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Best budget fpv rtf quad?

Old 11-20-2016, 08:56 PM
  #1  
AnAlternateEgo
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Default Best budget fpv rtf quad?

I have experience with planes and heli's. I'm looking to get into a fpv quad. I almost had my heart set on the parrot Bebop 2 fpv set up but while I was watching a YouTube video earlier I noticed that the fpv feed was super glitchy. I'm not really looking to make movies but I might take an occasional pic so my top priority would be the reliability of the actual fpv feed. If anybody has any suggestions of something else that would satisfy my needs I would greatly appreciate it. Or even if somebody can stick up for the Bebop2. Not looking for a sprinter drone with a 3 minute battery life. Thanks for any help you can throw my way.
Old 03-06-2017, 04:32 AM
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Drone Ranger
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well I only have experience with Dji but as far as filming goes with 18 to 20 min flight time fpv tilting gimbal raw footage from 4k onboard cameras It is a very hard animal to beat for the price. even the 2.7 k is zoomable 1080p when in a movie processing program and in 4k it is spectacular. You also don't have to break the bank to get reliable video you can find a p3 standard brand new for around $499 which should do anything you need and if you run it with the litchi app it has even more capabilities. But they are a proprietary system you have to use what dji lets you have or makes for it to function. Though I have no RC background I have been able to implement many non DJI changes in my own systems but it cost me in both frustration and monetarily though the satisfaction is great when you can outfox the foxes so to speak.
Old 08-31-2017, 08:15 PM
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You can get the Bebop Drone for under 200 dollars now at amazon. It's a great drone.
Old 09-19-2017, 07:17 PM
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I realize the initial post is from last year, but I had similar questions and wavered between a mavic and a bebop and a disco for quite a while, and did some research, and think some of what I found might be of help to others.

First, there are some steep discounts to be had right now on the already cheaper parrot drones. DJI has tried to get into the low end market with the DJI spark, a smaller drone with fewer features, pricing it around the same as the bebop. There's not much of a gap between the features of the two, the spark doing some nifty hand gestures and extra follow modes and folding down smaller, the bebop being available at the same price with an FPV package. Parrot has been in a bit of financial trouble and has laid off a bunch of workers, some retailers have put out some steeps discounts on their inventory - I ended up getting a few hundred dollars off a disco drone FPV package.

The quality of the FPV feed will depend on distance and the amount of interference in the area you're flying, along with what you use to connect to the drone. In the case of the parrot drones, they have Skycontrollers 1 and 2, and the ability to connect directly with a phone to the drone.

SC 1 has good range and antennas but the phone connects to the controller with wireless, which can itself cause some interference.
SC2 uses a USB cord to connect the phone to the controller, parrot did this to reduce interference and give the phone a more stable connection to the controller.
Connecting the phone directly can be used with FPV, but will restrict the range quite a bit, and is generally just done for very close range or preprogrammed flights.

The recorded video is saved in 1080 on the drone itself ( or 720 or whatever resolution you're recording in ) regardless of the quality of the FPV, so if you're happy with the 1080 for your video ( or a 14 megapixel fisheye picture or 1080 jpeg ) then you'll get that quality in the resulting pictures anyway.

If you're really concerned about the FPV quality, in quiet areas with very few wifi sources of interference I've gotten out to 1.5km, and it stays fairly smooth until it's well out of visual range. This is using the longer range 2.4Ghz channels - in noisier areas you can switch to 5Ghz, and the higher wavelength is less populated currently avoiding some noise, at the expense of overall range - you might get a kilometer, a few hundred meters or somewhere inbetween. Also, in north america the transmitters are allowed to use more signal strength, in Europe they're limited to about a quarter of the signal strength, expect a loss of range there.

DJI with the phantoms and mavics I've read use a more sensitive radio chipset from atheros or realtek and get quite a bit more range than the parrot drones, though they will also be limited by the above noise, wavelength and strength issues. Legally in many places you're supposed to keep well within visual range of the drone, regardless of how good your FPV connection is, so legally you need to keep in that kilometer range anyway, or have spotters helping you.

The DJI cameras are nicer than the parrot ones, mounted on a physical gimbal instead of software stabilized images cropped from a fixed fisheye camera. Higher resolutions on the newer models, better sharpness and colors, and a physical gimbal instead of a software stabilizer gives the DJI very good recorded images and if you're editing the video a bit more leeway in terms of footage and how you can crop or adjust the picture. With FPV you probably won't notice the difference.

The FPV googles parrot includes with their FPV kit don't have any adjustment built in to them, so either it works for your headshape/face/phone combination or it doesn't. For me it seems to fit okay, but it'd be nice to be able to adjust the focus a bit. removing a phone case might move the display slightly closer to the lenses and bring it into better focus. I find the edges a bit blurry, and would like to be able to adjust the distance between the eyes, but overall it's fairly immersive.

The DJI fpv goggles support the mavic or phantom 4 ( not the 3 ) and can stream higher quality 1080 with the phantom or 720 with the mavic. It supports head tracking, swinging the camera around based on where you look ( the parrot with phone setup probably could do this, there is an SC button that pans up and down, and there is hidden settings in the software that can do a limited left and right pan, but the software doesn't right now ). DJI is more expensive, but comes with it's own screens instead of using your phone, and seems better integrated overall.

The flying time is a little better on the parrot models than the DJI drones.

The speed is higher and safety features on the DJI models make it slightly safer to fly DJI model - their software is a bit more mature, they've been doing this longer and for a larger customer base, and with larger company and more expensive drones they've got more money for R&D too. That said, neither company makes a completely foolproof drone, and you can see footage all day every day of new and experienced users crashing both companies drones in all sorts of interesting ways.

If price is no object I'd say go for the DJI model. Hey, a 6000$+ inspire seems like it'd be great fun. More realistically for beginners and casual users, a mavic is fairly reasonably priced, and only makes small compromises in range and camera quality to get a tiny, feature packed very portable drone. The DJI spark is that again, cheaper with more portability, and will support FPV with google cardboard glasses ( not the nicer more expensive DJI goggles ) with a few features dropped ( some that the parrot bebop actually has ).

If you're budget conscious at all go with a bebop and maybe upgrade later if you find the limitations are really stifling you, but you can buy 2-3 parrot drones for the price of the DJI setup, which would get you better quality all around, but it won't be several times as good.
Old 02-19-2018, 09:40 PM
  #5  
dafremen
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All of the recommendations so far have been good ones. I personally have a much lower budget, so I chose the V686G by WL Toys. It's $40 shipped and it comes with:

5.8GHz FPV camera at 720p(Can record the FPV video at 1280 x 720p to micro SD card.)
5.8GHz 5.5" monitor (rechargeable)
2.4 GHz controller with most features you'd expect, plus a few extras.
4 GB micro SD with USB reader.
780 mAh lipo
4 spare blades
4 blade guards
attachment for fixing monitor to controller.
clip on, flip-out sunshade for monitor.
and two of the junkiest little chargers I've ever seen.

Again..all for $40. To me, that's a budget quadcopter.

daf
Old 02-23-2018, 11:58 PM
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emmybecca
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what are you expecting exactly
Old 02-26-2018, 01:08 AM
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emmybecca
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i normally use coupons for online shopping and right now i have given order for printing my checks to Carousel Check using carousel check coupons at reecoupons . they have authentic coupons and valid codes. You might them some more for you there too
Old 08-01-2018, 02:52 AM
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Shwepps
 
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Look for Spark, it's on a deal now.
Old 08-09-2018, 05:05 AM
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Shwepps
 
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But personally, I'd wait for the Mavic 2 Zoom to come out with the new features & longer flight time.
Old 08-13-2018, 03:49 AM
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Shwepps
 
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Here's more info on DJI Mavic 2 Release date that is going to be announced on August 23rd.
Old 08-29-2018, 04:22 AM
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Shwepps
 
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Here's Mavic 2 Pro vs Zoom comparison.

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