Hubsan X4 Quadcopter

[Bravedan 106]

Well, my X4 arrived on Friday and to say I was disappointed with it was an understatement. Despite being well used to Quads I found it difficult to control even for simple flying around at slow speed, and impossible to turn or pirouette without it drifting out backwards on stopping, needing full forward stick and an agonising wait to get forward motion back (if you had the space! ). It would fly, but really poor control compared to the truly excellent Twister Quad, even when rates wound up (setting rates/sensitivity is in the rather poor Chinglish manual). At this time I only had the one battery, so testing was very drawn out. I took it to the Indoor I ran on Fri night so much more space available but it was no better there. :'(

 

A crash kit which includes another battery arrived Sat a.m. so I took it to an Indoor last night (Sat). No better........

 

Someone there asked what I thought and when I said it would not even pirouette properly he instantly said there was an undocumented calibration mode, and said what to do. We tried this and it did not work!! He then rang someone who works for Ripmax who confirmed what we were trying was exactly the right thing to do, but several more tries, no good. Then a youngster turned up with one, asking what we were doing as his was trying to drift the wrong way for stick moves. He'd not altered any settings from supply. His was worse than mine and also would not end turns or piros correctly.

 

The Calibration process worked first time on his and it then flew well. However, tried mine again several times but no luck.

 

What we were being told to do (on Mode 2) was:-

 

Power up and allow to bind

Press down on left stick to operate switch under it and hold it on

Wriggle right stick left/right

"Eye" lights will flash and calibration done!!

 

Getting back home (late) I went hunting and found in US forums that others were calibrating it differently, viz:-

 

Power up and allow to bind.

Press and release right under stick switch to put it into "Expert" mode (says Expert in tiny letters on LCD and red LED flashes)

Hold full right rudder on left stick (care - no throttle as it is live)

Wriggle right stick left/right

"Eye" lights will flash and calibration done!!

 

This worked on mine and it now flies MUCH better, piros being flat and ending in hover. :af

 

There is nothing in the Ripmax Notifications section of their website at the time of writing this, though they do clearly know.

 

One wonders how many are getting returned to the poor shopkeepers to sort or replace, or just thrown in a cupboard as too difficult................. : :

 

Hope this helps some people.......................it saved mine from being thrown across the room...........

[Gerard 10]

Got one before Christmas and have been flying it indoors over the break.

 

Haven't had any significant problems with it so far but it is tending to drift a bit. Thought it was just me or unequal prop wear and tear. I will try the calibration routine and see if it makes any difference.

 

Just calibrated the controls using the second method above (Expert mode) which worked fine. One thing - make sure you have all the trims at neutral before you calibrate, otherwise you get some interesting results!

 

My one seems to be a bit more stable now but still drifts a bit. I assume this is due to some imbalance between the props which are still the originals and have had a fair degree of impact wear and tear.

 

[Bravedan 106]

I have had five people come back to me today from posts to other Forums to say that they did the second calibration method, it worked perfectly, and the improvement they gained ranged from "much much better" to " a complete transformation".

 

Additionally, the calibration can be used to ensure the Quad hovers on the spot in trim with NO electronic trim offsets which stabilises it even more.

 

Centre the trims before doing it on a flat levelled surface. Fly it and see which way it drifts (if at all).....then prop it up with paper or card depending on how bad it drifts and redo it. Trial and error but still quite quick, and worth the effort I think.

[Bravedan 106]

Lancaster Models have stock of the currently rare "crash kit" which includes four sets of blades, etc, etc.

[Peter Royall 47]

how much do these tormentuous beasts cost, please?

[Bravedan 106]

how much do these tormentuous beasts cost, please?

 

 

On the face of it, you might think that's a silly question, after all, all you have to do is type "Hubsan X4" into Google.

 

However, it's NOT!!!

 

Firstly, the Hubsan X4 is currently being imported into the UK bay at least three differing "middle men", the main one actually being CML, which brings confusion (and variety) to both pricing and what is available in backup.

 

Secondly, there is the Traxxas QR-1, which is the same base product from the same manufacturer but with differences in the overall package, being sold with a dual charger (though still USB), two batteries, and differing colours/graphics.

 

To complicate matters further, the Hubsan has a "Crash Kit" which consists of FOUR complete sets of blades (16 blades), the complete body set of two mouldings, and a battery.

 

You'll note I'm avoiding links to or stating prices, this is because prices and availability are varying by the day, so it would be wrong to state a best price source!!

 

So, you will have to warm up a search engine Pete, but now you know why and how to interpret the results!!

[Trevor 25]

All the links I look at are selling Hubsan X4 mini or micro Quadcopter. Are these the same thing or is there a "full size" as well as mini/micro versions?

[Gerard 10]

Got mine from Robotbirds for £42.00 delivered.

 

Also checked with them that all units they sell are mode 2, just in case!

[Bravedan 106]

http://www.buzzflyer.co.uk/Micro-Quadcopter/Hubsan-X4-Quadcopter/p-178-2308/?gclid=CNzz9J3r4LQCFe7MtAodcnEA_A

 

http://www.kingslynnmodelshop.co.uk/p5156/Hubsan_X4_Mini_Quad_Copter_RTF_with_2.4Ghz_-_Back_Instock/product_info.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=xigen_shopping_feed&gclid=COWR9KTt4LQCFQzKtAodmzIA1g

 

and so you can see ALL Hubsan do....................

 

http://www.hubsan.com/

[Peter Royall 47]

Thankyou,

[Bravedan 106]

If the X4 has a bad side, the limiting USB Charge lead is it.

 

I bought a £1 shop mobile phone emergency power 4xAAA battery box and USB socket set for "field" away from computer charging which does work OK, but for best performance needs 1.5v alkaline cells rather than 1.2v rechargables to give enough voltage to work at the best rate possible.

 

Have also just obtained in the post today (good service overnight 1st class) a lead set (1x plug and 1 x socket) from www.rcpitstop.co.uk where they are sold for Losi micro cars as Part number LOSB0860 Connector Set Micro-T/B/DT @ £ 1.62, I bought two sets inc VAT and post for £5.65. This will enable most LiPo chargers to be used at appropriate setting.

 

WARNING - there is NO standard polarity and these units are wired opposing polarity colour coded to Hubsan, no big deal as long as you know/notice!!

 

I have used a JST red plug as per many indoor sized LiPos to make an adaptor lead to connect to std charger JST socket leads. I had some with silicone leads cut from old failed LiPos!

[Trevor 25]

Kingslynn modelshop has the hubsan quad for 29.99, in case anyone is wanting to buy one

 

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2

[Bravedan 106]

Kingslynn modelshop has the hubsan quad for 29.99, in case anyone is wanting to buy one

 

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

£29.90.....which is why I listed them above in the links, they adjust their pricing to their stock all the time.

 

 

It's a good product, and a steal for that little money, as long as you calibrate it on arrival!

[Bravedan 106]

The two I have are still flying, despite the school club members trying hard to break them every week.

 

Really an excellent product!!

[Bravedan 106]

 

Currently I have three of the early models, and one recent 107C model with four orientation LEDS and more importantly a full 1080HD camera built in.

 

This more recent little beast is really very very good. About the only criticism that can be levelled at it is that of necessity the camera is fixed to the body. This means that you have to be quite skilled at placing it as where it points is the camera direction with some fixed downwards deflection. Also when you have to move to forward flight, the camera view dips markedly.

 

However, learn to fly it smoothly (and don't use expert mode!) and with only slow motion movement the results are really quite acceptable.

 

Turning to the original three, well, two years on and innumerable 11-13 years olds "attention" (or lack of), they are still extant and flying. One needed a new motor recently and I took the opportunity to change the body which had the lower feet area damaged (like it for a long time) from the continual hard arrivals.

 

The more recent ones have better motors, not that there was anything major wrong with the old really, and a redesigned foot area with a resilient pad contact area, which is much better.

 

[Pilot Ben 28]

 

I have one and I love it...

If you put a bigger than responsible battery in, it works