Gadgetory

with how fast the quadcopter and drone market is developing we might have to get used to hearing this but the 3d robotics solo is the most advanced flying machine we've yet piloted and is going to make a lot of enthusiasts happy just like the personal rig update 2015 project that I'll be kicking off this weekend drop a like if you're interested in seeing what kind of harebrained scheme I come up with this time Corsair delivers real mech or nothing with their new strafe mechanical keyboard featuring genuine German made Cherry MX key switches click on this spot right here to learn more we're gonna start with the tour of the remote actually much like the parrot bebop 3dr has opted for a controller with an on-board computer that acts as a communications hub so your phone or seven-inch class tablet fits in the spring-loaded mount at the top and connects via Wi-Fi to the solo link Wi-Fi network that is broadcasted by this then using a pair of antennas on the back of the unit it maintains a shockingly crisp and responsive video feed from the GoPro camera that is mounted to the front of the drone now of course physics is a thing and out at 250 feet or so the adaptive quality of the feed does go down and you will see some hitching but at that kind of range you probably shouldn't be piloting first-person view through the trees speeder bike style anyway and it's definitely good enough to give you some idea of what the camera is seeing up there also back at the back of the remote is the micro HDMI output that can be hooked up to a head mounted display or anything with an HDMI input and pan and tilt controls for the GoPro compatible three axis gimbal mount that's coming very soon and boy are we ever excited about that on the left is a plug for the included controller charger then we get to the business end here the sticks do the usual things left for yaw and elevation and right for a forward backward and strafing but then there's some cool stuff here to the a and B buttons can be bound through the app to various flight modes so we'll cover those late returned home has a dedicated button that puts the drone at about 40 feet then slowly and very stately brings it back to where it took off pause solo X is a virtually break power is pretty self-explanatory and fly handles automatic takeoff and landing the app which I just mentioned is pretty straightforward and other than some flakiness with the live video feed that we think we've resolved by connecting to Wi-Fi first then launching the app on the phone seems to be stable on both iOS and Android right out of the gate unusual and impressive it allows you to see your GPS location overlaid on a map update the firmware record the videos transmitted from the solo to your phone directly to your camera roll adjust in-flight responsiveness anywhere from you know the drone barely moves when you push the sticks to oh it's a little fast for me and I'm going to turn it back down to medium and even allows you to enable advanced flight modes that don't lean on the drones onboard GPS to keep it where it's supposed to be but one of the things I actually like most about the both the app and the display in the middle of the controller is that you can find all the information you need like controller and solo battery life altitude airspeed distance between the two units oh and on top of that it talks to you when something bad happens like if the battery is low absolutely fantastic alright so I haven't actually left much time to talk about the solo itself have I let's go quick then inside the really cool box that could easily act as a carry case you'll find the solo six propellers so you'll have one extra of each of the two types in case you crash the massive 5200 milliamp hour battery that keeps this puppy in flight for over 20 minutes a charger for that and the GoPro mount but to find the coolest things about the solo we have to look a little closer than the shiny and matte black top that I personally think looks great not that that matters when it's supposed to be flying above you anyway and check out the bottom each propeller arm has colored LEDs for orientation assistance the landing gear is strong but flexible so it shouldn't snap very easily and there's not one but two mounts here for extra stuff one gimbal mount and one accessory mount which 3dr is encouraging developers to create products for some of the stuff in the queue is an LED flashlight and a parachute for safely flying over people sick all right so let's talk about flight now then she handles as well as 3dr says no flyaways no unexpected behavior the most stable descents I've yet encountered even within what I would describe as very noticeable but not unpleasant gusts of wind and in spite of the weight of this puppy just generally very good behavior in the air as long as you don't do anything dumb like forget that you're set to the slowest possible turning speed or set it to orbit you when there's an obstacle in the default 20 meter radius it managed to be effortless enough that Brandon having never flown an RC airborne vehicle before was able to watch 20 minutes of 3d ARS flight academy videos which I recommend by the way and operated out of the box while also not being boring for someone like me who while I'm anything but an expert has logged dozens of hours in the air with quads and planes but let's talk about pre-programmed flight patterns one of the big selling points of the solo along with the f-word which I never recommend counting on so here's what it does today a couple of the modes selfie and cable cam could be performed by a good drone operator in his or her sleep both are activated in the air selfie allows both an A and B point to be set with the default at 50 meters so you activate it with the button and the drone flies away backwards away from you then swoops back in towards you have a predetermined speed for a really dramatic looking shot and cable cam pretty much just goes from one point to another as though the drone was operating on a cable you can control yah and if you had one you'd be able to control the gimbal but that's it two of the other modes would be difficult to impossible to do well for any but the most skilled drone operators orbit and follow both of these are also activated in flight and rely on the target being orbited or followed to carry the controller and the mobile device that's connected to it orbit worked as expected goes around you and keeps the camera pointed at you follow seems to have a three to four second delay when the target changes direction and some shakiness that would definitely benefit from stabilization but it's a very good start and on that stabilization note I guess we can make our way into the conclusion for this video where I will have to address the glaring omission in the rest of everything that I've said quality of the in-flight recorded video well thanks to the close partnership with GoPro even without a gimbal our Hero 3 plus Black Edition delivered IMO better than that horrible bundled camera on the three fixed DQ x3 in spite of the fact that that one had a gimbal but that doesn't mean it's great or even really usable for anything other than real-time monitoring or hey that's some cool footage thanks to its weight and advanced onboard electronics Solo is shockingly stable in flight but it's still in flight and the $400 gimbal is in my mind a required accessory if you want to get the most out of flight modes like follow in orbit or if you're using the solo for anything I've been going out and flying for fun so expect to see a follow-up video once that's available where we discuss its performance and whether 3dr has managed to deliver on the f-word promise through the development of first and third party accessories and even perhaps through the availability of things like mounts for black magics new super tiny camera which it's rumoured might be light enough to be pulled by this puppy as it stands now the solo is impressive in almost every way flight time performance build quality GoPro compatibility and the fact that you can get a live feed from the GoPro instead of some goofy camera but of course that comes at a cost and with the gimbal this puppy's going to set you back well over a thousand US dollars but what won't cost a thousand US dollars is crunchyroll the site created by anime fans for anime fans they offer the most current episodes of new shows straight from Japan like Kuroko's basketball 3 and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and a large collection of the most pop anime series like Naruto and one piece and all the content on their site is professionally subtitled so head over to crunchyroll.com slash Linus and sign up for a 30 day trial yes 30 days you heard it here first folks actually you heard it here many times before because this isn't the first time I've talked about printer roll yeah 30 day free trial our link gives you a whole month of anime completely ad free you get 1080p streaming new episodes of shows straight from Japan within an hour of their premiere and you can stream it anywhere like on your phone tablet game console or whatever else the case may be if you like Premium Membership after the 30 days it's only 7 bucks a month to continue so it's crunchyroll.com / - and check it out thanks for watching guys if this video suck do you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit the like button it helps us a lot or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon buying a cool t-shirt like this one or with a direct monthly contribution through the community forum now that you've done all those things you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button in the top right corner to check out the video where I take g-sync and free sync and test them with a high-speed camera to see which one delivers the best responsiveness in gaming