After playing with Parrot’s new generation of Minidrones, I realise that a remote controlled hydrofoil is the true champion of RC anything (source: Gizmodo).
Plenty of stock at time of posting, and available in 2 colours:
Parrot Minidrone Airborne Hydro (Orak)
Parrot Minidrone Airborne Hydro (NewZ)
These don't fly they are basically boats.
Words eaten :)
LOL. That review was actually pretty good and the reviewer is quite a clown haha. Thanks for sharing TA!
Incredible production value on that video.
no they cant carry go pro, even the full size Parrot AR Drone 2.0 struggle to carry one
parrot are a cool brand!
Almost purchased one.. Then i realised its time to sleep
Have a feeling online orders will be cancelled. Best walk in to try your luck tomorrow morning.
Still Camera Image Only - True
Bit the bullet - thanks TA!
Colour?
One of each!
If you paid $250
You must be nuts
Do I need it?
No.
Do I want it?
Hell Yeah!
What's the chance I'm going to get it anyway?
100%
Ah, the Classic ozbargain flowchart to problem solving.
2 great deals posted today TA.
when was there a deal that wasn't good that was posted by TA?
20% off Myer and Dick Kogan were pitchfork deals. That's all I could find; less than 0.1% of deals posted.
There were few like very little increase in the cashback and few other deals which were below normal, but got huge positives.
Is it good as just a drone for the price? as im not interested in the boat
You can be a big wig and tell everybody you own a boat.
That'll go well with the private jet (I never let my friends use my RC plane!)
Not another drone post! after the Aldi one last week I purchased a DJI Phanton 3. WTF ozbargain never flown a drone so I would say buy this and save $550 plus.
How do you like the 3? The next time a really good deal comes up for the standard 3 I think im going to have to get it, want a 4 bad but dont have 2k :'(
Check out Ali express, I know a guy who got a phantom 3 advanced for $1k, with the 10% cash back, that would be a great deal!
You can get an equivlant drone for $20, and spend a bit on plenty of spare batteries and propellers so you can fly longer (eachine h8)
the 20m range kills it for me. This will strictly be an indoors drone.
I bought a hubsan x4 with spare batteries from banggood for $70, just waiting for delivery. Reviews for it are good.
For your indoor lake?
Bathtub
I've seen a common mod done to the antenna on remote controls for drones where they increase the range significantly. Not sure if it works for all remote types though.
Awesome find thanks TA.
Note that this drone only has a VGA camera that takes still photos only with a battery life of 9 minutes. No videos. Good for the price though. Was going to get one but I want to record videos :)
I think this is the killer.
For around this price you can buy 720p video recording drone.
What this can do is control via phone. For the price, this is excellent.
Original price for this was just stupid. This is why they are being dumped.
Exactly, 4 looks awesome but I have never flown a drone so $2k was hard to justify over $602. Standard 3 is due to be delivered tomorrow. Was $602 delivered through ebay with a code. Might get one of these for my 6 year old because I can imagine what will happen when he wants to try the phantom
I got this last time at JB HI FI when it was for on sale for $94 and Parrot was running a $40 cash back, so all up spent $54. Lots of entertainment for the price, the drone itself is identical the Parrot Airborne just not the cool lights and can't attach lego to it. It has 2 modes flying as normal or attach to plastic boat and use it on water. There is also a new app for it called FreeFlight Mini. Its all fun and games but keep in mind the battery only lasts 7 mins and charges up in 25 mins if you use a 2.4AMP usb charger.
TA you are a legend!!!! Been wanting a good drone for ages and now comes into my price range! picking up at local store soon
Thanks TA,
Purchased something else I didn't need nor intended to purchase. Will have to explain to the wife why and how much when it starts flying around the house….
Check this out http://www.dji.com/phantom-3-pro hahaha!
I already have a $2.5k 3DR Y6 with all the fruit…. Told the wife that project was going to be around $800….. And to inspect the solar panels on the roof….. Cough.
hahaha love it.
Use it to collect abandoned dirty socks (or undies if the drone maximum cargo rating allows) around the lounge room and air-drop them into the laundry basket. Profit with the wife, no questions asked!
Great value for a vga drone, and this has smartphone integration.
Bought.
Purchased! Thanks TA
Perfect for transporting the gerbil from one side of the river to the other.
Just a heads up that it is not suitable for salt water, fresh water only.
Salt water chlorinated pool OK?
From the manual: "Only use the MiniDrone on fresh water.
If sand, sea salt, seaweed or any other biological matter gets into the MiniDrone, irreversible damage may be caused and it will no longer function properly"
Probably not I'm thinking, but not too sure..
I'll have to play with it in the bathtub.
No. This rules out just about all pools.
Even if your pool isn't salt water based, I would say the chlorine would probably kill it.
Water would kill it.
It sounds like it.
I think the fans will throw spray up, so basically if you use it on the water (which is the way it is meant to be used) it will die quickly.
(Goods not fit for purpose?)
Thanks TA! This price puts it in Christmas pressies for my nephew's range!
Choice find! Enjoyed watching that!
It's ok as a novelty, but looks meh at 7 mins battery. Resisting and saying skip to this one
$239 is insane
Didn't get anything for fathers day. This will make up for it.
You'll probably find 7 mins is more than enough for a single go - what are you going to do, laps in a pool continually? Batteries are cheap and can be swapped out quickly if you want more than one session.
Just a quick question, would it suit/recommend for a 9 yr old boy? Thx
Yes for sure.
Every.boy needs one
Are both having the same features. Just color difference is it? I am not able to open the other link.
Damn u impulse buy,just keep buying shit I probably won't use.
Although i will add it to my collection of rc's drifter,plane and boat
Trying to find reasons why I don't need this…
Ordered one. Now where can we get bargain batteries?
Ordered. Thanks TA.
One Chrissy present done
Was gonna get one until I read the word "Bluetooth".. which has realistically limited range of about 10ish metres (said 20m maximum). Thought it might have been a WLAN model that takes it up to 100m would have been nicer..
Not an expert at all
But a drone this small is impossible to fly outdoors unless there's absolutely no wind
Correct me if I'm wrong
Great bargain, just can't bite the bullet for this product purely on battery time
$20 would seal it…
Tell me you're dreaming
Check out Gumtree in a few weeks time. You will start to see the second hands being listed by OzBargainers from this sale.
I doubt they'll be sold for <$49… there are plenty of Brodens out there.
If your looking for a drone with video capacity check out the Syma X5C-1, can be found on Ebay for 45.00.
Will fly outside no problems, check out Youtube, heaps of great reviews about them, and make a great learn to fly drone.
Agreed - they are great. Probably bigger than this one here and would definitely be better outside. The range on them are excellent although med-high winds tend to make them drift a little.
Seen to have no cam for the $45 ones?
Capacity or Capability?
I got a mini drone, can I just buy the hydrofoil structure to attach my existing drone to it?
I have one of this, don't like it. Short range and flight time. The price is ok for this kiddy toy.
I have a Phantom 3 but still keen on grabbing this for the times where I can't take the Phantom out in the open.
Great price, tempted but way too big… Can't fit it in my room…. So must….. resist…..
How big is your room?
I live in a dog house =P considering all the other junk I have impulse bought lol
My feature wall is made of eneloops too.
I was going to get one but after reading through the 7 minutes run time just won't do it. I hate to disappoint the kids by telling them that the battery is flat when they are only getting warmed up for a day's fun.
Check out this comment in Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/review/RHUH9IKQUHI55/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt…
"I was very happy with it. Me and my children were playing for the second day flying the drone but suddenly it start going up and up… It didn't respond to my command for landing until it lost connection with the phone and I never saw it again. It went up until I lost sight of it. I would like to know if there is a kind of warranty for this! Or if someone can tell me how to replace the drone for another one so I can use it with the hydrofoil body…"
This doesn't make sense. Even the cheap $10 helicopters crash lands when out of range but this one keeps flying?
Most of the cheap drones keep their last known signal when it's lost - and if thats full throttle then that's what it'll do.
My kids had broken half a dozen cheap helicopters already and all of them cuts off the power/motor when out of range. I am trying to upgrade the eldest kid into drones. I suppose that's what I need to find out before I purchase a decent one.
@DarkOz:
Yeah, Helicopters (I think using IR) function very differently to drones. Good luck showing them into it! they should have fun.
Maybe a alien kid wanted one for himself.
Wow. This just happened to me :( Picked up my hydrofoil last night and played with it a couples times indoors. Lovely day outside decided to go to the local oval and try some stunts…On its maiden voyage (I admit I used the palm takeoff option) it somehow lost contact with my Nexus 6P and continued to rise and rise until it was but a spec in the sky :( I deliberately had set the max altitude to 3M and as soon as it reached about 2 metres above my head I pressed the 'Land' option to no effect…continued trying to manually lower it until it was out of sight. I guess this is a limitation of bluetooth..but I would expect it would operate well within a 10m radius. Any idea if I can approach Parrot with the issue? Or should I discuss with JB HiFi? Or should 'let it go'?
Did it ever land? or literally flew away and never came back?
Nope…Literally flew away and never came back! It had a full battery and the last known command was take off so I guess it would have kept rising until the battery ran out minutes later. Can't imagine where it ended up
All gone now :-(
Is gopro compatible with this one? Sorry I have no knowledge on drones.. thanks