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 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 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 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment