Parrot AR Drone 2.0 Remote Control Aircraft Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
2,070 words · ~10 min read
0:07
Welcome to my first outdoor unboxing in quite a while. The weather's beautiful,
0:11
perfect for flying. So, we've got the Parrot AR drone 2.0 here today. This is
0:17
basically like the original parro AR drone except that it is smarter, faster,
0:24
it's higher definition. It's like more
0:28
maneuverable. It's got more features.
0:31
So, you can like flip around and stuff. So, basically, it's like the AR drone
0:36
except way better. I mean, one of the things that I said when I first saw the
0:39
AR drone is I'm not really that excited about AR drone, but what I'm excited
0:43
about is where this is heading. This is the next evolutionary step. So, they've
0:48
taken the lowresolution camera on the drone V1 and added an HD camera. So, you
0:53
can view on your tablet or on your smartphone in 1280 by 720 HD. They've
0:59
added intuitive smart Okay, intuitive smartphone control isn't new. It's also
1:02
available in both the market and the App Store, although it's called Google Play
1:06
now. I guess um at launch, which the V1 wasn't YouTube ready. Okay, I suppose
1:10
most video recording devices could be called YouTube ready. What else we got
1:14
on here? Okay. Easy connect. Yeah, we got that. So, HD front camera and
1:20
um QVGA vertical camera. So, they haven't upgraded the bottom camera, but
1:25
that's okay cuz it's just to keep it from drifting side to side. Uh you tilt,
1:28
tilt, control, record, and share. Ah, yes. Video recording. AR drone V1 did
1:34
not come in the native uh freeflight app
1:37
from Parrot with video recording capability. V2 does. So, people were
1:42
putting like um what HD heroes and all
1:45
that on their drones. Now, you don't have to. You can use the front camera to
1:48
record in HD video and share with aha
1:51
share with friends through the control application available on the app store
1:55
and the Android market. Automatic camera moves. Okay. High
1:59
stability. Wow. Automatic static flight up to 50 m high when commands are
2:03
released. That's cool. So, the original drone couldn't really go that high and
2:07
retain a certain amount of control. Looks like they've improved that aspect
2:10
as well. Carbon fiber central cross. Okay, let's move right along here.
2:14
Stabilization system, photo video recording, 50 m, 165 ft range. Yep, I
2:19
believe that because we took even a drone V1, which was using wireless G,
2:24
the distance of this entire parking lot here. So, you can see that's pretty far
2:28
away. So, drone V2 with wireless end should be even better. Realtime video
2:33
slash realtime video feedback. Yep. Cool. Okay, let's get it opened up. I'm
2:37
actually pretty stoked here. Oh, yeah. The apps. So, the game apps, if you know
2:41
other people who uh own an AR drone, you can download these apps and you can play
2:45
virtual games where it's like an augmented reality type of gaming
2:50
experience thing going on. Okay,
2:56
then. So, it feels lighter than the
2:59
original drone actually. That's kind of
3:03
interesting. Move right along. Let's have a look at what we've got included.
3:06
So, first thing that's included is your outdoor hull. So, this one doesn't have
3:11
the protective cover around the propellers. So, the advantage is you get
3:15
better battery life and you get better maneuverability, but the disadvantage is
3:18
if you get too close to a tree, you're not going to have that protective bumper
3:23
zone that well protects you. I would suggest flying the AR drone with the
3:28
indoor hall at first until you get a little bit used to it, even though it's
3:32
not quite as fast and not quite as exciting to fly. AR drone 2.0 battery.
3:37
So, they have changed the battery design as well as the charger design from the
3:41
original AR drone. So, if you have existing batteries, you will need to get
3:45
the new ones and the new charger as well. So, let's just go ahead and throw
3:49
that on there. Now, it's a nice little clip-in design, whereas the old one was actually kind of ghetto. It includes all
3:53
the adapters you need for various regions. So, there's my North American
3:56
one, but uh no matter where you live, you just throw it on there and you're
4:00
ready to charge up your battery. It also includes some helpful little stickers.
4:03
These are great for augmented reality games. You can also do neat things with
4:06
the drone like you can put these on things like your hat. You can set the
4:10
drone to follow you around because they are designed to recognize these
4:14
stickers. Also includes a thick old manual. So they recommend for 14 up for
4:19
the AR drone 2.0. I can see why because you know you bust up your AR drone, your
4:24
your 10-year-old busts up their AR drone on like the first time they're flying
4:27
it, they're going to be pretty disappointed. But you kind of expect that to happen with young kids. It is
4:32
pretty easy to fly, uh, assuming that it's at least as easy as the V1, which
4:36
I'm sure it is, but you can make mistakes. It does happen from time to
4:40
time. So, in here, we got your basic controls. This is good. It gets you
4:44
started. However, I would definitely recommend watching some of Parrot's
4:48
YouTube videos, or I'm going to be doing more of a video review of this one
4:51
later, and you can check that out as well if you want some more tips on flying. Let's have a look at some specs
4:56
here. So, we already covered this. You got a wide-angle lens. That's important
4:59
for navigation because you don't want to just have tunnel vision right in front
5:03
of you if you don't have line of sight to the drone. So, if you're actually
5:06
navigating by the video feed, you're going to want to be able to see what's
5:09
on your left and your right to get around it or over it or whatever else,
5:12
not run into it. Video storage on the fly with Wi-Fi directly to a remote
5:16
device or on a USB key. So, you can actually plug a USB key right into the
5:20
AR drone right here. Very, very cool stuff. There's all your specs in terms
5:24
of the uh the recording. Not much else to say about that. Robust structure, so
5:29
expanded polyropylene EP hulls. Okay,
5:32
they feel lighter than the old ones, so if nothing else, that's good. Foam to
5:35
isolate inertial center from the engine's vibrations. Cool. Carbon fiber
5:39
tubes, which are located here. No, that's not right here.
5:45
So, the central cross is made of carbon fiber. Total weight 380 grams with
5:48
outdoor health, 420 with the indoor hull. Highrade 30% fibercharged nylon
5:52
plastic parts. This is important because the AR drone is incredibly durable. I've
5:58
actually had my drone V1 uh fall from
6:01
heights in excess of here just directly down on its side with an outdoor hull
6:07
and actually not be damaged. I was able
6:10
to pick it right back up, do a quick check, quick visual inspection, and fly
6:14
it again immediately. So, yes, the
6:17
replacement parts are, you know, they're there for you, but odds are you won't
6:21
need them right away, even if you crash a few times, unless you're incredibly
6:24
unlucky. Liquid repelling nano coating on the ultrasound sensors. So, that's
6:29
kind of cool. Fully repairable. All parts and instructions for repairing are
6:32
available on the internet. Their instructions are outstanding. I actually
6:35
had them crash my AR drone B1 at the Vancouver Men's Show. They flew it up to
6:40
the very top of the ceiling of a warehouse. So, we're talking about three
6:44
stories up and then it hit something and
6:47
fell down. They lost control while I wasn't there to supervise them using my
6:51
drone. So, it busted the central cross. It took me a couple hours to repair, but
6:57
using the videos available from Parrot, I didn't waste any time. So, I just had
7:01
to get myself a new central cross. All right, electronic assistance. Check this
7:04
out. This thing basically has a tablet in it. 1 ghahz ARM Cortex A8 processor
7:09
with 800 MHz video DSP. one gigabit DDR2
7:13
RAM at 200 megahertz, which is plenty. Wi-Fi N, as I mentioned before, it's got
7:18
an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a pressure sensor, as well as the 60 FPS
7:23
vertical vertical QVGA camera for ground speed measurement. Oh, okay. I guess
7:27
they're using it for speed measurement now, too. The uh the vertical camera,
7:31
which is located here on the drone, if I can find it. It used to be located here
7:36
on the drone. Here on the here on the drone, is also used to keep it from
7:41
drifting. So, if on a windy day like today, it's easy for the wind to blow
7:45
the drone a little to this side, but it can look at this line and readjust
7:49
itself to make sure that it doesn't drift all over the
7:53
place. All right, going right back along. Threeaxis magneettometer, 60°
7:58
ultrasound sensors for ground altitude measurement. So, that's pretty cool as
8:02
well. So, I'll show you the ultrasound sensors. These guys are right here. So,
8:06
there's a transmitter and a receiver. This tells the drone within a very very
8:10
accurate degree of measurement how high it is off the
8:15
ground. And finally, yes, it's very easy
8:18
to fly. This much is true. We already know this. Aha, motors. So, they've
8:22
upgraded the motors as well. Specific hyperpelled drag. So, bunch of specs
8:25
here that probably don't mean that much to you unless you are a total, you know,
8:29
RC motor geek. But there you go. Water resistant. Cool stuff. So, in
8:36
summary, drone 2 is awesome than drone 1
8:39
in pretty much every possible way. Includes basically the same package. You
8:43
got your outdoor hall, your indoor hall, your battery, and your charger, as well
8:46
as the drone itself. And I am very, very
8:49
excited to take this thing out for a flight. So, I just want to show you guys
8:54
a quick sort of visual tour of the drone. So, there's your there's how you
8:57
swap the hull. You just pick it up. It's held on with a magnet, which is stored in here. So once you pop it into place,
9:02
it's not going to come off, but it's also easy to remove if you want to.
9:06
Okay. Your battery gets held in the harness right here. Plugs in your power
9:09
right there. And uh your USB recording,
9:12
it's done right here. I'd recommend using a lightweight USB key, not
9:16
something really heavy. You don't want to affect the balance of the drone, although it looks like it's right in the
9:20
center. Um and you don't want to affect your battery life as well as the
9:23
performance of it. There's your HD camera. You want to be careful with that
9:26
guy. And these this design looks very very similar to drone v1 other than a
9:31
couple changes in component in uh in the components that
9:35
are being used. So you got your same uh gears and shafts, your same propeller
9:38
blades by the look of things. Very flexible, which will save your bacon at
9:42
some point. I guarantee it when you accidentally fly it up against a tree
9:46
and it bends like this instead of snapping off like I've seen many other
9:50
less intelligently designed uh RC
9:54
aircraft do. Uh on the bottom here, yeah, there's pretty much nothing uh
9:58
nothing out of the ordinary. So, you got your camera as well as your ultrasound. And I think that pretty much covers it.
10:04
Thank you for checking out my unboxing of the Parad Drone V2. Don't forget to
10:08
subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos.