G+_Steve C Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 +Bryan Burnett +Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Good news for drone fans, if you want a high end drone cheaply Woot has the Parrot AR Drone on sale for $179 for the next 14 hrs instead of the usual $300. Some of you may remember when the first AR Drone ver. 1 came out in 2010 and was a sensation at electronics shows but could only be controlled with an iPhone. The ver. 2.0 can be controlled with an Android phone or tablet now. There's no R/C transmitter with it, it's controlled using Wi-Fi from the tablet which also displays live video from it's 720P video camera while it's flying so there is built in FPV. It was the first intelligent drone that can be set to hover on it's own at a fixed altitude and it can also take off and land automatically. It's not perfect though and has a few faults, the Wi-Fi has a limited range of only about 160' although there are R/C updates to extend the range for about $130. Also it's very light and not very powerful so it can't be flown in any wind whatsoever or it will just blow away. It's sensitive to the props used and won't get off the ground with some aftermarket ones on eBay. When you crash it tends to bend the props and the shaft they spin on but those parts are cheap and easy to replace. The motor itself is well protected inside the housing. Also a recent software update that must have changed the battery profile reduced the flight time on a freshly charged battery to just 2 min. instead of 10 min. but I suspect part of the problem is also due to the batteries getting old. Over all I'm pretty happy with it since it's the first one that I've ever been able to control at all! It doesn't usually take off on it's own in some random direction like the X5C or the Hubson X4 do and there is a Kill button that will bring it down if it does. It doesn't have a GPS so it can be used indoors but it does have a magnetic sensor, altimeter and ultrasonic transducer to help determine it's height and position and a downward looking camera to help gauge ground speed and let it hover automatically, something the others like the X5C can't do. It even has a mode to make it shake loose from trees but I haven't had to use that yet. http://electronics.woot.com/offers/parrot-ar-drone-2-0-wi-fi-quadricopter-19?ref=cnt_dly_img http://electronics.woot.com/offers/parrot-ar-drone-2-0-wi-fi-quadricopter-19?ref=cnt_dly_img Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 The one I had, was controlled by my phone/tablet. Tilting the phone/tablet to control it was a horrible experience. As the the screen of the FPV tilts out of view/glare was unbearable. Save your money. (not to mention the open wifi connection with zero authentication, encryption/security) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve C Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 Eddie, Tilting the phone/tablet to control it works great. You must just be too clumsy to do that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Must be. Me and a slew of other people. But my PixHawk runs great, zero problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve C Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 Sorry but I don't believe there are any Pixhawks that run since none of the software to program it will work! I think the programmers who were doing all the bug fixes on Qgroundcontrol have given up trying to fix all the problems since they aren't even replying to problem reports on Github anymore. Can't say that I blame them either since who wants to work for years on a crappy program for free when Pixhawk and 3DR are making all the money selling hardware. The guy at the hobby store was telling me about a place where everyone goes to fly their drones on Saturday night and I was going to go and see what was there but there was another thunderstorm that night. Anyway I asked the guy if anyone had a Pixhawk flying out of all the ones that were there and he said he thought he knew someone that did so I left my number to have him call me but it turned out that nobody did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Ask Padre. He runs them also. But since one single person with a bad device, can't get it to run, yup, every one is is bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 ....and BeBop is same manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Carlton Dodd Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I was given an AR Drone 2.0 because my step-dad couldn't get it working again after a crash. A new set of props got it going, but any minor crash causes breakage, and it's now oddly unstable for no reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Chris Mallam Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Don't waste your money on a Parrot Drone. Get a DJI Phantom III Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Carlton Dodd Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Chris Mallam Two different price-classes, but my step-dad just bought the Pro! I can't wait to try it out! I'm currently at the $80 Syma X5SC level. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I have one of these... Under my desk... Not really sure how it got there... But Jeff Needles? really likes his. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jeff Needles Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 When the app works (last I tried it didn't) It is pretty enjoyable for what it is... not precise, not fancy and probably not considered very high performance .. But fun :) Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve C Posted September 3, 2015 Author Share Posted September 3, 2015 Jeff, If you mean the AR Drone app it runs just fine on an Android tablet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve C Posted September 3, 2015 Author Share Posted September 3, 2015 >Don't waste your money on a Parrot Drone. Get a DJI Phantom III. Chris, are you really comparing a $1000 DJI to the $179 AR Drone? Who's going to pay for it, you? You are even sillier than Wayne and Eddie! LOL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve C Posted September 3, 2015 Author Share Posted September 3, 2015 Carlton, won't any drone break parts when you crash it or do you have one that is indestructible? Just don't be clumsy like Eddie and crash it and you'll be fine. I haven't broken anything on it yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Steve C no need to be so touchy... Eddie has his opinion, so do you. You like the Parrot, fantastic! Eddie flies the Syma, which you don't like, also fantastic! We're all geeks here. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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