Phantom Alternatives

[Sac D]

What quads have your interest other than the Phantom?

I kinda like the Storm Drone... especially the new lower price ($359 USD)

http://www.helipal.com/storm-drone-ff-f ... m-rtf.html

 

[Audaciter]

Yeah, I looked at that one too ! You have good taste ! It looks like a DJI Flamewheel 450 frame.

I think the one I want to build is on the Aerial Media Pros website, it's called the "TBS Discovery Extreme"
Also look up the "Team Blacksheep" website.

Patrick, at Aerial Media Pros said Team Blacksheep are in the process of moving right now, so It may be a while before
items are available again.

 

[DomKane]

Yeah that Storm Drone looks great for the price!

I also like the look of the StediDrone QU4D too: https://vimeo.com/58358234 - Although it's twice the price of the Phantom.

And then of course, there's the S800 Spreading Wings!

 

[telecaster]

QAV500 is my favorite!
http://www.fpvmanuals.com/2012/05/01/qav500/
No jello, amazing quality on parts, very good vibrationfree design, in fact much better than
the Phantom or the DJI FW 550. How do I know? I own and fly all of them

 

[Mark P]

What quads have your interest other than the Phantom?

I kinda like the Storm Drone... especially the new lower price ($359 USD)

http://www.helipal.com/storm-drone-ff-f ... m-rtf.html

Nice find Sac D, I have been considering the Witespy http://witespyquad.gostorego.com/quads.html but the guy is a one man show and extremely overwhelmed it seems. He was nice enough to talk to me for quite a long time but I have not been able to reach him again to see if you can buy it in kit form since it takes several weeks to get the product but he builds them, tests them then sends you the Quad and you bind it to your radio. It costs about the same as the Phantom if you get the GPS models, a hundred maybe $150 less without. Supposedly he has great customer support if you can ever get a hold of him. He also has a lot of nice add-ons.

I will own one of these and I know it's not another Phantom, I would love to give it another shot but.......that poll at 21% failure rate amongst RC enthusiast shows me all I need to know even if theres people saying it has a 3/10 of 1% failure rate even though their own poll is even more shocking than I would have expected. 5% failure in a poll would have made me nervous

 

[Mark P]

QAV500 is my favorite!
http://www.fpvmanuals.com/2012/05/01/qav500/
No jello, amazing quality on parts, very good vibrationfree design, in fact much better than
the Phantom or the DJI FW 550. How do I know? I own and fly all of them

Only if it was shipped to you ARF or RTF, many don't have time to order a list of parts and build their own. This is certainly intriguing if they have an ARF. My old fat fingered hands would take a month to build that

 

[Mark P]

It appears the Storm drone isn't RTF after all http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxTH8hRrIfg and after further research the guys entire kit was faulty including Gyro main board, lipo charger and a cracked dome and they charged him $50 to return the stuff 2 months ago, he's still waiting.......see the second comment here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XujRi90mkzc

 

[Gary39]

I like the looks of the witespy. You can get it with quadrino or naza contols. Quadrino can be flown with a four channel radio and is 0nly $460.00.

 

[DomKane]

I really shouldn't have subscribed to this post!

 

[telecaster]

QAV500 is my favorite!
http://www.fpvmanuals.com/2012/05/01/qav500/
No jello, amazing quality on parts, very good vibrationfree design, in fact much better than
the Phantom or the DJI FW 550. How do I know? I own and fly all of them

Only if it was shipped to you ARF or RTF, many don't have time to order a list of parts and build their own. This is certainly intriguing if they have an ARF. My old fat fingered hands would take a month to build that

If you want a QAV500 or 400 as RTF you can have one:
http://www.getfpv.com/multi-rotor-frames/ready-to-fly-rtf-builds.html

This is a much better flying machine than the Phantom!!

 

[Audaciter]

"telecaster" The QA500 is exactly like the TBS Discovery Extreme that I was looking at.

I may have to look into the QA500, as nothing is available at this time for Team Black Sheep.

I think my favorite part of this hobby is working on the models. I have severe anxiety, and depression, and I need something
to keep my mind active.

 

[telecaster]

"telecaster" The QA500 is exactly like the TBS Discovery Extreme that I was looking at.

I may have to look into the QA500, as nothing is available at this time for Team Black Sheep.

I think my favorite part of this hobby is working on the models. I have severe anxiety, and depression, and I need something
to keep my mind active.

You should, I did have a Discovery but I find the the QAV better, meaning less jello.
The Discovery is a nice upgrade from the DJI FlameWheel, but the QAV is better a better construction in my view.
So I sold my Discovery and never looked back

Yeah, its nice to have a hobby that makes you concentrate on other things and shut the world off for a while,
I really hope it will help you, I know only too well what you are struggeling with. Feel free to PM me if I can be any
help when you start building.

 

[Bart1]

I'm in the process of building a "Honey Badger" ( http://www.fpvmonkey.com/ - or - http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php ... or-takeoff! ).

 

[Drummer Boy]

Does anyone have an opinion on the Bumblebee 550?

 

[Mark P]

I'm in the process of building a "Honey Badger" ( http://www.fpvmonkey.com/ - or - http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php ... or-takeoff! ).

And he's in Oregon!! Yeah this may be the ticket, this guy built his in 2 hours ( hopefully this is the right guy but it's definitely a Honey Badger) love the guys slogan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7tT5dlB ... _embedded#!

 

[jeffjn]

QAV500 is my favorite!
http://www.fpvmanuals.com/2012/05/01/qav500/
No jello, amazing quality on parts, very good vibrationfree design, in fact much better than
the Phantom or the DJI FW 550. How do I know? I own and fly all of them

Only if it was shipped to you ARF or RTF, many don't have time to order a list of parts and build their own. This is certainly intriguing if they have an ARF. My old fat fingered hands would take a month to build that

If you want a QAV500 or 400 as RTF you can have one:
http://www.getfpv.com/multi-rotor-frames/ready-to-fly-rtf-builds.html

This is a much better flying machine than the Phantom!!

Really nice and cleaver design but it's much more expensive than the Phantom.
Is there any webshop/shop which sells QAV500 in the EU? Because i only found US shops.

 

[Mark P]

I'm in the process of building a "Honey Badger" ( http://www.fpvmonkey.com/ - or - http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php ... or-takeoff! ).

Thanks for the heads up, this guy lives 20 minutes away and basically built my Honey Badger with full FPV gear for less than a Phantom. So Nice not to wait 2 minutes to fly just to watch $1100.00 fly off.

It's certainly a mover heres some videos trying to get it dialed in and testing legs and homemade gopro mounts made from earplugs and under $6. Flying here pretty slow cause she's a little firecracker with 90% throttle trim, I have her ay 60% right now and she screams a little also in 20+ mph winds every day its hard to wait so the video is a little wobbly. Again thanks for the heads up!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpt8MkVzhQk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWSElSO4sgE

 

[Bart1]

Hey Mark,

You're welcome. Nice videos!

I'm glad you found it to be as cool as I did. That's encouraging for me as I'm pretty new to all this RC/quad stuff. I'm still fitting mine together - just got my power distribution figured out and am now trying to find a place to fit it on the Badger. Since I can't trust my Phantom to fly very far (until I resolve the no USB problem which looks like it may be weeks or months now...) I'm far more focussed on finishing the Honey Badger project. I really like having the flexibility of making my own decisions (right or wrong) on where to install each of the components. It makes it more of a "personalized" machine. I can't wait to get her up in the air!

We need to get an Oregon Quad (Pacific NW?) meet organized!

 

[FangsCPO]

Pretty awesome but I'll stay faithful to my Phantom. It's already assembled and "stupid" proof.....just what I need. :lol:

 

[Mark P]

Hey Mark,

You're welcome. Nice videos!

I'm glad you found it to be as cool as I did. That's encouraging for me as I'm pretty new to all this RC/quad stuff. I'm still fitting mine together - just got my power distribution figured out and am now trying to find a place to fit it on the Badger. Since I can't trust my Phantom to fly very far (until I resolve the no USB problem which looks like it may be weeks or months now...) I'm far more focussed on finishing the Honey Badger project. I really like having the flexibility of making my own decisions (right or wrong) on where to install each of the components. It makes it more of a "personalized" machine. I can't wait to get her up in the air!

We need to get an Oregon Quad (Pacific NW?) meet organized!

Yes we do, sounds like theres a ton of us, I think Flying Monkey and 3-4 others hook up fairly regularly. My Honey Badger is a lil firecracker even at 60% throttle trims, I must admit it's fun building muscle memory again, the thing is scary fast at 90% throttle trim