In May 2018, the iDol UAV was officially launched into Xiaomi crowdfunding, and the ultra-low price of 999 yuan became the focus of attention. Although the price is low, in terms of function, the machine supports 1080P video recording. It is not only equipped with UAV positioning technologies such as streamer positioning and ultrasonic positioning, but also supports advanced functions such as gesture recognition and intelligent following. Although the iDol UAV is not expensive and compact, it seems to have complete functions. How does it actually perform?

appearance

As a consumer level portable UAV, the iDol UAV has no complicated assembly process. It is a complete machine with batteries removed after unpacking. They don't have many accessories. In addition to batteries and chargers, they also have a set of spare propellers.

After the battery is installed

The iDol UAV adopts a foldable design and is equipped with four rotors. The left and right wings can be manually rotated through the gear device at the main shaft to facilitate storage. The maximum rotation angle of the two wings is 90 °.

The battery of the iDol UAV is located at the main shaft of the fuselage, and the propeller is wrapped in the rack in a left-right distribution. The protruding rubber pad at the bottom of the fuselage is to protect the UAV fuselage when it lands. The ultrasonic positioning device and streamer positioning device can be clearly seen. The main color of the fuselage is gray, and the whole machine is made of high-strength engineering plastics.

camera

The camera of the iDol UAV is located at the front end of the main shaft of the fuselage. The camera can rotate up and down, and has a visual angle of 120 degrees.

The only key (power key) equipped with the machine body is located at the end of the machine spindle.

experience

The iDol UAV is not equipped with a physical remote controller. It downloads the FUNSNAP App and acts as the remote controller of the UAV through a mobile phone. At present, this kind of portable UAV products in the market basically use this mobile phone&remote controller solution.

For a UAV, introductory teaching is a necessary program, especially for many users who are new to the UAV, they still need to spend some time when they first use the UAV. In the iDol UAV App, users can view teaching videos by clicking on the newcomer guide. From the simplest battery installation, charging, switching on and off to the use of photography, video recording and other functions, video teaching is provided for new users to use easily.

Before use, you need to enter the settings to calibrate the sensor.

The main operation interface of the App is based on the image of the UAV. The default is the American joystick mode. The left joystick is ascending, descending, left-handed, right-handed, and the right joystick is forward, backward, left-handed, and right-handed. The top bar is some basic flight parameters: altitude, distance, speed, power, capacity space, GPS signal.

The bottom button on the left is one button takeoff and landing, and the top button is one button return. Then up is the virtual key that controls the up and down rotation of the camera. The right column has intelligent mode, flight settings, capture/video keys, and image library.

Some flight configurations of iDol UAV can be set at the flight settings on the top right. The gravity mode is to control the flight of the aircraft with the tilt angle of the mobile phone through the gravity sensor of the mobile phone. Headless mode controls the direction of the UAV based on the coordinates of the initial takeoff point to avoid misjudging the flight direction when the novice user controls the UAV steering.

At the same time, there are also two speed modes, fast and slow. If the novice user is using UAV for the first time, the author suggests using slow mode to learn. The American hand and the Japanese hand are two virtual remote control modes. The American hand controls the accelerator with the left hand, while the Japanese hand controls the accelerator with the right hand. The electronic fence function is to set the UAV's regional flight range to fly in the designated area.

Intelligent follow&gesture control

Although the price is only 999 yuan, the iDol UAV is equipped with intelligent following, gesture control and other functions.

Intelligent follow

After the smart follow function is enabled, the virtual joystick of the phone will disappear, and the user can directly box and select the person or object that needs to be followed intelligently on the screen. When the object moves, the UAV will also fly with it. However, it is worth noting that due to the limited speed of the portable small UAV, if the person/object following moves too fast, the UAV may be "lost with", which is a normal phenomenon.

Gesture control

In addition to the big move of "intelligent following", iDol also supports gesture control. After the gesture control is enabled, the user can still control the UAV through the virtual joystick. At this time, the camera needs to be turned to the gesture to be recognized. The user can control the landing of the UAV by making a palm gesture. The user can make a V-shaped gesture (the index finger and middle finger spread out in a V-shaped manner, and pose "yes") to achieve automatic shooting, This is especially suitable for occasions where self portraits are required. Multi person self portraits are performed by hovering the UAV at high altitude. Gesture control also makes self portraits of UAVs easier and simpler.

Shooting experience

For UAVs, shooting is naturally a very important link. In fact, this is not the first time for the author to contact this kind of portable small UAV. Some of the portable UAVs I have met before often have poor image transmission effect, which is not only reflected in the case of long distance, but also in the case of short distance. The measured distance of iDol UAV is about 30 meters, and the image transmission effect is smooth and mosaic free. However, if the distance is increased, their image transmission will be difficult.

Image transmission is indeed a very difficult problem for portable small UAVs. It is not only necessary to ensure the portability in size and weight, but also the high price. At the same time, it is impossible to achieve a strong image transmission effect in the current UAV industry. For iDol UAV, the author believes that it can ensure a good image transmission experience at a distance of about 30 meters, which can meet the user needs of this kind of portable UAV products. If users have higher requirements for image transmission and aerial photography, users should not consider this kind of UAV, but turn to medium and large UAV products.

IDol UAV live sample

IDol UAV live sample

In terms of photography, the iDol UAV supports 1080P resolution picture shooting and 1080P video recording. The overall effect is fairly good. There is not much noise, and it has a certain tolerance, which belongs to the normal level. As the iDol UAV adopts the design of a single axis PTZ, this design can prevent the jelly phenomenon and the picture shake caused by the wind to a certain extent. However, as the iDol UAV itself is not equipped with optical anti shake, the shooting experience will be reduced in case of strong wind.

The samples and videos taken by the iDol UAV can be viewed in the App gallery and downloaded to the mobile phone. There are three flight routes built into the app, namely, soaring, fading and 360 ° look around, which are also three classic UAV shooting methods. For novice users, you can select any of the three modes for video recording after turning on the camera recording. Basically, the effect of "blockbuster" will come out.

Hover&endurance

Hovering of portable UAV has always been a problem. The measured iDol UAV does have some unstable hovering conditions in strong wind, but if it is in a room with low wind or no wind, its hovering effect is acceptable. Because the portable small UAV is limited by its size and weight, its hovering effect is naturally inferior to that of medium and large UAVs, which is also normal.

In terms of endurance, the official endurance of the iDol UAV is 10 minutes. In actual use, it can really achieve the endurance effect of about 10 minutes. The author can maintain the endurance of 9-11 minutes in several flights. The 10 minute endurance may not seem long, but considering that this is a portable small UAV, the endurance level is actually above the average level compared with similar products. When the power is lower than 10%, iDol has no chance to prompt the user on the App interface that the power is low and remind the user to prepare to return.

summary

As the title of this article says, what kind of function should a 999 yuan UAV have? Intelligent follow, gesture control, streamer positioning&ultrasonic positioning, 10 minute flight endurance, 1080P video shooting, these are the answers given by iDol UAV. In the actual use process, the iDol UAV has no obvious shortcomings, and its performance is very balanced in all aspects. Compared with similar products, it has stronger configuration and richer functions, but its price is still lower. Although the sparrow is small and has all the internal organs, as a portable small UAV with a price of only 999 yuan, it basically has what it should have, and what it shouldn't have. The answer given by iDol UAV has surprised and surprised the author.