TEST: Hobbico C-me (brushed 1080p selfie drone w/ GPS)

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INTRODUCTION

The C-me produced by Hobbico is a brushed Selfiedrone equiped of a 1080p camera and a GPS module to maintain the position. The massive argument of the Cme it’s probably its price. Sold below 80 USD…, not bad for a 1080p stabilized flying machine with advanced flight mode such as Follow-me and find me. It was even advertized to have a builtin EIS… but main probably it’s a false advertizing. The C-me is also very tranportable with some foldable arms and lightweight, so easy to pack it into the pocket. Let’s now discover this bundle.

BOX CONTENT

+ 1 x Hobbyco C-me
+ 1 x USB charger
+ 1 x USB to microUSB cable
+ 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
+ 4 x Prop guards
+ 1 x Instruction manual (English)

The quadcopter comes into a very high quality bundle, color printed with a magnetic lock system.

OVERVIEW

All the main caracteristics can be found printed on the back cover. The 1080p@30 camera is associated with a 8Mpx sensor.

More advanced flight modes such as follow-me, find-me, RTH and 360 degres auto-panorama tour are proposed. I regret the absence of an orbit mode or up & away mode … so popular for selfie drones.

In folded position, the C-me is very compact…. perfectly rectangular, about the size of a 5″ smartphone… so no problem to install it in your pocket. The C-me canopy is 100% plastic based but a high quality material.

-FRONT VIEW

When powered on, notice the white led light.

-SIDE VIEW

-REAR VIEW

The two ports available are all located on the rear side: a microSD card slot on the left. Please use a microSD card class 10 U1 minimum. On the right, a microUSB port to charge the 750mAh LiHV battery.

-UPPER VIEW

-BOTTOM VIEW
A unique power bottom… Press and hold this bottom at least 3-4s to turn on the machine. The front white LED will also be tuned on.

a small green light is solid when the machine is turned on.

A major drawback can be noticed… the battery is jailed inside the structure… What a pity, because you will have to wait 1h40min to charge the internal battery.

-WEIGHT

Less than 150g AUW … For a geared system including a 2S builtin battery it’s correct.

add 3.6g with the four prop guards installed

Camera module

The camera lens offers a field of view of 70 degrees only… Latterally a small white light is here to help to keep your orientation for LOS flights. This light is bright enough for a radius inferiour to 15m.

It’s possible to manually set the orientation from 0 degrees down to -90 degrees. No possibility to control the tilt from the appz unfortunatly.

The official specification claims a 8mpx able to record 1080p videos at 30fps. No information about the size of the sensor as well for the light sensitivity. Juge by yourself: here is a raw video sample recorded on the microSD card (prefer a Class 10 U3 model).

As you can see, results are really not bad at all for a cheap model. The light sensivity is correct, compression factor not huge, colors rendering relatively faithfull and images crisp enough. Good work in general.

The media information of the recording file confirms the 1080p@30 specifications.

In addition of the high resolution file recorded onboard on the microSD card, the transmitted WiFi video link is also recorded locally on your smartphone/tablet. Here is the corresponding raw sample

Here the video is in 720p format @25fps…. but results are also relatively good.

UNBOXING, ANALYSIS AND TESTING

The machine is connected via 2.4G WiFi so no risk of android incompatibility we can meet for some 5.8G recent models for example. First good surprize, the main interface is great: clear, easy, intuitive where all main features are directly available. More particulary, a really appreciate the animations associated with the compass calibration. The WiFI FPV signal is broadcasted in 720p format. Here one more time, the transmission is correct for a WiFi link, a minimum of 0.3s of latency and a frame rate about 15-17fps…. very acceptable for a selfie drone. On the main interface, you can retrieve the WiFi signal strength indication, the GPS satellites number.

The general quality of the camera recording are good…. but unfortunatly no EIS is here … so stabilization results will massively depend of the wind/gust power… What a pity than the camera’s processor is not strong enough to perform EIS in the same time. The machine is stable… and one unique rate is proposed… the maximum speed is slow about 2m/s. One negative point is the absence of yaw command feedback on the interface. You will have to swipe left or right with your left thumb to yaw the machine. More throttle and yaw commands are not correlated as can be the forward/backward/left/right commandes via the right vitual sticks. Unfortunatly, no possibility in the appz setting to change this control behaviour for a more classic 2 virtual sticks. Another con point, at least with the model I received concerns the battery level status. The battery status under load (after take off) shows just after a couple of second a massive drop. Maybe my internal battery is damaged or the discharge rate not strong enough or the threshold LVC settings not well tuned. No possibility to set them in the interface.

For the advanced flight mode, the follow-me function is working correctly but often can’t center correctly the phone’s holder. More, it can follow well a walker but can’t really follow something faster. The “find-me” function is more efficient. This one will automatically center the camera on you…. and work very well.

In a second video, I tested more the 360 degrees functionality.

It’s a basic panorama self-rotation mouvement. Be aware, you can’t run this function while currently filming turned on. You must stop first recording. If not recording, the 360 degrees will automatically start and will stop recording after the completion of the CCW tour. No possibility to change the rotation sens on the interface. The WiFI link is ok within a radius of 25m. The flight duration is about 7-8min with recording turned one. The machine will automatically land with the battery is depleted. As expected with a 150g machine, the C-me can handle well even a moderate wind.

CONCLUSIONS

An interesting model with good 1080p videos recording relatively stable but only in zero wind conditions. The appz is great and ideal for beginners. More the machine is light and ultra transportable. In another hand, unfortunatly no EIS to stabilize even better 1080p results and the battery can be replaced quick. This machine is direct competitor of the Hubsan H507A or the incoming DJI Tello. For this latter, even if videos are only recorded in 720p, this one offers EIS and better flight time.

PROS

+ Cheap WiFi 1080p machine
+ Great Appz, very beginners friendly
+ Good 1080p recordings
+ Basic “Follow me”
+ Efficient “Find me”
+ Good packaging
+ Cheap machine

CONS

– No EIS
– Builtin battery
– No yaw command appz feedback
– Battery reading not accurate
– Not wind resistant

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 79USD at https://www.banggood.com/C-me-Cme-WiFi-FPV-Selfie-Drone-With-1080P-HD-Camera-GPS-Altitude-Hold-Mode-Foldable-RC-Quadcopter-p-1260477.html

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