Typhoon H Plus

[PatR]

No after market batteries yet but as UltraX sells an H battery for <$50.00 that’s only a couple minutes less flight time we would have to be economic morons to buy 520 or Plus batteries at what they are priced at.

That’s five points so far holding me off placing a Plus order; crap documentation, forced into having an item that makes little sense with RealSense, extortionate battery pricing, lens distortion, and no cruise control. If they don’t get their act together right smartly they might have to rename this bird “Failure Too”.

 

[OnTheRopes]

No after market batteries yet but as UltraX sells an H battery for <$50.00 that’s only a couple minutes less flight time we would have to be economic morons to buy 520 or Plus batteries at what they are priced at.

That’s five points so far holding me off placing a Plus order; crap documentation, forced into having an item that makes little sense with RealSense, extortionate battery pricing, lens distortion, and no cruise control. If they don’t get their act together right smartly they might have to rename this bird “Failure Too”.

6) Cannot edit the controls
7) Cannot afaik turn off GPS

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

I'm pretty much holding off yet on all of those, as well as maturation of the FW and features... As far as the battery pricing I agree, but at the same time 3rd party manufacturers have had specs on the 520 for a year now, enough time, I would think for R&D on this HV Lipo market... I suspect that they have waited on the H+ to give them a sufficiently larger customer base to draw sales from... numbers on 520 alone would make it hard to justify.

If any of the aftermarket battery companies come out with a H+ battery in the next couple of months... with that additional flight time, in the $120.00 range will clean up... You out there, @Alice?

 

[Ty Pilot]

Good points. It would seem to me that; the Yuneec "ship" is near dead in the water. With the Q500, Breeze, 520 and 920 boilers out and the 480 at the end of its usefulness, the only hope of getting the ship moving again is to get the Plus right, and fast. I will say that as for test one - releasing the H Plus on the announcement date - they did pretty fair, though they never gave a date, it did look like they suggested May or June. My initial thoughts on the camera were favorable and still are - even with the distortion, I will still take that over a Phantom. I spent a good amount of time going through Phantom 4 videos and the camera appears to still have a slight edge. No Doubt.

Every consumer UAV has drawbacks and one must look critically at the tasks they wish to accomplish with a particular system and decide which set of drawbacks they can work with, or around. I feel like we have sorta done this with the 480 all along. And it took a while to get the work-around's ironed out, and now it is a solid system, given what it is and what is expected from it. I kinda think the same will unfold with the Plus. Between building our own system which will be larger and more expensive than I want to use for day to day type shooting, going DJI (Nope), jumping into another manufacturers waters, or sticking with the system I really like, I'm still seeing that, as it stands now (for me) the path that will get me where I want is the Plus - once proven. I'm just waiting to see a semi bug-free system, one that has; at the very least, a proven flight performance with experienced operators.

 

[rdonson]

@PatR @Eagle's Eye Video

https://smile.amazon.com/GIFI-POWER...68&sr=8-3-fkmr1&keywords=typhoon+h520+battery

 

[Peggy]

Here is a non flying clip. A UK operator talking about the batteries of the aircraft and controller. Most already know the differences but I found the way he has made an external charge lead for the transmitter battery of interest since is is meant to only be charged in the ST16s.

Just posted my video on a separate thread ty.
Thanks for sharing tho

 

[Rubik]

Yes, what he said.
3840x2160x60fps was available but my internet connection was struggling to play 60fps without stopping frequently to catch up. It might be smoother at night (West coast time).

Good news, for me at least! I contacted Xfinity (Comcast) about something else and the agent offered me an upgrade to 3x faster internet speed service at a 10% lower price. No brainer! Now I can play 50/60fps 4k videos from YT as smooth as silk! These guys are competitive. You all should check with your internet service provider to see if you can get a speed upgrade.

 

[Peggy]

wonder if they sell the c23 camera by itself. from what I am reading I would like to transplant the sensor and the lens to the e90 if all possible.

Hold onto your hats as a very good fix for the E90 is imminent and actually now beats the C23 picture wise. Don’t rip that e90 apart just yet [emoji6]

 

[rdonson]

Good news, for me at least! I contacted Xfinity (Comcast) about something else and the agent offered me an upgrade to 3x faster internet speed service at a 10% lower price. No brainer! Now I can play 50/60fps 4k videos from YT as smooth as silk! These guys are competitive. You all should check with your internet service provider to see if you can get a speed upgrade.

I've got Spectrum and its the only game where I live. ISPs really hate competition. Cheaper for them to buy politicians than compete.

Still, I've got 200 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up for a reasonable price. Those speeds work for me.

 

[YuKay]

Is the distortion just on this video (which might include some non H+ footage)? I don't recall anyone flagging it up on any of the others.

 

[rdonson]

Also new chargers for the HV batteries. I've been using the DY3 for my TH batteries for a year and I like its simplicity.

Yuneec DY5 Dual Charger For H520

 

[PatR]

The GiFi batteries have not done well with the experienced people I know. I know there are some raving reports of how great they are but I weigh those against reports from people with lots of electric modeling history.

After market manufacturers play a numbers game; cost of development versus selling price versus volume. We don’t see after market 520 batteries because of low quantity of 520 units sold. If they used the 520 as an indicator of things to come they might hold off Plus battery development until sales volume justifies their effort. The H did plenty well enough to create batteries for it.

As for the ship being dead in the water, it’s not quite there yet but they need to find and castrate the design folks poking all the holes in the hull.

 

[rdonson]

I never bought GiFi batteries for the H because of the checkered reports of their quality.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

@PatR @Eagle's Eye Video

https://smile.amazon.com/GIFI-POWER...68&sr=8-3-fkmr1&keywords=typhoon+h520+battery

Since my average flight time is around 12 minutes with the 480, at my current location... for 50% off the OEM price and if I can regularly get 20-25 minutes in normal use... I could definitely live with that.

From Product Description:

Manufacturer recommended age 12 months and up

Toddler safe!

Haven't used Gifi, but if that is out there, surely a UltraX is likely well into development... and many pilots including myself have been using the 480 version with good results. In an ideal world, I will already have purchased the most immediate accessories... batteries, charger, ND filters at the time that I purchase the H+... so I'll be ready to put to immediate use.

 

[PatR]

I just hope Yuneec gets it together. I’m really looking for a reason to buy one.

 

[YuKay]

Help me out here. When a lens problem is fixed in firmware, is the correction achieved optically - ie a physical adjustment is applied to the hardware - or via in-camera processing? I would be keen to minimise digital processing so starting off with a lens correction layer of pixel manipulation would concern me.

I'm also keen to know if PatR's distortion report, apparently provoked by the Italian video, is unique to that video as the previously posted videos seem to have survived his forensic lens examination relatively unscathed.

 

[Peggy]

Help me out here. When a lens problem is fixed in firmware, is the correction achieved optically - ie a physical adjustment is applied to the hardware - or via in-camera processing? I would be keen to minimise digital processing so starting off with a lens correction layer of pixel manipulation would concern me.

I'm also keen to know if PatR's distortion report, apparently provoked by the Italian video, is unique to that video as the previously posted videos seem to have survived his forensic lens examination relatively unscathed.

I personally do not think that Italian video was taken with the H+, why? because my H+ has nowhere near that distortion, my take on that video is that it was taken with either very early firmware for testing the C23 or it was actually taken with the E90 and 520. That vid shouts E90 all over it. Having both machines I know what the 520 produces but.........trust me when I say the E90 is fixed in firmware that I have seen first hand with my own eyes. Now I am critical on the E90 because like everyone else I paid way over the top for a machine that does not command that price tag. But after seeing the latest firmware for myself I can say I am happy to use the E90 for commercial use and cinematography. If only Yuneec would hurry up and release that firmware the moaning would stop because I also have a P4P which takes amazing photos and video and the E90 on that firmware is very close to matching that.

The correction in the E90 is done by cropping on the st16s so I doubt very much we will actually be getting 20 mp anymore with the distortion switch on. The H+ and C23 do not have a distortion switch

 

[YuKay]

Thanks Peggy. I too doubted that the Italian video was shot with the same lens as the other H+ videos I have seen but I also haven't yet been able to see clearly the distortion that has angered PatR. We live on a giant soccer ball, so horizons aren't level; and I can't be sure that roads and other physical features were built, or grown, in a straight line. Maybe when I get my 5k iMac back from Apple tomorrow I will be able to see the problem more clearly.

 

[oliver]

There is necessarily a distortion, but acceptable (I do not find on mine that of Rome).
We first compare to the ground (I did with the RX100 IV which has more distortion)
Then I will compare with a GH5 12-35 <=> 24-70 in 24x36.
Finally, there is a way of filming that does not cause any problem.

 

[PatR]

Thanks for looking into this Oliver. I did not see the lens distortion in other videos so it’s quite possible the H Plus did not shoot that. The distorted imagery delivered very much what early GoPros did.

A good question was raised about firmware corrected lens distortion. Once fitted to a camera there’s no way I’m aware of for firmware to enable a mechanical correction, cropping the image size is the only way it can be done which absolutely reduces image resolution. It’s one of the reasons I never bought a 520 with an E-90. The image produced required a crop to fix the distortion and we can’t be telling our customers they are getting a 20mp image if we have to cut 15% from it to straighten it out. That also throws mapping accuracy out the window. At only 12mp the E-50 is the better lens for that machine. Ultimately, the best way to permanently fix the E-90 image problem is to use a different lens. If they want to charge that much for a rig they need to spring for a higher quality lens and/or reduce FOV, not crop the image through firmware.

Hopefully your testing shows my assessment of the distorted video as being wrong and produced by a different camera.