About the product
The quadcopter was released in October last year. Thanks to the appearance of the premium " Mavic Pro", the foldable design of the arms, the declared features, the exponential quality of performance and the affordable price, the quad almost immediately fell into the field of sight of a novice consumer audience. We also could not pass by and decided to try the quadrocopter in action, in order to subsequently prepare for you a detailed review of the most discussed budget quadric for beginners - Eachine E58.
Features
- Folding arms
- 480 / 720P camera (depending on equipment)
- FPV flight over Wi -Fi
- Altitude hold (barometer)
- Auto take off / landing
- Headless mode
- One-touch return to instrument
- 3 × speed mode
- 360 ° rolls
- LED backlight
- Does not require registration (weight with battery: 94.5 grams)
- Ready to fly out of the box (RTF)
Package contents
There are two options for a selection: 480P (optional) and 720P, which generally determines the quality drone onboard camera filming.
The review presents the top-end 720P configuration:
- Eachine E58 quadrocopter
- Control equipment
- 3.7v 500mAh LiPo battery
- 2 × spare rotor (CW / CCW)
- 4 × rotor guards
- USB cable for aircraft battery
- Screwdriver
- User manual
Appearance
Specification
Motors
Eachine E58 is equipped with 0720 motors of the collector type, laid horizontally in the beams of the quadric, the torque is transmitted through the reducer. The developer does not specify information about the performance of the motors.
In the test, it was revealed that the E58 flies well and is controlled exclusively in complete calm, any presence of wind at least complicates the control process or completely sets the quadric its direction of flight. This is due to the low potential of the collector motors, the thrust of which is not enough for confident flight in conditions of even slight wind.
The speed indicators Eachine E58 adjusts three modes: 30%, 60%, 100%. They can be changed using the button on the control panel, as well as in the menu of the JY UFO application (IOS / Android).
Camera
As mentioned above, the E58 quadcopter, depending on the configuration, can be equipped with two types of cameras: 0.3MP / 2MP. The top-of-the-line camera boasts an exponentially wide FOV of 120 °, which is optimal for FPV flying. For a budget drone, the shooting quality of the 2MP camera can be noted as one of the best, the color rendition was a pleasant surprise. The tilt angle is set manually: from 15 ° to 70 °. Photo and video material can be recorded both on a MicroSD cardpre-installed in the drone's slot (purchased separately), and on the smartphone's memory (the most energy-consuming method).
* microSD slot
15 ° tilt angle of the camera taking into account the roll of the quadcopter at the time of horizontal speed limits forward visibility, making it difficult to fly in FPV mode.
A bug was found during operation. If you insert a faulty memory card into the drone slot, the Wi-Fi connection becomes impossible. In our case, we did not know that the installed memory card was defective and could not understand why none of our smartphones could see the Wi-Fi network of the VTX and were already thinking about a malfunction.
FPV
To provide FPV flight, the camera works in conjunction with a Wi-Fi video transmitter transmitting a picture from the camera at a frequency of 2.4GHz. This fact can be immediately attributed to significant disadvantages, since the frequency of the video link coincides with the frequency of radio control. The result of such a "tandem" is usually always the same, poor FPV quality and extremely short distance. The stated FPV distance is 30 meters. In practice, this distance has been halved.
Battery
The E58 is powered by a single-cell (3.7V) lithium-polymer battery with a capacity of 500mAh. The battery itself is packed in a plastic box like in modern premium UAVs, no wires or plugs. According to the specification, the flight time should be within the interval of 7-9 minutes. In practice, max. flight time was: 7 minutes in FPV mode and 8 minutes with one remote control (costs 30%, video recording is disabled).
A low battery will be warned by the light indication of the drone in front (2 × white LEDs) and rear (1 × red) - they will start blinking at the same time.
The indication, which is located on the quadric under the power button, does not carry information about the current charge, as was the case with a premium drone. Its role is much simpler - to indicate the state of the drone on and nothing more.
Charging
The battery is charged from the supplied USB cable, which is connected to the battery at one end (microUSB), the other to the USB port. When connected, a red LED lights up on the battery, indicating that the charging process has begun, it will remain on steadily until the battery is charged. The charging time generally corresponds to the stated figures in the specification, each practical cycle was within 1h 10min.
Control
Control Options
Eachine E58 has three control options:
Control equipment
- Activate the drone by holding the button (on top of the quad) pressed for about 2 seconds. All LEDs of the quad will start blinking rapidly.
- Activate the control equipment. Move the left stick up and down in one motion, the LEDs will stop flashing. The quadcopter is ready to take off.
Smartphone (via “JY UFO” IOS / Android app)
- Activate the drone by holding the button (on top of the quad) pressed about 2 seconds, all LEDs of the quad will start blinking rapidly.
- In the smartphone menu, go to the “Wi-Fi” settings, from the list of found networks, select: “WiFi-720P-XXXXXX” (X - the last six characters will be different for each smartphone). Searching for a video link usually takes about 20-30 seconds (no password required)!
- Next, launch the pre-downloaded application "JY UFO", before tapping on the "Play" icon, go to the settings (to the left of the gear icon), activate the "Preview 720P" then exit the settings and go to the "Play" icon... Successful connection will be indicated by the broadcast picture from the quadcopter camera.
- Tap the “Off” icon at the top of the display and the virtual sticks will appear on the display. The quad LEDs will stop blinking.
- After tapping on the hourglass icon, icons for auto takeoff and landing, emergency shutdown of motors, execution of 360 ° rolls and blocking will be added to the virtual sticks. You can start taking off.
Smartphone control equipment (IOS / Android)
- Activate the drone by holding the button (on top of the quad) pressed for about 2 seconds, all the quad LEDs will start blinking quickly.
- Activate the control equipment, move the left stick up and down in one motion, the LEDs will stop flashing.
- In the smartphone menu, go to the “Wi-Fi” settings, from the list of found networks, select: “WiFi-720P-XXXXXX” (X - the last six characters will be different for each smartphone). Searching for a video link usually takes about 20-30 seconds (no password required)!
- Next, launch the pre-downloaded application "JY UFO", before tapping on the "Play" icon, go to the settings (to the left of the gear icon) activate "Preview 720P" after exit the settings and go to the "Play" icon... Successful connection will be indicated by the broadcast picture from the quadcopter camera.
- Place the smartphone in the remote control frame. Take off.
Starting the motors can be realized by simultaneously moving the sticks apart from each other to the lowermost corner. With this launch, the drone does not take off, the propellers rotate in idle mode.
The control equipment of the E58 visually resembles the remote control of three premium drones at once: DJI Mavic Pro, Mavic Air and Spark. Operates at 2.4GHz. Power is supplied from 3 × AA
The foldable antennas of the control equipment have only a decorative function. The antenna itself is located in the inside of the remote control, so there is no special need for unfolding them at the time of flight.
The design of the remote control has a pull-out frame for installing a smartphone into it (max. Width of the gadget is 7.5 cm). Having installed a smartphone in it, at the moment of fixing it with a frame, the user will first encounter the problem of spontaneous pressing of the side buttons of the phone. The first thing you want to do in this case is to turn the smartphone over to the buttons down and I must say this will be a good position, but due to the fact that the application does not support the auto-rotate function of the screen, this position becomes irrelevant. The smartphone will have to be returned to its original position and installed with a shift to the left side, thereby complicating the process of controlling the quadcopter.
Despite the fact that the control equipment has buttons "Photo" and "Video", the activation of shooting modes will be possible exclusively through the menu of the mobile application "JY UFO". When the "Video" mode is active, the blue LED built into the card slot will start blinking quickly, if the user stops recording, the blinking frequency will become slow.
Due to the peculiarities of the electronic filling, the drone can bind only with one control equipment and this is the one that comes with the kit...
Button assignments
Recommendations
- The first launch is recommended to be carried out on the street, this will allow you to quickly adapt to control and save on rotors. At the first stages of training, do not neglect the included screw protection.
- Due to the fragility of the material from which the rotor rotor is made, we recommend that you take care of a spare kit in advance, as by default there are only two spare CW / CCW propellers.
- Despite the indicative flight time, in fact, one battery will not be enough to fully immerse yourself in the learning process. Therefore, it will not be superfluous to buy 2-3 additional batteries.
- For accurate gyro operation, it is recommended to calibrate it after even a minor crash. To do this, immediately after the accident, return the drone to the pre-flight horizontal position. Then, on the control equipment, with one movement, move both sticks (joysticks) to the lower right corner at an angle of 45 ° (long beep), hold them in this position until the red indication of the drone (on the back) stops blinking rapidly. Calibration completed.
Price
The top version of the quadcopter Eachine
Conclusion
Pros
- Appearance
- Folding Beams / Dimensions
- Workmanship
- 2MP camera (video)
- Stable and controllable (in calm weather)
- Altitude hold (in calm weather)
- Auto takeoff / landing
- Flight time
- Price
Cons
- FPV signal quality
- Offset distance in FPV mode
- Incorrect 15 ° camera tilt angle
- Application does not support auto-rotate screen
- Fragile rotors
In our opinion, the Eachine E58 is one of the best budget replica of the DJI Mavic Pro portable drone under $ 50. The quality of the product deserves respect without exaggeration. Building on the strengths of the E58, the drone will be fully appreciated by novice users who are aiming to master the initial skills to safely operate a drone.
If the main focus is on FPV flying, then it would be better to turn your attention to something else, for example Eachine Q90C or Hubsan X4 H502S.
The E58 is undoubtedly worth the money and is a long-term purchase for the budding consumer segment. Age limit 14. Registration is not required.
Videos
You can watch the video in original quality here.
.
