Which quadcopter model would you recommend?
December 30, 2013 1:19 PM Subscribe
Have been thinking about getting a small quadcopter for indoor use, I know very little about them or radio control stuff in general. Which one would you recommend?
A couple models were mentioned in this thread, but that was mostly about helicopters. Any others worth considering?
This will be used indoors 95% of the time or more, I would think. Prefer something less than $50, definitely $100. Would prefer a US-based seller.
A couple models were mentioned in this thread, but that was mostly about helicopters. Any others worth considering?
This will be used indoors 95% of the time or more, I would think. Prefer something less than $50, definitely $100. Would prefer a US-based seller.
This appears to be that same syma with a cheesy hilarious center cover, but cheaper.
From all the reviews i've read contemplating buying a cheap multirotor, that one seems like the one under $50. Tons of complaints about other ones breaking from minor crashes or motors burning out or whatever. With that one and it's variants, people are always like "oh man i crashed the CRAP out of it and it still works great! A+"
People love the crap out of this Hubsan too, which is apparently a lot more agile. For a few bucks more there's a camera version.
For some reason tons of people hate on the camera version, but not the regular one. I think the regular one is now on revision 2, but the camera version hasn't been updated.
Either way, those seem to be the two "big" choiecs. This, which is popular, is literally just a rebrand for more money.
Amusingly, both those models... are the ones mentioned in that last thread. Which i didn't notice when i first wrote this. I think that's for a reason though, those are kinda the cheap standards it seems.
posted by emptythought at 2:46 PM on December 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
From all the reviews i've read contemplating buying a cheap multirotor, that one seems like the one under $50. Tons of complaints about other ones breaking from minor crashes or motors burning out or whatever. With that one and it's variants, people are always like "oh man i crashed the CRAP out of it and it still works great! A+"
People love the crap out of this Hubsan too, which is apparently a lot more agile. For a few bucks more there's a camera version.
For some reason tons of people hate on the camera version, but not the regular one. I think the regular one is now on revision 2, but the camera version hasn't been updated.
Either way, those seem to be the two "big" choiecs. This, which is popular, is literally just a rebrand for more money.
Amusingly, both those models... are the ones mentioned in that last thread. Which i didn't notice when i first wrote this. I think that's for a reason though, those are kinda the cheap standards it seems.
posted by emptythought at 2:46 PM on December 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
Seconding the Syma, which my 8 year old and I have been enjoying the last few days. It has held up well to many spectacular collisions, falls, and fails. The dog, on the other hand, is still in hiding.
posted by prinado at 3:29 PM on December 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by prinado at 3:29 PM on December 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
I just saw a quick video of the Estes 4606 Proto X Nano R/C Quadcopter which comes highly recommended on Amazon.
posted by Amity at 6:15 PM on December 30, 2013
posted by Amity at 6:15 PM on December 30, 2013
We got Symas for Christmas at our house. They've been flown by everyone from our six your old to me--and I turned out to be spectacularly bad at it. I have been amazed at how resilient they are. I bought this set that comes with an extra battery and extra rotor blades, since in my research (which probably consisted of reading previous threads here) I learned that those are the thing most likely to suffer in a crash.
posted by not that girl at 12:20 AM on December 31, 2013
posted by not that girl at 12:20 AM on December 31, 2013
So if you want something that you can just head out to a hobby shop and get replacements parts for your two major choices for indoor-scale quads are either the Blade Nano QX or the Heli-Max 1sq (or any of the variants). I'm not counting the Estes Proto X Nano that Amity mentioned - it's cute (and I love mine) but so far seems to be considered to be disposable since the parts chain doesn't exist. Blade and Heli-Max are both relatively domestic brands, so they're a bit more expensive than the Symas and Hubsans, but they have dealer networks that make it easier to go out and buy replacement propellers and additional batteries.
posted by Kyol at 8:47 AM on December 31, 2013
posted by Kyol at 8:47 AM on December 31, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Far as I can tell the only dedicated hobby shop around here closed earlier in the year, so figure I'll go with the Syma X1 or Estes 4606.
posted by aerotive at 1:36 PM on December 31, 2013
posted by aerotive at 1:36 PM on December 31, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by subajestad at 1:39 PM on December 30, 2013