Parrot AR drone propeller balance, improved video quality. DeltaFlyer2012 2012-06-20 | After reading that the AR drone propellers were out of balance, I decided to balance them and make this video showing how simple it is (there's a few videos on here already for general prop balancing, but here's the AR drone prop). Simply remove the circlips (making sure they don't fly away) and propeller. Hang the prop from a thin horizontal metal rod and at small quantities of tape to the light end until it's balanced. I used very sticky electrical tape, but it might come off, so perhaps a coating of varnish would also help keep it on, although this might unbalance the prop again. I'll see how long it lasts without. I found the video quality from the front camera had improved, although still not great, it seems slightly less blurred when flying (sorry, I don't have a direct comparison to show).
Parrot AR Drone 2.0 critical issue, $70 pinion gear!! DeltaFlyer2012 2012-07-15 | This pinion gear easily falls off and can cost up to $70 to replace!! The original AR Drone had a nice hard wearing, pretty firmly fitted brass pinion gears on the motor and there are almost no issues reported regarding this. However in there infinate wisdom, Parrot decided to replace this pinion with a plastic gear. Firslty, every time you use the Drone, you'll notice a layer of dust around the gear, which is actually from the plastic pinion quickly wearing away. But that's not the worst of it. As you can see in the video, these pinions are VERY loosely fitted to the motor shaft. You can easily pull them off with your fingers. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but in the event of a crash, the thing which usually breaks first is the propeller shaft (which is made extremely weak). Once this breaks and the propeller gear comes off, the pinion gear often flies off too. There are several reports in forums saying this has happened. It's very unlikely you'll find this tiny pinion once it falls off as it's so small. Now, you'd expect a part such as this to be readily available for replacement wouldn't you? Not so, firstly the pinion itself is very unusual having 8 teeth, 5mm with 1mm shaft. You'll not find an equivalent part anywhere. No problem, just order it from Parrot right? Ha, no chance, you actually have to buy the entire motor unit and control circuit board for around $50 plus $20 delivery!! So I ask you, why did Parrot replace a perfectly good brass pinion with a plastic one which wears quickly and easily falls off? I'll let you decide! Just to rub salt in the wound, when the prop shaft breaks (or bends which they often do), you'll not be able to purchase a single replacement shaft, no, you'll have to buy 4 shafts and 4 gears for around $20+ postage). One small crash could easily cost $100 to fix 2 minor parts, which are actually worth less than 50 cents. That's quite a money spinner.
Modified Parrot AR Drone 2.0 DeltaFlyer2012 2012-07-06 | Here's my current mods to my AR Drone 2.0: Motor heat sinks On/off switch (left side) Sealed bearings Motor filters Tie Wrap landing feed Vents in top hull 2400mAh 140g Lipo (22mins flight time) Balanced props 2x Blue LED lights and 3x strobe lights Remote controlled 'beeping' find attached underneath hull Front camera angled down 10 degrees TP-link wifi extender giving more than 200m range
Parrot AR drone 2.0 out of control, lost connection DeltaFlyer2012 2012-06-19 | This is my first upload, but wanted to post it as I spent a lot of money on this product and it's meant to be much better than the original with respect to control, but as you can see, this is not the case. Sorry about the video quality, it was hard to control the thing whilst filming it and my phone, but you get the idea. I have great difficulty connecting to the drone and it simply isn't possible near any other 2.4GHz source, either wifi, RF CCTV or RF alarms. I have to go at least 300m from any buildings to get a connection. I have tried many things such as different phones, reseting, etc etc. The main problem though is what happens when it loses the connection. This can happen when it gets more than 40-50m away or just randomly. I've had the drone 3 days and have had several cases of lost connection shown on the screen, despite it also showing a full wifi signal and the phone remaining connected and being over 300m from any buildings in an open field. However, critcally, on none of these occasions did it do a controlled landing, which I thought was the main new feature of the 2.0 due to the reported 1.0 fly-aways. The first time it was only about 20m away and it simply cut power and plummeted out of the sky. Fortunately it was only 3m up and survived. In every case since then, it simply stays where it is and doesn't attempt to land. This is ok if it within 6m of the ground where the auto pilot can control it (although it can still drift way off), but above this it'll just move with the wind. As you can see from the video testing in my house, it loses connection despite the full wifi signal. It doesn't attempt to land at all, it just hovers. Also, you can't see it, but there is no way to exit the application in this state (pressing the back soft key) and no way to stop the drone. The only way I found was to tilt it over so far that it cuts out. The first time I grabbed one of the bumper rings, but it twisted and the propeller chopped into it (you can hear the noise), so I grabbed the base and tilted it 90 degrees, after several seconds it finally cut out. So the fly away issues have clearly not been resolved with the 2.0 drone. Once the connection is lost it's gone, unless you can reconnect quick, which you can't as you can't exit the application. I think this is very poor, considering I paid double the 1.0 price and this major issue is not resolved. Also, forget the advantage of the 720p video, it's out of focus and appalling quality. The lens has been glued into place so you can't adjust the focus and you can't distinguish large text from more than a few cm away. Thanks for viewing.
