One :upsidedow

Sorry but the Lily looks like shit.

What good is a drone with a non-removable battery? Cant swap out the battery for a fresh one and keep flying. Instead you have to recharge the thing. It's not going to be real popular just because of that one serious limitation.

Take it hiking, fly it once... hope you got what you wanted because you're not flying it again until you get back to someplace with electricity so you can charge it again.

Good point, I meant the part about throwing it in the air and following. Batteries ruin fun things. :/

Parrot makes toys. If you're going to get a quad at least learn on something like a DJI Phantom 3.

They're not pricey and they do a whole heck a lot more than a Parrot you can buy at Toys R Us.

If didn't even bother unpacking my Inspire. I sold it and bought a Phantom 3 Professional and put a deposit on my Blackmagic Ursa camera instead.

Hi k0nr4d,

I have an AR Drone 2.0 and I like it a lot. All the other drones listed in here are better of course, but the AR Drone 2.0 is a perfect "starter" drone and is lots of fun. Here are the good things about it:

- Very easy to learn to fly
- Includes a decent video camera
- Broadcasts live video to your iPad or other Tablet or phone that you also use to control it with.
- Pretty tough! I've crashed it into trees, etc. Minor damage only.
- I've flown it as high as 30 meters high (about 300 feet)
- Fast and Maneuverable and cool looking.
- If you crash it, it is very easy to fix. It is light weight and pretty hard to cause serious damage to. All parts are available online.


Here's what's bad about it:

- The battery lasts only about 12 minutes, and takes about an hour to charge, but this is true of some other drones too. If you buy an AR Drone or other brand, buy 2 or 3 extra batteries and 2 or 3 extra chargers too.

- The range is low. It uses Wifi only to communicate with your iPad. This is enough to send it a block or so away from you but no more.

- If the drone loses its connection to you, it just hovers and waits for the signal to be re acquired. However, if you add the GPS to it I think you can make it return to you.

- The camera is fixed, so you can change the direction. It also is not on any kind of gimbal or other stabilizer so the video is rocky especially if its windy.

I still play with my AR Drone 2.0 about 2-3 times a week for the past 2 years now so at $250.00 its definitely worth the money. My next drone will be something something better.

PS: The DJI's are not perfect. In the park near here about 2 weeks ago this guy was flying a DJI when it suddenly took off straight up in the air, quickly. He had no control over it. When it crashed it looked pretty bad. I don't know if it was damaged beyond repair but it looked like it.

Maybe do this: Start with an AR Drone and then when you're ready, sell it and buy a nicer one later. Regardless you'll love this hobby. It's lots of fun.

I broke my big stunt helicopter by trying to fly upside down and the button that swapped direction slipped.. lol :Oh crap

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:Oh crap

Its a kids toy. I bought one when they came out and it lost connection and flew right into the ocean.

Take the advice of others and spend a little more to get a good one.

I had a DJI Phantom and Blade QX2...both are cool and get old flying real quick. Its something you can pick up 2nd hand for 1/8th of the price. Check ebay for a used DJI with GPS

I have an Iris+.. here's a video from the forum.

I remember back in the day when we just taped a camera onto an rc helicopter.. :upsidedow

I remember back in the day when I bought an RC helicopter and It was in the air no shit like 15 seconds before i broke it...

I did, too, lol. Luckily the hobby store where I got it repaired it free since I just got it. :upsidedow
Learning how to fly a stunt copter where the buttons did the wrong thing is hard.. :winkwink:

Konrad:

https://www.reddit.com/r/quadcopter
https://www.reddit.com/r/multicopter/




I was thinking of buying this

Buy Phantom 3 Professional | DJI Store

Would this be too advanced for a newbie? I heard the more professional the quadcopter, the easier they are too fly because of stabilizers etc



I heard there are transponders you can get, that will make the quadcopter follow and record you. Thought it would be fun to use while snowboarding. Anyone know anything about that?

A friend bought a 3 Pro and has since sold it because it was unreliable. I've seen a few Youtube videos of people having the same issues she had.

I'd probably wait for them to iron out the issues.

My 3 Pro is rock solid, especially with the new firmware that came out a few days ago.