Rpr,
Curious why you say “all show, no go” regarding the H520?
Just looking for your particular insights.
Thanks!
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I wanted to get the H520, but I do not want to jump in the waters head first. Lets talk about the st16s controller, as a one unit one area of concern is overheating and the other is "lost link" some of us flies in urban cities, the majority of the developments are in major big city areas, and the H520 no recorded flights that it has accomplished a mission survey or mapping mission in an urban setting (there's one in Youtube, where the flyer demonstrated by mapping a small parking lot) The majority of surveyors will be mapping/surveying more areas than of that of a parking lot, and with my current experience with the TH Plus, it has been a love n' hate relationship, I will get an occasional video-lag, well lost-link and regain signals, and this is critial when collecting materials, because in the perfect world, we would like to have successul missions each time (my confidence in flying the H Plus is in limbo at times)
By Yuneec orienting all the components in one unit, and Yuneec thinks that it will have a glitch free mission flight controller, I think (in my opinion) they are mistaken. Next is the orientation of the camera shutter button, they did not thought this through, because this is critical, not just for cinematographers, but for us surveyors are well. Yuneec is using the Mavlink config. (I think) if so, no surprise there it has been published that H520 and TH Plus has adopted Pixhawk (Ardu) into their system, and this feature, from what I believe 3DR took advantage of (but, cannot be accessed to us users in creating our own config in the open share drone map) But lets circle around, flying in certain distance or locations, and it has been documented that the Yuneec ST16s is not yet bullet proof or has a fighting chance in this retrospect to flying certain distance. Again "Lost Link"
I have done my due diligence, and right now the H520 is not a GO for me, and I do not want to have a buyers remorse. But one thing is clear, the Yuneec hex drone is stable. I can fly a grid without problems, I am not a weekend warrior, when it comes operating drones in construction sites, this is what I do from Monday - Friday, with lots of weekend overtime, flying in multiple areas. Yuneec has yet to prove a lot of us flyers, far more than just creating pretty advertisement videos, and the so-called commercial pilots mapping their own back yards, and mapping rural areas are mere ambulance chasers. Here in California, we do not see H520s working, my TH Plus is, but only in 2 sites outside the NFZ zone.
But, I have confidence that Yuneec will one day make their drones a better tool for us to use confidently, but presently, the construction/commercial drone community doesn't believe it is there yet, and this has at times come up in every mapping/survey webinar. And the community wants an affordable, proconsumer "HEX" because some of us are tired of DJI's "Quad" drones.
Due diligence and research, before buying, will yield that the H520 is not ready for prime time.