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I think you are all drinking Yunnec's kool-aid....

Do you think the yuneec typhoon is as good as the reviews make it out to be?


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    63
WilliePlas, You have got to be joking.
What exactly does that mean?

Willie Plas has taken the time to produce a detailed twenty-five paragraph review of his experience and opinions and you offer a one-sentence accusation that he's joking. How does that benefit any of us?

If you have some useful opinions or specific information that we can weigh against Plas' review, let's see it.
 
I'm recalling my first computer, a TRS-80,Model 3, which I purchased from Radio Shack in 1980 along with a 9-pin dot-matrix printer for a total of $3,600. While I was quite impressed with that equipment's word-processing capability (using Super-Scripsit software), compared with the progression of equipment to later inhabit my desk, the most recent being a really superb Acer desktop and a truly admirable Brother laser printer, the word that best describes the TRS-80 is primitive. And while my present setup cost only $450., total, the things it is capable of compared with the 1980 stuff is, in a word, amazing!

And so it will be with mini-drone technology, which presently is in its infancy. I believe the Yuneec Typhoon 4K is analogous to my 1980 Radio Shack computer and dot-matrix printer -- which was an impressively innovative setup for its time. I'm nearly eighty years old now so I can only imagine what the quad, hecto and octo drones of the future could be like because I won't be around to enjoy them. But as others have pointed out, my fantasies probably will be aggressively edited by expedient FAA restrictions.

While the R&D folks at DJI, Yuneec, Syma and others undoubtedly are sketching ideas for dream-drones of the future, the reality which must be considered is the lethal potential of these wonderful adult toys.

I'll assume we've all seen YouTube videos of the quad that shoots a .45 automatic with relative accuracy at 40 feet, and another which effectively fires a submachine gun. And if Amazon has developed a drone which is capable of delivering a 20lb package across town we should have no doubt that the allah-akbar boys are happily contemplating delivering incendiaries, bacterium and 20lb blocks of C4.

So with those unhappy thoughts in mind I will be interested in reading what some of you think we have to look forward to as this beloved technology progresses.
 
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Hi there, agree with WP, the Typhoon may be a bit overrated, having said that, and although I had my troubles with it (essentially caused by me, myself and I) since I've also experienced a swollen battery but that was due to one violent crash when it went full steam again a big rock once I've disconnected the GPS to see how fast it can really go.
Although it was destroyed (new frame, new props) everything was rebuilt and I never ever experienced any tech issue since.
I always thought this bird is too slow, it could easily go 35 mph rather than the lame 17, however, my biggest problem is that I cannot have a proper video feed passed 400 yards, does this only happen to me or other are experiencing this issue?
I'd like to know if there is a way to boost the signal as it is a bit hard to shoot a proper video if you don't get a live feed.
Thanks
L
 
In business your best customer is the one who complains. They are giving you a chance to improve your product or service by pointing out its shortfalls. Most people just leave for another company and not say anything.
Thank you WilliePlas for helping Yuneec improve with your constructive criticism.
To answer your question, those who are so offended by your post and attack you are drinking the coolaid.
 
I definitely appreciate WilliePlas honest assessment of the product and I can't help but agree on many of the points since owning both platforms.
 
Ok so first off, Hi to everyone (first post)

And I'm thinking it will probably get some heads turning. This is in no way an attack or me disrespectfully categorizing any of you.

I have had Q500 4k since Thanksgiving last year, this in no way was my first Drone (Quadcopter, for the ones that prefer that term) and the reason why I got it was because of the overwhelming and somewhat Apple-Like devotion on like to this drone.

No joke, every post video or review I saw was "it's great, amazing, blah blah blah". After looking at the price, I thought it was a little overpriced, but then I saw all the goodies and was like ok FU&# it! Let's try it out.

Thankfully enough for me, yuneec had a sale on black Friday for $200 off, so I got my cc out and placed the order for the thing.

I would like to also point out that my drone collection is extensive having a few toy Drones like tarantula x6, syma x5c and x8c, plus many others that I used to learn before I graduated into real machines.

After that happened I got a dji Phantom 3 Profesional, a 3dr solo with gimbal, a Walkera Tali h500, 3 250 racing quads, and a parrot bebop 2 recently.

I say this to illustrate that the opinion I share comes from actually using different equipment in the same situations as I did the Yunnec, only to find how poor it performed against its competitors.

- Hovering is not as good as the Phantom, Solo, Tali or even the little Bebop 2.

- Speed and agility is also a joke compared to the other Drones.

- Video is superior to some but at this point we are comparing gopro hero 4 black on the solo to the camera on the 4k and it's not the video quality but the gimbal that shines here. And in the case of yuneec all it is is softer rubber mounts for the gimbal that give it the smooth look.

-The yaw is as good as it is on the solo or Tali and here is the only area when it is better than the Phantom, as the Phantom is the worst for yaw on videos.

- Video and controller Transmission rate. lol well, i think it's not even worth even mentioning how poor it actually is.

- Flight controller, at one point I had the yuneec fly out of the sky and crash (I have NEVER had something like this happen with ANY of my many drones). After contacting yuneec (not blaming them) but actually concerned and trying to get to the bottom of this. I asked if the controller recorded settings or alerts.

The answer was... Well, you need to put an SD card on the controller. To what I asked, why don't you put one in there from the factory? Again I was more interested in finding out what went wrong, not just getting a new drone.

I ended up hanging up because the guy was useless and ordered a new frame and landing gear for the 4k (as the drone was completely broken). After receiving the parts I started to put it back together and that's when I saw the insides and was like WTF???

No joke I think my syma x8c had the same board (obviously not), but OMG it was one small little board with very few components. Nothing like the dual computers, multi redundant sensors of the Solo or even the more advance apm board of the cx-20 I forgot to mention I also have

My god I was surprised and mad when I saw the insides of this thing. This is a drone that should go for $500 not $1,300 as it was going for when this happened. I will prove my point later on.

Now if anyone here had ever taken apart a typhoon or changed any parts, you will also know the drama, horror and just poorly planned internal design of the thing. OMG dont get me started on the motor pods (you literary have to take apart everything just to change a frame).

Ok if this is not enough reason to question the glorious reviews of the 4k,i don't know what is. I did get the 4k up and running again, only to find that now the battery had ballooned on me after using it for a few months (yes I only used the charger that it came with, I never left it more that a day at more that half charge and yes I waited to charge after each flught).

So I was starting to think it was my drone, a few weeks ago I was flying and the exact same thing happened and the thing started getting crazy lights and crashed into the ground. This time I manage to save the frame as it was not from so high up. I contacted yuneec and they said to ship it to them so they can take a look at it.

The question I ask is why is everyone loving this thing Soooo much when it is clearly an inferior drone to many out there. The reason they pack so many extras is because the cost of the actual drone is so cheap that they as a company can afford to ad things to the package and still make a profit.

Now you see typhoon G going for $499, just imagine the actual cost of the quad by itself, guys I hate to say this but this is a cheap toy drone with a lot of accessories and really soft rubber mounts that make the video smooth and that's it!

I am hopping the new Intel base H will be a different story. Oh and by the way I ended up getting the typhoon G two weeks ago slcuz it was so cheap and wanted to test and see if it was my drone or just yuneec. I'm sorry to say that the flight characteristics are the same.

I'm a fan of all tech and I just put this question out there cuz I really feel this product should get the reviews it deserves and not all the glory it's been getting like it's better than slice bread.

Thank you for reading my Bible of a post and know this is just my opinion on the product.

-wp
At first, I was very disappointed with my Q-500 4K, (partly due to the manual and an issue with a SD card I was using and then the "Elvis Twist & Shout" gimble that was possessed by evil spirits.) Fast forward nearly two months after I bought it, and I'm totally delighted. Mine is rock-solid steady and smooth, the video quality is STUNNING (and my background is in broadcast television with a degree in this field) and I ranted like **** in the first weeks of owning it, but I'm actually totally delighted.
 
I agree with the writer. My first drone so loved it. all the fun extras and customer service were exciting.
Then my Q500 4K dropped in perfect weather, no obstacles and shattered.
Again, great customer service on return and shipping and free repair. They could have claimed pilot error but didn't.
But . ..
I lose video connection all the time at short range. There is a stutter on almost all flights where bird almost flips and falls?
But mostly my camera is not recording properly. Half the files it takes are blank. I am not shutting camera off too soon. Or a 3 minute video is actually only about 15 seconds when played back.... Camera won't record or take stills over half the time. I am using high end SD card. Any one else experiencing camera problems like this? And that in flight stutter where it almost flips?
 
I agree with the writer. My first drone so loved it. all the fun extras and customer service were exciting.
Then my Q500 4K dropped in perfect weather, no obstacles and shattered.
Again, great customer service on return and shipping and free repair. They could have claimed pilot error but didn't.
But . ..
I lose video connection all the time at short range. There is a stutter on almost all flights where bird almost flips and falls?
But mostly my camera is not recording properly. Half the files it takes are blank. I am not shutting camera off too soon. Or a 3 minute video is actually only about 15 seconds when played back.... Camera won't record or take stills over half the time. I am using high end SD card. Any one else experiencing camera problems like this? And that in flight stutter where it almost flips?

I don't have the 4K model but I do have the G. I have encountered significant "yaw effect" on the platform. Under moderate wind conditions the quad is violently yawed left or right when typically navigating into the wind. Kind of scary experiencing this uncontrolled behavior and erratic telemetry change. My biggest issue is with jello effect in videos. The vibrations which are very visible in the landing gear are significant enough to translate into video as rolling shutter artifacts. Props are balanced and No improvement. Also inspected the motor mounts and after just one flight 2 of the nylon washers are cracked on the back left motor mount. Since the can of worms is open, the MK58 downlink is defective and only gets me a video range of 30-40ft, also had 3 items missing from my unopened box.

Got to fly my friends 4K and while it was hovering a few feet away to inspect his to see if it had the same said vibrations (it does) it just lost all power and drop about 5 feet into its carry case ironically. Fortunately since the power was lost, no broken props but the camera separated from the gimbal plate and tore the wires out of the gimbal. We are still trying to figure out why, with a full battery on the controller and aircraft it would behave that way.

With all the woes I've had with mine I called CS today and they recommended I contact the retailer for exchange...
 
I had mine last January 31 as a birthday gift from my beloved family, for they all know that I have beed wanting to have it, I took it the open park and it was a good drone, I would raher use the manual mode it reacts and moved faster than in GPS mode. to be basafeI maintain a line of sight and high altitude to avoid any accident, And sure to hear or feel for the bettery low warning. If it happened land your Copter Stat, or you will drop quick. this i first flight I had with my YQ500 4k. I will do more flight as the weather permits. FYI be sure you register it with FAA, and stick it in the body. I used a label maker it looks good. Happy flying you all,,,,
 
Ok, flew my Yuneec Typhoon Q500+ for the first time ever on Saturday (3/12/16). Have had the drone for about a month, and bad weather and fear kinda held me back from my maiden flight. Finally took it out for its maiden flight, in fact, it was my FIRST time ever flying a drone.

Let me just say, this thing was smooth as ****, flew beautifully, just did fantastic. I was a complete novice, though I've watched tons of videos, read this message board religiously, and did tons of drone research in general. But this Q500+ was so easy to fly, did exactly what I hoped it would do, responded perfectly to my movements, just an awesome experience. The RTH feature worked perfectly. Just a great experience.

Maybe I'm just a freakin newbie, but I can't understand how anyone can question if we are drinking the kool aid with Yuneec Drones, This drone was perfect in its performance, had no issues, flew like a charm, incredibly enjoyable experience. Even my 16 year old nephew got to fly it, he's never flown a drone and he had a blast. He had no problems at all.
 
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Ok, flew my Yuneec Typhoon Q500+ for the first time ever on Saturday (3/12/16). Have had the drone for about a month, and bad weather and fear kinda held me back from my maiden flight. Finally took it out for its maiden flight, in fact, it was my FIRST time ever flying a drone.

Let me just say, this thing was smooth as ****, flew beautifully, just did fantastic. I was a complete novice, though I've watched tons of videos, read this message board religiously, and did tons of drone research in general. But this Q500+ was so easy to fly, did exactly what I hoped it would do, responded perfectly to my movements, just an awesome experience. The RTH feature worked perfectly. Just a great experience.

Maybe I'm just a freakin newbie, but I can't understand how anyone can question if we are drinking the kool aid with Yuneec Drones, This drone was perfect in its performance, had no issues, flew like a charm, incredibly enjoyable experience. Even my 16 year old nephew got to fly it, he's never flown a drone and he had a blast. He had no problems at all.
That's the way I started 99. I went for over 30 flights without a hitch.Since I updated the firmware I 've had a few problems which I hope are sorted out now. I was getting intermittent video for awhile. I found it was doing this at the same time my clock on the controller had changed time on its own??? Yesterday morning after the DST change of moving the clocks ahead I went out for a flight and everything seemed good until take-off when I was getting a purple and orange flashing light. I landed to check things out. The time on the clock was 8hrs later than the actual time but the date was 1/6/2014??? The controller said I had no GPS. I hooked the bird to the GUI and sure enough the GPS was X'd out in red. Not sure what I did after that but everything ended up with red X's. I couldn't even bump the motors. I downloaded the firmware again and had all green on GUI. I had 3 full flights before the day was over without a hitch. Everything worked great. Has anyone else had their clock/date change on its own???Thanks
 
I read the OPs post and all the replies, and I must admit that I lol'd quite a few times. A lot of you are griping about 200% zoom on a photo being blurry, the camera not being professional quality, comparing the camera to a DSLR and pointing out the shortfalls, etc. Maybe you all missed the point somewhere along the way; this is a consumer drone. It was marketed as a consumer drone. Yuneec was targeting a demographic of users that would enjoy the flight characteristics of the Q500, the ease of use, and the superb video quality for the price point. Most of the consumers flying Phantom 3's and Q500's probably don't even have a PC capable of rendering/editing a 4K video, let alone a monitor or TV able to view it. If video quality was paramount and you want to talk about ISO, frame rates, shutter speed, etc. then you should have bought the Tornado, an Inspire, or any other multitude of professional drones that use DSLR platforms. You bought a Honda Civic and expected a Bentley experience. That's your fault, not Yuneecs fault.

As for the flight characteristics, this is an AP drone, not an FPV racer. It was never designed to race around and do stunts. Why on earth would it need to do that while carrying a 4K camera on it's belly? You bought a Honda Civic and expected it to be a GT-R. Then you complain when it isn't a GT-R and blame Yuneec for it, when they never said it was a GT-R.

To the OP: owning many drones tells me that you still don't know what you are looking for, and that you need to spend a little more time researching, watching videos, test driving, before you whip out the credit card and impulse buy. Don't blame a product for not living up to your expectations when you have no idea what those expectations are. Don't ask a drone to do what it was not designed to do. Enjoy it for what it is. A stable AP platform to have fun with. All the money you spent on consumer drones could have gone towards a professional drone, but something tells me you'd be on another forum bitching about that too.
 
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Oh and OP, please don't belittle those of us that purchased this piece of kit by telling us that we are "drinking kool-aid," as if we are brainwashed idiots not capable of drawing our own conclusions. You bought it too, then complained about it, then bought another one. Logic defied. I'm not saying the Typhoon is perfect. It's far from it. But it does what I want it to do, and it does it well.
 
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Ok, flew my Yuneec Typhoon Q500+ for the first time ever on Saturday (3/12/16). Have had the drone for about a month, and bad weather and fear kinda held me back from my maiden flight. Finally took it out for its maiden flight, in fact, it was my FIRST time ever flying a drone.

Let me just say, this thing was smooth as ****, flew beautifully, just did fantastic. I was a complete novice, though I've watched tons of videos, read this message board religiously, and did tons of drone research in general. But this Q500+ was so easy to fly, did exactly what I hoped it would do, responded perfectly to my movements, just an awesome experience. The RTH feature worked perfectly. Just a great experience.

Maybe I'm just a freakin newbie, but I can't understand how anyone can question if we are drinking the kool aid with Yuneec Drones, This drone was perfect in its performance, had no issues, flew like a charm, incredibly enjoyable experience. Even my 16 year old nephew got to fly it, he's never flown a drone and he had a blast. He had no problems at all.

You are exactly the target market. Some of these crusty drone pilots expect too much out of the Q500 and then fault it when it doesn't deliver.

The one thing I would change is the range. Keep in mind that FAA regulations specify that the drone must be in eyesight at all times, BUT a more robust antenna system is definitely required. Luckily there is an aftermarket for it. It's just something Yuneec should have done right to begin with. I don't have a lot of confidence taking my Typhoon out past 1500 feet.
 
Oh and OP, please don't belittle those of us that purchased this piece of kit by telling us that we are "drinking kool-aid," as if we are brainwashed idiots not capable of drawing our own conclusions. You bought it too, then complained about it, then bought another one. Logic defied. I'm not saying the Typhoon is perfect. It's far from it. But it does what I want it to do, and it does it well.
Well said 'roz'. I wasn't quite as politically correct as you
 
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I think at $499 the Typhoon G is a good value - IF you have a Hero 4 already at hand.

However the Hero 3 or Hero 4 is not integrated well into the Typhoon G. You need to start and stop the video manually.

You don't want to run the WIFI mode on the Hero cam as that can cause problems with the Typhoon G's Wifi up / down control link.

The gimbal works basically great and provides a silky smooth video recording experience.
For the money this is a great video recording platform.
The live video feed on the controller is also a great bonus.

I would not want to use my cell phone as a video accessory as you could get a phone call and you don't want to deal with that when you are in the air. I suppose you put the phone into Aircraft disable mode to avoid interrupting cell phone calls.

The whole point of owning a flying camera platform is to record a memorable video experience or something interesting.

I have found that the Typhoon G will tolerate 20 MPH winds OK.

The plastic props that are shipped with the Typhoon G break easy with contact with anything like grass or turf
or even a pillow in your house if you ever tried to fly it inside.

Plus if you crash, you always lose a few rubber mounts off of the gimbal. The video wire always snaps and needs soldered.

Upon impact the motors break off of the air frame or the frame cracks in the strut area.

The battery door can fly off upon crash and the battery latch is ruined.

For those flying and the drone has just dropped - I am betting your battery door was lose.
 
I guess one thing we have to remember is that the CGO3 is not even in the same league with a D-SLR or even a nice $200 Compact Camera. I have found the quality of the images and the flexibility of changing the settings on the CGO3 to be less than adequate for the serious photographer in us. The Bird is fantastic and fly's rather well which lets us concentrate more on the video or photo we are trying to capture. Personally I found that my old setup using a Blade 350qx3 with a GoPro 3+ Silver actually produced better results although I was not able to see where the GoPro was pointed I did manage after a while to be able to set it up so I kinda of knew what it was going to be happen. I am unhappy with the CGO3 but not with the Bird and probably not for the same exact reason Pownalite has. I would be just as happy to get the things I mentioned in the beginning of this response. In fact a reasonable set of instructions from Yuneec on CGO3 settings would be wonderful. But apparently Yuneec does not even know how the camera works. My suggestion to Yuneec would be to spend more time on the camera in the future.
 

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