My Road to FPV (Part Three)

Continuing on from my last post, I received my Hubsan X4 H107C from Amazon and immediately took out it out to the backyard for its maiden flight. Right away it was noticeably smaller and more dense than the Syma X5C. I inserted the batteries and upon turning the transmitter on it bound without incident. I then repeated the learning procedure I had done with the Syma and took it up about six feet before returning to the ground. Since it has brushless motors rather than a gear system it definitely was a bit more agile in the air and had better lift. I only had one battery at that time so after about 8 minutes of practice I had to retreat inside to charge the battery.

Hubsan X4 H107c with sandwich for scale

The next time I flew I wanted to test out the camera on it, but unlike the Syma this one only supports video and the switch to start and stop recording is on the quad itself. So you always end up recording your entire flight, it is also important to note that you have to make sure you stop the recording before unplugging the battery, or you will not get any movie files. At first the camera didn’t seem to work so I ordered a second one, but once the second one arrived and I confirmed that I was recording video right, the first one ended up working after all. The video wasn’t great and was very similar to the Syma, but I didn’t care because it was cool to get a bird’s eye view of the backyard.

Here is some video shot while flying
I ordered six more batteries and would fly every evening after work for about 45 minutes. I tend to be very cautious, which probably slowed down my progress, but also meant that I didn’t have any major crashes that required me to go out and by another drone. After a couple weeks I was flying all over the yard using just pitch and roll for movement and then started playing around with yaw. I then started working on banked turns, which took a lot of practice to get right, but once my brain locked in on it things quickly got more exciting. I could now fly in circles and even began the tricky practice of flying at myself.

The H107C is a great quad for learning the basics of flying for a relatively low price. It seemed to have good quality components, it came with a nice prop guard, which I didn’t use at first because it was attached on the underside of the packaging. One cool feature is each of the arms have a break away spot that will help prevent them from breaking in a crash, this happened a few times and I just had to snap it back in place and was ready to fly again (always be sure and check that they are all locked in place before you fly).

The only problem I have had with the Hubsan X4 (H107C & H107D) series is with the wire that connects the battery to the circuit board. After a few weeks of sliding the battery in and out, one of the wires disconnected and I was unable to use it anymore. Luckily for me I had the spare one so I just moved on and kept flying. Eventually I learned how to solder and brought my first one back to life, but for a beginner it probably isn’t an option.

At this point I had learned a little bit about flying and was starting to get comfortable flying in different places. I even took it on vacation with us and flew in a couple spots. It was time to take it to the next level and enter the world of FPV.

Go back and read My Road to FPV (Part Two)

Tech Transition

Between a Rock and New Tech

In October Apple released the new MacBook Pro with TouchBar and received a mixed reaction. Some complaints cited the configuration limit of 16GB of memory, decreased battery size due to increased thinness and the use of only Thunderbolt 3 ports. All of these complaints are valid for some users and I think Apple is acknowledging it by still selling the Mid–2015 MacBook Pro alongside the new Late–2016 models. They would certainly rather have a simple product matrix that didn’t include old models of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air too, but they still need to hit all the price points to accommodate all different types of consumers. The good news is if you want all the ports and you want a bigger battery then go purchase the old device, with its Intel Haswell processor and slower SSD.

People had the same concerns about the MacBook Air when it was first introduced with its lack of ports and very high price, but now people love that computer. I think we are seeing a similar situation with the MacBook Pro they are creating a form factor they will be using for the next five years and initially the hardware that will fit into it is going to be constrained, but as time goes by the internals will get faster, cheaper and smaller all while the case is tweaked and refined to perfection. I would expect the next generation to include support for more memory and improved battery life because of the improvements of internals.

The new Thunderbolt 3 port situation is also a byproduct of this forward looking view from Apple. The new case might not fit a USB-A port without requiring an increase in the thickness of the case, all for a port that may be completely irrelevant in 3–4 years. It may seem backwards to design a case first and then figure out what can go inside it, but it makes more sense if you think about the case you want in five years. How small can we make the case given our predictions on how people will use computers in five years? Using this logic also may explain why the SD card slot was not included in the new MacBook Pro. A majority of the cameras I use take the Micro SD cards and I am always forced to use an adapter/dongle in order to get them on my computer. In 3–4 years will SD cards still be the standard or will more cameras switch over to Micro SD or some other standard.
Other complaints recently have been around the absence of any new desktop Macs in 2016. I think the MacBook Pro is the flagship Mac and not only got more attention, but also needs to introduce new features before they appear on the desktops. If we look back just a few years we saw the MacBook first get Retina displays and Force Touch trackpads. Similarly I think we will see new desktop Macs in 2017 that include Thunderbolt 3 ports, new SSD’s and some variation of the Touch Bar. I think from a development perspective it is probably much easier to build it for the MacBook Pro and then retrofit that to a desktop machine than it is build something for the desktop and try to squeeze it into the MacBook Pro.

2016 was not a fantastic year for the desktop Mac, but it saw some amazing new technologies come to the MacBook Pro. The features on the MacBook Pro might not satisfy people in 2016, but over the next couple of years as more and more electronics convert to using USB-C style connectors we will be glad that our MacBooks Pro have plenty of Thunderbolt 3 ports to go around. Now we just need the MacBook to get an upgrade to not one, but two Thunderbolt 3 ports. Transitioning to the future is hard, but no matter what we are all going to be there.