Drone people - is WiFi streaming pretty standard? Seems like the video would be unable to stream / out of range once you got up to the height where stuff would start to look interesting.
@melonscoop I’m picturing it using your wifi to broadcast a signal to the drone…? Rather, I’m hoping. Otherwise you’re right. The range would be even worse if it had to come from the wifi in your house… Then you couldn’t even take the thing to a field to give yourself extra space.
Based on what I saw from the WiFi drone I got in a Fuko, though @ruouttaurmind and @djslack could chime in, the drone offers its own signal, and you can connect your phone to that ‘signal’ for connectivity.
You would thus have connectivity as far as the range which is specified by the manufacturer.
At no point does the drone actually connect to WiFi service from house/other location.
(Note: The signal from the drone doesn’t actually provide internet service.)
@djslack@gwrankin@melonscoop@PlacidPenguin@ruouttaurmind that is how the tello works. Xiaomi makes a wifi booster/repeater that significantly increases the range and runs off a USB power bank. Costs $14 at Amazon. Setup is a bit skeevy, but well within the norm for a meh’er.
@melonscoop In my limited experience drones that rely on 2.4ghz wifi spectrum for controls and fpv are severely limited in distance. They are good for most line of site applications but my first Drone, a Parrot Ar relied on 2.4ghz wifi for controls and video. For reasons above my understanding Wi-Fi signals don’t work well over bodies of water. I got out over the lake near my house to capture photos and the drone lost connection and decided to just fly away into the sunset. I found it floating on the lake later. GPS, autopilot and other things have come a long way since then 2.4ghz drones supposedly fly back home if they lose signal now, you can get controls that supposedly employ beam forming and other technology but they are still limited by physics. Tldr keep this in line of sight it’s the rule and 2.4ghz is limited in range.
@melonscoop 2.4ghz is a crowded place as well with long range wifi, regular wifi, cordless phones, security cameras and baby monitors all vying for space. 2.4ghz has benefits like higher bandwidth for video signals vs 5.8ghz employeed by DJI for its controls. I believe that racing drones usually use 5.8 for controls but 2.4ghz for fpv. They have predefined racetracks though and set up repeaters along the track to assist with the 2.4ghz signal.
@communist@djslack@gwrankin@melonscoop@PlacidPenguin@ruouttaurmind Yeah, that is the device I have. Here is how i got it working: 1) you need the xiaomi home application on your phone. 2) Tell the app you are in mainland china. They don’t officially sell this device in the US. Other regions may work. 3) turn on security on your drone’s wifi; the xiaomi won’t connect to an unencrypted network.
@djslack@phendrick@PlacidPenguin I have a feeling that Amazon has started trying to actively monitor meh deals and automatically change pricing on the fly when deals are released. Underhanded as fuck, but they’re not going to touch meh prices.
I bought several of the cheap cheerson quad copters here, and never was able to fly them worth a crap.
Just got a ryze tello. For $99 it is awesome. Small enough for indoors, but has the easy flyability of high end drones. Auto takeoff and landing, hovers in place automatically. Camera is decent.
For that price you don’t get a standalone controller, you use your phone. But that works great. There is a $35 Bluetooth controller you can get, if you prefer the game style controls or you want to do fpv with a headset like the one in this bundle. I dunno what those cost separately, Google cardboard kits are $5 from deal extreme if you need a basic one.
It’s not as cheap as this, but it is a totally different experience for a beginner. Until this came out, I think you needed to spend $400 or more for similar feature set.
@danpritts the amount of autopilot included makes all the difference in the world for flyability, especially for beginners. Size also helps; smaller craft can be less stable.
Anything with auto takeoff and auto land is generally going to have sufficient autopilot to remain in place without input from the pilot. I got a Parrot quad not too long ago and it is super simple, even for people who can’t fly the little Cheersons.
The Cheersons only have an accelerometer to remain level. Everything else is on the pilot, with no altitude hold ability. Combine that with the nervous thumbs of a beginner pilot and you have a recipe for quads smacking into ceilings everywhere and little satisfaction.
@danpritts@djslack This makes me REALLY want to open up the cheersons from the sealed boxes I still have… Totally doing that now… I’ll try a cheerson vs. a Jet Jat Ultra (also meh).
@djslack I got OK at flying them, but whenever things started to go wrong, i would always “freak out”. E.g., instead of adding a little throttle to slow a fall, i would immediately go to max throttle. Then it’s all over. Even outdoors, it was hard to find the sweet spot and hover.
Still a fun toy but not a “drone”.
Meh had some dual-rotor helicopters quite a while back; those were a bit easier to fly. Still have one of those, it’s fun.
@fastharry meh has never given me any flak, there customer service is always good. They can be a little smart ass but they are helpful in the end. I try not to return stuff since that is part of the agreement cheep prices and no customer service. Nonetheless I have had to return one item and spoke with CS twice both times they went out of the way to help especially for a site that says it won’t help.
@NoImNotNSA Then it’s not a drone, right? As far as I know, a drone is not a remote-controlled vehicle, it’s a “fire and forget” device, like the proposed Amazon delivery drones, drone missiles, etc. You program the navigational info into it and it goes off to do it’s thing according to its instructions/programming, etc
@NoImNotNSA@ws1o
They do call the military versions ‘drones’ even though they have remote pilots. I think the difference there is that they’re actually plane shaped so they stay aloft with less overhead.
Also, I just think ‘drone’ is used as a catchy buzzword.
@ws1o I think that you are technically right, I don’t think there’s a common definition of drone in the consumer market. Even in the military they refer to the MQ-1 predator as drone in common vernacular and the same for the black hornet which is a small remote controlled vehicle that is used for squad level reconnaissance. I have seen those types of things used in the field, probably not the black hornet because I am old, but something similar to it we called them drones. I was national guard, in the US for domestic, state level disaster relief we had DJI drones. I don’t think they work with DJI anymore even for domestic stuff.
@ws1o The British military built a remote control aircraft that was called the Queen B. With British help, the American military built a copy and made the obvious pun of “drone”. There were not autonomous vehicles in the 1940s.
What is the size of the drone itself. All I can find for dimensions are “12x12x2” which is, I think, the size of the box in which the whole kit arrives.
Anyone fly these yet? I got to the point where I could fly it successfully for a while in headless mode (couldn’t get the controller app to work in Android Pie) and it was quite fun to zip around with. Fun that is, until I pressed the “stunt” button (click on the right stick) and mine went completely berserker. It stopped responding to the controller and all the safety mechanisms like crash detection didn’t work, so a motor burned out once it hit the ground.
Smells awful too, so it’s definitely toast.
Bitch about it is that it’s not like it was a range issue; I was only about ten feet away! Guess it’s time to see how the Meh warranty process works!
@ryanbruce That’s a shame. I’m still thinking of grabbing one off Morningsave. Guess I’ll avoid stunt mode like the plague if I do. How’d it feel otherwise?
@Bluedragon07 it felt like a $44 quad copter. Once I got used to the controller it was pretty easy to pilot where I wanted it to go. The little guy’s still trucking along so at least the spirit of Drony McDronerson lives on.
Can’t comment on the app/video experience since it didn’t work for me.
Controls were decent (except for aforementioned suicide mode)
Battery was a bit weird to charge; not sure why they went with a proprietary bastardization of a USB connector but whatever. There was also a lot of opportunity for a larger battery.
it seems to have an attraction to tall grass and brush. No matter how I placed it it would always go that way even with no wind. I have no Idea how long the battery lasts because it is in the brush now lost till the Fall.
I’m sure nobody will be checking back on this old of a thread, but don’t leave the mini drone’s charger plugged in. Mine started overheating and melting. Only noticed because it had an odd smell that I traced down.
Contacting the manufacturer just to see what they’ll do.
Specs
What’s in the Box?
1x Stellar NX Drone
1x 2.4 GHz Remote Control
2x Battery
1x USB Charging Cable
1x Spare Blade Set
1x Odyssey VR/3D Headset
1x mini drone
Price Comparison
$70.91 at Amazon (on “sale” from $68.08?)
Warranty
90 day Mediocre
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
Fly away
The VR headset guarantees I will crash this thing on the first day.
@norman8 Oh, I’m banking on 40 seconds for myself.
Droning on and on
@AttyVette must attend a lot of meetings…
Drone people - is WiFi streaming pretty standard? Seems like the video would be unable to stream / out of range once you got up to the height where stuff would start to look interesting.
@melonscoop I was wondering about this myself
@melonscoop I’m picturing it using your wifi to broadcast a signal to the drone…? Rather, I’m hoping. Otherwise you’re right. The range would be even worse if it had to come from the wifi in your house… Then you couldn’t even take the thing to a field to give yourself extra space.
@gwrankin @melonscoop
Based on what I saw from the WiFi drone I got in a Fuko, though @ruouttaurmind and @djslack could chime in, the drone offers its own signal, and you can connect your phone to that ‘signal’ for connectivity.
You would thus have connectivity as far as the range which is specified by the manufacturer.
At no point does the drone actually connect to WiFi service from house/other location.
(Note: The signal from the drone doesn’t actually provide internet service.)
@djslack @gwrankin @PlacidPenguin @ruouttaurmind Okay - I can now picture the connection / video transmitting process. Thanks!
@djslack @gwrankin @melonscoop @PlacidPenguin @ruouttaurmind that is how the tello works. Xiaomi makes a wifi booster/repeater that significantly increases the range and runs off a USB power bank. Costs $14 at Amazon. Setup is a bit skeevy, but well within the norm for a meh’er.
@melonscoop In my limited experience drones that rely on 2.4ghz wifi spectrum for controls and fpv are severely limited in distance. They are good for most line of site applications but my first Drone, a Parrot Ar relied on 2.4ghz wifi for controls and video. For reasons above my understanding Wi-Fi signals don’t work well over bodies of water. I got out over the lake near my house to capture photos and the drone lost connection and decided to just fly away into the sunset. I found it floating on the lake later. GPS, autopilot and other things have come a long way since then 2.4ghz drones supposedly fly back home if they lose signal now, you can get controls that supposedly employ beam forming and other technology but they are still limited by physics. Tldr keep this in line of sight it’s the rule and 2.4ghz is limited in range.
@melonscoop 2.4ghz is a crowded place as well with long range wifi, regular wifi, cordless phones, security cameras and baby monitors all vying for space. 2.4ghz has benefits like higher bandwidth for video signals vs 5.8ghz employeed by DJI for its controls. I believe that racing drones usually use 5.8 for controls but 2.4ghz for fpv. They have predefined racetracks though and set up repeaters along the track to assist with the 2.4ghz signal.
@danpritts @djslack @gwrankin @melonscoop @PlacidPenguin @ruouttaurmind https://www.amazon.com/Extender-Repeater-Amplifier-Universal-Wireless/dp/B06XPGVWRH
@communist @djslack @gwrankin @melonscoop @PlacidPenguin @ruouttaurmind Yeah, that is the device I have. Here is how i got it working: 1) you need the xiaomi home application on your phone. 2) Tell the app you are in mainland china. They don’t officially sell this device in the US. Other regions may work. 3) turn on security on your drone’s wifi; the xiaomi won’t connect to an unencrypted network.
I’m in for purchasing one for the school I work it.
I wonder how many flights will be possible before total breakage. (Over-under is 3)
@gwrankin I’ll put a dollar on 7.
Is this quiet enough to hover outside windows without being heard? Asking for a friend.
@hchavers Your friend is a very curious person.
@hchavers I guess the real question is: “Is she good-looking enough that you need 1080p instead of this?”
“$70.91 at Amazon (on “sale” from $68.08?)”. Yep, that is what it says there.
Oh, oh. A new sales model for Meh?
@phendrick
Made me giggle.
@djslack @phendrick
Just out of curiosity, I added the one on Amazon to my cart, and it gave me the $68.08 pricing).
@djslack @phendrick @PlacidPenguin I have a feeling that Amazon has started trying to actively monitor meh deals and automatically change pricing on the fly when deals are released. Underhanded as fuck, but they’re not going to touch meh prices.
How would you record the video? On the phone?
@pjdemmitt The drone has a camera attached to it. It sends the feed directly to your phone.
@pjdemmitt yes the video transmit to your phone which provides a record/picture option
No reviews or sample video?
I bought several of the cheap cheerson quad copters here, and never was able to fly them worth a crap.
Just got a ryze tello. For $99 it is awesome. Small enough for indoors, but has the easy flyability of high end drones. Auto takeoff and landing, hovers in place automatically. Camera is decent.
For that price you don’t get a standalone controller, you use your phone. But that works great. There is a $35 Bluetooth controller you can get, if you prefer the game style controls or you want to do fpv with a headset like the one in this bundle. I dunno what those cost separately, Google cardboard kits are $5 from deal extreme if you need a basic one.
It’s not as cheap as this, but it is a totally different experience for a beginner. Until this came out, I think you needed to spend $400 or more for similar feature set.
These are gonna sell like crazy this Christmas.
@danpritts the amount of autopilot included makes all the difference in the world for flyability, especially for beginners. Size also helps; smaller craft can be less stable.
Anything with auto takeoff and auto land is generally going to have sufficient autopilot to remain in place without input from the pilot. I got a Parrot quad not too long ago and it is super simple, even for people who can’t fly the little Cheersons.
The Cheersons only have an accelerometer to remain level. Everything else is on the pilot, with no altitude hold ability. Combine that with the nervous thumbs of a beginner pilot and you have a recipe for quads smacking into ceilings everywhere and little satisfaction.
@danpritts @djslack I can totally fly my cheersons. I just can’t fly them where I want them to go. Or land them. DUCK!
@danpritts @djslack This makes me REALLY want to open up the cheersons from the sealed boxes I still have… Totally doing that now… I’ll try a cheerson vs. a Jet Jat Ultra (also meh).
@djslack I got OK at flying them, but whenever things started to go wrong, i would always “freak out”. E.g., instead of adding a little throttle to slow a fall, i would immediately go to max throttle. Then it’s all over. Even outdoors, it was hard to find the sweet spot and hover.
Still a fun toy but not a “drone”.
Meh had some dual-rotor helicopters quite a while back; those were a bit easier to fly. Still have one of those, it’s fun.
200+ hours of dedicated aerial recon later and I still haven’t found a job with this drone.
Last night I almost bought this thinking it was $14. I’m glad I waited.
@Seeds Maybe that’s where they get those fuko items with a note that says changed mind.
rather spend the extra 20 and buy it from amazon or dept store…worth it when it doesn’t work a week later and i can return it.
@fastharry They do honor their warranties. I’ve had to return/replace with meh two or three times for various reasons.
@fastharry meh has never given me any flak, there customer service is always good. They can be a little smart ass but they are helpful in the end. I try not to return stuff since that is part of the agreement cheep prices and no customer service. Nonetheless I have had to return one item and spoke with CS twice both times they went out of the way to help especially for a site that says it won’t help.
720p at what frame rate? JPEG stills?
I don’t think that’s a drone, I think it’s an RC aircraft. A drone can fly and navigate on its own.
@ws1o You do know even the US Military drones have a pilot at the controls 24/7 right?
@NoImNotNSA Then it’s not a drone, right? As far as I know, a drone is not a remote-controlled vehicle, it’s a “fire and forget” device, like the proposed Amazon delivery drones, drone missiles, etc. You program the navigational info into it and it goes off to do it’s thing according to its instructions/programming, etc
@NoImNotNSA @ws1o
They do call the military versions ‘drones’ even though they have remote pilots. I think the difference there is that they’re actually plane shaped so they stay aloft with less overhead.
Also, I just think ‘drone’ is used as a catchy buzzword.
@ws1o I think that you are technically right, I don’t think there’s a common definition of drone in the consumer market. Even in the military they refer to the MQ-1 predator as drone in common vernacular and the same for the black hornet which is a small remote controlled vehicle that is used for squad level reconnaissance. I have seen those types of things used in the field, probably not the black hornet because I am old, but something similar to it we called them drones. I was national guard, in the US for domestic, state level disaster relief we had DJI drones. I don’t think they work with DJI anymore even for domestic stuff.
@ws1o The British military built a remote control aircraft that was called the Queen B. With British help, the American military built a copy and made the obvious pun of “drone”. There were not autonomous vehicles in the 1940s.
This is a similar drone from the same company. He says the latency is too high to fly from the googles. That’s a no from me, dawg.
@chrismusaf looking for reviews thanks.
What is the size of the drone itself. All I can find for dimensions are “12x12x2” which is, I think, the size of the box in which the whole kit arrives.
@bryane did you check newegg? They have a nice write-up there… Didn’t check size though…
I am always a sucker for things that fly and have spinning blades. Will be just like EKG mode on Duke Nukem
First!
Anyone fly these yet? I got to the point where I could fly it successfully for a while in headless mode (couldn’t get the controller app to work in Android Pie) and it was quite fun to zip around with. Fun that is, until I pressed the “stunt” button (click on the right stick) and mine went completely berserker. It stopped responding to the controller and all the safety mechanisms like crash detection didn’t work, so a motor burned out once it hit the ground.
Smells awful too, so it’s definitely toast.
Bitch about it is that it’s not like it was a range issue; I was only about ten feet away! Guess it’s time to see how the Meh warranty process works!
@ryanbruce That’s a shame. I’m still thinking of grabbing one off Morningsave. Guess I’ll avoid stunt mode like the plague if I do. How’d it feel otherwise?
@ryanbruce
@Bluedragon07 it felt like a $44 quad copter. Once I got used to the controller it was pretty easy to pilot where I wanted it to go. The little guy’s still trucking along so at least the spirit of Drony McDronerson lives on.
Can’t comment on the app/video experience since it didn’t work for me.
Controls were decent (except for aforementioned suicide mode)
Battery was a bit weird to charge; not sure why they went with a proprietary bastardization of a USB connector but whatever. There was also a lot of opportunity for a larger battery.
it seems to have an attraction to tall grass and brush. No matter how I placed it it would always go that way even with no wind. I have no Idea how long the battery lasts because it is in the brush now lost till the Fall.
@pllamonica RIP droney drone
I’m sure nobody will be checking back on this old of a thread, but don’t leave the mini drone’s charger plugged in. Mine started overheating and melting. Only noticed because it had an odd smell that I traced down.
Contacting the manufacturer just to see what they’ll do.
@ryanbruce Wrong! Thanks for the heads up!
How is the range on this thing? How far away from the remote will it fly?
I could get this and have a new way to see my missing meh face pop socket