This is for my dogs christmas present (or late present if I am buying from aliexpress)
$100ish budget drone with good range/battery life (or good value I should say)
Can anyone find a bargain before I buy some random chinese thing?
Long range cheap drone/flying thingomajig
thirtysixd on 16/12/2019 - 19:44
Comments
200m would be nice but from what ive seen it might be a stretch for $100
battery 15m atleast i guessno camera or any other feature needed
just to chase (bird dogs so go crazy for flying things)
At 200m, any of the cheap drones are going to be really hard to spot (due to size). Even my DJI Phantom 3 is hard to spot at 200m. If you are just using it at the local park for the dogs, 50m would be ample, but I get the 200m buffer would be nice.
And yeah, 15 mins is optimistic at best for cheap drones. 5 to 8 mins would be closer to real world. If you were just hovering and taking photos, maybe 10 to 12. Racing up and down a field to let dogs chase it, closer to the 5~8.
If you can spend a few extra $$'s ($120 on special at some places), consider the Ryze Tello. It's well made (was made in conjunction with DJI) and flies really well considering its size. It has a camera, but it's only 720. It flies from your phone or you can buy a bluetooth controller. Only problem is, It may be a bit small, so you might need to buzz the dogs to get them started perhaps and if it is too windy, it just wont handle it.
They are of much better quality than the cheap arse Aliexpress drones and you will get one tomorrow, rather than in 4~6 weeks. It will have Australian warranty and it easy enough to get parts for it. Batteries are cheap enough and very easy to refit, so you can carry a pocket full of them for longer flying times. I get about 8 mins out of a battery and carry 3 batteries with me.
The only other cheap drone I have had any experience with was with a Hubsan (dont know what model exactly). For the price my mate paid for it, it was a pretty good unit. It was about the same price as the Tello, but it was a little bit bigger in size. It was good because it had all the right things for an easy to fly drone. It had GPS and 6 axis gyro. Battery was a bit piss weak, but we sorted that out with a higher capacity one.
I think the $100 is a bit low and that anything you will get in that bracket would be garbage and have little to no gyro, piss poor range and no decent run time. Buying from Aliexpress or any one of those Chinese online shops is going to be the same, shit quality with issues coupled with long wait time and no back up service.
And note: You will need to buy a drone under 250g in weight if you don't want to have to register it or get an operators license from CASA.
bird dogs
Huh? Half dog, half bird??
That would be a dog bird?? These might be half bird, half dog…
@iforgotmysocks: You're onto something. Is it a front/back, top/bottom or left/right dilution of dog to bird ratio??
@iforgotmysocks: I dont know, but a new twist is which came first the dog or the bird, or is it the dog or the egg
JB Hifi recently sold the Zero-x Pulse for $49 and extra batteries were about $20 apiece.
Dogs will want to chase and retrieve. Just get a clay target thrower https://www.huntinghaven.com.au/p/champion-trap-high-fly-str… or a frisbee.
You are so right.
My dog loves to chase and retrieve, my mind boggles at them retrieving a drone.
A tennis ball lasts about a week or two, a drone in the dogs mouth…..
Btw they would love chasing you (2 cats)
I want to see OP try and land a drone after the dogs have been going mental over chasing it, all while trying to keep them off it as it lands…
Depends on what you define as long range. Are you talking 100~200m or are you talking 7km.
Battery life, what do you consider good and what is considered “minimum” requirement.
What is the intended use with dogs? To give hem something to chase around? Does it need to be a certain size?
Does it need a camera or any other feature?