eHang GHOST 2.0 - the smartphone drone

FThe eHang GHOST 2.0 is finally shipping.   
This is the second generation GHOST,  with lots of improvements from the original Kickstarter product.
Several key features here.
** First of all this is a dedicated SMARTPHONE control video drone, sorry no sticks just phone.
** $899 VR version have a surprisingly good 4K camera and head tracking goggles for camera control
** $399 budget version come with a 4K camera
** WOW.. ONE YEAR warranty covering up to 3 crashes - NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
Click through for the story

EDIT GHOST 2.0 Facebook group

ONE YEAR - 3 Crash - no questions asked warranty.

OK lets stop right here.    
Let it sink in,  what part of "up to 3 crashes no questions asked" did you not get?
eHang are offering the BEST warranty coverage in the industry.     if you are looking for a smartphone controlled drone,    with the GHOST 2.0 available at two price points, it is frankly very difficult to mount a argument for buying any other product than a GHOST 2.0  you simply can't get any video-drone with better coverage.  Nuff said.

The Drone
The GHOST 2.0 is a direct evolution of the original GHOST drone,  with a ton of updates, better gimbal, better battery, better propellers,  refined design,   hugely improved user-interface APP for the smart phone. in a package with roughly 20minutes flight time.

CONTROL LINK
eHang have done a really smart thing,  unlike most drones with smartphone control, eHang don't connect your smartphone to the drone but to a "link-box".   the link box feature a 2.4ghz control link and a 5.8ghz video link to the aircraft.  because eHang use a proper 2.4ghz video link, its possible for them to safely offer a 1000m (about 3000feet) flying range, which would naturally be impossible using just a smartphone connection.

Those UPSIDE-DOWN propellers
The most unusual design feature is the upside-down props and motors.  there are lots of theories why eHang picked this design.  however eHang have a valid point here.  to understand the benefit you need to think about the airflow from the props.  on a normal quad design the air hit the arms this obstruction cause a drag penalty to the lift.  by putting the props under the arms, the air passing the arms is "low pressure" and the "high pressure" air leaving the props.   its a simple but reasonably effective way to optimize battery life.   

The VR GOGGLES
eHang really was on a roll here, designing "stuff we want" features,  and the goggles are no exception. 
for the GHOST 2.0 VR edition,  eHang replaces the "link box" with FPV goggles,  so your smartphone connect to the goggles, and the goggles have the 2.4ghz control link build in.    the goggles also have a 5.8ghz video receiver module. which naturally display your camera video on the goggle screens.
The goggles have a head-tracker, so you can control the camera angle by tilting your head,  this makes it incredible easy to do a soft camera tilt when flying over a object.
One missing feature in the goggles is that there is no OSD showing remaining power on the battery. 

The 4K BALL-CAMERA (standard on the GHOST 2.0 VR edition)
the 4K camera was one of my big surprises with the GHOST 2.0 drone,  frankly it is much better than i expected it to be,  again the focus of the ghost drone is to be a easy to use smartphone drone,  unfortunately to get this objective, eHang have mostly removed camera settings options, which in some ways make sense as its rather complicated to fly a drone with a phone and adjust the camera at the same time.  on the upside they did do a great job on the image quality and on the gimbal stability.

The 4K action camera option   (Standard on the GHOST 2.0 Aerial kit)
still writing this part :-)

The SMART BATTERY
the GHOST is lighter than you would expect and the battery reflect this and also the efficiency of the upside-down motors, as a result the battery seems smallish, its a 14.6v 4500mah battery, and yet its rated at 25minutes flight time,  the most I got was slightly more than 20 minutes, but thats really pretty good for such a compact battery.

The battery is a smart-battery and will auto-discharge if left for a week.    
To turn on the battery push-let-go then push and hold on the battery button.  until the battery is fully turned on.  You can do a quick press on the button to see how much power left in the battery.
Repeat to turn the battery off.
The batteries are roughly $79 a pop which is fairly reasonable compared to other proprietary drone batteries.

Im a big fan of the very compact charger for the Ghost 2.0 battery.  you literally dock the battery on the charger, so no cables to loose or break.
Note there is not "balancing" connection on the battery, this is because its a smart-battery and balances itself internally while changing. 

 

 

Where to buy the GHOST DRONE
The $399 GHOST 2.0 Aerial video drone CLICK HERE TO BUY
The $899 GHOST 2.0 VR drone CLICK HERE TO BUY
Extra Ghost 2.0 Batteries CLICK HERE TO BUY  
Extra Ghost 2.0 Propellers CLICK HERE TO BUY
 eHang Ghost BackPack CLICK HERE TO BUY  

 

 

Comments

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Mike, I think its just a matter of getting a screen with 5.8 receiver - however give them a call, they are pretty easy to get hold of.

[Mike Hillerby]

Hi,I bought the ghost 2 aerial edition,,I was wondering what it would take to turn this into a fpv edition..mine has the 4K sports camera..any help or advice is appreciated. Thank you.

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey David, unfortunately Im pretty sure eHang is committed to focusing on smart-phone driven systems. they are doing very well in designing the interface.

[David W]

Maybe they will come out with a "Pro" version with a traditional TX in the future. It seems to be the industry standard to release a model, then later release "Pro" (or upgraded) versions. That would probably open the market for these up to guys like you and me.

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey David,
You and me both, I LIKE sticks.! however flying the Ghost 2.0 in the "Avatar" mode where you tilt the phone is surprisingly easy and you get the hang of it quickly. Im still not a big fan of all the layers of technology between me and the aircraft..
In the end the reality is that this particular aircraft simply was not build for you and me. its very much for the iPhone generation.
OK not entirely sure, but seems that I remember this thing can fly with iPhone 4 and better. my guess is that it can fly with anything that have full set of accelerometers. ok most things.

[David W]

Hi Bo-The Ghost 2.0 looks pretty cool and I would say it is very reasonably priced for what it is. However, I honestly feel some of the more serious hobbyist's (me included) would like a TX which is not a smart device. I truly believe good piloting involves "stick feel". I have flown with smart devices and really do not enjoy it. Hopefully they will come out with a TX for this later.
Also, do you know if the smart device must be the latest and greatest to fly this (such as are needed with the new Phantoms), or are older devices able to fly this?
Thank you, again, for keeping us all informed of the new products.