Waterproof Drone! | Power Egg X
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- čas přidán 1. 02. 2023
- FINALLY a good drone that you that isn't going to end up on the bottom of the ocean!
For us guys flying drones from boats the whole business of getting aerial footage can become an expensive and nerve wracking nightmare... well not anymore!
I've lost four DJI drones to the bottom of the ocean so far, one because a super yacht had a jammer to stop paparazzi snooping on VIP's ( I wasn't! I was filming the classic yacht racing off Monty Carlo) One had a battery fault and performed a perfect auto landing 100 yards behind the boat and sank as we sailed away! One inexplicably lost control and ditched and one was a bad take off from me while sailing single handed, I clipped the solar arch.
All of these resulted in the loss of a drone and all would have been absolutely fine if I had been flying a Power Egg X. I would simply have gone back and picked up the floating drone.
I've had a waterproof drone before, the Swellpro Splash drone, but this was an expensive failure. So I'm very happy to report the Power Eggs is the first usable waterproof drone I've flown and I'm looking forward to an enjoyable seasons flying from the boat instead of dreading losing another expensive piece of machinery every time I want a shot of us sailing from the air.
If you are interested in buying one of these drones have a look at the store link here:
PowerEgg X
Store Link: bit.ly/3kbSkhg
Amazon Link: bit.ly/3KFBHFN
Use the discount code SailingFair
P.S. and regular viewers will know I've stopped flying DJI drones as they are getting so flaky the last one I bought was incapable of taking a firmware update because of DJI's broken software and has never even been able to take off since I bought in at xmas. So I'm doubly glad to find this one.
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Really interesting and not too expensive, thanks for sharing. I’ll definitely look at one of those next time I lose a drone to Neptune!
As an FPV drone pilot, if you want smooth (slow - cinematic) control you should go the opposite way in the "Control stick EXP curve"!
Take them into the negative values and you'll see the blue line staying closer to the X axis stating that from minimal to half input on the gimbal you have small movements to the drone and after that point, if you take the stick further out, the responsiveness grows exponentially...
Happy flying... 👍👍👍
So, the 3 modes are only about where the limits are on the EXP curves? And the Expert mode allows into the negatives (a larger range)? Sounds like it. Good to know.
I'm seriously thinking of getting one, looked at the swellpro something keeps me from buying one (trust with the gimble immersed in the salt water every time you do a water landing?)
Hi Steve, great apologies for your experiences with SD3. We have to say that SD3 did had some glitches when it was introduced to the market 5 years ago. Every new drone including ones from DJI has problems and it takes some time for them to get better. We have been constantly improve SD3, and rolling out newer versions like SD3+, and SD4 with better reliability and more smartness. We are happy to send you a new SplashDrone 4 for you to test and feel about the latest waterproof drone technology. We will appreciate your opinions, either good or bad. 🙂
That’s very good of you, we will be happy to test the new version, it’s really important for us guys out sailing to have a reliable waterproof drone and I think the first company to come up with a good waterproof drone close the the quality of land based drones will sell a lot of drones to us guys. We’re all sick of loosing expensive drones to the ocean.
Swellpro never makes reliable drones, they are not even waterproof as advertised, but what is the cause of the constant leaks? They are 15 years behind the times, their drones cannot be updated through an app, they do not even have the necessary firmware to update them, you have to write to customer service which never returns messages, replacement parts are excessively expensive and the technical service only thinks about profiting from users' money. I have never seen such a mediocre company.
Looks like a good drone for boating people. I still have a DJI spark, my first drone and still working, but almost lost it. It was staying stationary and did only go up and down, battery warning! drone was going to land (in the water) Could push it up to prevent that and catched it by motoring to the drone so it crashed on the deck.
Don/t know how much longer it last, but this power egg X might be my next drone.
Thanks for the update on this piece of hardware update!
They have a cool underwater drone as well. Good for cold water bottom inspection or anchor check.
Yes we have the Power Ray, it’s difficult to navigate down to the anchor is deep though & vis isn’t great. We tried it when we got the anchor stuck & it wad difficult to follow the chain down without keep over running it ad risking wrapping the lead around the chain. Well I found it difficult anyway!
Great review. Definitely something we need to look at
Nice one mate, anything that competes with dji is going to be good for the genre.
fair winds guys xx
Great review presently have dji mini 2 served me well. But not happy regarding launching & retrieving from boat. May look into this option Thanks again Steve👍
I too got the so disappointing splash drone at the kickstarter. With some serious sailing plans from 2024, I’ll be interested to see the footage and your ongoing review for your next summer season. I see there is an 8k version on their website , hopefully it has some other improvements from the original and not just a camera update.
total professional vlog~ 😌
Thanks for the candid assessment of the expensive swell pro. Swell Pro had a professional response too. I wish them well and await an honest reassessment.
Judy is bringing the new Swell Pro back from the UK next week so I’m looking forward to testing it.
Very good review
Fantastic!!
Was there any sponsorship or discounts that you got? Not a complaint, but I did not notice any statement of such. Always good to be clear on this point. That said, your review came across as totally independent and real. Thank you
We don’t take money for testing things, but yes some items are sent to us free to be reviewed. We are very clear with anyone that does this that we will just make an honest review of what we think and they get no say in what we put out. We find this works really well as companies who don’t have 100% belief in their products don’t send us there gear which saves us a lot of time not having to contend with rubbish products!
Was this a free or discounted product? It would be great to make this clear upfront even though I’m sure you will provide an honest and objective review.
I thought CZcams required this disclosure.
it requires disclosure it you earn money on sales of a product because obviously that could skew a review.
Thanks for doing the review. In a few months I'd love a follow up or at least a few comments during your regular episodes on how it's performing. When flying I'm terrified of the water. I set the altitude and then leave it there, I also bring it in early because I don't want to risk losing power over Poseidon's greedy paws. Never tried it from a moving boat either (gasp!)
I’ll keep you posted
HINT: You may already know this, but the DJI sensors do not see water as solid ground so NEVER get too low! This is RULE# 1 Rule# 2 is (these are available for the Mavic 2, and I suppose by now for Mavic 3s as well - get a CATCHING ROD. These will strap to the fuselage, making hand catching relatively safe and POSSIBLE!
I've not yet lost a quadcopter to Neptune, but a TROLL got one of my Mavics under a bridge ; accidentally turned on FVP mode ... and I "looked up" to check how close I was with the camera. Can't get much dumber than this? ; )
As an RC-Pilot, I assume the value on expo should by in the other direction - than the stick movement in the center results in less action on the drone.
Hi! Does this drone have manual video shooting abilities? I'm interested in this device but I can't seem to find any information on manual modes (ability to control shutter speed, iso, and aperture for video). Apologies if it's a dumb question lol
Not a dumb question at all, indeed it’s one of the big downsides. No you have no control, not even of colour temp! Weirdly it seems you can set colour temp for stills but not video. There are no ND filters available either so knowing shutter speed wouldn’t help you much. If you want a waterproof drone with full control and an excellent set of NDs I would suggest the Splashdrone 4 that I reviewed recently
Hi Steve. We just bought the Power Egg. I have a couple dumb questions. We’ve never owned a drone but we will be using on our boat. Do you have to use data or have WiFi to use the app to fly the drone? Also are the pontoons and plastic housing extra? I looked and it seemed the plastic housing is 399.00 extra? Is that possible? Thanks for the video and you really helped us to make this decision
I actually didn’t know you could buy the waterproof housing separately. It comes in two different versions, the Wizard and the Explorer. The Explorer has the housing and pontoons and some other extras as well I think like spare battery and propellers, it was about £300 more than the standard model. Re the connection, no you don’t need one to fly, but if your phone is on line either via wifi or 4G then you will get the map with your position on it which might be useful if you intend to fly a long distance away.
Great review! I’m curious if you have any updates on how you like the Poweregg x so far, have you been able to use it more often? Thank you
There's good and bad. On the whole it's great to have a drone I can fly over water and know it's completely safe it makes such a difference to the stress levels flying from the boat while sailing! However I am disappointed with the quality. The reflections off the perspex bubble is more of an issue than I thought, so sometimes in calm conditions I fly with just the floats so still have some protection. It also has some problems with colour rendition, I cant seem to lock the colour temp down in video mode and also its slow filming mode is not slow enough, things like the camera tilt are still too fast so difficult to get really good smooth shots sometimes. Im now testing the Splashdrone from Swellpro which is better but still not perfect. Test coming soon
Great review, thanks. I had a Swellpro as well. It was total junk, very glitchy, awful photo and video quality, and the third time I flew it at sea it suddenly lost the plot, zoomed half a mile from my boat and ditched in the ocean, never to resurface. A thousand bucks disappeared with nary a decent video to show for it. Absolute scam!
Thanks for covering this ... I am definitely looking to preserve my DJI AES and NOT dunk any more (I've lost one hitting a bridge! : ) Does this drone have any 3rd party developers providing ND filters for the camera ... that you know of?
Not that I've found unfortunately, and I'm having trouble with variable colour temp at the moment as well, cant seem to find a way of setting it in video mode.
@@svfairisle Yeah, Beta=>Version 1=>Version 2 ... but I see below an offer for an upgrade? TAKE IT : )
@@svfairisle I will be keeping my eye on this one, as anything is better than the rather absurd price of the SplashDrones. Come on? At any rate, if you get to test the NEW version, I think many of us would love to see an update on your show? This would help a lot of us make a more informed buying decision. I am likely to pick one up as soon as I feel they can produce SOLID footage ... and this WILL require some 3rd party to produce NDs (and a Polarizer would also be critical for our marine work). Thanks again for the information. CIAO (Dorian)
there's really something wrong if you can't get a dji drone working, they're the iphone of drones. they just work everytime, I work professionally with everything from the massive m200 down to the air2s and mini3 pro, and all of the mavics. I connect via pc and mac no trouble at all - so maybe check your mac software.
I echo the swellpro sentiments, I tested it out and it's total waste of time, never worked once. Sure like the look of the power egg, thanks for the review.
I also used to fly drones professionally for the BBC, used to build my own before DJI were around. Their drones are top notch when they work but the last one I had was bricked by a firmware update that wouldn’t complete and DJI refused to replace it even though it was brand new and never flown, they wanted to repair it. I think that’s unacceptable
I spent 2 days on line with them by the way, the phone quit the update so tried the Mac. Then an old Mac, they admitted they are not up to date with working with new macs, then I borrowed a PC. I tried!
That sounds really promising! It is strange that DJI hasn't addressed the sinking issue with their drones. Is that a 4K camera? Are you happy with the footage?
Yes the camera is 4K the spec is the same as the modern DJI’s but I don’t think the colours are as nice straight out of the can, I see if the final product can be made to look as good. The biggest thing is how much it will suffer from reflections on the Perspex cover, but of course you can always fly without it and you’ll be no worse off than if you were flying a DJI.
Would love to hear if you get a discount code!
Looks interesting/ promising. Are the motors waterproof? What is its weight/ category for CAA?
Yes the motors are waterproof, you can fly it in the rain and if you ditch it in the ocean just give the rotors a rinse with fresh water before you put it away. Not sure of it's CAA category, i won't be flying it in the UK.
@@svfairisle according to the specs it weighs 860 grams, 3.5 times the dji Mini
Additionally, at the end, you are wearing a very smart grey jacket. Where is it available?
Wish I knew where to get another one, I wear this one constantly in the winter it’s really comfortable. I found it 2 years ago in a market near lake Garda when we had the boat in Venice
I've just watched a video (in italian) where Power egg X has been tested and the man was very unsatified with it because of the communication system between the device and the control panel which is based on wifi system and therefore it's strongly influenced by any wifi existing in the area. He lost completely the control of the drone at only 30 metres above him several times.
You can use WiFi to connect the phone to the controller or plug in with a cable, I use the cable option for that reason. The connection to the drone from the controller is high powered wifi2.4GH which is the same as all drones
@@svfairisle OK, thank you for the explanation.
Yep, 15 minutes is enough time to get just about any shot. Reminds me of my iPhone 6s. I had to add an enclosure to make it waterproof and drop proof. My iPhone 12 is waterproof, but the stupid thing 1. still has the vulnerable glass (I think we're all sick of the Gorilla Glass over hype :£100 per failure) and 2. There's still NO attachment point. So I still have to add a protective surround -- to which I've hot glued webbing tabs for a neck strap.
The next stages of this drone seem obvious. The housing is waterproof and it floats - now you've got 30 minutes flying time. Also behind that front bubble it should be matte black to reduce reflection. So we're now sure that DJI intentionally makes them not waterproof, not floating, and not reliable... so they can sell you another one, and another one.... A guy I know bought a two generations 'old' one for super cheap. Seems like the smart way to have a drone.
Yes the old drone might be a way to go to save money, but I lost a drone I bought 2nd hand on the second flight because the battery was obviously passed it. It showed fully charged on take off then came up with a battery warning and auto landed in the ocean behind me 30 seconds in! Maybe if you get a 2nd hand drone but new batteries
What is that tech Spx top you wear ?
It's the new Musto MPX lightweight. It's excellent, but the jury is still out if it's worth the money, I got it at a discount at the Annapolis boat show but it was still expensive!
I saw some bad reviews on Amazon is the the drone still reliable
Reliability hasn’t been a problem for me, just the issues I mentioned which mean you don’t always get the best pictures
Nice, but if the pontoons are not parallel it could easily flip over - if it landed with forward speed....
I think you'ld have to have a pretty bad landing to flip it, but I'm sure a choppy sea could have it over. this really is only a problem if you have no means of getting to the drone in the water though as with the case on it wont be damaged, the rotors can take a dunking, just rinse them off with fresh water when you get it back.
I could afford a new rubber duck maybe !
Does the camera have zooming capabilities?
No. Sadly there's no way to put an ND filter on it either.
be noice if they had a way of plugging in your own choice of camera
Why am I thinking Star Wars?
😄👍👍👍❤
Your motors are still exposed. Look at CZcams "Flite Test | Waterproofing Electronics"
I flush the motors with fresh water every time, the last waterproof drone I had hasn't had issued with the motors after 4 years so I expect these will be okay.
@@svfairisle Thats great. My drone did not have waterproof motor but with the spray I can protect them.
Unrelated: I am looking at bifacial panels for my boat. Which model did you get. BTW the Sunreef 60 eco has a bimini made of bifacial panels. The quality of the light/shade is amazing. CZcams "Sunreef 60 Electric Hybrid Catamaran walkthrough w/ Commentary" timestamp 2:59 or 179 seconds.
We have a 440W LG panel, it's excellent, produces almost as much as the 2 other (similar sized) single sided panels put together
@@svfairisle The specs are excellent, particularly on cloudy days.
Hiws this drone know
Mixed is the short answer, I'm about to do another test which will have some updates.