Nano Remote Control Quadrocopter

Product Description

Don't let its size fool you, the nano remote control quadrocopter provides big time fun without breaking the bank. LED lights at each end help you identify ... [Read more]

Features

• FEATURES: Plastic body with window and trim detail LED light indicates front and back of the heli and also helps in low light flying 4-channel 2.4GHz
• INCLUDES: RTF Proto X Nano Quadcopter, 2.4GHz Radio, LiPo Battery, USB Charge Cord, 4 spare rotor blades and Instructions
• REQUIRES: AAA Batteries: Two for transmitter

Top Reviews

A nano-drone that is not as easy as you would think to fly but more fun than you might think once yo
by Adam J. Cohn (4 out of 5 stars)
December 9, 2015

This is a tough one. It's a very good little nano-drone. HOWEVER, do not think if you are an absolute beginner that you will be able to fly this thing right out of the box. I am an intermediate quad flier and an excellent helli flier and I had a pretty big learning curve. However, once you break the curve (and a couple of the propellers you are in like Flynn. I would say only adults will be able to learn how to fly this thing. Maybe kids by the age of 12 or 13 if they are already RC hobbyists. The biggest problem is that the controller that it came with is tiny and yet you still have to address trim both front and back before you can fly the thing.

TIPS:
1) DO NOT try anything until you can just hoover up and down. This is your first goal is to successfully go up and then come down,
2) In order to achieve one, you must achieve 2. DO NOT just flip the throttle up and think that it will go straight up in the air. It will go left, up fast, and just hit something or someone and you'll lose your first props. Slowly and I mean SLOWLY inch the throttle up and if it moves forward (forward are the blue lights) than when you are not pushing forward, draw the trim back by pushing the up down trim button. If it glides left/right use the left right trim button to offset the trip in that direction. There will always be a little bit of lean on something like this but you can remove most of it.

Then just practice going up and down, up and down, up and down.

There are three levels of flying, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. It tells you in the manual how to set the controller to the three levels. It defaults to easy. When you are in advanced mode, and it will take you a while, you can do things like aerial flips and stuff. My 3 year old daughter just loves to watch me fly thing little bugger. Speaking of which, it's like flying a large bug, thats how big it is. It's sort of creepy, its so small. HA.

Lots of fun once you master it. No frills, just a little thing to fly. The bigger ones are actually easier to fly than this and to be honest, I enjoy flying it outdoors more than indoors. It's pretty responsive, fairly powerful and very fast so it sort of is actually not the easiest thing to fly in the house unless you have a huge house with vaulted ceilings. I could only fly it in the house once I got good at flying the thing.

I would recommend this to someone that already knows how to fly a UAV and wants a small one just for fun and maybe to freak out the people at the office. It has no prop guards so if you so much as think of touching something with this little quad, it takes a quick dive and if you don't stop the props immediately by thrusting down the throttle, you'll probably lose your props. As it stands, during my learning curve, I lost two props :( Thank goodness it comes with multiple props so you can get through that. I have yet to lose any in quite a while although I'd like some more back ups for the inevitable crashes to come. It seems super strong though. Aside from losing the props, nothing has happened to the quad, despite some nasty crashes.

Speaking of flying outside, just tonight I was flying this with my daughter and I got really brave with how high it was going because she likes it to go high and a little gust of wind took it into the neighbors tree. Luckily I had enough juice to turn the props until it fell out. Beware of flying it outside for this reason. I would recommend low flying outdoors but it definitely has enough juice for outdoor flying.

Speaking of juice, it doesn't have a removable battery. I would guess I'm getting about 8-10 minutes of flying per charges and then it takes about 25-30 minutes of USB charging to re-charge it. Well worth the wait for a couple minutes of distracting fun.

I'm going to add a picture of mine charging with the controller it comes with for purpose of scale. The buttons on it are for trimming that I discussed earlier. Feel free to ask any questions.
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Terrific fun - but be careful to be in a very wide open space with no wind
by Angela M. Hey (3 out of 5 stars)
April 1, 2015

I thought I'd try this in our living room and it hit the ceiling - so went outside and hit an oak tree and a propeller came off. I put on a new propeller but put on the wrong one - so it tipped getting stuck in the deck, breaking another propeller. The propellers have A and B on them so you can put them in the right place.

I then lost the quadcopter under solar panels on our local library roof as it takes off. I ordered another one and took it to a big field well away from trees and had fun - it lasts about 4-6 minutes.

I then took it to another field and it flew off into an oak tree. I thought I could retrieve it later in the day after some wind had shaken the tree. I had lost a blade, but put one on. Unfortunately a strut had broken, breaking electrical contact to two of the propellers. So I am ordering my 3rd one.

The quadcopter provides masses of fun and I recommend ordering the propeller protector. Mine came with a couple of extensions for the controller joysticks - which I found essential for accurate steering. Even then it's quite hard to steer as you need to know where the front of the quadcopter is - indicated by blue lights.

Keep it well away from roofs and trees. The middle of a football field would be a good place to launch from.
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Disappointed
by Broxer (1 out of 5 stars)
February 25, 2015

I've flown this little Quad approximately 30 times over the past few days and it's been disappointing to say the least. Even when trimmed out it will only maintain a hover for a second or two before it dives off in a random direction. It's a constant struggle to keep this thing from crashing. After about 10 flights, the "B" rear motor randomly wont start spinning unless you nudge it with your finger, after reading other reviewers issues with seized motors I'm sure it will quit working all together soon enough. To compound the instability the throttle is least linear near its hover point, small movements to stop it climbing often result in huge altitude losses. This is my second micro quad and as far as I'm concerned it was a waste of money. Perhaps I received a bad unit but I'd recommend staying away from this thing.

Update: 36 hours and 3 flights later, the "B" rear motor has failed completely.
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Good fun in a little package.
by D. Shirley (4 out of 5 stars)
December 21, 2015

I bought this to play around with in the office, now half the office has one...

I have noticed that there are MANY of these quads out there all based on the same basic design. This isn't the cheapest one, but the quality of this one is better than some. What would put this one over the other $15 ones of like design, is the LED's, bright pair of red ones in the back and bright pair of blue ones in the front, some of the cheaper ones don't have that, so you loose direction with them especially when they are above you.

This a bit slow charging, 30 minutes or so for the 10 minutes flying time, but I do it as a break, so I don't need anything more than that.

Biggest con I can come up with would be the trims, wish they were potentiometers to more accurately dial it in, but for the price, what can you expect?

Says it will flip, but I have yet to build the skill needed to do this yet... Mind you, these are not easy to fly, takes practice. These don't have all that fancy 'autohover' logic built into them..
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Good drone, poor controls
by J.M.Dee (2 out of 5 stars)
May 10, 2018

Great little unit, very well built.

Control are terrible, response is jerky and does not respond right away. When I first got it and tried operating the control stick I started out real slow and edged up the control stick a little bit at a time. It wasn't until I was half way on the control stick that it finally started the props going and it came on full power which sent the drone up into the ceiling. I've learned now too just move the stick forward fast and be ready to pull back once it takes

off. The control unit is so small it is difficult to get your fingers in to calibrate the yaw and pitch.
Definitely not the fun time I was looking forward to in flying this drone.
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Fun Indoor Flyer!
by Jason S. (5 out of 5 stars)
May 26, 2015

Wow! Fun hardly seems to describe this little thing! Be sure to buy extra replacement blades as they will become damaged very easily. A blade guard does help but does not stop them from being damaged. I have a 100 or so flights with no problems and have slammed it many times and still runs great! The only downfall is the short run-time vs charge time. Pro-tip: Trim it out at low RPM on a large smooth floor before flight. Once it stays even somewhat still it will be easier to control in flight.
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Great Small Copter
by RayK (4 out of 5 stars)
January 18, 2016

I purchased the Estes Proto X Nano R/C Quadcopter, Green for my grandson for his birthday he is 11 years old. He has owned a few of these small copters but them were of the cheaper variety and lasted only for about a month before they crashed, the propellers broke or the remote failed to respond.

We open up the box and the first thing that really surprised me was just how tiny this copter was easily fit in the palm of his hand and so light. We charged the batteries which were relatively charged quickly thru a USB cable and we were ready to go. I have to say my grandson was a lot better at flying it than me (must be all those video games he plays) but after 3 times I started to get the hang of it and was able to somewhat do what I wanted it to do with controlling it.

Pros:
* Well made after numerous crashes it is holding up great
* Love the LED lights red and blue
* Pretty powerful for such a little copter
* Lots of fun scaring the cat and trying to land it in designated drop zones
* Easy fast USB charging

Cons:
* You will crash crash crash in the beginning Little learning curve to it
* Blades popped off but went back on. I was given 4 extra blades with the purchase (will need them)
* Only lasts for about 7 minutes of flying time before it needs to be recharged
* Any kind of airflow throws the copter off ( fan, central air)

Conclusion

My grandson really likes the copter and flies it often and it is still in one piece. I guess that really says a lot because kids nowadays have all kinds of expensive toys that they play with for a week and get tired of. It is a fun little copter well-made and very cool looking. Yes I would recommend this product to family and friends
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To buy or not to buy? My opinion.
by rickko (3 out of 5 stars)
April 28, 2014

I am conflicted over how to rate this product. It is on the one hand fantastically fun and enjoyable to learn to fly (5 stars). On the other hand the brushes wear out or denigrate quickly and the quad becomes useless unless you can find replacement motors (1 star).

I bought two ProtoX quadcopter's. I ended up replacing the first quadcopter's motors with the second quadcopter's motors until the brushes gave out in five of the eight motors! I expected them to last at least twice as long as they did.

Now my quads sit motionless until I can find more replacement motors at a very cheap price. I'd probably buy 8-10 motors at a time if I could. Until then I'd say to you, enjoy the thrill of piloting the tiniest little quadcopter while it lasts.

A note about the motors. There are two types. One turns clockwise, the other, the opposite. The color of their wires differentiates them. In a pinch you can use either motor for any position on the quad as long as you reverse the + - wires if necessary if you are replacing an A motor with a new B motor. Or vice versa.

I didn't keep count but my guess is, these motors start to fail after 30 to 50 full 4 1/2 to 5 minute flights. If that's worth the cost of this product then buy it because they are really fun.

If you find a source for replacement motors. Please post it here.

Now let me speak to the art of flying this quad from a complete novice's point of view.

FIRST, I strongly recommend you buy from eBay a prop guard for it and some super glue. Otherwise, guaranteed 100%, within the first 10 flights you will damage one or more of the props which will end your flying fun prematurely or make it real hard to control the quad. I found using my fingernail would straighten out the deformities most of the time. It does come with a couple of spare props so you will have a short reprieve. The prop guard will also prevent losing a prop or two when it crashes against a wall or table or lamp. I can't tell you how much time I wasted looking for those little buggers before I got the prop guard.

SECOND, smooth out the spread or sheet covering your bed and use your bed as your launch pad until you learn to control the quad. Crashing it on your bed is way better than on the floor or ground.

Lay the quad on the bed with the blue lights facing away from you, gently lift off, determine which way it begins to drift, land it. Apply opposite trim. Repeat until you can control its hover a few inches or feet above the bed. I'd say once you can keep it hovering over your bed for the entire flight then have fun flying it around!

Bottom line: I loved flying this little quad until the motor brushes wore out. Then I began to question if the experience was worth a dollar per 5-minute flight. (I bought two so I doubled my fun (and cost). By replacing motors I extended one quad's useful life concidererably. Of course you'll need a micro or mini-tip soldering iron to replace the motors but its very doable.)
5/3/14- I'm currently waiting for Hobbico to send me two replacement quads per their warranty that comes with the product. I was reminded of the 90 warranty by another quad owner.
5/6/14- I received two new ProtoX quads from Hobbico today so I can confirm calling the warranty phone number in the instruction sheet works! You'll need to send them a copy of your receipt to prove you purchased the product within the last 90 days.

I made a video showing in detail the tiny little motor's failing brushes. I don't think they are much thicker than a human hair! So you can imagine at the rpms the commutator spins how quickly the brushes wear out.
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Durable! Cheap! Great for beginners, like me!
by Tarmgar (4 out of 5 stars)
April 2, 2015

Just got this bad boy in, and just to get the complaint out of the way, I wish you could pick your color. I wanted the black one with orange/redish braces but I got white. This white is ugly.

Everything else seems to be great! I've flown it 4 times tonight and I can see I'm already improving(First quad and first time flying ever). I can hover pretty decently now! Looks like my biggest obstacle flying quads is controlling the acceleration(rpms) and turning the quad at the same time. Every time I try to turn, I either ramp up the RPMs or lower them, resulting in a roof hit or crash landing lol. Good thing this thing seems to be pretty sturdy, and a soft bed and carpet helps too. The size of this controller doesn't help. It's pretty tiny and I have big hands. Right now I use my thumbs and I haven't tried the pinching method as of yet. Although, these sticks seems hostile to pinchers anyway.

Careful when flying outside. I already learned the hard way and missed my big front yard of grass and hit the road from roof top high. Chipped two props the ruined the balance. Replaced the props and it hovered perfect again! Durability right there for the motors!
**UPDATE APRIL, 5**

Just today I was flying in very windy weather and this tiny thing got away from me and ended up going into a birdbath full of water. This thing was underwater and on. Light were still on when I pulled it out. I immediately turned the unit off and ran in my house to give it some blast of air for a little bit. Went online to see how waterproof this thing is and found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvfnU9x4m5U watched it and wondered how mine fared. Turned it on and it flew with zero problems just like the video lol. This thing is a tank!!
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Im loving it
by x9x9x9x9x9 (5 out of 5 stars)
July 8, 2015

I received my proto-x very fast and it flies extremely well I thought it had a charging issue at first but it was me being stupid. I went out and bought a second proto-x ("with flip button") and it is awful compared to the one I got here. This one flies super smooth and is not jittery the newer one I bought kinda jitters in the air and one of the motor holders broke really easily. I actually got a third one on accident and it has the flip button and it is kinda jittery as well. So I would suggest trying to get one without that function.

UPDATE: So far I have had 3 proto-x's this one, one I got at a local hobby town and a third one estes sent out for a warranty thing. The first one is still going but only because I used the motors from the second one which was/is the black model. I have to wonder if the black one is using a different type of plastic since the motor mounts broke really easily. The third one is still working just fine the 2nd and 3rd have the flip button feature built in but I feel like the older one without the flip button is much better. I would still recommend this quad to beginners but don't expect it to last a super long time. They are pretty durable but the motors burn out. I plan on buying a cheerson cx-10 to compare them.

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