Credit: parrot.com
Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is a medium range drone with a $300 price tag. You can’t go wrong with this if you are a beginner. It’s a simple out of the box product that doesn’t need any major configuring. You could say that this drone isn’t meant for serious work, it’s more to have fun with.
Flying
The drone has 4 motors. It can adjust itself accordingly to wind, keep height, fly according to set speed and heights. The drone is controlled via a smartphone, works with both Android and iPhone. The only thing you have to do to fly is connect to the drones ad hoc network and open up a flying control app. There are different ones for parrots drone: AR.Freeflight, AR.Race 2, AR.Rescue2. AR.Freeflight is the app you need to get first. That is the app you’ll use to control the drone. AR.Race 2 is a racing app to race with other parrot drone owners. AR.Rescue 2 is a game app you can play with your drone. You can get all the apps for free from either App Store or Google play.
AR.Drone 2.0 also has a unique stunt command. It makes the drone do barrel rolls or flips. It does kill the battery fast but it’s still quite fun.
The newer GPS edition models also come with an on-board GPS for tracking. This makes it possible to set a desired flight path on google maps and the drone will follow it. Another thing is the “Return home” mode which will bring the drone back to you if anything happens. The drone has also got a WiFi extender to increase the flying area. According to official data the range is 100 m however with a Samsung S2 the range was 50 meters for us.
Camera
Besides flying, AR.Freeflight also lets you configure the drone to fit your needs and save your flying. The parrot has a built in camera so you can see exactly where you are going. To be correct it actually comes with 2 cameras! The better HD 720P 30 fps camera is used to see forward and a 60 fps QVGA camera is for seeing down. Whatever you record gets saved straight onto your smartphone or a usb stick. You can also share the recordings through the AR.Freeflight app. Sadly the cameras can not record sound. Quality vide it is quite decent indoors. You can compare it to any middle class smartphone really.
What you can do is attach an external camera, such as GoPro, to the drone. When choosing a camera you need to make sure it’s not too heavy. Also bare in mind that any added weight will limit the battery life time and also altitude.
Battery Life
Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 works with a battery and the average flight time depends mostly on climate and flying style. Usually the battery lasts for around 10-15 minutes. There are also stronger unofficial batteries that can be found on ebay etc.
Technical Data
- Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 brings more flight sensors and a HD 720P 30 fps front camera.
- 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU
- 800 MHz video DSP
- 1GB DDR2 RAM
- Wi-Fi N
- GPS (Newer models GPS edition)
- 3-axis gyroscope (2000 degree/second)
- 3-axis accelerometer (+/- 50 mg precision)
- 3-axis magnetometer (6 degree precision
- Pressure sensor (+/- 10 Pa precision)
- Ultrasound sensors for ground altitude measurement
- 60 fps vertical QVGA camera
Pros
- It’s different from all it’s competitors
- Fast reacting
- Durable
- Interesting games such as racing, hiding, flips etc
Cons
- Battery life
- Price
- WiFi range
- Not a proper mounting drone that could be used for serious stuff