If your daughter is a smaller child, like under 13 years old, a cheap drone from Alibaba isn’t a horrible choice since kids just want to have some fun flying a thing around the house or in the backyard. And if it does crash and break, it’s not too much to get upset by because it was so cheap and your expectations are lower. You can get these for very cheap, as little as $5 from Chinese websites or $20 on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend spending anything over $60 for one of these types of toy drones, though. Some don’t have cameras, and others that do will have very poor quality and the camera will be static, meaning you can’t move it around to see other directions while flying.
My beef with the commercials that were tricking my uncle was that they make it out to be that it’s more than a toy, when it’s just a toy. If they advertised it more accurately, I wouldn’t have seen a problem with it. I bought one of those as my first drone but knew it was cheap and just a toy and then gradually bought more as time progressed.
As far as something more complex, it’s a bit more tricky to explain unless you spend some time doing some research and it can get a bit lengthy for me to explain here. I’d recommend checking out reviews and watching some YouTube videos on recommendations to get a familiarity with what may be most suitable here for something more complex than a toy.
But the gist of it is that if you want something a little more high quality, reliable, better camera, better range, etc., then you have a few options. But to summarize: for the typical drones with fancy features and easy to use for beginners, you’ll typically want to go with a name brand like DJI but these can be somewhat pricey, as little as $150 used and sky is the limit brand new, depending on what you want. For most consumers, average pricing will be around $400, more or less for one of these.
Then there is another category which is more classified as quadcopters than drones but still the same basic concept of 4 motors that allow the device to hover and move around and also use a camera. Most of these are very specialized, similar to RC cars and you’ll find these at hobby shops. Most people use these for racing or doing stunts. Used will run you as little as $100 and sky is the limit here depending on what you want, but average for most people is $400. You can buy kits or the quadcopter preassembled and then also buy the battery and remote separately, which is nice, kind of like building a computer where you can take your time and spend money on a longer period of time. Buy the board or even 3D print one, then buy the controller board, the motors, the blades, etc. and assemble it for flying. These don’t usually have the fancy features like flying back home on a single button press or when the battery gets low or tracking capabilities. The cameras are also usually static, in one place and don’t have gimbals which allow the camera to look one side or the other. The batteries also usually only last for under 10 minutes, which doesn’t seem like a lot but usually is enough for a single round and you’ll typically carry multiple batteries to switch out as needed when out and about. But the higher horsepower and camera quality is what is usually eating the battery time.
If your daughter is a smaller child, like under 13 years old, a cheap drone from Alibaba isn’t a horrible choice since kids just want to have some fun flying a thing around the house or in the backyard. And if it does crash and break, it’s not too much to get upset by because it was so cheap and your expectations are lower. You can get these for very cheap, as little as $5 from Chinese websites or $20 on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend spending anything over $60 for one of these types of toy drones, though. Some don’t have cameras, and others that do will have very poor quality and the camera will be static, meaning you can’t move it around to see other directions while flying.
Then there is another category which is more classified as quadcopters… Most people use these for racing or doing stunts.
She’s 5, LOL. Also, she seemed primarily interested in it as a camera platform rather than racing or stunts.
Any opinions on this? I nearly impulse-bought it for about $40 just before Black Friday, but (aside from coming to my senses about a drone for a 5-year-old) I was a bit leery of the “smartphone app” control scheme, especially since I’m pretty militant about avoiding proprietary Android apps in general (and that goes double for ones for controlling weird off-brand hardware). I guess what they describe as “manual adjustable camera” is the “static” camera thing you’re warning me about? I can see how it’d be inconvenient to not be able to look both ahead and at the ground without having to tilt the whole aircraft/fly forward.
You can buy kits or the quadcopter preassembled and then also buy the battery and remote separately, which is nice, kind of like building a computer where you can take your time and spend money on a longer period of time. Buy the board or even 3D print one, then buy the controller board, the motors, the blades, etc. and assemble it for flying.
I have to admit, being a big fan of Free Software and somebody who fancies myself a bit of a DIYer, the idea of building it myself appeals to me. Of course, I’m also cheap and I doubt I’d be able to compete with a preassembled Chinese toy drone on price (unless I disqualify all the app-controlled ones, maybe), so I’m not sure. Any advice re: controller boards and software, and other components? I ran across this article from 2019 just now, but for all I know it might be obsolete/incomplete/written by somebody with weird opinions.
The biggest other concern I have is crashes, since I can only assume a small child pilot will be bad at it. Do drones often, you know, survive, or should I expect to be replacing parts and/or the whole thing relatively often? Should I lean towards DIY and 3D-printing because of the repairability factor?
I think I might be coalescing on something like “a very cheap 1080p or better camera drone (as opposed to FPV racing quad) DIY kit, but controlled with a proper standalone transmitter, or at least a Free Software Android app.” Not sure such a thing exists, but I think it’s what I want. (Do they make open-source flight controller PCBs with extra channel(s) to support controlling a [(maybe) pan - tilt - (maybe) zoom] camera, or would that kick me into the start-from-scratch-with-an-Arduino realm? For that matter, can a movable drone camera even be had as an off-the-shelf part?)
The one you linked from Amazon seems like a decent one for a child around her age. Not too complicated but you bring up a good point about the smartphone aspect of it that I had forgotten.
You likely would want to avoid any of these that require a smartphone to use especially since they’re coming from China and not something you may be fond of having on your phone. Additionally, and this could go one of two ways, it will require the use of a smartphone to use the drone for her which has a pro and con depending on how you look at it.
Pro that she can’t just up and take the drone out flying on her own whenever she pleases which you may want that control. Con that it will require her to use your phone any time she wants to go along with it.
Additionally, I don’t like this because over time, those apps can be lost to time whether it be it’s no longer available for download or lost to which app you need because you no longer have the manual to know which app was required. But you do have that same thing happening to a physical controller, so it’s up to preference on that.
As to the durability…I actually have to say that for the cheaper toy drones like the way you linked, they often can take quite a beating that my more expensive, more hobby adult drones cannot handle. Most of these cheaper toys are made of plastic but unibody design and most often will have guards around the propellers which can help protect them if bumping into walls or other obstacles like trees. My first cheap toy drone was like this and handled a lot of abuse from my first few flights of learning how to fly.
The more expensive ones can be prone to more breakage, but the trade off is that this is because those pieces were designed to be removed and replaced, so repairability is a thing. Just know that on the one you shared, it doesn’t seem to have prop guards which could be a problem here and you may want to see if you can find one that does have propeller guards so when she inevitably hits a tree or a wall (it will happen), the chances of the propellers being destroyed is much less than with this design where the propellers are exposed.
Which brings me to another point of safety…the more expensive drone propellers can take a finger or at least do some serious damage requiring an ER visit if you were to stick your finger in while the propellers are turning. The toy drones have less of a chance of this but the risk of injury is still there. Having the propeller guards can help to avoid this for children so they’re less likely to be injured in this or similar ways.
The cheaper toys are not designed in the same way. If the propeller gets damaged, then there’s not much hope in getting a replacement, sorry to say.
You could think of it as comparing a life size car on the road to a Power Wheels car made for children. The kids car can withstand hitting a tree at its highest speed whereas an adult car cannot. But if heavily damaged, you can replace and repair much of the adult car but can’t with the child’s Power Wheels car.
As to your last question…Im unsure about open source boards that could handle that, but it’s possible. I do believe that Hollywood movie studios utilize quadcopters that have the capability like you’re describing, where you can control the drone and the camera separately, but not aware of any consumer or open source drones that can do that.
But this hobby is very unique and new things happen every day, so never say never.
Depends on what you want it for, honestly.
If your daughter is a smaller child, like under 13 years old, a cheap drone from Alibaba isn’t a horrible choice since kids just want to have some fun flying a thing around the house or in the backyard. And if it does crash and break, it’s not too much to get upset by because it was so cheap and your expectations are lower. You can get these for very cheap, as little as $5 from Chinese websites or $20 on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend spending anything over $60 for one of these types of toy drones, though. Some don’t have cameras, and others that do will have very poor quality and the camera will be static, meaning you can’t move it around to see other directions while flying.
My beef with the commercials that were tricking my uncle was that they make it out to be that it’s more than a toy, when it’s just a toy. If they advertised it more accurately, I wouldn’t have seen a problem with it. I bought one of those as my first drone but knew it was cheap and just a toy and then gradually bought more as time progressed.
As far as something more complex, it’s a bit more tricky to explain unless you spend some time doing some research and it can get a bit lengthy for me to explain here. I’d recommend checking out reviews and watching some YouTube videos on recommendations to get a familiarity with what may be most suitable here for something more complex than a toy.
But the gist of it is that if you want something a little more high quality, reliable, better camera, better range, etc., then you have a few options. But to summarize: for the typical drones with fancy features and easy to use for beginners, you’ll typically want to go with a name brand like DJI but these can be somewhat pricey, as little as $150 used and sky is the limit brand new, depending on what you want. For most consumers, average pricing will be around $400, more or less for one of these.
Then there is another category which is more classified as quadcopters than drones but still the same basic concept of 4 motors that allow the device to hover and move around and also use a camera. Most of these are very specialized, similar to RC cars and you’ll find these at hobby shops. Most people use these for racing or doing stunts. Used will run you as little as $100 and sky is the limit here depending on what you want, but average for most people is $400. You can buy kits or the quadcopter preassembled and then also buy the battery and remote separately, which is nice, kind of like building a computer where you can take your time and spend money on a longer period of time. Buy the board or even 3D print one, then buy the controller board, the motors, the blades, etc. and assemble it for flying. These don’t usually have the fancy features like flying back home on a single button press or when the battery gets low or tracking capabilities. The cameras are also usually static, in one place and don’t have gimbals which allow the camera to look one side or the other. The batteries also usually only last for under 10 minutes, which doesn’t seem like a lot but usually is enough for a single round and you’ll typically carry multiple batteries to switch out as needed when out and about. But the higher horsepower and camera quality is what is usually eating the battery time.
She’s 5, LOL. Also, she seemed primarily interested in it as a camera platform rather than racing or stunts.
Any opinions on this? I nearly impulse-bought it for about $40 just before Black Friday, but (aside from coming to my senses about a drone for a 5-year-old) I was a bit leery of the “smartphone app” control scheme, especially since I’m pretty militant about avoiding proprietary Android apps in general (and that goes double for ones for controlling weird off-brand hardware). I guess what they describe as “manual adjustable camera” is the “static” camera thing you’re warning me about? I can see how it’d be inconvenient to not be able to look both ahead and at the ground without having to tilt the whole aircraft/fly forward.
I have to admit, being a big fan of Free Software and somebody who fancies myself a bit of a DIYer, the idea of building it myself appeals to me. Of course, I’m also cheap and I doubt I’d be able to compete with a preassembled Chinese toy drone on price (unless I disqualify all the app-controlled ones, maybe), so I’m not sure. Any advice re: controller boards and software, and other components? I ran across this article from 2019 just now, but for all I know it might be obsolete/incomplete/written by somebody with weird opinions.
The biggest other concern I have is crashes, since I can only assume a small child pilot will be bad at it. Do drones often, you know, survive, or should I expect to be replacing parts and/or the whole thing relatively often? Should I lean towards DIY and 3D-printing because of the repairability factor?
I think I might be coalescing on something like “a very cheap 1080p or better camera drone (as opposed to FPV racing quad) DIY kit, but controlled with a proper standalone transmitter, or at least a Free Software Android app.” Not sure such a thing exists, but I think it’s what I want. (Do they make open-source flight controller PCBs with extra channel(s) to support controlling a [(maybe) pan - tilt - (maybe) zoom] camera, or would that kick me into the start-from-scratch-with-an-Arduino realm? For that matter, can a movable drone camera even be had as an off-the-shelf part?)
Hey sorry about my late reply.
The one you linked from Amazon seems like a decent one for a child around her age. Not too complicated but you bring up a good point about the smartphone aspect of it that I had forgotten.
You likely would want to avoid any of these that require a smartphone to use especially since they’re coming from China and not something you may be fond of having on your phone. Additionally, and this could go one of two ways, it will require the use of a smartphone to use the drone for her which has a pro and con depending on how you look at it.
Pro that she can’t just up and take the drone out flying on her own whenever she pleases which you may want that control. Con that it will require her to use your phone any time she wants to go along with it.
Additionally, I don’t like this because over time, those apps can be lost to time whether it be it’s no longer available for download or lost to which app you need because you no longer have the manual to know which app was required. But you do have that same thing happening to a physical controller, so it’s up to preference on that.
As to the durability…I actually have to say that for the cheaper toy drones like the way you linked, they often can take quite a beating that my more expensive, more hobby adult drones cannot handle. Most of these cheaper toys are made of plastic but unibody design and most often will have guards around the propellers which can help protect them if bumping into walls or other obstacles like trees. My first cheap toy drone was like this and handled a lot of abuse from my first few flights of learning how to fly.
The more expensive ones can be prone to more breakage, but the trade off is that this is because those pieces were designed to be removed and replaced, so repairability is a thing. Just know that on the one you shared, it doesn’t seem to have prop guards which could be a problem here and you may want to see if you can find one that does have propeller guards so when she inevitably hits a tree or a wall (it will happen), the chances of the propellers being destroyed is much less than with this design where the propellers are exposed.
Which brings me to another point of safety…the more expensive drone propellers can take a finger or at least do some serious damage requiring an ER visit if you were to stick your finger in while the propellers are turning. The toy drones have less of a chance of this but the risk of injury is still there. Having the propeller guards can help to avoid this for children so they’re less likely to be injured in this or similar ways.
The cheaper toys are not designed in the same way. If the propeller gets damaged, then there’s not much hope in getting a replacement, sorry to say.
You could think of it as comparing a life size car on the road to a Power Wheels car made for children. The kids car can withstand hitting a tree at its highest speed whereas an adult car cannot. But if heavily damaged, you can replace and repair much of the adult car but can’t with the child’s Power Wheels car.
As to your last question…Im unsure about open source boards that could handle that, but it’s possible. I do believe that Hollywood movie studios utilize quadcopters that have the capability like you’re describing, where you can control the drone and the camera separately, but not aware of any consumer or open source drones that can do that.
But this hobby is very unique and new things happen every day, so never say never.