Showing posts with label January 08. Show all posts
Showing posts with label January 08. Show all posts

Monday, January 9, 2017

Hover Camera Passport video test

hover camera passport fly in wild

Here is a short video using the Hover Camera Passport and an external camera for those of you who want to see it in action:

This video only shows a small portion of the shots where I had trouble flying the Hover Camera Passport. It does take practice — but not nearly as much practice as flying a traditional quad-copter. With the Passport, you don’t have to learn to take off, land or hover. You simply press the power button, and when the fans start, you let go.

The Hover Camera Passport app was simple and easy to understand even without the instructional screens. Plus, the Passport doesn’t require any bulky remote controls. That’s one less thing to charge, one less thing to keep track of, and one less thing to pack.

You can just look down at the app and fly, since the controls sit on top of a real-time video feed coming from the Hover Camera Passport. Whether the camera is recording or not, you can see what your Passport sees at all times. It’s a little disorienting at first, but once you get used to it you can fly without ever having to look up.

Since the Hover Camera Passport communicates with your phone using Wi-Fi, it delivers your photos straight from the drone to your phone’s camera roll wirelessly. It happens immediately and seamlessly. The videos don’t download automatically, because they take longer to transfer and take up much more space on your phone. If you prefer to transfer files straight to your computer, the Passport comes with a USB 3.0 cord.

The still photos that come out of the Passport are also beautiful. Here are a few examples, if you’re curious:

Hover camera passport

hover camera shot

hover camera shot

The Hover Camera Passport costs at $599.Looking at the current drone and digital cameras market it becomes very clear that Hover Camera is an overpriced product. However if you can accept the value that Hover provides for the price it definitely will be a great choice.

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Sunday, January 8, 2017

Has the Typhoon H Pro change the “game of drone”?

Yuneec Typhoon H avoid obstacles

Typhoon H Pro is the premium offering from Yuneec- is well-known for its high-end, quality drone. A lot of industry experts and analysts had expected the Typhoon H Pro to heat up the market and mark a new chapter in the efforts by Yuneec to take up a bit more market share.

The Yuneec Typhoon H PRO is a ready-to-fly (RTF) unit that includes the CGO3+ 4K Camera, Typhoon H BackPack, 2 Lipo Batteries, and ST16 Controller. The Yuneec Typhoon H features six easily foldable arms that allow for the copter to be stored easily for transportation. The copter also uses retractable landing to ensure that the 360-degree gimbal is free of any obstructions. The 360-degree gimbal includes the CGO3+ 4K/12 MP camera allowing for stunning aerial videos/photos.

The key innovative feature of the Typhoon H PRO is the collision avoidance technology based on the ‘RealSense’ solution from Intel. It combines laser infra-red and ultra-sonic sensor technologies to detect and avoid even moving obstacles which might cross the flight path of the Typhoon H. The Typhoon H will take evasive manoeuvres as needed autonomously. It works perfectly in congested areas offering a carefree follow me function like it has never been seen before.

The RealSense technology by Intel offers several smart functions integrated into the system including CYCLE, Point of interest (POI), Curve Cable Cam (CCC), JOURNEY and Front Ultrasound Sensor function. These functions add to the other proven safety features from Yuneec drone like Geo-fencing, Dynamic Return home, Low Battery Return Home and No Fly Zones.

The Typhoon H Pro remote control unit is too large and full of controls. Comparing the DJI Phantom 4 vs Yuneec Typhoon H will show how the DJI drone’s control unit is smaller, lighter, and obviously simpler. For the Typhoon H Pro, the control unit has a lot of buttons and switches that are not easy to reach and haven’t been placed in the most logical position. With all these buttons and switches on the control unit, sometimes the pilot can get confused as to which one serves what exact purpose.

Yet despite my reservations about the Yuneec Typhoon H pro,I still think it’s a really good prosumer drone.

 

 

 

 

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Yuneec Typhoon H drone: Pros and Cons

Yuneec Typhoon H

Yuneec Typhoon H drone,the flagship of Yuneec drone now.In this article,we here analyse the up and a down side of Yuneec Typhoon H drone.

The first thing you notice about Yuneec Typhoon H drone is its size. The six arms can fold down for easy storage, but it’s a lot more fun to have this sitting around like a giant flying face-hugger waiting to unleash havoc.

The Yuneec Typhoon H drone also has obstacle avoidance and a fairly robust landing system. When it gets too close to a tree or building, the drone will tend to move away from the obstacle.

The good

The Yuneec Typhoon H drone is amazingly easy to fly. Getting it up into the air is as simple as pressing a button and the controls are unique if a little odd in that, when set in their default configuration, forward is always forward for the drone. In other words, if you’re facing North and push the left stick forward the drone will fly north. If you turn to face East and you press forward, the Yuneec Typhoon H drone will fly East. It’s an odd experience.

The Yuneec Typhoon H drone controller looks complex at first but there’s not much to worry about when you’re taking the drone through its paces. In short, you’re basically dealing with a powerful drone with a powerful internal computer and you practically can’t crash it unless you’re reckless.

The Bad

The obvious worst thing about this Yuneec Typhoon H drone is the price. At $1,200 you could get a few Parrot drones or an old DJI Phantom 4($1199). However, the features and power of this Yuneec Typhoon H drone make it well worth a look if you’re in the market for a mobile camera platform.

I’d also worry a bit about the camera and gimbal. The entire enclosure is made of plastic and it cannot survive a direct hit with the ground unscathed. Luckily the big landing gear bears most of the weight when the Yuneec Typhoon H drone comes down too fast but a direct hit on the camera with a tree branch or overhang can cause some major damage. It’s easy enough to replace the pieces but it’s a bit frustrating.

I’m also slightly concerned about Yuneec Typhoon H drone support. Yuneec is a smaller company in California and I’d be concerned about follow-up support if your drone goes into the drink. I didn’t have trouble getting a new landing gear after a crash, though, so they’re definitely doing their best to be responsive.

 

 

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Should you buy Yuneec Typhoon G?

Yuneec Typhoon G

Yuneec Typhoon G is a first class drone with an inbuilt HD camera, belonging to the Yuneec drone Typhoon series of quadcopters. In this article a detailed review about the product, its features, so that you are aware of all of its functions before you buy it.

Let us take a look at some of the functions of the Yuneec Typhoon G Quadcopter drone.

Headless Mode

The headless mode of the Yuneec Typhoon G makes it an excellent drone for flying. The Yuneec drone comes without an optical head and that is why it can fly easily. Turning the headless mode on is quite easy; make sure the drone is pointing away from you. There is a button on the left shoulder of the transmitter which you have to hold for a few seconds. The headless mode is finally turned on after you hear four beeps. Now you have total control of Yuneec Typhoon G and will move only in the direction you want it to with 25 minutes of additional flight time till the battery lasts.

Camera

The USP of the Yuneec Typhoon G is its camera. The “G” actually stands for the GoPro mode. The quadcopter has an integrated 3-axis precision gimbal camera with a resolution of 12 megapixels and a personal ground station. The video quality is excellent with 1080 pixel and 120 fps when any slow motioned video is captured. You can control the brightness, video resolution, and white balance while shooting a video with its built-in touchscreen mode. The ultra high definition video has a resolution of 4k/30fps. The Handheld SteadyGrip helps you to have total control over capturing videos.

Controlling feature

The Yuneec Typhoon G enables you to have full control of the drone. The standalone remote control helps you to keep a track on the altitude and the direction of the quadcopter. It can fly up to 400 feet from the ground. The transmitter doesn’t let you go out of your control and notifies you in the case of a No Fly Zone. The in-built GPS tracker establishes a circle of a diameter of 8 ft before the final take off. The Geo-Fence mode keeps the aircraft within a distance of 300 ft from the pilot. The transmitter helps you to switch between the high and low speed with ease.

No Yuneec drone are perfect, not excepting Yuneec Typhoon G.However, if you are willing to buy something cheaper from a reputed brand, then Yuneec Typhoon G is perfect for you.

 

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Hover Camera hands-on review

Hover Camera

The Hover Camera Passport is another of these small, portable aircraft. It has some design advantages when compared with others we’ve reviewed, including the Dobby in that its rotors are protected by a plastic cage. This prevents them from getting damaged in flight, and prevents you from inadvertent injury.

Weight and Speed

It weighs at 242 grams or 0.5 pounds. At a top speed of 8.0 m/s, or 18 mph, the Hover Camera is one of the slowest drones out there.

Control Range

Range is another consideration. The WiFi connection will drop when it gets about 60 feet away from you, and it’s just not meant to fly that high. The WiFi connection did drop once or twice on me, but this was before I even asked the company what the limit was – so it was definitely occurring when I was pushing past that 60 feet boundary. But when the connection drops the drone will just hover in place so you can walk closer and reconnect the WiFi.

Battery Life

Battery capacity is the most accurate way of determining overall battery life, and with a 1,360 mAh battery, the Hover Camera Passport uses an above-average sized battery to power its flight, compared to the average of 650 mAh. While an above average battery capacity should translate to longer flight times, it’s also important to account for the takeoff weight when estimating flight time.

Possessing a flight time of 10 minutes, the Hover Camera Passport can fly for a slightly above average amount of time compared to the average of 8 minutes.

Video Stabilisation

One issue I had was with camera stabilization. It’s obvious that the electronic stabilization the Hover Camera uses is working overtime, and without it videos would be un-watchable. It’s definitely doing its job. The problem I had was that even with the electronic stabilization working overtime, the videos often came out choppy.

Autonomous Flight

Hover Camera features a set of autonomous flight modes.Of interest to most backers will be the ‘Follow Me’ mode whereby the drone will track your movement and capture you in video automatically.Generally this feature utilises GPS but instead Hover Camera impressively features a unique visual facial and body recognition algorithm which may allow it to track a subject, in addition Hover Camera would be able to track people indoors where a GPS signal isn’t accessible.

Obstacle Avoidance

Obstacle Avoidance (OA) is always a hot topic. As Hover Camera sports only one camera, it hasn’t had obstacle avoidance.

It’s on sale now, but you may balk at the $599 price, which is a lot to ask for a personal selfie drone. You can get a very capable DJI Phantom 3 Standard $399 for less, after all. But if you love capturing your own image, and want to put an aerial spin on your selfies, the Hover Camera looks like a promising option for narcissists with deep pockets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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