FPV Reviews: The DroneKeeper Mini 

Great you found me - stick around. Hey, did I just see you fly a submerged quad out of a bath filled with water... I'm already liking your content too :D

Spoon FPV lol... Seems a lot of people stopping by lately lol

I purchased 3 after seeing your review, flew today using one.

7demo7 Hey look so it is lol... I also first saw this on your channel back with the old version. I also have a review of this and yes it's great! Hopefully they'll come out with one that can work with higher voltage so it can handle voltage spikes on 4S.

I've got a fairly good record of my batteries staying in - but on that occasion when they do fly out - much pain is caused :)

I always figured LOS guys had much more of a head start finding stuff, but given a big model can be seen in the air easily 500m away, and won't necessarily crash straight down - I can see your point

I'll find out about the underwater credentials - I know how you like to have your quads rescued by divers :)

haha its worth finding out as the ESC's don't beep for long under water if a short happens ;)

Not waterproof, and they don't recommend RainXing it or anything similar... you might just have to stay out of the drink !

Don't give up, sometimes things show up after a few days. One time a friend lost a camera off his plane in the snow and we found it 6 MONTHS later ! Despite being a bit rusty, it still worked :)

niz76 oh wow that really sucks.. The Lizard is a blast to fly

As soon as the beeper starts going, then it must be manually switched off. In the case of a (very still) hover you could change the motion sensor trigger from 30 seconds to 1/5/8/10 minutes

I had kind of heard it as well - but was wondering if I'd imagined it. The wind kept cutting it the sound off to my ear, but the mic seemed to have picked it up better

Thank-you, and welcome along. I have a bunch more trackers still to do !

Thanks for liking

Nope - unless someone is suddenly reselling them - order it from the website I listed in the description

Did some testing with the Loc8tor today, few more bits to do and then the video will be up. Some aspects of it a really good, and some not so good. So there's no one clear winner there... it's going to depend on the sort of places you fly. (some edits to come from Sundays flying as well... I just need more hours in the day)

It is on the website, just a bit hidden - 6g. I've not weighed it myself as my kitchen scales aren't that accurate, but that sounds about right.

Can do a video review on youtube it for your phantom3 i have advance model i wanna see where best bet put it at on landing gear.

I have the pro version, I'm hoping to place it under its belly as my thoughts are, if it's on the legs, I might loose a little range, I do like to push it out quite far. 👍

Many - depends which one you mean :) Canon EOS M3 indoors, GoPro 4 Silver outdoors, and an HS1177 as the FPV camera on the quad

I looked at the instructions - so can do it, but the simplicity in it's default wireless form I think it it's best feature. I guess if I just had a single quad, then I might wire it into the battery, but as I will move this between a lot of models, it doesn't fit in as well. That said, I might do something else with one of them in some of my planes

I view this Dronekeeper product as the ideal thing for a race-style small 200mm ish quad. Something you get in the air quickly and fly around trees and do silly things with. A GPS tracker is a bit big, and can take time to check it's got a valid signal etc. So that is more appropriate on something larger that you might fly further away

Mavic spotting and rescue mission ?

We went and got the Mavic, but it was way to windy for it, good for gliding, but the wing went down on the negative side of the cliff, so I couldn't even put the camera on the glider. probably in Ireland by now. lol

Yeah - there's always the possibility of forgetting to turn it on. If you notice on that second flight, I took off and then came back as I couldn't remember if I had turned it on or not... happily i could see the light flashing :)

Nice - over any larger distance (and as long as the lipo has stayed plugged in) I find using radio telemetry and a direction antenna on my goggles a great way of tracking something down. The GPS thing is great, but I feel overkill for the little things. A case of getting the right tools for the right models. I feel your pain, getting through a rapeseed crop is like swimming through treacle

Brian Slator Yes. According to the site the firmware should allow you to configure between 30 secs, 1 min, 5 mins, 8 mins or 10 mins. I should have one with this newer firmware so I'll try and get 5 mins tomorrow just to double check that's the case

Just tested it by changing to 5 mins - works well. You need this little tool they sell for $0.60, or you can make one from an old servo lead - but it's easy to change the settings using it

Got a couple on the way

The one I hold up to the camera at the start is the Wii Wing 2. See more about it in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-utN82K2YM7A.html

You can change between 30 seconds (the default), 1 minute, 5 minutes, 8 minutes or 10 minutes. It requires a little tool (they sell them for $0.60, or you can make one from an old servo lead) that connects to the signal pin and ground pin and then you tap another pad which changes the settings. I just changed my timer to 5 minutes and it all works as expected. Take a look at this PDF for instructions - www.nichemall.net/downloads/DroneKeeper_Mini_User_Timer_Setting_FW2.0.pdf If you are finishing more than 10 minutes ahead of a regular race - then it must have pitstops for new lipos or something :)

Thanks buddy that's just what I wanted to know. Thanks that's brilliant, I'll get a couple then.

Sorry to hear that - but don't give up, these things have a habit of being found by someone.... you did have some contact details on it didn't you ? Hopefully you'll pick one up for the next one you fly

Yes, unless you are going to go on the micro end of things (say, less than 180mm size) in which case it may become a bit large for the frame, I do think it's very useful on any quad - and I put this on all my flights now. I don't think I could assign my accent to a particular place, I'd describe it as a "southern english", although I was born in the north, so up until the age of 5 it was very different (or so I'm told at least)

Yes - it's in the description box above, but also here www.nichemall.net/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50

Yes, and it's not bad as a last resort (as they are so cheap) The problem in this idea is that you can't really predict how long it'll take before your voltage drops low enough for it to start sounding... or if it'll stay plugged in the lipo

Isn't the chance of the voltage alarm unplugging and the dronekeeper unplugging the same.Also the voltage alarms have two buzzers compared to the dronekeeper's one buzzer(meaning its louder).And if you crash your drone by the time you get to the area where your drone crashed the battery will probably be low already, if not just have a little sit and listen for the beeps.

Yes - there's a power on alarm which you can set to 30/60/90 minutes, so even if motion continues it will start the alarm off. Nice to think they had thought of that one/

Brilliant! Although I suspect they added it more to protect the battery in case you forget to turn it off, but it should solve the problem I mentioned nicely.

That's the Wii Wing 2, see this video for details ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-utN82K2YM7A.html

Thanks :)

Ah, you mean this one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pvVagp_xKp8.html :) It's a good product, well done for getting one - no more worries when you crash

Sounds awesome - let me know when you've got it ready. It doesn't sound to dissimilar to some of the 433 rx's that can send out an SOS tone that you can use directionally on a handheld radio - but a standalone solution would be cool

Ouch - I'm distressed hearing about the amount of people that lost quads in the wild. I've smashed so much stuff up, but I've always managed to find my things... .even if they are in pieces. Hope this saves you next time !

Ordering one right now, lol. Little bit of added insurance

Someone else commented that it cost him £20.80 delivered. More stock is due at the end of the month apparantly

I will have to get one as soon as they restock,, I spent over 3 hours searching for my Tricopter that dissapeared in a local corn field

They've just updated the mini to the micro here www.nichemall.net/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=54 I'll be getting hold of one soon to test it out, but essentially they now ship without a battery in order to get around the high shipping costs they were forced into

This certainly isn't a "fix-all" situation. For me, this is your 200ish sized race-style quad. Something where you generally fly within 500m of yourself, but often put it in the situation where you are going to crash into trees/undergrowth etc. As far as the "what happens if it's in a tree branch in the wind". Aside from the motion sensor alarm, there's a power-on timer as well (selectable 30/60/90mins) so after you power on this long, it'll start beeping anyway. For long range flying, it's less useful... it depends on the circumstances. If you have GPS co-ords on you OSD, then you can get a decent last known position and go from there... but depending on what you have and what happened you could of course be miles away from where your last good know position was. GPS trackers are fine as long as they have a good GPS signal (not upside down) and cell coverage - not always great out in the back and beyond. There are low-frequency trackers that works over a long distance and you can use a directional yago style antenna for. Fixes the cell/gps issues, but price goes up again. If there is the perfect one-fits-all solution out there, then I haven't seen it yet :)

The Dronekeeper mini, for me at least, is a great product for your race quad style model. Usually you are max 200-300m away, and often going through trees where you can crash into overgrown stuff and lose easily. There are more involved products that work as radio beacons, there are existing GPS trackers... but these are larger and require more effort to setup - so they need a larger model, where you'd install on it and leave it there. So it's really a case of what's best depending on the situation you fly in

Search Ebay for TK102B gps tracker, about £30, work perfect, been using one for years Cheers Steve

stephen you should mention that a sim card and active phone service to it is needed. i have one but haven't used it yet.

Weird - wouldn't think it would give any noise on the frequency ranges that this would affect anything. I don't have the right sort of analyser to test this. I didn't really see this as a product for a phantom/mavic - more of a race-style quad where you are going to put them into the trees/ground a lot. I would hope if you phantom went down you'd have a good last GPS co-ordinate of where it happened, with a nice visual map of where it would be on your screen ?

Haha, not sure if Chad or myself come off worse in that comparison :)

in my best respect you are each your own but the good hair and look of the glasses did it.

ben hager If I remember correctly it does also have a timer feature I believe it's set to 30 min stock

an alarm will sound after selectable 30/60/90 minutes according to their website in the exact case you described :)

It's an MXP230, with arm extensions on to allow 6" props

It's got a power on timer, so will beep after 30/60/90 minutes (selectable) whether it's moving or not. Nice you've got something that works for you, but if I had something that constantly beeps like that, I think I'd smash with it a rock after a few flights :D

Hehe yes godo to know it also does the 30 min etc come on - thats the ideal feature. I do a lot of flying low level to film crop circles. there is always a immediate risk of downing into crop and it can take 1-2 hours to find a drone without a beeper. Some people have lost their drones forever in crop fields. So I prefer the constant beep thats always on because if it goes down I can get it back in minutes... personal tastes. Yes it irrirates the hell out of me for a few seconds before I take off - but when its way off its not even possible to hear it. ;-) Thanks for the video - well worth noting this device. I will pass the video on to droneuser magazine online if you are ok with that... as this is an essential device.

I wouldn't have thought so, but I'll check back with the manufacturers, just to see if you could effectively treat one with rainX or something. Of course, sound travels very differently underwater, and so even if it worked - the sound isn't going to travel through the water and out into the air very well.

The light would help underwater, and believe it or not the sound too.

Doesn't work underwater (heard back from the NicheTek guys today) they also don't recommend trying to waterproof it, or putting it in something as the sound will muffle. If you are going to fly over water where you stand a chance of going in, there are these devices that self inflate when dropped into water (they are for boat owners to put their keys on, but have seen them used in RC as well)

I've seen those too. They rely on being right side up. Thanks for getting back to me.

This is now the most asked question. There's a power timer, so after 30/60/90 minutes (switchable) the beeper will go off anyway - whether it's moving or not

Haha, for being the first person to ask, you can have some. Unless you are just taking the piss of course, in which case *shakes fist and curses* Otherwise, PM me via youtube

CurryKitten Great, thanks ... will figure out how to do that ... not taking the piss, love your channel 🖒

Hint: Goto my channel, get to the About tab and click on "send message"

CurryKitten Lol ... done )

Aha! Great!.... I had heard, seen, ... about the drone keeper already... and unfortunately today I managed to loose my 5" Martian II on a field in long grass (and wasn't recording DVR... grrr), because the battery ejected. I actually ordered 4 now, since the price beats a complete build... and want to give some to friends too!!! Tomorrow morning, I'll go back to do a 2nd search, and still hope to find it :(

Interesting story - thanks for posting. Did they offer you another one, or a refund ? The two I have had had a fair amount of crashing (I lent one to a friend who hasn't actually made a successful landing yet !) but still going fine. I'll keep my eye on them though

I would have liked to have used some test subjects - but I was on my own today

HumanAndGames HD Turned my volume up all the way, and it’s possible it could be my imagination, but I think I can hear it too

Some other people have mentioned that - I suppose it depends where you fly. In my experience, people have been very helpful, always keen to help return anything they find. It's one of the reasons I try and encourage people to put contact details on their stuff. Sure, you are going to get the odd person who thinks "finders keepers", the the majority seem to have good intentions

Good info on the final price - it's not cheap certainly, but IMO it'll pay for itself :) No FPV buddies to go in with to save postage ?

Agree, it's worth the price if you are able to locate even elements of the quad (assuming a bad crash). Probably only props cost less than this thing ... No FPV buddies nearby, but I'm just starting out. Plan to join an RC group soon.

Just had a look at your videos bud, just to see where your flying from, I,m down near lands end. Check out fpvhub.com its a good place to fined fliers. G

Seconded - the best forum for UK FPVers :)

huh ?

Where did you have it mounted - do you think it got squashed in the impact of the crash ?

Yeah - pretty easy to put in place somewhere on a plane. I put one in the canopy of the ZOHD Dart I reviewed last week

Looks like a great system, but as you up the usable range like this, the complexity and price also shoot up. Looks to be a great system if you are flying medium to long range planes, but feels very much like overkill for your 200-size racing quad.

CurryKitten yes very true.. im using it for my phantom 4 pro and typhoon h pro.. i understand what you are saying with the price range.. great video by the way