It is amazing how capable and feature-rich personal drones are these days. They have become much easier to control, more fun to fly, and a better bang for the buck. For years, drones have been tempting me but I have never really been interested in the cheap ones and the high end ones were just too expensive for me to justify. But as with most/all technologies, as time progresses devices get better, cheaper, and more capable. In this case, Aerix has recently released a new all-in-one, brushless, GPS and FPV live streaming enabled UAV, the DaVinci racing drone.

The Aerix DaVinci features four brushless motors, dual GPS, 5.8ghz FPV, 15 minute flight time, in addition to easy flight operation and built-in safety functions. Considering it’s relatively small size, the DaVinci is very capable with a solid list of helpful tricks under its belt. It has a matte black rubber exterior over hardened plastic giving it a very stealthy, futuristic look.

Package Contents:

• Drone
• Controller
• 4.3-inch FPV Monitor
• Drone Battery
• Controller Battery
• Blades
• Landing skids
• Charger
• Charging cables
• Tools

Getting the DaVinci setup and in the air:

Setup of the DaVinci wasn’t the most intuitive thing I have ever done… Being a first-time drone flier, making the DaVinci operational and flight worthy did involve a fair amount of consultation with the manual. Though the manual did a decent job helping me thru the process. The total time before getting up in the air was approximately 10-15 minutes.

In retrospect, I wish I had checked out this video Aerix put together before getting started. But overall, setting up the DaVinci wasn’t that complicated or difficult.

Tech Specs:

• DRONE SIZE (mm): 245 x 245 x 90
• WEIGHT: 230 grams with battery
• BLADE SIZE: 120mm Diameter
• DRONE BATTERY: 7.4V 1200mAh
• DRONE CHARGING TIME: 90 min
• FLIGHT TIME: Up to 15 min
• TRANSMITTER BATTERY: 3.7V 2000mAh
• TRANSMITTER CHARGING TIME: 150 min
• TRANSMITTER USAGE TIME: 80 min
• CAMERA RESOLUTION: 1920*1080
• FPV RESOLUTION: 1280*720
• RC RANGE: Up to 250 meters
• FPV RANGE: Up to 250 meters
• FPV COMPATITBILITY: ALL 5.8ghz Goggles & Monitors (FatShark, FXT, SkyZone, Spektrum etc.)
• MAX ALTITUDE: Safety set to 300 feet

The Aerix DaVinci drone is well constructed with quality parts and a durable design.

As mentioned above, the DaVinci features four small but powerful brushless motors that can propel the drone up to 30 miles per hour with a safety altitude set to 300 feet.

The two front motors are standard/upright and the two rear ones are inverted a very interesting design. According to Aerix this engineering allows “for the perfect blend of torque, thrust and lift.”

The landing gear is removable and made of similar tough plastic as the rest of the drone. But unlike the matte finish of the main body and wings, the skids have a high gloss finish. They’re pretty resilient and put up with a few pretty rough (think Navy pilot landing on a carrier) landings.

Functions:

• One Touch Take-off
• One Touch Landing
• GPS Altitude Hold
• GPS Position Hold
• One Touch Return to GPS Home Point
• On Screen Display: Height, Number of Satellites, Flying Direction, Horizontal Speed, Vertical Speed and Power in Real-Time
• Low Voltage Warning with Return to Home and Auto Landing
• 5.8ghz FPV for Low Latency Live Streaming Video

Flight:

When I described my first few flights with the DaVinci to my niece, she sent me this pic. I thought it very funny cause she was spot-on about my experience of learning how to fly the very zippy drone. I was cautious and AR during my first few flights but was still out of control more often than I’d like to admit.

I got better at flying the little drone relatively quickly. This is my fourth or fifth flight and I have things pretty well under control. The real key is learning how to use the DaVinci’s built-in flight assist (auto takeoffs and landings, hold position/altitude, return home, etc) and safety functions allowing for better controlled flight.

Though I found visual flight much easier to control than using the feed from the attached color FPV screen. In addition to video, the screen also displays: height, number of GPS satellites, flying direction, horizontal speed, vertical speed, and battery power level. I hope to get better at controlling the DaVinci via nose-camera and video link cause that will enable me to fly the drone higher and further than with just visual flight. I’m also considering acquiring an FPV enabled headset to get a cockpit vantage point.

Camera, pics, and video:

The front-facing camera records both still pictures and color video. The camera itself is manually adjustable (vertically). Activating either is done via a dedicated button on the remote control.

The camera records to a microSD card that is inserted into the underside of the DaVinci. Seems like it should be more protected and secured…one bad crash and that card could potentially be lost forever.

Here is a still picture captured while moving forward.

This nose-camera video was taken after a few days of practice…more or less in control the whole flight.

The tail of the DaVinci has an embedded array of LEDs that do a pretty good job of communicating connection and power status of the drone. Basically when its green everything is good and when its red something needs to be addressed (aka no connection or batteries need charging).

Man down…

If you can’t tell from the pic above, the DaVinci is on its back after a pretty rough landing where it bounced, flipped, and came to a stop. This traumatic incident happened during its maiden voyage (aka initial battery charge worth of flight). One of many actually, including hitting a tree AND several 30 foot falls. As I have mentioned, it has taken me a while to get the hang of flying the DaVinci. That said, I can testify how not only zippy and agile this tiny drone is but how tough it is as well. I was doing my best to be careful but stuff happens. Nice to know the DaVinci survived me being a drone noob.

Overall I have truly enjoyed my time with the Aerix DaVinci drone. Probably the most fun I have had reviewing a product in years…and that says a lot. The DaVinci has been available for pre-order for a while with initial shipments happening in mid-November and new orders arriving in December. Considering its build quality, features, and price point, I highly recommend the Aerix DaVinci to (or a holiday gift for) anyone who has been considering buying a drone.

Source:  The samples for this review were provided by AERIX Drones. Please visit their site for more information and to order.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Drone

Aerix DaVinci Drone review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 26, 2017 at 8:39 am.

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The Dromida Kodo FPV Camera Drone is a fun, easy-to-set-up, beginner drone with some great extra features. Unfortunately, because of a poorly designed app and subpar hardware, it is not a true First Person View (FPV) drone. At $89.99, it’s still a good deal though for a drone that can (barely) stream Wi-Fi video and take pictures on command.

The Kodo FPV Drone comes in a standard flip top box adorned with pictures making promises the little drone definitely cannot keep.

In the box

• Dromida Kodo FPV Camera Drone
• FPV Goggles/Smartphone holder
• LiPo Battery
• USB LiPo Charger
• Replacement Props
• AAA Batteries (4)
• Screwdriver

The box the Kodo ships in has compartments for the drone and a built-in handle which makes it pretty useful for storing and transporting the drone and its accessories.

The Kodo FPV Drone comes with a 2.4GHz radio controller with AA batteries, FPV Goggles, a LiPo battery with USB charger, replacement props and a tiny screwdriver for accessing the battery compartment on the controller.

The design of the Kodo FPV is very similar to other entry-level drones. One thing I like in particular are the built-in prop protectors.

Like most drones, the props are color-coded for front and back. The Kodo has a small Wi-Fi camera on its nose and the angle of the camera can be manually adjusted before flight.

The included Lithium polymer battery hangs under the body of the drone and connects via power cables to the rear.

In my tests, I was able to fly indoors for just under five minutes per full charge. During that time I streamed video via Wi-Fi and captured both stills and video files with the drone’s camera.

Because of its light weight and small battery, the Kodo FPV is primarily an indoor drone. It can be flown outside, but fighting even the slightest breeze will quickly have you losing control and the battery will drain that much faster.

The controller for the Kodo is larger than what usually comes with a drone this size, which is great because larger controllers and control sticks make any drone much easier to fly, especially for novices.

The controller has a spring-loaded smartphone holder which can fit just about any standard phone. Once connected to the drone via Wi-Fi, you can monitor the view from the drone’s camera via your phone.

The controller has dedicated buttons for taking pictures and recording video, as well as a “stunt” button which initiates a flip when the drone is in flight. Like most drones, the Kodo and its controller have a “Power-On Fail-Safe”. This prevents the drone propellers from starting up until the flight stick is moved to the up and down position.

The included USB charger allows you to charge the drone’s LiPo battery via any powered USB port or by connecting it to a USB power plug. In my tests it took about 35-40 minutes for the battery to fully charge.

The same cable that connects the battery to the drone fits into a port on the charger. A great feature of this particular charger is that it has a red LED which flashes during the charging cycle and then glows steady red when charging is complete.

Also included with the Dromida Kodo is a complete set of replacement props. For novices and pros alike, it only takes a few crash landings to see how valuable these replacements will prove to be.

The main sell of the Dromida Kodo FPV Drone is the “FPV” aspect of it. The goggles that are included with the Kodo are meant to hold your smartphone and allow you to fly the drone in First Person View.

The goggles are very similar to any number of “Virtual Reality” googles that are sold on the web which allow you to access Google Cardboard or similar Virtual Reality apps and games.

The goggles themselves are comfortable and will fit most smartphones. They’re not too heavy when worn for long periods of time and are adjustable for kids and adults.

A sliding bracket on the right of the goggles allows a user to place their compatible smartphone in the unit and once closed, view the app content through the googles.

The app and its functionality, as usual, are the biggest disappointments of the Dromida Kodo Drone. The Kodoview app can be downloaded and installed on your device, via the QR code in the manual or by searching the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

Once installed and running, you’ll need to power on the drone and controller and then find the drone’s Wi-Fi signal. After choosing the correct Wi-Fi signal you SHOULD be able to access the camera view from the drone by clicking on FLY in the app.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen at first. It took me several tries and a good fifteen frustrating minutes when, for some unknown reason, the camera finally started streaming to my device, a Google Pixel. The quality of the camera is very low, both for the videos and stills. What’s interesting about the Kodo, that I haven’t seen on other camera drones is that the media files are not stored on the drone at all. Usually, a camera drone will have an internal SD card and the camera will write to it when accessed.

Instead, the Kodo transmits and stores all content on to the attached smartphone. I like this better than an SD card mainly because it makes it a lot easier to access your media. The Kodoview app creates a folder on your device where it stores all the media captured by the Kodo Drone and through the app you can view, select, and delete any of the pictures or videos.

There’s an option in the Kodoview app which allows you to view the First Person View of the camera and utilize the included FPV goggles.

In my tests though, as you can see in the video and pictures captured from the Kodo, the quality of the video is very low and the lag of the transmission is much too high to be able to fly via the FPV goggles alone.

There is a lot of artifacting and it’s incredibly difficult to navigate with such poor laggy feedback.

The good news is that the googles and FPV are good for something. It’s great fun for someone else to view the First Person View while you’re flying.

Even though the Dromida Kodo FPV Camera Drone doesn’t quite deliver on the promise of a true First Person View experience, it is a good value at the price of $89.99 and great fun for drone novices.

It’s easy to get from box-opening to flight time and the battery life and performance are on par with other drones in this price range. The added features like FPV don’t work like they should, but do allow for some alternative enjoyment.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Dromida. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Drone

Dromida Kodo FPV Camera Drone review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 24, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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When drones first started becoming popular, they were big bulky quad copters with large GoPro sized cameras and people mostly used them for cool landscape videos. People still use drones to shoot landscape shots, but a newer category of drones has been designed for taking a more personal type of photography – the selfie. Now you don’t need an extra friend to take your picture. Or at least that’s the idea. Let’s see if the ROVA Flying Selfie drone can take a picture and keep on hovering.

What is it?

The ROVA Flying Selfie drone is a small quad copter style drone with a built in 12MP camera. It’s controlled with an iOS or Android device and has been designed to shoot selfies.

Specs

12MP camera, HD video
Up to 64GB micro SD card capability
33ft (10m) max flight height from launch
≤ 98ft (≤ 30m ) Communication Range
Obstacle Avoidance using infrared sensors
Flight Stability and Positioning using barometer, accelerometer, optical flow and gyrometer

What’s in the box?

When you open a new gadget and find that it comes in its own zippered case, you immediately get the impression that this is going to be a great review experience.

Inside the case is:

ROVA Flying Selfie drone
2 rechargeable batteries
USB battery charger
micro USB cable

Also included are 4 bumpers, a carabiner for the case, a 16GB micro SD card, and a setup guide.

The ROVA is approximately 8.5 x 8.5 x 1.5 inch black plastic frame with four 3-blade propellers in each corner and a battery holder in the center.

You’ll also notice a red activation button on top as well as a warning sticker that instructs you not to put your fingers inside the frame when the propellers are spinning.

if you flip the ROVA drone over, you will see the 12MP camera with LEDs on either side and you will see the flip up landing gear (feet) in each corner.

The camera is designed to manually pivot to customize the video and image shooting angle.

On the side opposite the camera is the micro USB charging connector and the micro SD card slot.

Before you can fly the ROVA, you have to charge one of the included batteries in the included charger.

The battery easily snaps in the charger which plugs into a USB port on your computer or a USB charging adapter that you plug into an electrical outlet.

It takes about 30 mins to charge the battery which then provides up to 8 minutes of flight time.

The battery plugs into the slot in the center of the drone and as soon as you plug it in, the drone powers up and LEDs on either side of the camera begin to flash.

The ROVA Selfie Drone comes with 4 hard foam bumpers that you can snap over each corner.

Installing the bumpers is not mandatory, but are supposed to provide added protection while you learn to fly the drone. FYI, the drone with the bumpers does not fit in the zippered case.

In addition to charging the battery, you’ll also need to install the ROVA app on your iOS or Android device. I tested the ROVA with my iPhone 7 Plus.

The app has a basic interface as you can see from the image above. I felt like flying the ROVA would be a piece of cake compared to other drones I’ve tried.

When you first launch the app, it looks for the ROVA drone’s built in WiFi network. After you successfully connect to it and enter the password, you press and hold the red button on the ROVA for a few seconds. The button will flash (which is impossible to see in bright sunlight) and after it stops, the drone will beep and you’re ready to fly. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work…

Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work… It took me quite a while to even figure out how to get the drone to spin up. The instructions that come with ROVA are really vague and pretty much useless. But once I figured out the steps to get the propellers to spin up, I thought I was all set.

It took me quite a while to even figure out how to get the drone to spin up. The instructions that come with ROVA are really vague and pretty much useless. But once I figured out the steps to get the propellers to spin up, I thought I was all set for flying and selfie snapping.

Yeah, no… To fly ROVA, you go through the steps I mentioned above and then when the propellers are spinning, you can press the up/down arrow icon in the lower left corner of the app. ROVA will lift off and hover in place until you use the onscreen joysticks to fly it up, down, left, and right.

Once you go through the steps I mentioned above and the propellers are spinning, you can press the up/down arrow icon in the lower left corner of the app. ROVA will lift off and hover in place until you use the onscreen joysticks to fly it up, down, left, and right. That’s what is supposed to happen, but what happened every time I tried it was that the drone would lift off the ground about 3-4 feet, and then on its own, it would start trailing off left or right a few feet and land. At that point, I would try to fly again but the app would freeze. I would have to kill the app, pop out the battery on the drone, pop it back in and try the whole connection sequence again. I did these same steps over and over again over the course of several days with no positive results. I tried using the other battery, making sure the batteries were freshly charged, uninstalled, reinstalled the app on the iPhone, etc. No joy.

In the handful of super short flight sessions that I had, I was able to catch one video that at least shows the image quality.

See it in action (sorta)

It’s a shame this little drone doesn’t work because the image quality is actually pretty decent.

I sent 2 emails to the PR person who sent me the ROVA for review and I have yet to receive a response after days of waiting.

I looked for more info on ROVA’s own website but their FAQ page brings up a 404 page not found message. I also went to the ROVA page on Amazon and read a few reviews there that mentioned some of the same frustrations that I had.

Final thoughts

My final thoughts can be summed up in 3 words: Don’t Buy It.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by ROVA. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Drone

ROVA Flying Selfie drone review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 15, 2017 at 4:21 pm.

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