Hover Camera Falters in Wake of Phantom 3 Standard

Norm Chan is a vlogger from San Francisco who reviews the latest technology. Chan took a look at the Hover Camera from Zero Zero Robotics.

The Hover Camera is a portable drone that is small enough to fit in a handbag. Priced at $599, it’s an entry-level aircraft that may attract an audience that is new to flying drones.

The Hover Camera has a unique and easily identifiable design. Out of the box, it is shaped like an average-sized book but unfolds to reveal propellers that are elegantly protected. The Hover has a downward sonar sensor to know how far it is from the ground. Theoretically, the Hover Camera should be able to hold its position. Unfortunately, it does not use GPS for positioning like the Phantom 3 Standard, which is renowned for its accuracy in the air.

The Hover Camera is controlled with an mobile device app and has a range of 20 meters. The Phantom 3 Standard uses the fully-featured GO app and the range is 1000 meters, fifty times that of the Hover.

The Hover Camera’s 13 megapixel camera can take 4K video but the camera can only be pitched up 30 degrees or down 90 degrees. It does not have the full-range camera movement options of the Phantom 3 Standard. The Phantom has a 3-axis gimbal, which makes video capture very stable. Any effect of wind or vibrations are cancelled out by the motorized gimbal.

Chan discovered several issues with the Hover including its stability outside, the tracking capabilities, and quality of the camera. Specifically, the Hover Camera does not have enough processing power on-board to provide high quality video and the aircraft struggles to remain stable in wind. “Not very impressive,” Chan comments.

The Hover battery lasts for about 10 minutes, whereas the battery flight time of the Phantom 3 Standard is an impressive 25 minutes.

The Phantom 3 can record in 2.7K and 1080p and the aircraft gives you proven multiple intelligent flight options. With the Phantom you can live stream in 720p to your smartphone from the camera and you can broadcast your stream to social media. This capability is unavailable on the Hover.

The wealth of features of the Phantom 3 priced at only $499, $100 less than the Hover Camera, makes it a challenge for many consumers to justify opting for the latter.

Chan found that the flight features referred to as Face Tracking and Body Tracking did not perform in all conditions. “Where the Hover does fail is in the promise of subject tracking and delivering good quality video,” Chad said. It remains ironic, then, that those very features are often touted as the main selling points of the Hover aircraft.

In conclusion, while the Hover Camera Passport has some interesting features, it can’t match up to a trustworthy drone like the Phantom 3 Standard.

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Drones for Good: Research and Ecology

2016 was the year that saw drone being used for many distinctive purposes, from capturing cinematic wonders to aiding NGOs in search and rescue missions to making possible ridiculous YouTube pranks. Lesser spoken about were the research studies that academics worldwide have done with their drone.

Much of these studies, featured in academic journals and university magazines, focused on conservation and environmental practices and the positive impact UAVs have made in their respective areas. Here, we take a look at three of the good use cases that were documented in 2016.

1.Drones and Marine Ecology

Aerial Imaging has long been used to track the changes of key ecosystems, such as mangroves, coral reefs and shallow ocean beds. However, UAV technology has only recently enabled researchers on lower budgets to embark on these types of studies.

Norway’s renowned Nord University produced a study done by researchers using a DJI Phantom 3 to map sea-grass meadows. Coyer, a PhD student on the project comments, “Sea-grass meadows are crucial nurseries for many fish species…[they] are dynamic ecosystems that change in space and time… We use the drone to understand and investigate the mechanisms behind these changes.”

By collecting visual data with drone, Coyer was able to contribute crucial materials to a study that looked into adaptation capabilities of sea-grass threatened by climate change. Without a drone, this procedure would have been very time consuming and expensive.

2. Drones and Carbon Footprints

Western Australia’s expansive rangelands are extremely valuable as spaces of biomass production and storage. Better rangeland management practices have been suggested which in turn effect the carbon content in the vegetative matter. However, proving the effect of these practices in the past have been extremely laborious and destructive to the environment.

Researchers in Perth, Australia have been developing drone that are able to capture large areas of rangeland landscapes and process the images into a 3-D point cloud. The lead researcher on the project explains, “Previously [measuring biomass] involved destroying the bush by cutting it all down and weighing to determine the biomass per hectare to calculate the amount of carbon.”

With drone technology, researchers can now utilize an environmentally friendly platform capable of long range and long endurance, suitable for capturing survey grade imagery over the rangelands. This an exciting new possibility for those involved in carbon farming, as outlined by researchers in Western Australia’s Outback Carbon Farming Conference.

3. Drones and Plant Ecology

Applications in Plant Sciences is a peer reviewed journal that promotes newly developed and innovative tools in all areas of plant sciences. In its September 2016 issue, it featured a study that used small drone fitting specific aircraft and camera requirements, such as the DJI Phantom to survey plant ecology.

The methodology section begins by stating, “The prospect of using drones for vegetation sampling is exciting because of the large amount of information that can be collected with minimal effort.” By collecting aerial surveys with drones, researchers can greatly expand the area that can be assessed with minimal disruption of sensitive plants and vegetation. They can now also gain samples of terrain that is otherwise difficult to access.

These studies pave way on how drone could be used to better understand the environment around us and more importantly, how we can encourage a more sustainable planet. While most people have their eyes on how drone technology can benefit businesses and workflow, let’s not overlook how they can also benefit society as a whole and the world we live in.

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Yuneec Typhoon H battery: longer charging time and shorter flight time

The Yuneec Typhoon H battery is one focal point in an ongoing debate among drone pilots in the context of the broader DJI Phantom 4 vs Yuneec Typhoon H discussion.

DJI, which has the much larger market share and loyal fan-base, has world-class R&D capabilities.

Yuneec China is the challenger that is not quite up to the challenge.

In a way, the competition is good for the market. It may be less of an ideal situation for pilots who find themselves holding products that are not best in class or on the losing side of the competition. .

The Yuneec Typhoon H may fall in that category. While the specs and six propellers look impressive, three obvious issues have been identified by reviewers, issues that keep the DJI Phantom series clearly in the lead.

These issues are Yuneec Typhoon H battery performance, ease of control and size.

It was DJI who popularised drone flying as a hobby with its extremely popular Phantom line. Yuneec and other followers have since come up with their own models – making the market a vibrant and competitive one.

DJI’s RC quadcopter the Phantom 4 and the larger Yuneec H are both equipped with excellent video cameras, both are accessibly priced, and both have autonomous and safety-minded features that make flying easy. However, the Phantom 4 edges ahead with two distinct and patented features – TapFly and ActiveTrack. These make it possible, even for inexperienced pilots, to fly the drone and do it safely and smoothly.

A major drawback of the Typhoon H is its battery recharge time—a full charge takes well over two hours. That’s twice as long as the Phantom 4 takes. Talking about flight time, DJI Phantom 4 reviews report a flight time of close to 28 minutes. On the other hand, against Yuneec’s own claim of 24 minutes, live tests average only about 22 minutes. With a two-hour recharge time, Yuneec H pilots will definitely want at least a couple of extra batteries on hand.

Upon Typhoon H unboxing you can see that the hexacopter design is meant to add stability in flight, it has also made the Typhoon H a pretty hefty drone. With its remote control unit stacked with a multitude of buttons and switches, the Typhoon H can also be a lot to control at first.

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