MicroDrone 3.0 the modular micro quad.

A bit belated from the original ship date, the Vernon Kerswell's  IndieGoGo superstar success the MicroDrone 3.0 is finally shipping.   We have unboxed and reviewed it, and find that its mostly doing exactly what we hoped it would do (with some notable exceptions) And that it probably is a fairly successful deliverable in terms of what we have come to expect from crowd-funded multirotor.   Click through for the gory details and unbox video.

So what can one get for $180 these days.?   the answer probably depends where and how you buy your copters.

Lately we have seen a long row of spectacular Crowd-Funding multicopter failures,  most of them don't even ship, and most of the ones that DO ship are in fact utterly crap.   
My friend Frank at CarolinaDronz.com  was a early backer of the MicroDrone 3.0 project, Frank was kind enough to let me pick up his MicroDrone 3.0 at CES in Vegas,  here is my initial thoughts and a video unbox / review based on this unit.

 

Its in light of THAT reality we have to look at the MicroDrone 3.0,   this was one of the most spectacular crowd-funded successes about a year ago, promising a micro quad that would be modular, reasonably powerful,  smart-phone controlled and delivering both FPV and stabilized 720p 30fps video.  being quite a lot delayed is not really shocking for a IndieGoGo or KickStarter project, its just the brutal reality of finding out how to build 10.000 units instead of 500 from scratch.  Disregarding the slow to market element, we quickly notice that the MicroDrone 3.0 have in fact mostly delivered on its promises.

Its easy to fly,  easy to operate, with a clip on battery system and magnetic attachments 720p recording camera.

The DRONE:
Ok the drone is engineering wise a oversized, overpowered LadyBird,  all the power I ever wished to have in a quad like this.  sporting Chaoli 820 motors aka. "the dark edition" motors. while not brushless these puppies rips and is about as much power you can get from brushed cans.
The flight controller is probably the most pedestrian part of the MicroDrone 3.0 it works but are frankly not very advanced, and is mostly recognized by its dead-stick center behavior.  basically when you center the sticks, the quad will self-balance, when you move the stick to either side at some point the quad will snap to a starting angle. which looks like 5 deg angle,  this starting angle is the problem.. as you can not get fine incremental control with less than 5 deg angle..   its not the end of the world, but its a toy-copter flight controller vs using a "real" controller like a micro-naze or micro-kk board, either of these would have put the MicroDrone 3.0 in a totally different category.  
the included prop-guards is a good accessory as it makes the kit more family friendly, and you can bounce off walls without worrying about crashing.

The BATTERY:  
The little quad is powered by a snap on 1s 450mah battery in a case.  its a nice system, but some of us may prefer simpler off-the-shelf batteries which probably would be cheaper.
Vernon have done a interesting thing using 3 prongs across the design, and basically all connections can be mounted either way, so the camera can face forward or backwards without having to change anything.

The CAMERA:
Frankly, the camera is the weakest part of the the MicroDrone 3.0, and because it as so essential to the success of the MicroDrone.  The shipping camera is a fairly pedestrian keycam image quality, saved as a 720p 20fps file.  being somebody who have worked most of my life in broadcast,  I can't honestly say the file meet the definition of 720p in terms of actual resolution, other than being saved as a 1280x720pix file,  contributing to the underwhelming image quality is the lens which on my sample is un-even sharp across the image.

Im not loosing sleep over the camera, because honestly its kinda what you would expect, this is entirely what you would expect in a $25 spy pen camera from Amazon.
The PROBLEM is.. the promo-video on IndieGoGo unmistakably showed video clearly representing what you should expect from this camera with this project..   the video showed rock-solid 3 axis stabilized images with impressive dynamic range and rich popping colors. flying on multirotor at high speed,  one taking a shot while backing away from a hot-air ballon, all of the shots on the promo-video showed a fairly large probably 80deg fov.   Yet not a single one of the images used in the promo-video bears any resemblance, what so ever, to the crappy video from the included micro camera. And THATS the rub folks.
I did not expect a GH4 camera on a MicroDrone, but judging from the comments I have received, its fairly safe to say, a lot of the people who bought into the MicroDrone 3.0 project, are  photo enthusiasts wanting a cool flying selfie camera..  my guess is that a lot of those will be VERY unimpressed with the camera.

The NEW Props...
The MicroDrone 3.0 was expected to ship just before CES 2016,  at the last moment Vernon discovered that there were a issue with the props, causing breakage, and re-engineered the props.  about 15 days later they are now finally ready to ship and we should see the first batches shipping before the Chinese New Year.

The FUTURE:
The current MicroDrone 3.0 is ok but pretty pedestrian,  however Vernon points out that there is several great new things in the works.  
FatShark compatible FPV module with analog 5.8 ghz video link for real FPV experience.
Higher quality 1080p camera.   please DON'T develop that, just make a mount for a Mobius.
2 axis gimbal.   this will be a servo based design apparently to snap on the current camera.

CONCLUSION:
 I think time is the biggest enemy of these kinda crowd-funding projects, simply because what was trick technology last year is not as advanced this year.
Lots of micro quads now come with some kinda WiFi based video link / camera start stop. the waker Y100 can do that. and did that in 2014 with similar video quality. 
the real promises of the MicroDrone is future modules, like the FPV module and the gimbal module they are currently working on.   
If you want a very lightweight calm high-end toy copter with optional future modules, this is definitely the ticket, however if you are looking for small, capable of hauling a 1080p camera, I would take a hard look at some micro-quad or micro-hexa's which fly with real CleanFlight flight controllers, and brushless motors for significantly better handling. This is a question really only you can answer.  
But I have to say that except for the video not being close to the promised video, they have done a better job than most others at making a crowd-funded micro copter.

Comments

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Todd, sorry for the slow reply.
OK the micro quads and hexas and not "inexpensive" per say. but here is one little one that I put a bunch of flights on http://carolinadronz.com/products/x160fpv

here is a bit of flight video from it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaQYpcg3Row

[Bo Lorentzen]

For Mini FPV.. the ProtoX FPV is fairly well flying and works with my FatShark goggles.

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Fabio, that a RAIJU micro hexa, incredible awesome copter, and weight in around 245 grams..

[Fabio]

Dear Mr. FPVGuy,
Thanks for your review!
could you please tell me the name of the micro-hexa copter you have used for this review?

Very much obliged for your kindness.

kd rgds,
Fabio

[Jegf]

Any other mini FPV Quadcopters you can recommend???

[Todd]

Nice honest review of the MD3.0.

In you post where you say "if you are looking for small, capable of hauling a 1080p camera, I would take a hard look at some micro-quad or micro-hexa's which fly with real CleanFlight flight controllers, and brushless motors for significantly better handling." - can you recommend any in particular or do I need to save up for a DJI Phantom/Inspire? What would be the smallest 1080P drone you would recommend for shooting decent 1080P video?

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey James, sorry for the slow reply, the full kit should probably cost about $250, I would consider buying directly from Extreme Flyers's website. :-)

[James Donaldson]

Dear Mr. FPVGuy,
Thanks for your review!
Knowing that I can count on your unbiased opinion, if you were to buy an MD 3.0, what retail price range, (shipping + taxes included), like at an amazon.com do you feel would be fair? Comparing it to what is available in the market.
Please give me an idea.
Thanks.