Another deal on the famous JJRC H8 mini, missed out on the previous bargain so finally caved on this one!
Coupon: H8MINI
JJRC H8 Mini Headless Mode 2.4G 4CH RC Quadcopter 6 Axis Gyro 3D Flip UFO One Key Return Aircraft
Black: https://www.gearbest.com/rc-quadcopters/pp_186259.html
White: https://www.gearbest.com/rc-quadcopters/pp_186258.html?wid=2…
$9.99 USD (~$12.83 AUD with 28 degrees)
How does the Mi 4k go in mild wind? I got myself a cheapy VISUO drone for xmas and it really struggles. Interested to know how the upper range ones go.
I don't own a Mi 4k, but do own two DJI drones.
My Phantom 3 Pro does well in the wind, doesn't blow away but can move about 10cm occasionally.
My Spark does amazingly and I don't notice any movement at all.
But don't buy a Spark, there's flyaway issues with them that I've experienced myself. I'd suggest a Mavic if you want something small like the Spark (also has the perks of being better in every aspect) or a Phantom second hand from eBay.
I've read here that some people have issues with the Xiaomi drones being DOA or dying soon after receiving them, and warranty being a pain.
DJI drones you can also get DJI refresh for, which means that if you crash into a tree then you can easily get it repaired (can't remember if there's a small fee, or it's free) or replaced.
Not a DJI spokesperson, just speaking from experience.
If warranty isn't a concern for you, I'd also recommend using deejayeye-modder to remove the app restrictions and do a lot more with the drone.
Any idea what dji do supportwise with a flyaway? / what tends to happen to the drone?
For me the main reason to buy dji is warranty and support but it better be good if one of their new series of drones has a serious issue like that
@Hoju: Their response has been piss poor, with warranty not covering flyaways, making a lot of people less than happy.
My P3P has never had any issues though, so I recommend it.
The flyaways appear to be it trying to return to home, but sometimes going in the wrong direction, and going at up to 50km/h sometimes straight into a tree. Since it's doing a RTH you can't control it, it's fully in control doing whatever it wants.
The Mavic and Phantoms have a switch on the controller that you can flick to disable compass mode, therefore disabling return to home and allowing you to manually control in the case of a flyaway, the Spark has no such function.
The Spark also can't shoot RAW images, even though there's no hardware reason for them not to support it.
On a somewhat related note, anyone interested in buying my Spark? 😜
@BradleyDS2:
Damn there are plenty of forum posts on this! Some people seem to have received warranty replacements.
P3P so expensive and big - Plan was to take it travelling overseas :(
@Hoju: My honest advice is to get a Mavic Pro, shoots 4K raw, you can flick a switch if you have flyaway problems, and it just all around better.
By the time you pack the drone, charger, batteries, case etc the size difference between a Spark and a Mavic isn't very large, but the photo difference will be noticeable, and you can trust you'll come home with a drone and not a fine from the drone flying away and smashing something and breaking itself in the process.
Wah so many $$ though
Many benefits but hard to justify that expense for a grown up toy
@Hoju: It is a lot more than the Spark, but speaking from experience with the Spark, I wish I'd just paid the extra for a Mavic to avoid all the problems I have now.
@BradleyDS2:
Yeh fair enough.
It seems bizarre that dji haven’t resolved this issue, though I assume they’ve sold huge number of drones that work fine
Still can’t get my head around the issue. Hardware, software…
@Hoju: The scariest part is that the issue doesn't seem to be caused by a faulty drone.
I've flown mine many times, over a km away on several occasions, and then one time it just suddenly had that problem when it was about 50 meters away and I was using the remote, GPS dropped out completely (never happened before) and it flew straight until it hit a tree. With where I flew it, if it flew in the other direction it would have continued for a couple of kilometres then the batteries would have died and it would have dropped out of the sky, potentially onto a road or someones property.
The extra cost of the Mavic is worth it simply to avoid having a strong fear of flying drones that the Spark puts into anyone who has a flyaway occur.
Sounds like a marketing strategy to increase sales of the premium product ;)
True enough though, I’d be terrified of this happening if I ever had a spark now
It's pretty darn impressive. Just today I put it up in a strong breeze and it was rock solid. Very noisy - it was obviously working hard to stay in one spot, but amazing nonetheless.
Regarding this comment ^^ by BradleyDS2, if I had the money, I'd definitely have bought a DJI drone, as Xiaomi doesn't support these drones at all outside of China, unlike DJI. There's also a bunch more support for DJI online due to the bigger user base.
I figured that I'd use the Mi drone as a test case to see if it was worth dropping the cash down the track on a decent DJI. At this stage, if the Mi doesn't die on me, I can't see myself ditching it for a DJI anytime soon (unless an amazing deal comes along on a Mavic - hard to compete with that portability!)
Thanks!
Thanks for the post, bought one. Do you know if there is any coupon for the JJRC H20H as well?
How long does the battery last? i.e. flight time before recharge? thanks!
For me ~7 min
Thanks!
2-3 minutes per charge while learning, 4-5 minutes once you have some authority in the air. Get extra batteries if you can…
Thanks!
Not sure why i got one, probably just to look cool in front of my kids and make them jealous.
How does it compare to the Furibee F36..?
This is a lot faster than the F36 (fast in cheap toy micro quadcopter terms). F36 is really indoors only as it cant take even light winds, this can handle them better.
The yaw is annoyingly fast in high rates mode though. It looks pretty spinning I guess but I'm not a fan of flying like that.
You can bind them with one of these (https://www.banggood.com/IRangeX-iRX6-Multiprotocol-TX-Modul…) plugged into an i6x transmitter, but that's only really worth it if you use the TX for other things too :)
Props have a tendency to pop off also, a bit of dental floss wedged in alongside the motor shaft should work, or superglue used very sparingly.
Thanks…
Thanks for the tip. Picked up a couple of F36 which we find are great fun indoors and even out. With minimal wind. Can you get larger batteries for them?
Is there any reason to add this one to the collection? It’s cheap but I’m not sure at what price point you get something that can handle more wind, and have the potential for a camera. We tried a full size XPredators in the circa $100 price range and it could handle a breeze at all and was a nightmare to fly.
Also what’s the purpose of the i6x transmitter?!
You can get larger batteries, but the (tiny bit) of extra weight really kills performance on these micro quads so it's normally not worth it. You'd definitely want a bunch of spares though unless you like flying for 5 mins then waiting for it to charge.
I'm not a huge fan of the H8 mini but its good for the price, decent for someone just learning to fly.
Not a fan of the larger geared brushed quads either, noisy and not that responsive. They do seem to give better battery life though.
The eachine qx-90 and qx-90c are great little brushed quads that can take a micro FPV camera, the wind is going to effect any quad but they have the punch to fly into a reasonable headwind and you're dealing with low-end hobby grade kit (spares, flight controller programmable via usb, decent transmitter etc) rather than toy stuff, but when you add up the quad and a tx it's more in the xpredator price range.
The i6x transmitter is just a cheap low-end hobby grade transmitter that you can use with quads that support its protocol (Flysky AFHDS/AFDHS2A).
The module I linked to in the previous post plugs into the back of the i6x transmitter (the trainer port) and allows you to also fly a whole heap of different toy quads (including the H8) with the i6x. It gives far more precise control and allows you to do things like slow down the yaw rate of the H8 so that you can increase the amount the quad can bank/roll (for speed) without also increasing the yaw rate annoyingly high as the included transmitter does.
The toy transmitters these quads come with are obviously built down to a price, they work but are pretty rough and lack the ability to configure things. Using a decent transmitter makes even toy quads a lot more fun to fly :)
Are you looking for a camera drone for filming, or a FPV camera to fly by?
If you want long range and high quality recording then you really need so spend $$, if you just like to buzz around a reasonably small area either by line of sight or FPV you can have a lot of fun relatively cheaply. You wouldn't want to start with a high powered brushless racing drone, kill some cheap ones while learning instead :)
Sorry meant to add, I'm keen to probably take the next step. Mini drones are great fun, but there seems little point in going something middle of the range which is neither here nor there - doesn't offer decent range or filming (i can get that with a mini drone…).
Hoping some ozbargainer has a second hand one I could chuck a gopro on and have some fun!
This is so much fun. Wish the battery lasted longer.
You can get a bigger battery : Upgrade Eachine H8 Mini H8 3D Battery 3.7V 260mAh RC Quadcopter Spare Parts
https://banggood.app.link/CkPKfwXAiJ
Worth checking eBay, might find something that fits cheaper.
I seem to be collecting small quadcopters now…
It's been 46 days , still I haven't received item, therefore Worth checking eBay, might find something that fits cheaper and faster shipping.
Once bought from GB/Zapal/Geekbuying, you better forget about it and the item will come as a suprise…after a while…
I waited the 45 days from gearbest once
Never came, spent ages getting a refund
Other orders have come in the vicinity of that time frame
got one , thanks OP
Hope this one comes back around soon :)
I wouldn't order from Gearbest, you will be waiting a long time for your delivery and their service is not existent. i waited over 5 weeks for my parcel (drone0 which was supposed to be an Xmas gift only for it to crushed in transit, and i mean really crushed. Gearbest will not refund my money. $48 down the chinese toilet it goes.
I would normally have agreed and have posted similar issues here.
However my experience has shown the CS to be quite good. Slow but good. In one instance for non arrival I received a full refund. In another when I paid for express shipping and it sat with gearbest for a week unshipped, I received a shipping refund.
The gearbest rep on ozB is very helpful
Thanks OP.
I bought the white one for my kids who have had to watch on this week as I've played with my new Xiaomi Mi 4k drone.
They'll love this!