Estes Proto-Z

My Sixth Micro Quadcopter Drone

     I bought my sixth micro quadcopter, the Estes Proto-Z, on August 17, 2016, from Entertrainment Junction in West Chester, Ohio, for $29.99.  I was very familiar with Estes, having flown model rockets in the late 1960's when Estes was a leading supplier to the hobby.  I have flown the drone 19 times and found it to be one of the simplest ones I have to fly.  That might be because it has very few options to learn.  It has only one speed and no trim buttons, but you can recalibrate the sensors.  With no prop guards, crashes are to be avoided.  There is a right flip button, a left flip button and a headless mode option, and that is it.  The LiPo battery is not intended to be removalable, so replacing it will require taking the drone apart to see if it can even be replaced.  A special charging connection means I cannot use my multi-port charger to recharge it, but have to use the USB charger that comes with it.

Estes Proto-Z

     After a recent crash, the drone developed a severe roll to the left.  So severe, that I could no longer control the quad.  Since there are no trim functions and recalibration did not fix the problem, I thought I would have to scrap my Proto-Z.  Then, I read in my Hubsan X4 H107L operating manual that you could overcome a severe drift by shimming the unit upon startup.  I tried this by slipping a Lego brick under the right side of the Proto-Z while linking and arming, and it took care of the problem well enough so I could fly it again!
     I have notice that when the Proto-Z slightly touches a wall or the carpet it will yaw a small amount in either direction, and then in a second or two it will self correct this yaw and fly straight.  None of my other drones will do this.  If the contact is more than "slight", it will not self correct!

Dromida Kodo HD

Drone No. 5

     The fifth drone added to the fleet was the Dromida Kodo HD.  What obviously sets the Kodo apart from all of my previous drones is its camera.  I had been putting off buying a camera drone because there was so much to learn about simply flying drones that I did not need the extra complications of using a camera.  But, curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to give it a try.

Dromida Kodo HD

     I bought the Kodo at Pit Row Hobby Shop in Cincinnati, on August 6, 2016, for $59.99.  That is the second highest I have paid for a drone.  I believe it was good value, since the Kodo is a great, quick flier, like its cousin the Dromida Verso, and it has the camera.  I have flown the Kodo 19 times so far; a few times in the flight room to learn the controls and check everything out, before going outside to try out the camera.  My first flight in the basemen, I had a small problem.  To start recording video, you press a button and then press the same button to stop recording.  I lost track of where I was in regards to recording; when I thought I was stopping the video, I was actually starting it and vice versa.  There are no lights on the transmitter to tell you if you are recording.  So, instead of having flight video, I had video of my shoes walking up to the quadcopter to turn it right side up after all the crashes!  I found that the key was to turn the video on and then don't crash.
     Once I got outside, I visited a nearby park with a large field surrounded by trees.  I got the Kodo up to about the same height as the trees and was ready to start the video.  Since the transmitter is fairly small, I had to glance down to find the video button.  When I looked back up, I could not find the Kodo.  This would have been a disaster, except that my wife, Cheryl, was with me and had kept sight of the drone.  From years of birding together, she was able to quickly direct my sight back to the bird - I mean drone, just before it was about to enter the woods.
     I think the Kodo takes decent quality photos and videos for such an inexpensive drone.  I just have to improve my flying abilities - a lot - before I can get good results.

Ares Spidex

My Fourth Micro Quadcopter Drone

     I bought the Ares Spidex on August 3, 2016, at Hobbytown in Cincinnati, Ohio for $34.99.  It has become one of my favorites with 69 flights, the most of any of my micro quadcopter fleet.  I bought three extra batteries at Hobbytown at $7.99 each, so when I take it out to a nearby park, I can have multiple flights.  Except for propellers, I have never had any damage to the drone from crashes.  With three speed settings, it is fun in the flight room and outdoors, even with a slight breeze.

Ares Spidex

     I have done more experimenting with the Spidex in the flight room than with any other drone.  Its light weight and quick response make it ideal for various projects.  I have attached a thin string to the ceiling and have run it to the floor where I tied it to the body of Spidex.  Then, using only pitch and throttle the drone can become a pendulum.  I quickly learned to adjust the throttle to give the largest arc to the pendulum, while never letting the drone hover, for then the string would wrap around the propeller shaft - not good!  I then arranged plastic cups in a circle on the floor.  By adding roll to the pitch, micro quadcopter pendulum bowling was possible.

     Another time, I attached a two-inch piece of plastic tubing to the body of the Spidex with two rubber bands.  I then ran string from one end of the flight room, through the plastic tube and to the other end of the room.  Now I had a Spidex zipline.  Using pitch and throttle, I could zip the drone from one end of the basement to the other, and not worry about crashes.  Or, using roll and throttle, I made Spidex swing from side to side like a long jump rope.  Finally, the 360 degree flip button worked great, and again, never any crashes.

     My grandchildren and I are big Lego builders.  Before getting into drones, that was the main use of the basement.  We have around 50,000 pieces of Lego, with plenty of wheels and axles.  So, I have just started experimenting with attaching wheels to Spidex.  The added weight prevents the drone from lifting off, but it does roll around on the carpet from one end of the room to the other, like a remote controlled car.

     Anyone can see why Spidex is one of my favorite quadcopters.  Winters in Ohio can be long and nasty, so having a flight room and a good supply of drones can be great fun.

Blade Nano QX 3D

Micro Quadcopter #3

     The Blade Nano QX 3D was the third micro quadcopter drone that I purchased, on July 27, 2016, from Hobby Express in Loveland, Ohio.  At $79.99, it is the most expensive drone I have purchased.  Is it worth the extra cost?  Maybe.  I have only flown the QX 3D 25 times; far less than my Hubsan X4 H107L, my Dromida Verso and several other micro quadcopters that were purchased more recently.  One reason for the fewer flights is the amazing speed that the QX 3D has.  Even on the slowest speed and lowest sensitivity, I can get into trouble in the flight room.  Outdoors, it is great fun, flying inverted as well as right side up.  I am simply waiting for better weather before flying it a lot more.  The QX 3D is fast and nimble because it is very light weight.  The motors are mounted on extensions of the main circuit board.  The motors sit in plastic cups that have two clips attaching them to the frame.  These cups also have two clips holding the motors in.  On hard crashes, the plastic cups can pop out of the frame and the motors can pop out of the plastic cups.  On the fourth flight of my Blade Nano, after crashing, a motor popped out and pulled the end cap off, ruining the motor.  A nice feature about the drone is that the motors simply plug into sockets mounted next to the plastic cups.  So, after buying a package of two new motors from Hobby Express for only $17.99, I simply plugged in a new motor and was ready to fly - only more cautiously than before.

Blade Nano QX 3D

The Dromida Verso

My second micro quadcopter

     I purchased my Dromida Verso two days after getting the Hubsan X4 H107L.  I bought the Verso from The Hobby Shop in Dayton, Ohio for $37.99 on July 22, 2016.  I have flown it 43 times, both indoors and outdoors.  It has three speed setting: 20%, 60% and 100%.  Even at low and medium speeds it is quite fast and great for the flight room.  Maximum speed, for me, is restricted for outdoors, where the Verso can streak from one end of my flight field to the other in seconds.  Because of its quickness, and my lack of flying experience, my Verso has crashed numerous times and has received damage to the frame.  The rings that hold the motors onto the frame arms have cracked on two of the arms allowing the motors to fall out on the slightest crash or even normal landings.  I put a narrow strip of duct tape around the rings covering the cracks.  This has taken care of the problem - so far.

Dromida Verso

      One of the nice features of the Verso is the ability to do both 180 deg. and 360 deg. flips.  Holding the flip button in for two seconds switches from one type of flip to the other.  After doing a 180 deg. flip, the quadcopter is obviously flying upside down.  You can even take off in the upside down position.  When flying inverted each motor has to turn in the opposite direction than when flying upright.  This has me somewhat confused.  The instruction manual's parts list shows a CW motor and a CCW motor.  And, two of the motors on the Verso have black and white wires and two have red and blue ones indicating two different types of motor.  But, if all the motors have to change direction after a 180 flip, there is no need for CW and CCW motors: one design will work for all four motors.  Maybe the Verso is based on some previous design that did not have reversing motors.
     The LEDs on the Verso can be turned off with the press of a button.  I am not sure how much longer flights are with the lights off, but I turn them off when I am outdoors in the daytime.  I can just barely see the quad sometimes, let alone the LEDs.

Pitch, Roll and Yaw

Micro Quadcopter Nomenclature

     In my fleet of drones, I have four micro quadcopters whose instruction manuals still use the terms: aileron, elevator and rudder.  Although I have never flown remote controlled airplanes, I am aware of where the terms come from and what they mean.   I assume the transmitters for model airplanes are nearly the same as for drones, and so the terms were just carried over.  In this sense the terms do have historical precedence.  Drones obviously do not have ailerons, elevators or a rudder, but they can be made to rotate in a similar fashion as an airplane responding to these three controls.  As any boy growing up in the 1960's and having an interest in space travel knows, the terms for the rotation of a space capsule around the three main axes are: pitch, roll and yaw.  I hope all manufacturers of drones will use these terms and leave the others for the airplane people.  Many instruction manuals can be difficult to understand in part because of broken English, and using inappropriate terms does not help with comprehension.  In any case, I understand that many people may like the old terms from a nostalgic point of view, and that is fine with me.  But, after this post they will never be used again in this blog.

The Hubsan X4 H107L

My first micro quadcopter drone

     The Hubsan X4 H107L was the first micro quadcopter that I bought on July 20, 2016 at Micro Center near Cincinnati, Ohio.  MicroCenter is a large computer and electronics store that charged $34.99 for the drone.  They have a nice selection of drones of various sizes, and I have purchased two more different micro quadcopters from them.  I also purchased what was called the "Crash Pack" for the Hubsan: spare propellers, two motors, a complete frame and another LiPo battery.  The extra battery is the only thing I have used out of the pack.  I also purchased a propeller guard which I use mainly for indoor flights only.  I have flown my Hubsan 53 times, both in the flight room and outdoors.  This post is not a complete review of the Hubsan, (there are plenty of those on the Internet) but just some of my observations and experiences in flying the micro quadcopter.

The Hubsan X4 H107L

     The instruction manual for the H107L is quite good, especially compared to many of the other ones that use somewhat unintelligible English.  The Hubsan manual does use the archaic airplane terms for the drone's directional controls.  The H107L has a few setup options that are unique.  Under the "Reverse Setup" section, it explains how to, what it calls "reverse the channel".  This means that the directional stick and the yaw act in the opposite direction than they normally do.  You can change the direction of the pitch, roll or yaw control independently of the others.  I was able to reverse all the channels on my Hubsan, but I don't know why you would ever want to do so during regular flight.

     The H107L has two different speed modes: Normal and Expert.  Normal is fast enough for me in the flight room: I save Expert for outdoor flying, especially when there is some wind and I need extra power to compensate.  In addition to the two speed modes, there is a range of sensitivity settings from 20% to 100%.  Normal Mode goes from 20% to 60%, and expert from 60% to 100%.  Unlike most other micro quadcopters that are limited to two or three sensitivity settings, the Hubsan allows you to adjust the sensitivity across the entire range in 1% increments.  Another unique feature is that the sensitivity can be set independently for each of pitch, roll and yaw.
     The Hubsan H107L can do 360 degree flips, but in a manner that is different than any other micro quadcopter that I have ever flown.  Other micros use one of three basic procedures for flipping: (1) You simply press a dedicated flip button and it flips; (2) You tap a flip activator button and then move the directional stick and it flips in whichever direction you chose;  3) You have to hold the flip activator button while then moving the directional stick.  In the Hubsan, you have to enter Expert Mode and then enter Flip Mode.  In usual operation of the drone, the flight controller keeps the drone from ever flipping over no matter what you do with the controls.  Entering Flip Mode removes this control.  Then, by pitching or rolling the Hubsan sharply in any direction and then immediately in the opposite direction the micro will flip 360 degrees.  I had a great deal of trouble with this until I reread the manual and found that you had to set the sensitivity to at least 90%.  I also took the propeller guard off.  I have found that this is a great maneuver for outdoor flight - after a lot of indoor crashes trying to get it to work.
     There is an interesting note in the troubleshooting section of the manual concerning calibrating the accelerometer.  If after using the normal procedure to calibrate the unit, it still drifts, then you can use sheets of paper to shim the side it drifts towards and then calibrate, thus offsetting the drift.  I have not had to use this procedure on my H107L, but I have used it quite successfully on my Estes Proto Z, which does not have trim buttons.  

The Drone Flight Room

Let it snow

     The temperature in Cincinnati this morning is 7 deg F with about two inches of snow and 10 mph winds.  It's definitely not a good day for outdoor drone flying, especially when the drones are micro quadcopters.  It's not good for the drones and not good for the flyer.  But, it is not a problem for me; I simply go downstairs to the basement and my drone flight room.  The flight room takes up about one half of the basement.  It is 44 feet long and 12 feet wide.  There is inexpensive carpeting on the floor to help cushion any hard landings or crashes.  The walls on three sides are solid concrete covered with insulation that is wrapped in sheet plastic.  This also acts as padding for crashes.  The fourth side adjoins the rest of the basement and has sheets hanging down to block any drones trying to exit the flight room.  The ceiling was bare rafters until I covered it with cardboard obtained by cutting apart boxes.  Now, any quadcopter, with propeller guards, that goes too high will either bounce off the ceiling or just stay there until I reduce the throttle.  If the drone does not have prop guards, a crash is most probable.  There are two small windows in the flight room, and three LED overhead lights with plastic shatter resistant globes.  I have inadvertently tapped the light bulbs with my drones without any damage so far.  So, no matter what the weather throws at me, with my flight room, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays ..." me from flying my micro quadcopter drones. 

The Flight Room looking North

The Flight Room looking South

Welcome to My Blog

All about my micro quadcopter drones

     This blog is all about my hobby of flying, studying, and experimenting with micro quadcopter drones.  As a retired chemical engineer, one the the most interesting aspects of drones for me is the technology that makes them possible and enables the diverse abilities that they have.  As someone who has never worked with radio controlled vehicles before, all aspects of the technology are new and exciting.  From radio transmitters and receivers to brushed motors and flight controllers with accelerometers and gyroscopes to lithium polymer batteries, I have plenty of topics to keep me busy.
     I have chosen to limit my hobby, at least initially, to only micro quadcopters for several reasons.  Micros allow me to fly both indoors and outdoors.  I enjoy being outdoors and hiking in area parks and taking along a couple of quads to fly.  But, on cold or windy days, I can still go down to the basement and fly.  The relatively low cost of micros allows me to buy more of them, so I get a variety of different models, all with different abilities and flight characteristics.  That way I never get bored with only one or two drones.  And, with the low cost, if I wreck one, I am not out a lot of money.  Also, micros are reasonably safe to fly, even around my young grandchildren.
     The word "micro" when applied to quadcopters can have a wide range of meanings; from the smallest nano drones to quite large units.  I have taken 100 mm measured diagonally from motor center to motor center as my definition of "micro".  Members of my current fleet are all within 15 mm of that value.  Even with this restriction there are many, many quadcopters available.
     Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you will enjoy my comments on micro quadcopter drones!