TEST: Eachine E708 Cyclone

[Drone News]

INTRODUCTION

The Eachine E708 cyclone is a basic 250mm brushed quadcopter dedicaced for beginners to learn how to fly in line of sight (LoS) conditions. That’s all!!! No altitulde hold here and it’s probably a good think. Ok … you have at least headless and one key return functions. Let’s quick review this machine.

BOX CONTENT

+ 1 x Eachine E708 Cyclone (with a 1S 120mAh LiPo directly soldered)
+ 1 x 550mAh/20C 1S LiPo with microLOSI connector
+ 1 x Transmitter (using 4xAA batteries not included)
+ 1 x USB charging cable
+ 4 x Prop guards
+ 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 1 x Screwdriver
+ 1 x Instruction manual (English)

The instruction is badly translated from chinese probably with automatic program.

OVERVIEW

The general design is similar a bit to the Hubsan X4 coupled with the MJX Bugs3. It’s a 250mm brushed machine to be mainly flew in outdoors conditions with moderate wind. Indoors flights can be done since the machine is relatively light. The general body is based on brillant plastic not so flexible so breakable into small parts on very hard surfaces.

-FRONT VIEW

The frontal close up shows that a camera version will be here too. No frontal bright light installed… very usefull to keep orientation in LoS flights

-SIDE VIEW

-REAR VIEW

the battery fits almost all the battery tray… Maybe a 0.5cm could be inserted but with difficulty to lock the battery door.

-UPPER VIEW

-BOTTOM VIEW
No powerswitch on the machine… probably my main concern with this machine. It’s so usefull in practice. Four LEDs lights are install on bottom side of each arms more or less compatible with night flights: blue for front and orange for rear arms

-WEIGHT

Close to 103g with the battery.

You will have to around 9g with the prop guards installed

Motors and props

7mmx20mm brushed coreless motors are installed …

Unfortunatly no ballbearings or even oilbushing are here. A direct contact between the metallic shaft and the plastic housing… That’s a negative point for durability of motors

You will need to inspect regulary by hand of props are spinning with extra friction and time to time add a drop of sillicon oil on the shaft section.

The gear system is nylon based as well as the pinion of motors.

Classic props for 200mm brushed quadcopter. They offer good thrust.

LiPo

Disassembling

26 screws to remove to split in two the machine…. about 6-7min of work…. a bit too much IMHO

The 2.4G RX antenna is installed pointing down the gorund, it should offer a good horizontal control range with this choice.

A Beken BK2471 is installed for 2.4G receiver. Personally, I find it’s a good news because the beken chip are kown to offer better RX sensitiviy than other competitor. Here we have -92dBmà1Mbits (vs -88dBm for the XN297L)

A 3 pins microJST connector is here installed on a UART port….Wbat’s the usage ? Camera port ?

Transmitter

A basic but large radio transmitter whithout any LCD display. All trimming ajustements will be done by sound.

Four shoulder buttons are present.

To calibrate the headless mode, push both stick in lower right positions until the flights flash fast.

A Beken BK2461 RF chip installed… so a nRF24L01+ clone (capable also of 250kbits).

According to http://bbs.hwrf.com.cn/down52/BT-WiFi-52rf5541.pdf , this RFchip is able to emit up to 12dBm (15.8489 mW) without PA. It will be a bit hard to hack the protocol since the 2461 is a 2-in-1 chip with an integrated MCU… so it will be hard to capture SPI data for a deviationTX futur hacking.

UNBOXING, ANALYSIS AND DEMO FLIGHT

The machine hovers from 30m with a good powerlift, I was a little bit afraid because in general it’s more 0820 motors whom are installed instead. The ascent rate is about 1.5m/s, very acceptable. The machine is ultra stable and precize. In beginners rate, all rates are relatively slow… so paradoxally not really adapted for indoors flights. Press the top left shoulder button to activate the second speed mode. All the three rates are increased but… in anycase the machine won’t become a rater. It’s perfect for beginner in the sens he will be able to control the machine in any situation. I would prefer to see a third flight modes to handle more easily stronger winds and being faster too. The flight time are good, between 6min up to 7min. A LVC alarm let flash all lights of the machine. The control is pretty acceptable about 50m without antenna mod. The failsafe stops the machine after 2s.

CONCLUSIONS

A basic but efficient brushed first beginner machine, ideal to learn how to fly in LoS and winfdree conditions. Both the control range and the flight duration are two positives points. The machine is configured to offer stable flights with large turns. I regret the absence of a powerswitch and a third more sporty rates mode.

PROS

+ Beginner’s quadcopter
+ Stable machine
+ Basic quadcopter without altitude hold
+ Good radio control
+ Correct control range (> 50m)
+ 6-7 min of flight time

CONS

– No powerswitch
– No ball bearings
– Only two speed modes
– YaP (Yet another Protocol)

This quadcopter have been courtesy provided by Banggood in order to make a fair and not biased review. I would like to thank them for this attitude.
You can find it actually for 33USD at https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-E708-Headless-Mode-2_4G-4CH-6-Axis-LED-RC-Quadcopter-RTF-p-1150487.html

Cet article TEST: Eachine E708 Cyclone est apparu en premier sur Drone-Maniac !!!!!!!.

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