Well kudos to them for actually following through and bringing the product out. There's so many companies out there that would have just folded and left disappointment everywhere.
I remember when they announced it! I pre-ordered and did the $100 deposit. Then I met them at the CES in Las Vegas. It was some of the biggest red flag I ever had with a drone company! They were evasive, the demo unit was not flying, they were flying a weird prototype with no camera, the 2 sales guys didn't wanto to answer detailed questions, etc... I canceled my pre-order the first day of CES and received it back in a day. I'm glad I left the boat early enough not to have to deal with 2 years of issues with them...
Great review. I’ve had my Falcon V-Coptr for about 3 months now. Logged 12 hours. Like you, I helped crowd fund the project and felt sure my $100 deposit was gone forever after experiencing multiple delivery delays. I also own/fly a Mavic 2 Pro/Inspire 2. I don’t have the satellite connectivity issues you experienced. We both share the same opinion about the overly sensitive obstacle avoidance sensors. I generally fly with the OA off to smooth out the flying. My Falcon flys very smoothly and gracefully. I like the gimbal dial (upper left corner of the remote) and the EV dial (upper right corner of the remote). Very reminiscent on the M2P controller in this regard. Very quiet. Onlookers are very interested in this little flyer. The flyer comes off as a friendly drone … as opposed to the Inspire 2 that garners a completely different reaction (where are the first responders?? … or where’s the traffic accident?). It’s a slower flyer than the M2P and I2. It certainly contains old camera and sensor technology. But I bought the drone for it’s innovative and attractive design. I’ve not been disappointed with the looks or flight characteristics. It’s not a working drone in the sense that I’ll ever use it on a paying job. It’s my fun daily flyer.
I did a little research of this type of drone. There is only few papers about how to control this type of drone which means the engineers need to work a lot from the basic theory. I hope they can keep pushing the newer product and deliver them to the customer on time.
it would make a lot of sense for a larger passenger or military vehicle where the jet engines are expensive but the rotating nacelles are a lot cheaper
I too paid the deposit back in December 2019 and also received mine in October 2021. I also experienced the obstacle avoidance issues but does work with better lighting. I do enjoy flying the V-Coptr. Because I received the introductory price I am happy with my purchase. I will not do any future purchases with zerozero because of their history but I still like flying my V-Copter.
With all the knowledge built up from programming quads how much more complicated it must have been to migrate all of the control functions to just 2 motors and yet seemingly keep the craft just as stable as a quad very impressive.
I also had my order in, and I’m glad that I pulled out when I did. I did get my $100 back. Since then, I’ve never looked back! Your video affirms my decision! Thanks, Sam
considering the blades can point at 45' or more I would have expected a higher top speed, I'm sure it could go far faster given it's not limited by having fixed blade positions like a quad drone.
Wow, that is one expensive drone with too many performance flaws. The only two things I like about this are the v profile and the low prop noise. It looks like the longer blade props are more efficient than those with four motors and shorter blade props. Thanks for the excellent review.
Looks brilliant but looks like it flys terribly I love the design and overall look of this drone but being put off by the performance oh well guess my little DJI sparky will have to do for now great video as usual mr Steve keep up the good work and stay safe out there from joff in the UK 🇬🇧
Thank you for the frank assessment. Without your endorsement they will not be getting my cash. Probably will have to have DJI make a 2 rotor drone. I like the 2 motor quietness.
hey man I wish I had the life you have, I am just a man with few drones tryna make it as a content maker in South Africa. If you would be so kind a few tips would be super duper or as we say in South Africa "lekker"
Some tips would be to use your drones for wedding or personal photography and make videos for people, to go and film landscapes and on the RU-vid video leave an email so people couldn’t contact you for footage etc
In all fairness that "skinny pole" has a 110 (or passably 220 ) volt light in it. Both are notoriously "dirty" when it comes to RF interference. Even a high-end GPS map device would have trouble finding an initial location.
test gps another day. because of how long you had it sitting its possible its doing a full almanac download (which gps units might do if they have not had a gps signal in a long time) its basically a database of where all the sats should be at any given time for a faster "lock on" in the future. IE next time it should lock up much faster with a now updated almanac. I don't know if drones do this. its definite a nav set thing but not sure about drones.
Nice review!... ( and in other subject that as nothing to do with drones ) you just made me remember old memories , my Grand parents lived near I used to hang out all summer at the "big" shopping center lo , I used to be amazed at the size of that place as a kid!.
Hello Steve I remembered we sended our deposits almost at the same time. A year later I got 95% of my money back. The old Mavic Pro is a much better drone than the V-Coptr. Today any brand of the mini drone of the market are better and shipper than this exotic drone. It was the biggest SCAM on that moment and your review is very honest, and this is why you are my favorite reviewer. You are my #1
To vcopter owners.......make sure that when you open the arms ......the lock buttons click .......because during the flight if you move the arms the vcopter crashes ( happened to a friend while he was "braking" in sport ....... but luckily nothing happened because he fell into the soft)
I greatly appreciate all the early-adopters and crowd funders for taking the financial "hit" with these albatrosses. Occasionally we get a breakthru that advances the genre. This is NOT one of those occasions.
you know what I think is stupid about your videos, I have no more questions afterwards. no honestly, you explain in such detail and show all the details that one is one hundred percent smarter afterwards. 👍😃 thank you Steve, thank you very much
I know this is an old video and probably the GPS issues have been worked out but one thing I wondered after seeing this and other vcopters have issues with GPS is if the arms and motors, because they are around and above the drone, are the ones actually blocking/interfering with the satellites.
The problem was that they put a very budget GPS in the unit. If it was a product launched today, it would have a modern GPS that acquires sats in just seconds.
Maybe maybe. I get 25 sats in less than 3 mins. I don't use OD in any case. Once you get used to and understand this drones idiosyncrasies it is a VERY GOOD DRONE. I love it !
I'd buy many other sub $500 drones before this one. And many more sub $1k drones as well. Just not my cup of tea. I prefer a drone I can take out of the package and feel confident that it is going to work without worry. The Hubsan Zino Mini SE has problems acquiring satellites but no where the issues this one has. Great review, thanks Steve
Thank you very much for the time and effort you put into this review, and while I am looking to get my first drone, this sure is not one I will even look at, not at the prices I saw, the Fimi looks like a better choice when I take the plunge.
That is the oldest old-school photo sound effect I've ever heard and I love it. Cap, I always look for your reviews of interesting drones before the others'. Thanks!
Cap when you first put out that you were going to acquire this drone i was excited because i always look forward to the new stuff you put out but the wait was so long i forgot about so you can imagine how surprised i was to see this. Loved the review you truly weighed the pros and cons fairly. As always keep them coming Cap.
I’d actually love to see the internals to see if they’ve put them all in neatly or just slapped them in there? The outside looks pretty cool but imo the way it flies it’s like it needs a third prop at the rear. Think I’ll stick with my quads!!!
I’m overall baffled at how this BAT disrespected THE Captain Drone! How dare it! Lol. I was more confused about how destroy and paused it every move you made. It was like it was dancing with you. That 90s song every move you make. LOL. I can’t believe that it took so long for you to get this drone, and it works and a rating of less than a five. At least on your scale it’s less than a five. I think… I’m happy you finally did review this product. It was highly entertaining!
So basically if you live in a 1000 acre cow pasture this baby is a champ. If however you live around anything, obstacle detection cripples it. Perfect.
Thanks. Sounds like my building contractor: promise delivery in 2 weeks (= 2 months); 2 months (= 2 years or never). Only difference is he demands full quote upfront. Hmmmm.
Great review, really looking forward to you taking al ook at the Skydio 2+, it juts maybe the right drone for me, but I really want to see how the obstacle avoidance works over water.
I have reviewed the Skydio many times in the past (do a search of my channel). The new version is just the addition of antennas for range. Camera and tracking remains the same.
@@CAPTAINDRONE798 Agreed, however I have seen some reviews and there seems to be an improvement in flight characteristics, from a manual flight perspective. However the Lite+ from Autel also is one I am hoping you get a chance to look at.
Thanks for the honest review. I had read similar reviews to yours and this drone is not ready for the public. The GPS issue happened on other drones as well. They may have covered up something with metal tape? It seems these drone companies now days are not putting money into R & D. And companies in general now days are having the public test the product which is very bad practice.
Seen several other reviews on this drone and by far this is the most comprehensive! I just don't get it - seems like they were trying to answer a question no one was asking, especially at that price...
I am thinking Zero Zero robotics obstacle avoidance is seeing stuff we do not see, maybe this technology can be used to detect obstacles in a parallel universe where the place is full of buildings many years in the future and thats what this is detecting
To me, this thing has everything I want in a drone: Long flight time, good reception, quiet. Obstacle avoidance and tracking modes are just bloatware to me anyways, I'd prefer it if they cut down the weight and required processing power down even further by simply excluding the hardware for it. If the camera wasn't so "outdated" by today's standards I'd prefer this over a mavic any day.
Is a good thing you're honest for other will help the company in selling, but the drone seem to be good but not to many will buy it, and more important is the gps that will be the Aquiles weakness
Like the desing and flight time...but those prices for an already old tech...um um...more like 500.00usd and for that there are plenty of better options unless you want it for it rarity.
No firmware update because the necessary software is on the zero zero website and since they have no security, if you visit it, spyware could be loaded on your computer to steal your banking info.
Best review of this drone I've seen, thanks Captain. It's amazing how many other You Tubers failed to tell us the bad aspects of this drone when they reviewed it.
Hey steve cool and very nice reveiew. I too received mine last november. What i find is this, very stable flight, rth works well ,obstacle avoidance could be better, the app could use more features like waypoint flying, the GPS satellites receiving was as you found was terrible and it films quite well in my opinion what really sold me on this drone is its design and the flght time with the battery.
I'd bet it can see the sats, but it takes time to sync with each clock. Cellphones use Asisted-GPS where the synchronization is done through mobile data. Maybe a firmware update will do it faster.. if it's ever available.
At last! An in-depth review of a drone that I’ve been keeping a close eye on for a proper review for some time. Your review is the best there is:-) I love the concept of a two-rotor design as there is great potential for two-rotor drones to ahem, pun inteded take off!!
I could see a drone with this design being used on, say, Mars, or another world, due to it’s maneuverability and more portable size than even the Ingenuity helicopter. But as for this drone, Captain Drone did the review right, especially at the end, admitting to its many flaws both up front and behind the scenes. If it went for $4-600, I might still get it. But not at the price it’s currently at.
Was waiting for this video to be uploaded! Finally, I got to watch it. Firstly, I think that a 'drone' with one propulsion system is known as a Monocopter and not a Helicopter as Helicopters have a different kind of fuselage, like a spear from the front and the rear propeller(s) to make it stable, maybe?🤔 I wanted to know more about this long-awaited aircraft and eventually I came to know! So, this is the bicopter drone (everyone knows that lol) which is pretty fancy but can't do many things, to be honest. It costs about 1,300 dollars, have 50 min flight time? (Maybe 38 mins), a follow me that is probably not as good as Skydio's, obstacle avoidance system that does not work very nicely and the night camera quality is not so clear, to be honest, same or less than the night camera quality of DJI Mini 2! It has a battery that is pretty efficient even though 500 mAh less than the massive battery of DJI Mavic 3. It is stable in the air and looks good, the controller is kinda simple but the phone attacher is cool. But, another con is that one can't fly it in congested areas, as GPS is not so efficient. Overall, its not so costly as compared to my Mini 2 (costs a 1,100 dollars now, because of repairing charges) and it is like a drone with less features than a new drone like Mavic 3! One can buy another more high tech drone in that price range this year, like Mini 3!
Thanks for the balanced honest review, and no, oh heck no... After springing for the Mavic 3, this serves no purpose, unless maybe stealth. I bought the zip up Captain Drone hoodie and love it! Great price, warm but not too warm on chilly days, and its comfortable, and much easier to get on and off, unlike everyone else's pullover for an old guy. You didn't send me any stickers, however I now have three, so I have to assume that they came with the hoodie, great bonus!
Thanks for pickup up a hoodie. This stickers were all handed over to my wife to handle and I believe she was able to honor 50% of all the requests. Each year I budget a larger amount for stickers stamps, envelops.
The MTTF of these gears and pivot points would be critical to the safety of this bird.Mean time to failure (MTTF) is a maintenance metric that measures the average amount of time a non-repairable asset operates before it fails. I'd be curious to see the conditions of the gears after 50 hrs/100 hrs. However I can't imagine someone TORTURING themselves putting those kind of hours on what is basically a proof of concept design.
Well well well !! finally Captain !!!; we get to see the Mystical V-Coptr Falcon!!!; only comment is on the Camera; the quality looked only just "OK" ?? your thoughts once you looked at on the Computer? Cheers
Image for recording on a dull day looked almost identical to the quality image on the old DJI MAVIC PRO. I think people would be very happy with the video and photo quality.
This is my go to, in relationship to high tech. chit chat…when glitches and crashes are apparent.”That’s why computers won’t take over the world, at least in my lifetime.”
So, if I am going to by a new controller this and new receivers for all my drones. Most of them are just freestyle drones that I build. What would you suggest? Looking for something on the simpler end that is not going to require lots of downloading and flashing. Also, something with good range.
Excellent review. The V-coptr is an interesting drone and if the price was $700 it would be a buy for me just out of the novelty of it, but you are correct on Zero-Zero robotics in regards to customer service and over-promising. I want to see if they will stand behind this product going forward and see if they iron out the object detection/avoidance along with added features. One thing; you forgot to mention the fiasco that was/is the Hover 2. The Hover 2 was another product promised and over-hyped in which I finally got my hands on, and the general conclusion is much like the V-Coptr, a well made and designed product that was half-baked (camera was not flushed out and obstacle avoidance was not what they claimed albeit usable).
Yes, I do indeed recall all the products (good and not so good) from zero zero robotics. I sort of eluded to it in the video but as noted in the video, did not want to get off topic of the V-Coptr story.
