Suggested practice drone < $50?

spartaHawk · Dec 21, 2016

Suggested practice drone < $50?

What can you recommend? It's for practice flying the Solo.

Don H. · Dec 21, 2016

Syma X5C

Benbot · Dec 21, 2016

hubsan x4

Scott McCloud · Dec 21, 2016

echo Hubsan x4.

spartaHawk · Dec 21, 2016

Do you think it's good enough practice without an FPV feed, since the Hubsan x4 doesn't broadcast its feed out of the box? Since that's how I would normally be flying the Solo?

makerman · Dec 22, 2016

I started with Syma X5C few years ago, picked it up for $42 & have seen it as low as the $20's. Seems a bit higher right now, perhaps due to popularity/may not be current & newer models (they added FPV to the later ones, X5SW, model numbers get confusing). Fun to fly, FPV built in ones may not fly as good as the original (looked for a while but never bought), but do your own research on it.
No experience w/ the Hubsan x4, can't comment except I see it mentioned a lot.

healthyfatboy · Dec 22, 2016

Blade Inductrix if you have a remote. Super fun and great to learn orientation and if you want to do FPV racing, just add a camera and it's awesome around the house.

spartaHawk · Dec 22, 2016

healthyfatboy said:
Blade Inductrix if you have a remote. Super fun and great to learn orientation and if you want to do FPV racing, just add a camera and it's awesome around the house.

The only remote I have is the 3DR Solo remote and I'm guessing it isn't compatible.

healthyfatboy · Dec 22, 2016

Right. You can find compatible ones used for about $10-15 on rcgroups.

Scott McCloud · Dec 22, 2016

FWIW. I think that learning to fly diagonals, squares, circles, ups and downs, flips and such with a Hubsan in sport mode would be excellent. Might as well get the finger/muscle memory to fly without much thinking with a cheaper bird. I've never had my Solo in Acro mode. When I bought in, it was the price of a good used car.

Plus, I get to fly indoors with my dad every week.

Marich · Dec 22, 2016

I was tooling around with my Dromida Ominious inside awhile ago. It's a superb little, darned near indestructible FPV starter but a tad more expensive than some others.
One thing that came to mind is how may how common "headless mode" is on these low-priced gadgets - and how important it is to ignore that feature completely!
Just pretend it doesn't exist.

makerman · Dec 23, 2016

healthyfatboy said:
Blade Inductrix if you have a remote. Super fun and great to learn orientation and if you want to do FPV racing, just add a camera and it's awesome around the house.

Asked a couple of 'pro' racers (get paid to race drones, one had already done 50 races this year & it was still sept) that I sharing an Uber w/ to the NYC maker faire about what drone to get. First question was had I flown one (only the Syma at that point), next statement he made was get the Inductrix. I didn't have the remote, but it's been on my radar & wish list since then.

healthyfatboy · Dec 23, 2016

If you have the cash, the FPV Inductrix is an absolute blast. The RTF is $200 but will have the basic cheap remote and a simple 4" screen with receiver built in.

spartaHawk · Dec 23, 2016

healthyfatboy said:
If you have the cash, the FPV Inductrix is an absolute blast. The RTF is $200 but will have the basic cheap remote and a simple 4" screen with receiver built in.

If I hadn't just bought the 3DR Solo for $300 that wouldn't sound so horrible

They also threw in a spare battery, gimbal, and propeller set.

The point is definitely to spend as little as possible, so that's why the $50 or less. Something that won't cause many tears when it breaks.

Thank you for the idea though. Maybe when I'm filthy rich and losing $200 is nothing.

healthyfatboy · Dec 23, 2016

That was basically if you were going to go full FPV. If you can source a cheap remote from a Ultra Micro set that someone is selling off, the Inductrix is by far the way to go.

Benbot · Dec 23, 2016

Flying fpv is easy and very intuitive. All you really need to learn is how to know what your flying around so you dont back up into any thing. The reason I recommend learning on a cheap drone is to learn basic Line of sight flight in a drones most basic/unassisted form of flights. When things go bad usually it's gps and fpv that are the first to go. Learning on a cheap drone gives you those skills with minimal consequences.