FIMI X8 SE Review: Time to Give up Your Old Drone

The big Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi has just stirred the waters of the drone world with a new drone release. If you are looking for a low priced, elegant drone with great video quality and long battery life,  then this is your next purchase.

Xiami FIMI X8 SE is the drone that will take your videography to the next level. Before you think about putting your hands on this beauty, let’s see why is this the next drone to own.

The looks

Elegant and small, the X8 weighs just 790 grams with the dimensions of 204 x 106 x 72.6mm. Just put it in your backpack and forget about it. The adjustable remote is designed to fit multiple devices such as phones and tablets.

Technical

At this price of $499, FIMI X8 SE comes with all you need to take your videography up the charts. The 3-axis stabilization camera guarantees steady shots worthy of the cinema screen. Speaking of cinema screens, this beauty will shoot in 4K and 30fps at a speed of 100Mbps with real-time HD video transmission. There are, however, videos from FIMI showing 60fps footage so there is a possibility that we might have a 60fps version in the future.

Other features

The Panorama, Smart Tracking, One Touch Timelapse and the four types of Cine Shot (Dronie, Circle, Spiral and Rocket) are great tools to make bloom out your creativity to make unique videos and photos.

The drone tops out in distance range too. The 5km range is enough to survey the widest and most unfriendly of terrains without having to make a step.

If photography is your main skill, the FIMI X8 SE speaks this language too. With a max resolution of 4000*3000, it is perfect to get nice details into those aerial shots.

Battery life

Again, the FIMI X8 RC Drone surpasses its competitors in this category too. At a constant speed of 8m/s, Xiaomi promises a battery life of up to 33 minutes. In normal conditions that would roughly be around 25 minutes which is not bad at all.

Other perks

If there are strong winds up in the sky, the FIMI X8 SE will notify you so you can decide if you continue shooting or not. This little drone is also smart. It protects your investment by flying back to you on its own when it’s out of battery.

If you are looking to perform more important stuff than taking great photos and videos, then maybe the Search and Rescue feature is what you are looking for.

Although there is currently no info about the advanced obstruction of obstacles, the design of the FIMI X8 RC Drone makes you think that something might be available in this aspect in the future. Most people don’t fly their drones “blind” anyway, so this is not a deal breaker.

Conclusion

The FIMI X8 SE has great chances to become the next star in the drone world. Even with the current specifications, its price-value is unbeatable. There are chances we will see even more unique features added in the future. Overall, this quadcopter deserves a top spot on any drone charts. Considering the success of the previous Xiaomi Mi Drone, I can safely put my money into the new FIMI X8 SE. For more details about the product, please check here. 

The Simplest Steps to Fixing Your Car Cigarette Lighter

Your GPRS won't power up, or you want to charge. Unfortunately, your car cigarette lighter is not working. It might not appear to be a severe car issue, but it can be an inconvenience. There are many reasons for a faulty car cigarette lighter. Whatever causes might be, I'll show you how to easily locate the fault and how to fix them easily and quickly.

Check for detritus

One of the first steps to take when planning on fixing a car cigarette lighter is to check the lighter for the presence of any debris or objects which can range from dirt bits of paper to whatever can get stuck inside.

The presence of detritus can easily spoil the lighter by shorting the fuse or just preventing contact. All you need is a flashlight and a toothpick.  And then you can shine the beam of light inside the lighter to check for any object or debris and use the toothpick to see if you can easily remove it. When trying to remove the debris if any make sure to be careful, you should not go around trying to force it out.

Testing the fuse

You need to locate the lighter's fuse, it may be in the engine compartment or passenger’s compartment. Check the car manual for help to search for the lighter's fuse. To test the fuse, you would need a multimeter.

Turn the multimeter on, and make sure it is in the continuity test mode. And then place the black wire on one side and the red wire on the other side of the fuse. All you have to do now is to listen whether the multimeter makes a sound. If it doesn't beep, it may be that the fuse is faulty and needs replacing. But if it beeps that means it is working properly, you can easily get a new fuse with the proper power ratings from an electronics store.

Inspect the lighter

If after testing the fuse and checking it for any debris, the car cigarette lighter is still not functioning properly, which means that the car cigarette lighter may well be the source of the problem. To inspect the lighter, pull it out of the socket and check for any detritus or burned area. If you see any sign of burns, this could mean that the lighter has short-circuited. If so, you would need to swap it with a new one. If you find any debris in the socket area, you can easily clean it and try the lighter once more.

A faulty car cigarette lighter can easily be the source of inconvenience to a car owner. But with the various ways to easily check for faults and fix them now,  you can easily do it yourself without having to call a car mechanic. For more cigarette lighters, please click here.

Discover More Discounts on Banggood Black Friday by Downloading Banggood APP

The Black Friday is around the corner. Banggood is going to launch a big shopping carnival which begins on 22th, November and end on 24th November.  But it has started on 12th, November. During the promotion, you can buy what you desire for at an unprecedentedly discounted price. To provide a better service for you, Banggood app development team make an upgrade on its app, which not only provides a more personalized online shopping service for customers but also prepare extra discounts on the app.

You may find it interested to shop with the Banggood app during Banggood Black Friday. The funny game “collect stars to win a grand prize” is available for you. Through playing this game, you can open treasure boxes in which you will have the opportunity to win big coupons $200, products from famous brands like Xiaomi and Eachine and $100 BG pay. But before opening treasure, boxes, you need to earn enough stars. Please remember the treasure boxes will be available from 10:00 (UTC+8) on the scheduled day. Do not miss your deal. More detailed rules about the game are available here.  

During Black Friday Promotion, special benefits area are offered for new users on the Banggood APP 5. 23.0. The new user will have the chance to be the greatest winner of the Banggood sale because they will gain $100 coupons. As long as you are the first to download this app during the Black Friday Sale of Banggood, $1OO coupons package will send to your card pockets. And you can also enjoy other discounts available on this promotion.

To provide a better user experience for you, it makes optimization on the home page, which looks credibly wonderful. Besides, it also adds Qiwi Wallet payment for Russian customers and Hindi Language option for Indian users to ensure more personalized service for you all.

Banggood Black Friday Sale will be the good time for you to grab what you desire. So do not miss it. Please remember that the discounts and service mentioned above are only available on the latest version of the Banggood app. If you do not upgrade it to the 5.23.0 version, you should download it quickly. If you have not used this app before, please download on App store or Google Pay. So join the Banggood Black Friday right now and become the part of Banggood promising future. 

Eight drone shooting tips and technics for beginners

Sports camera brand GoPro launched its first unmanned drone Karma at the end of 2016. The release of Karma, not only allowed GoPro to realize the full range of sea, air, and land, but also added a great new option for drone enthusiasts. Undoubtedly, UAV is now the new darling of the photography industry, if you are also a shutterbug, are you planning to purchase a drone? Compared with the average camera, UAV is much more expensive, if you can not make the best of your drone and its mini camera, you are wasting your money. The following tips and technics are provided by experienced drone photographers, hoping to help you get started.

1. Find a suitable space

If you are a beginner, remember to avoid water or dense vegetation. Because you may not have the skill to fly before you start practicing, you should try to fly in an open area to prevent falling and shading.

2. Find the right light

Light for the drone's shooting is very much affected, so when shooting in the air, we must pay attention to light problems. Once the light is low, the shots will be relatively dark and less clear.

3. Plan ahead, save the battery

Most drone flight time on the market is 20-30 minutes, such as GoPro's Karma in full power supporting 20-minute aerial photography, and DJI Phantom 4 in full power supports 28 minutes flight time. Therefore, be sure to make a good shooting plan in advance to save the battery, and enough battery to return.

4. Comply with the rules

UAV flight area, aerial height limit, and UAV flight control personnel qualification, etc., need to be determined in advance. Otherwise, it is very dangerous to violate relevant laws and regulations on the way of filming or to fly within an unlawful scope.

5. Choose the right lens

There are many different lenses on the market to choose from, it is recommended to choose a lightweight micro camera so your drone has less load.

6. Set recording parameters

Before the flight, you need to preset the parameters of recording according to your project or work needs. Otherwise, it's hard to change the parameters once you take off.

7. Good at using tools

There are a lot of UAV accessories which are very convenient to use, such as the handheld gimbal.  It is a waste to only use powerful DJI Phantom 3 for aerial photography, this conversion kit allows Phantom 3 to be handheld-able, so you can shoot stable videos & pictures on the ground.

8. Try different shooting angles

We can refer to movies, documentaries or aerial photographs of others and learn different angles and capture track. Through lots of practice, you will find your own style.

Motor and ESC, the Power Base of UAV drone - part 1

Quadcopter drone UAV power includes motor, ESC, propeller, power battery. Among them, the motor and ESC are the essential factors. Today, we'll simply popularize the basics about drone motors and ESCs to those who are fancy about drones or those who are not familiar with drones but are interested in them. By category, UAV's power can be divided into brush power and brushless power. That is, a brush motor with a brushed ESC, a brushless motor with a brushless ESC.

1. Motor

Brush Motor: Early motor let the carbon brush touch the copper head so that the motor can be scrolled. However, after high-speed rolling, it will bring the carbon brush wear, therefore, carbon brush needs to be replaced quite often. At the same time, the copper head will wear too, so in the era of brush motor, the contestants in addition to replace the carbon brush, they also need to polish the copper head, so that the copper head will keep lubricating.

Brushless motors: Brushless motors come into being due to the inconvenience of brush motors, so basically, the drone quadcopter nowadays is the brushless motor quadcopter. The principle of a brushless motor is that the coil around the stator, and then the rotor made of magnets, rolling the magnet, not the coil, so there is no carbon brush consumable. Since the coil is fixed, then how to make the coil changes the magnetic field? Brushless ESC offers the coil group corresponding power supply to generate the corresponding magnetic field driving the magnet on and on. So the brushless motor needs to corporate with the brushless motor esc. Some brushless motor ESCs have safe power function. So regardless of the throttle stick in any position, the motor will not start immediately. And with the Throttle Calibration function, it adapts to different remote throttle travel difference, improves throttle response linearity, with a smooth, delicate feel and excellent speed linear speed.

Summary: Whether the quadcopter motor is the brushless motor or the brush motor, the fundamental principle is to generate a magnetic field through the coil and then deploy a permanent magnet to drive the rotor to roll.

Motor and ESC, the Power Base of UAV drone - part 2

UAV's main source of power components is motor, in addition to the motor, Electronic Speed Controller, abbreviation ESC, is also very important. Electronic Speed Controller, referred to as ESC, its role is that based on the flight control signal, it changes the battery DC input into a certain frequency AC output, used to control the motor speed.

2. ESC

Brush ESC: Brush ESC is used to control the brush motor speed. Brush ESC usually needs only 4 wires, 2 wires are the input power terminal, received positive and negative. The other two wires are manipulated motor speed output, connected to the motor electrodes. After changing the current / voltage and conduction direction can be completed on the speed and control.

Brushless ESC: Similarly, the brushless esc is the brushless motor speed controller. Brushless ESC input is also 2 wires connected to the positive and negative power supply. However, the output of brushless ESC requires 3 wires. As mentioned above(part 1), this is because brushless motors rely on three wires to constantly change the magnetic field to drive the rotor to roll.

Models of Brushless ESC: There are many types of brushless ESC on the markets now, like the 20a brushless motor, 30a brushless motor, 40a brushless motor, which are quite common. I will list some examples for you so that you will know the differences between these brushless motors in a better and clearer way.

1. FVT LittleBee 20A ESC BLHeli OPTO 2-4S Supports OneShot125 (no BEC)

This 20a esc has 20A Continue Current and 25A Burst Current up to 10S, and its Input Voltage is 2-4S Lipo, which is a small volume, lightweight, fast response, best Mini multi ESC for RC Drone FPV Racing Multi Rotor.

2. XXD HW30A 30A Brushless Motor ESC

This 30a esc brushless motor speed controller has the Power 5.6V - 16.8V input,2A BEC, and 30A Constant current (Max 40A Burst Current less than 10 seconds). It has Safe power function, Throttle Calibration function, Low Voltage Protection function.

3. FMS Predator 40A Brushless ESC With 3A Switch BEC T TX60 Plug

5.5V/3A BEC Switch System can reduce BEC damaged as overload current and the 32 bits high-performance controller can improve running speed. This 40a esc has 45A Continuous operating current, 50A 50Sec Full load operating current and 55A 10Sec Maximum operating current. 

Motor and ESC, the Power Base of UAV drone - part 3

On the last part, we talked about different brushless ESC models and show you the differences between three brushless ESC models. I guess you have noticed the differences like the current and the voltage, and you also noticed there is a parameter called BEC. Do you know about the BEC? If you are curious about it, keep reading the part 3 which is the last part of this series.

3. BEC

In addition to the motor, the receiver, flight controller, steering gear and others of the brushless quadcopter all need power supply, and most of them need the 5-6V working voltage, while the model battery voltage is 7.4V (2S) above, directly connect such high voltage to the receiver will certainly burn it, so we need to drop the battery voltage to about 5V. Since the ESC is connected to the battery, it is better to integrate the buck regulator function into the ESC, which is called Battery Eliminate Circuit (BEC). The esc speed controller with BEC can directly supply power to the receiver and so on.

UAV drone now commonly use two categories ESC, one is with BEC ESC, one is OPTO without BEC photoelectric switch. As mentioned above, BEC has the ability to split power supply, the power battery voltage can be changed to 5V voltage, to supply power to the flight controller. If the flight controller does not use ESC with BEC, you need to install a separate power supply for it( or use a UBEC).

Note

You can also use a Servo Tester Server Electronic Speed Controller which is a test device and can easily detect the clearance, jitter, and median of all kinds of Servo (server). It can easily connect the ESC and test the working status of the ESC or Motor to make sure they are operating normally. It can connect three sets of servos or ESCs at the same time, using SCM to control with good stability and high accuracy. The ESC built-in BEC or UBEC will provide power to the servo tester. When you use the ESC with built-in BEC, no additional power supply will be needed, just connect the servo or ESC that you want to test to begin testing.