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SYMA X8C VENTURE R/C DRONE

Syma X8C Venture R/C Drone $38.24 (www.symatoys.com...)
Manufactured by Syma (www.symatoys.com/)
Last updated 01-22-18

This isn't a flashlight, household lamp, Christmas light set, or other thing that glows, but it *DOES* have a number of LEDs on its fuselage (this word is definitely *NOT* pronounced "fyoo SELL' uh jee" as Drake Parker from the TV program "Drake and Josh" would pronounce it; the word is pronounced "

, so what the hey.

I love things that fly; that's why I took the bate and also why I added a seperate section titled "PRODUCTS DESIGNED TO FLY" on my website a number of years ago. I was also attracted to something that this drone has that many others don't...

1:It has a gyro (three of them actually!) -- that means it's easy to fly even for a "craptastic" pilot like me.
2: It has all of those wonderful LEDs

This is a medium-sized, midweight (612g), easy-to-fly 4-channel remote-controlled outdoor drone. Its remote uses RF (radio frequency) radiation.

It sports a camera; both still photos and aerial video can be taken with it!

Size of product w/hand to show scale

SIZE

This toy is remarkably easy to use for a drone...here's how to get it off the ground:

As with any rechargeable product, charge it first (see directly below), install the flight battery, and then you can pretend to fly a dragonfly (well, that's what the kitty cats would think it was if it were designed to be flown in a small living room).

1: On the remote control, slide the on/off switch upward (toward the antenna) -- the switch is located directly between the two joysticks.

2: Slide the little red switch on the underside of the drone's fuselage toward the rear of the drone and place the drone on the ground so that the tail-end (the end with the green LEDs) faces you.

Move several feet away from the drone (at least six feet away).

3: The blue light on the radio will now come on and start blinking. Push the left-hand stick on the remote control forward and then let it go back. This "arms" the drone. If you did this correctly, that blue light will go from blinking to steady-on and the R/C should emit a series of two tones in rapid succession.

4: Gently push the left-hand stick on the remote control forward a second time -- but do so more gingerly this time so that the drone doesn't just blast away -- it has a good deal of thrust, so the possibility of it getting away in this manner does exist.

5: The Syma X8C Venture R/C Drone should now lift off the ground. Congratulations, you're now a pilot!!!

For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.

Turn off the Power switch on the drone & the radio when finished using them.
Same switches as before -- but slide them in the opposite directions this time.

The battery in the Syma X8C Venture R/C Drone itself is rechargeable; however the batteries in the remote will need to be changed from time to time.

Slide the battery door off toward the bottom of the radio, carry it to the top of the basement stairs, and kick it down those stairs into the basement crawling with thousands of hungry earwigs that have to piddle -- they'll think it's something yummy to eat and start chewing on it, but quickly find it unpalatable, so they all go pee-pee on it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.

Remove the four used AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.

Insert four new AA cells into the compartment, orienting each cell so its flat-end (-) negative faces a leaf spring for it in each chamber.

Finally, slide the battery door back on.

Aren't you glad you didn't kick that battery door down the stairs to all those hungry, hungry earwigs that really need to go poddy now?

To charge the battery (and yes, it really IS a "battery" and not a "cell") in the Syma X8C Venture R/C Drone, take the thin cord that's attached to the AC charger module, and plug the small end into the receptacle for it on the balance charger module. Plug the "wall wart" into any standard (in north America anyway) 110VAC to 130VAC 2- or 3-slot AC receptacle (or, "wall outlet" or even, "wall socket" if you prefer). Finally, plug the smaller white connector from the battery itself into the female receptacle on the opposite end of the balance charger.

When the charge cycle is in progress, the red and green LEDs on the balance charger will be on. When the charge cycle is complete, the green LED should turn off.

You may then safely unplug the battery from the charger, and unplug the wall wart from the wall receptacle.

Fully charging the Syma X8C Venture R/C Drone's battery (advertised as 200 minutes for a completely flat battery) should give you approx 9 to 11 minutes of flying time.

This RC drone is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area outdoors (or in a large open room indoors), not as a flashlight meant to be carried around all the time, thrashed, trashed, and abused; so I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, try to drown it in the {vulgar slang term for a fudge bunny}bowl or the cistern, run over it, swing it against the concrete floor of a patio, bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again

- candiosity is usually checked with a scanner-type device on a platform with a large readout, with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; and the cannoñata is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analyses, or inflict upon it punishments that I might inflict upon a flashlight.

So this section of the drone's web page will be significantly more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

The range of the radio in the Tx (R/C hobby talk for "transmitter") is stated as 100M (~328 feet); frequency is stated as 2.4GHz.

The unit has a 4-channel remote control; this allows for forward / backward / up / down / left / right movement (movement on all three axes -- X, Y, and Z). It also has a fully proportional control system; simply meaning that the motor speeds can be varied depending on how far you move the joysticks -- it isn't simply "full power and no power at all" like some other R/C products.

One thing that it lacks is an altitude hold feature. When the drone is gaining altitude, it will keep going up, up and away unless you pay close attention to it so that you can throttle back on that left stick!!!

The camera has a pixel density of 2.0MP -- that's 2,000,000 pixels; I think it could have been higher. Word has it that they simply repurposed the camera (sans exterior housing) from the Syma X5C R/C Camera Drone instead of giving the X8C a better one. This alone will take some off its final rating.

This is the drone that was shown on an episode of NCIS not all that long ago; the dialogue in that scene indicated that the cost of the drone was over $1,000.00!!!

Spectrographic analysis of the green LEDs on the back section of the fuselage of this droe.

Spectrographic analysis of the green LEDs on the back section of the fuselage of this drone; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 510nm and 530nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 520.290nm.

The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at x8-r.txt

Spectrographic analysis of the orange LEDs on the forward sections of the fuselage of this drone.

Spectrographic analysis of the orange LEDs on the forward sections of the fuselage of this drone; spectrometer's response narrowed to a band between 620nm and 640nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 628.340nm.

The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at x8-f.txt

USB2000 Spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.

Photograph of its remote control.

Photograph of the front of the drone, showing its lights.

ALL OF THE FLIGHT VIDEOS ARE ON THEIR OWN WEB PAGE
SO THAT THIS EVAL. WOULD NOT BECOME TOO CUMBERSOME!!!

TEST NOTES:
Test unit was sent as a gift on 04-01-17 (or "2017 01 Apr." or even "April 01, Twenty Stick-Broken-Stick" if you prefer), and was received on the afternoon of 04-06-17.
Because it was a gift, the, "

" icon will be appended to its listings on this website, denoting the fact that no damaging or even potentially destructive testing will be performed upon it.

UPDATE: 04-29-17
While flying it on the morning of 04-27-17, the drone became lost in the sun and went down in a wooded location with no alleys or other means of access via electric wheelchair.

Therefore, the dreadful, "

" icon must be appended to its listings on this website at once.

UPDATE: 05-07-17
The absolute amazing thing has occurred!
A person living several blocks away FOUND & RETURNED THE DRONE!!!

So I once again have it for additional flights!!!

UPDATE: 01-22-18
The drone stopped communicating with its radio while I had it at full throttle and continued to gain altitude until it disappeared into a cloud. I believe that it eventually went down in a heavily wooded area not accessible to me in my motorised wheelchair. Therefore, the dreadful, "

" icon must be used to denote that it has become lost in the line of duty.
Shame too; I rather liked this drone.

Syma

350-size (medium-sized) R/C quadcopter (drone) w/inbuilt camera

LED

16 (1 blue in radio, 1 red in charger, 1 green & 1 orange in camera, 6 orange and 6 green in drone itself)

N/A

Slide on/off on drone & on radio

Plastic

N/A

4x AA cells for radio; 2-cell 7.40V 2,000mAh (2Ah) Li:PO battery for drone

Unknown/unable to measure

MICTURITION

Very light sprinkle-resistance only

EIN GROßER RIESIGER GEIST, DER EINEN RIESIGEN PLUMPS NIMMT UND DANN DEN KOPF UNROT NEIN VERLÄSST!!!

Wall wart, balance battery charger, 4GB micro-TF memory chip, USB memory chip reader, 2x front rotor blades, 2x rear rotor blades, 4x blade guards, 4x landing legs, small Phillips screwdriver

500mm Sq. x 190mm T

612g incl. battery, blade guards, & micro-TF memory chip

China

Unknown/not stated

Syma X8C Venture R/C Drone * www.symatoys.com...

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