
Quadrocopter for GoPro through the eyes of a girl - Wl toys v303
We’ll have a Friday post on behalf of copter girl Nastya, who wanted to share her experience with GeekTimes: “I often travel to various interesting places and enjoy photography and video, so the quadcopter chose for these purposes - to be suspended under GoPro, with GPS, with a good range of flights, and so that it is not cloudy. Before that, I did not have quadrocopters, and I knew nothing about them at all. The final choice fell on the quadcopter Wltoys v303 , which I now shoot my shots on. ”

In the box, the device is almost ready for use - you just need to screw the suspension and blades, as well as connect the battery, everything is very simple. By the way, the legs can be quite easily unscrewed, after which the quadrocopter is quietly placed in a small backpack, which is convenient to take with you on the plane when traveling.

However, on the first day I was not able to start the engines. I was upset, I thought that he was faulty. The next day, after digging through a bunch of forums, I nevertheless decided to re-read the instruction, which I didn’t particularly read at first because it was only in English: it turned out that you had to turn on the remote first, and only then connect the battery, and I did everything vice versa. By the way, the connectors for connecting the battery are very tight, you have to apply force to disconnect it.
The difficulties did not end there - it was the turn of calibration. After 2 hours of torment and reviewing the video on the Internet, I realized that when you rotate in a vertical position, the quadrocopter needs to be held with the indicator light up, and this has not been written about anywhere ...

The first 5 flights ended in tree branches, in nettles and in the neighboring area, one was lost nut. Notches immediately appeared on the blades. But how much joy, when everything finally turns out!) It behaves stably in flight, flies briskly, auto-return works perfectly - with an accuracy of a couple of meters, it finds satellites in a couple of minutes.

I did not immediately figure out why the heading to lock function is needed (flying in the direction) - they call it unnecessary on the forums, but it seemed to me very useful: it helps not to get confused in control when the quadrocopter is deployed in front (and the camera) to the person controlling it, and accordingly , left-right and back and forth change places, that is, to fly to the left in this position, you need to move the stick to the right. After turning on the heading to lock toggle switch, the location of the quadrocopter is remembered - and then when the stick moves to the left, it will fly to the left, regardless of whether it is turned to you front or back.

But the suspension included in the kit is no good. Firstly, either the legs or the blades always fall into the camera lens. But this is not so bad. The main disadvantage of this quadrocopter is the serious shaking on the video, and the matter, apparently, is in the “brains” and firmware. To get a normal smooth picture you have to buy a good suspension. And I was lucky with the firmware - on forums people with earlier versions posted videos with even more terrible shaking and complained about the inadequate behavior of the quadrocopter.

Flight distance: 500 meters
Flight time: stated - up to 15 minutes, but in fact it flies with the camera no longer than 10 minutes.
Maximum climb speed: 10m / s
Battery: 2700 mA * h, 11.1 V
Charging time: about 1.5 hours
Motor type: brushless
Flight controller: ZeroUAV YS-S4
Dimensions, LxWxH : 305x305x185 mm
Weight: 840 g
Maximum lifting weight: 1 kg
GPS: yes https: //dronk.ru/shorten/zu
Functions: auto return, heading to lock (flight in the direction)
Price: $ 202.68 (~ 13 000 rub )

Quadrocopter, control panel, battery, suspension for GoPro on dampers, charger, keys for nuts for blades and for nuts for legs, instructions in English.

On the Internet you can often find the opinion that v303 is not inferior to Phantom in any way and even surpasses them. I do not agree with this: if you add up the cost of Wltoys v303, cameras (take GoPro 4, because it is closest in quality to Phantom cameras) and the 3-axis gimbal needed to achieve a good picture on the video, it’s practically the price of DJI Phantom 3 standard, which has a longer range and streaming to a smartphone, and useful features like Follow me and “Point of Interest”. And if you also buy a wi-fi module for v303 for broadcasting pictures from the camera, then the total cost of all this equipment will probably be even higher than Phantom.
Accordingly, for this money I would rather take it and not be tormented.
But if you do not need videos of perfect quality, then for your money Wltoys v303- An excellent, high-quality and reliable option.
And finally, my video shot from this quadrocopter:
ps Thanks to Nastya for this wonderful experience

In the box, the device is almost ready for use - you just need to screw the suspension and blades, as well as connect the battery, everything is very simple. By the way, the legs can be quite easily unscrewed, after which the quadrocopter is quietly placed in a small backpack, which is convenient to take with you on the plane when traveling.

However, on the first day I was not able to start the engines. I was upset, I thought that he was faulty. The next day, after digging through a bunch of forums, I nevertheless decided to re-read the instruction, which I didn’t particularly read at first because it was only in English: it turned out that you had to turn on the remote first, and only then connect the battery, and I did everything vice versa. By the way, the connectors for connecting the battery are very tight, you have to apply force to disconnect it.
The difficulties did not end there - it was the turn of calibration. After 2 hours of torment and reviewing the video on the Internet, I realized that when you rotate in a vertical position, the quadrocopter needs to be held with the indicator light up, and this has not been written about anywhere ...

The first 5 flights ended in tree branches, in nettles and in the neighboring area, one was lost nut. Notches immediately appeared on the blades. But how much joy, when everything finally turns out!) It behaves stably in flight, flies briskly, auto-return works perfectly - with an accuracy of a couple of meters, it finds satellites in a couple of minutes.

I did not immediately figure out why the heading to lock function is needed (flying in the direction) - they call it unnecessary on the forums, but it seemed to me very useful: it helps not to get confused in control when the quadrocopter is deployed in front (and the camera) to the person controlling it, and accordingly , left-right and back and forth change places, that is, to fly to the left in this position, you need to move the stick to the right. After turning on the heading to lock toggle switch, the location of the quadrocopter is remembered - and then when the stick moves to the left, it will fly to the left, regardless of whether it is turned to you front or back.

But the suspension included in the kit is no good. Firstly, either the legs or the blades always fall into the camera lens. But this is not so bad. The main disadvantage of this quadrocopter is the serious shaking on the video, and the matter, apparently, is in the “brains” and firmware. To get a normal smooth picture you have to buy a good suspension. And I was lucky with the firmware - on forums people with earlier versions posted videos with even more terrible shaking and complained about the inadequate behavior of the quadrocopter.

Specifications
Flight distance: 500 meters
Flight time: stated - up to 15 minutes, but in fact it flies with the camera no longer than 10 minutes.
Maximum climb speed: 10m / s
Battery: 2700 mA * h, 11.1 V
Charging time: about 1.5 hours
Motor type: brushless
Flight controller: ZeroUAV YS-S4
Dimensions, LxWxH : 305x305x185 mm
Weight: 840 g
Maximum lifting weight: 1 kg
GPS: yes https: //dronk.ru/shorten/zu
Functions: auto return, heading to lock (flight in the direction)
Price: $ 202.68 (~ 13 000 rub )

Equipment:
Quadrocopter, control panel, battery, suspension for GoPro on dampers, charger, keys for nuts for blades and for nuts for legs, instructions in English.

conclusions
On the Internet you can often find the opinion that v303 is not inferior to Phantom in any way and even surpasses them. I do not agree with this: if you add up the cost of Wltoys v303, cameras (take GoPro 4, because it is closest in quality to Phantom cameras) and the 3-axis gimbal needed to achieve a good picture on the video, it’s practically the price of DJI Phantom 3 standard, which has a longer range and streaming to a smartphone, and useful features like Follow me and “Point of Interest”. And if you also buy a wi-fi module for v303 for broadcasting pictures from the camera, then the total cost of all this equipment will probably be even higher than Phantom.
Accordingly, for this money I would rather take it and not be tormented.
But if you do not need videos of perfect quality, then for your money Wltoys v303- An excellent, high-quality and reliable option.
And finally, my video shot from this quadrocopter:
ps Thanks to Nastya for this wonderful experience