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Which quad copter for a newbie?

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Dougmeister

Senior member
I like the idea of having the camera. It will mostly be for me and my kids to fly in the field behind our house.

The reviews for the Syma X5C-1 on Amazon are pretty decent. I know I can get a better one for more money, but is this a good one to monkey around with? At this point in time, I don't see ever spending more than $100 on one.

One seller told me that the X5C was the same machine just with an older "box". Yet many other reviewers *swear* that the X5C-1 flies easier. Any comments on that?
 
Dougmeister said:
I like the idea of having the camera. It will mostly be for me and my kids to fly in the field behind our house.

The reviews for the Syma X5C-1 on Amazon are pretty decent. I know I can get a better one for more money, but is this a good one to monkey around with? At this point in time, I don't see ever spending more than $100 on one.

One seller told me that the X5C was the same machine just with an older "box". Yet many other reviewers *swear* that the X5C-1 flies easier. Any comments on that?
Click to expand...

Any of the mini quads will work well indoors, and the X5C is pretty good (can't speak to the X5C1). As to flying well outdoors, that will depend on the amount of wind. On a perfeclty calm day a mini quad will do fine. But flying one with even a light breeze will be difficult.

I have a blade 350QX2 and its a blast to fly outdoors. Wish it had better battery life, but having to flip out batteries is not that awful. Especially considering that all larger quads have terrible battery life (flight time of ~10-20 minutes max).

If you think that this is going to turn into a more serious hobby, you might want to invest some more money into a quad that is compatible with a DX transmitter. That way when you upgrade all you will need is to buy a bind and fly quad, instead of a quad and a transmitter.
 
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I had an X5C-1. The camera is garbage, I took mine off to save weight/increase battery life. That is the only one I've flown so I don't know if it is easy or not but I liked it.

My post is all in the past tense because I lost it the first time I took it outside this year 🙁 It was windier than I thought it was and I kept sending it upward to avoid hitting anything and lost track of it.
 
nickbits said:
I had an X5C-1. The camera is garbage, I took mine off to save weight/increase battery life. That is the only one I've flown so I don't know if it is easy or not but I liked it.

My post is all in the past tense because I lost it the first time I took it outside this year 🙁 It was windier than I thought it was and I kept sending it upward to avoid hitting anything and lost track of it.
Click to expand...

Lol. Sorry man, but that really made me laugh. 😀

KT
 
nickbits said:
I had an X5C-1. The camera is garbage, I took mine off to save weight/increase battery life. That is the only one I've flown so I don't know if it is easy or not but I liked it.

My post is all in the past tense because I lost it the first time I took it outside this year 🙁 It was windier than I thought it was and I kept sending it upward to avoid hitting anything and lost track of it.
Click to expand...

That's what happened to my Hubsan X4. A sudden gust of wind blew it into a salt marsh next to the soccer field I was flying in, and I couldn't find the damn thing.

I lost my 32 GB MicroSD card with all of my flight videos, too 🙁
 
nickbits said:
I had an X5C-1. The camera is garbage, I took mine off to save weight/increase battery life. That is the only one I've flown so I don't know if it is easy or not but I liked it.

My post is all in the past tense because I lost it the first time I took it outside this year 🙁 It was windier than I thought it was and I kept sending it upward to avoid hitting anything and lost track of it.
Click to expand...

Fantastic post - thank you for the laugh.

Did you just lose sight of it? I envision it turning into just a speck in the sky, finally disappearing into the heavens.
 
I bought Hubsan X4 with camera from amazon last December for around $50. Mostly flew in indoors, greatly enjoyed, bought extra battery from ebay for $5, works great, total flying time of 15+ minutes with the 2 batteries, which is more than enough for that price range toys, you get bored after that.

balance is not good, have to keep adjusting. Also do get the blade guard and extra blades, believe me, you will need them
 
DesiPower said:
I bought Hubsan X4 with camera from amazon last December for around $50. Mostly flew in indoors, greatly enjoyed, bought extra battery from ebay for $5, works great, total flying time of 15+ minutes with the 2 batteries, which is more than enough for that price range toys, you get bored after that.

balance is not good, have to keep adjusting. Also do get the blade guard and extra blades, believe me, you will need them
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Get that shit out of here, child's play!
 
JM Aggie08 said:
Fantastic post - thank you for the laugh.

Did you just lose sight of it? I envision it turning into just a speck in the sky, finally disappearing into the heavens.
Click to expand...

I thought I knew where it crashed but I couldn't find it. I think I waited too long to start chasing after it. My perception of where it was, was way off.

I lost it when it flew over a house and I had to run into their backyard. I could hear they were out on their deck and was expecting them to be like "is this yours" pointing to it crashed into something of theirs but they didn't hear/see anything.

I thought about going back out to look for it but it rained heavy the next day, so I'm pretty sure it's toast at this point.
 
DesiPower said:
I bought Hubsan X4 with camera from amazon last December for around $50. Mostly flew in indoors, greatly enjoyed, bought extra battery from ebay for $5, works great, total flying time of 15+ minutes with the 2 batteries, which is more than enough for that price range toys, you get bored after that.

balance is not good, have to keep adjusting. Also do get the blade guard and extra blades, believe me, you will need them
Click to expand...

One problem with the Hubsan X4 that I had is that it was overpowered for it's tiny size. If you take off at full throttle (like a moron newbie pilot like myself), it will quickly shoot up to 200 feet flying outside and put itself out of controller range. Then you crash Hard and start replacing parts 🙂
 
ultimatebob said:
One problem with the Hubsan X4 that I had is that it was overpowered for it's tiny size. If you take off at full throttle (like a moron newbie pilot like myself), it will quickly shoot up to 200 feet flying outside and put itself out of controller range. Then you crash Hard and start replacing parts 🙂
Click to expand...

I agree, even at home it will hit the light or fan or simply the ceiling and I would panic and throttle it all the way down and it come crashing down. That's where the blade guards come into action, that are a life saver
 
What you really need is an entry level Phantom like mine. They're easy to fly and they can carry a GoPro.

So ok you need to buy the copter and the GoPro.

The GoPro takes really good video but sometimes the vibrations can throw off the camera. So consider getting a 3D gimbal

Oh ya, since the gimbal is taller you'll need longer landing gear.

You know though, it's hard to set up great shots on the fly with the stabilized GoPro, so you'll probably want to add a first person view system with video transmitter and a 7in LCD and video goggles. Oh you'll also need better antennas.

And let's face it, if you are going that far you need to get the on screen telemetry module to help you fly it. Oh and the DVR so you can overlay the telemetry on your HD GoPro video.



😱 oh shit this is turning into PC building again. Someone stop me before I buy all this crap.
 
Paratus said:
What you really need is an entry level Phantom like mine. They're easy to fly and they can carry a GoPro.

So ok you need to buy the copter and the GoPro.

The GoPro takes really good video but sometimes the vibrations can throw off the camera. So consider getting a 3D gimbal

Oh ya, since the gimbal is taller you'll need longer landing gear.

You know though, it's hard to set up great shots on the fly with the stabilized GoPro, so you'll probably want to add a first person view system with video transmitter and a 7in LCD and video goggles. Oh you'll also need better antennas.

And let's face it, if you are going that far you need to get the on screen telemetry module to help you fly it. Oh and the DVR so you can overlay the telemetry on your HD GoPro video.
Click to expand...


You'll probably want extra batteries onboard to power that gear, but that adds extra weight so you'll want to upgrade to bigger props and maybe even bigger motors. 😛
 
Today my Syma X5C-1 came from Amazon. Seems to be well recommended at this price point. Was $55.

I first plugged it in in the kitchen with intent to see if everything spun up, and then do first flight in the garage, but I could tell instantly it was incredibly stable, so had the first flight in the kitchen. Then the next flight was in 10 mph winds outside.

This thing flies exceptionally. It was trimmed almost perfectly right out of the box and required very little correction on the transmitter. It can easily, easily fly in the house, including through doors. Yet out in the 10 mph winds it handled them very well also.

The camera is quite horrendous, but I expected it would be.

It's really nothing short of amazing that $55 gets a device that is both very easy to fly, and able to fly outdoors as well. A beginner could pick this up and easily learn in the garage. I have flown a number of RC planes and some helicopters, but this thing really requires no experience at all.
 
Nebula247 said:
Can anyone comment on the v303 ...lookig at that one myself the price seems to be down right now
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I have one and I love it. I have two batteries, the stock 2700mAh and a Turnigy 2200mAh. The stock gets about 14 minutes with gimbal and the Turnigy 12. I fly it with balanced 8" props from the Cheerson CX-20.

I have had no issues with it that weren't pilot induced. I crashed it once. Late night, misjudged a tree branch overhanging my driveway and landed upside down inside my truck bed. Bent one prop, broke two and broke a landing foot.

It holds it's position really well - I sent it up about 250ft above the park I was flying at and it simply stayed there, barely moved. It stayed up there till it landed itself due to low battery voltage.

A lot of people on RCGroups have had a bunch of problems, but mine has been pretty much flawless. I even have pitch control over my gimbal using the transmitter.
 
Blanky said:
Today my Syma X5C-1 came from Amazon. Seems to be well recommended at this price point. Was $55.


The camera is quite horrendous, but I expected it would be.
Click to expand...

I wonder if you could replace the camera with something better, like a G1W dashcam
 
X5C-1 - check out auction site for that.

It is nice one to get you going for pennies. Remove the 'camera' buy 2 extra batteries.
Lots and lots of fun. Don't get too crazy as stock antenna is not too powerful. I know now.
 
malbojah said:
I wonder if you could replace the camera with something better, like a G1W dashcam
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Probably not on this thing, it's really just too light. For grins I saw if it would lift my iPhone and it wouldn't. There are videos of people putting a Mobius on it, which I think weighs 80 grams, and it will fly for 1-2 minutes.

Too bad because another $10 to the price I bet could have made the camera way better. But for what it is I'm very pleased. Would be perfect to train kids on. Had it out last night after dark and the lights are quite bright.
It has enough power to lift an 808 keychain cam, but not anything heavier.
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Neat 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEp_pOT0Kik

Granted I haven't done a ton of reading yet but my impression is that spending time upgrading the x5c is probably not worth it and it would be worth going a step up to something that can lift a mobius.

EDIT: here is a vid with x5c with mobiux vs 808 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNePkMznOos
 
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