C-FLY DREAM GPS 5G WiFi FPV R/C DRONE
C-Fly DREAM GPS 5G WiFi FPV R/C Drone, $199.99
Manufactured by Zhaowei
Last updated 05-15-20
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 and created a new website just a few months ago specifically for flying machines of this nature!!! I was also attracted to something that this drone has that many others don't...
- 1: It has GPS -- simply meaning that it can stably hover despite any mild wind and knows where 'Home' is.
- 2: It has brushless motors.
- 3: It has a gimbal to keep video rock stable.
- 4: It has a gyro -- that means it's easy to fly even for a "craptastic" pilot like me.
- 5: It has all of those wonderful LEDs
- 6: It has an
optical flow sensor; this allows the drone to stay stable in the air even when GPS isn't present -- such as when flying indoors.
7: It has folding propellers; this makes the DREAM easier to store and transport.
This is a small, lightweight (260g), easy-to-fly 4-channel, brushless motor remote-controlled outdoor (and indoors with sufficient space) drone that has a gimbal, and has advanced features like GPS tracking, follow-me mode, orbit mode, waypoints, etc. Its remote uses RF (radio frequency) radiation at 2.4GHz to communicate to and from the drone.
According to the furnished instructional materials, this is model # DF801.
It sports BRUSHLESS motors that deliver incredible amounts of power and have a far longer useable lifetime than their brushed counterparts.
It also has an optical flow sensor to help it maintain its position when it is flown indoors or otherwise away from GPS lock.
And verily, the C-Fly DREAM flaunts a 1080p camera with a 5.8GHz transmitter to furnish a live video feed to the app; both still photos and aerial video can be taken with it!
The camera is stabilised by a two-axis gimbal; this simply means that your photographs will be clear and your videos rock-steady even if the drone is rocking and rolling.
You will however, need to procure your own MicroSD memory chip. I'd recommend a Class 10. If you use a memory chip that is rated lower than Class 10, you *MAY* see skipped frames, "jitters", unwanted intermittent video artifacts, and similar horse puckey.
The antennae on the transmitter are real (when one of them was accidentally whacked loose, I saw the wire going up inside it before I snapped it back into place), not dummy antennae like many other drones have.
In the second photograph above, you should be able to easily spot an RCSaylors Sticker on the fuselage, directly below an Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones.
SIZE
As you can see, the DREAM isn't a big drone; because of its relatively small size, it is being marketed as a travel drone.
This drone is a bit more complicated to get it to take off than your average toy-grade drone (with its GPS and brushless motors, this is a hobby-grade drone)...here's how to get it off the ground:
As with any rechargeable product, charge the drone's flight battery ***AND*** the transmitter first (see directly below), install the flight battery, and then you can pretend to fly a dragonfly -- well, that's what Coco might think it was if it were flown indoors!
Turn on the radio by pressing the circular button in the center of its top surface, and then press the back of the flight battery (yes, there's a button there), and quickly press it again -- but hold it this time for approx. two seconds or until the drone emits a series of high-pitched beeps.
Go to your Smartphones Wi-Fi Setting (your cellular telephone handset MUST support 5G -- aka. 802.11ac WiFi) and scan for available Wi-Fi Signals. With both the DREAM Drone and Remote controller powered, the smartphone should display both the DREAM Drone's and remote controller's Wi-Fi signals.
Take note of the remote controllers last 6 characters as this will be entered into the APP later for pairing/matching.
Now connect to the DREAM Drone's Wifi Signal: Drone-940143
Once connected, proceed with opening the C-Fly APP.
Press start flying tab and the APP will open and show the camera view automatically on the APP. On the top right hand corner of the APP, click on the 3 dots to enter settings.
Click on the PAIR Tab to continue pairing the remote controller with the DREAM Drone.
Enter the 6 characters of the remote controller as per earlier instructions and press the PAIR tab.
Once completed, close the APP and Power down the Drone and Remote controller.
Power the Drone ON again and then the remote controller.
Go to your Smartphones Wi-Fi Setting and scan for available Wi-Fi Signals. With both the DREAM Drone and Remote controller powered, the smartphone should display both the DREAM Drone and Remote controllers Wi-Fi signals.
Connect to the DREAM Drone's Wi-Fi Signal.
Open the C-Fly APP and your DREAM Drone and Remote controller are now paired together.
For additional instructions & tips on how to fly (including how to fly with your phone only or with the remote transmitter), please read the instructional material that comes with the product.
On the remote control, press and hold the "OFF/ON" button near the center of the transmitter and press and hold the "OFF/ON" button on the back of the drone's battery itself to neutralise them when you are finished.
I noticed that the app drains power from your phone battery rather quickly, so it might behoove you to completely close the app at this time as well.
The batteries in the C-Fly DREAM GPS 5G WiFi FPV R/C Drone AND in the radio are rechargeable; this is how to take care of that.
To charge the battery in the C-Fly DREAM GPS 5G WiFi FPV R/C Drone, plug the USB-end of the charge cable into any of your PC or Mac's USB receptacles, and plug the smaller end of the cable into the micro USB receptacle on the charger box.
Slide the battery onto the terminals on the charger box until it stops. When the charge cycle is in progress, a red LED on the charger box will be flashing red (the charging process takes approximately three hours). When the charge cycle is complete, this LED should illuminate bright green.
You may then safely unplug the battery from the charger, and unplug the charger from the USB port on your computer.
Fully charging the C-Fly DREAM GPS 5G WiFi FPV R/C Drone' battery should give you approx 15 minutes of flying time.
The battery in mine takes 3:29:45 to charge; this is from 10% capacity (when LVC auto-land kicks in until 100% charged.
The battery has an inbuilt "charge remaining" tester; just push the button on the battery and a series of green LEDs will light up, indicating the charge status.
Five lights indicates full power; four lights is 80%, three lights is 60%, and so on.
I timed two charge cycles on a clock with a second hand on it; the battery took 2:44:21 the first time and 2:44:01 the second time to go from flat (the drone performed a LVC RTH) to 100%.
To charge the battery in the radio, plug the larger end of the USB charging cable into any free USB port on your Mac or Pee-Cee computer, and plug the smaller end into the receptacle for it on the front of the radio's body. Green LEDs on the radio should now come on and cascade left to right. When both lights on the radio are steady-on, the charge cycle is complete and you can now safely unplug the cable from the radio and from your computer.
If your computer does not have a USB port (or doesn't have a free one), you may plug the USB-end of either cable into something like a cellular telephone charger.
This R/C drone is meant to be used as a toy in a dry area outdoors (or in a reasonably large open room indoors), not as a flashlight meant to be carried around all the time, thrashed, 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 cannoņata (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piņata" 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 cannoņata is only used to shoot piņatas to piņata parties away from picturesque Piņata 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 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.
The camera has a video resolution of 1920×1080 (1080p video quality).
The optical flow stabilisation functions at an altitude range of 0.50M (~1.64 feet) to 5.0M (~16.40 feet); it also requires a definite "pattern" on the ground; e.g. the optical flow system will function rather poorly if the ground has very little or no features on it. Finally, you need to have a decently bright operating environment -- it won't function outdoors at night for example. Speaking of light, the area must have no less than 15 lux of illumination.
Latency is extremely high; varying from ~five seconds to close to THREE MINUTES; for this reason, the C-Fly DREAM is ***NOT*** an FPV drone!!! 
After I finished my second flight, I stowed everything away and headed home -- more than a minute later, video of my landing was still being played on my cellular telephone handset!!!
This alone is what nocked the most stars off its rating. 
The gimbal makes this queer squeaky sound when the drone is only mildly moved (while it is off). Although this does not appear to affect the fuctionality of the gimbal, I found it worthy to note in any case...NEVER MIND!!! It's the prop blades that make that sound, NOT the gimbal!!!
Photograph of its remote control with my own cellular telephone handset affixed to it.
Photograph of the remote control in its feral state (with no cellphone affixed to it).
Photograph of its radio after an accident on the afternoon of 03-13-20.
My cellular telephone handset was "destroid" and the controller was damaged upon my arrival home; the bag carrying everything became jammed between my wheelchair armrest and a low brick retaining wall as I was entering the porch. :-(
The left-hand stick (throttle and yaw) on the radio has snapped off (but I can still rather easily manipulate the gimbal with my thumb),
and my phone no longer functions.
Note the "bucking fusted" left-hand joystick.
DREAM'S POWER UP SOUND
(in .WAV format; 201,455 bytes)
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 purchased on Ebay on 02-29-20 and was received at 12:33pm PST on 03-02-20.
UPDATE: 03-14-20
My cellular telephone handset was "destroid" and the controller was damaged upon my arrival home from one of yesterday's flights; the bag carrying everything became jammed against a low brick retaining wall as I was entering the porch. :-(
The left-hand stick (throttle and yaw) on the radio has snapped off (but I can still manipulate the gimbal with my thumb), and my phone no longer functions; my next flight will be with my LG VK410 tablet -- I do not have another 5G-capable device.
Therefore, the, "
" icon will appear next to its listings on this website.
UPDATE: 03-16-20
The LVC (Low Voltage Cutoff) RTH (Return To Home) appears to have failed.
A test flight that I made late yesterday afternoon confirmed this -- the video device (in this case, an LG VK-410 tablet computer) indicated that the battery in the DREAM was critically low, but the drone failed to perform an RTH and instead continued to behave as though nothing were amiss and eventually landed on the spot wherever it happened to be.
UPDATE: 03-23-20
This drone is serialised: the serial number of mine is CFLY-950753
UPDATE: 03-30-20
Either the flight battery is going down the tube or the charger itself is going to pot -- over the last several days I've noted the charge time increasing steadily. I timed the charge after yesterday morning's flight, and it took 5:31:04 to go from ~10% to fully charged.
I'm timing the charge cycle for yesterday afternoon's flight and will see what happens.
UPDATE: 03-31-20
And the results are in...it was still charging at press time for yesterday's update, so here it is today.
It doesn't look good folks: the charge time was 5:53:18.
UPDATE: 03-31-20
Same-day update.
This drone eats MicroSD cards like they were candy.
These are what I see:
When I insert the card into my computer (using either a digital camera set to mass media or when a USB card reader dongle is used).
When I shell out to DOS and try to format the card.
I've been through three of these MicroSD chips in the last ten days or so.
UPDATE: 04-02-20
I measured the RPM of the props with my Sunche Non-Contact Digital Laser Tachometer; the maximum speed is 10,757RPM.
I measured at least three times "just to be sure it's Westinghouse" as my now-deceased best friend Paul Casey used to say and all three measurements were identical: 10,757RPM.
UPDATE: 04-05-20
On a flight that I made on 04-04-20, the drone inexplicably entered RTH approx. five minutes into the flight. Instead of returning to the takeoff point, it flew approx. 20 feet south and ever so gently landed high in a long-needled conifer tree.
Therefore, the dreadful, "
" icon must be appended to its listings on this website at once, denoting the fact that the drone has become lost in the line of duty.
Shame too; I rather liked this little drone. 
UPDATE: 04-08-20
My landlady's hubby and me went on a "drone rescue attempt" on the early-afternoon of 04-07-20.
It rained quite heavily over the last several days so this may turn out to be a "drone RECOVERY mission" instead. :-/
The mission was a success! 
Pepe managed to swat it out of the tree with a telescoping aluminum pole; once I'm sure that it's dry inside (which will probably be later today), I'll test it for operation to see if the rain fried anything.
UPDATE: 04-09-20
Turns out, it was a "drone RECOVERY mission" -- the DREAM fails to generate a WiFi hotspot and is therefore unflyable.
This might be the very reason that it executed an auto-RTH and landed in that tree to begin with.
Therefore, that dreadful, "
" icon will have to be appended to its listings on this website at once.
PROS:
Nice looking drone
Relatively nimble and responsive to inputs on its transmitter
Decent camera quality -- not the best but FAR from the worst!
Folding props to help facilitate storage and transport
NEUTRAL:
CONS:
Absolutely huge latency -- this absolutely forbids FPV flying. This is what nocked most of the stars off its rating! (it makes a very nice LOS flier though!)
This alone makes me want to name it the, "C-Fly NIGHTMARE"
(If it turns out to be my device and not the drone itself, it may earn some stars back)
Eats MicroSD memory chips like they were candy
The "roll" function (slide left and right) appears to be extra-sensitive
MANUFACTURER: Zhaowei
PRODUCT TYPE: R/C GPS quadcopter (drone) w/folding props and inbuilt camera on a 2-axis gimbal
LAMP TYPE: LED
No. OF LAMPS: 12 (2 bicolor red/green in remote, 1 bicolor red/green in charger, 2 red, 2 bicolor green/blue in drone, 5 green in battery)
BEAM TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/off on remote, pushbutton on/off on drone (battery)
CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 3.70V 2,600mAh (2.6Ah) Li:PO battery for remote; 11.40V 1,000mAh (1.0Ah) Li:PO battery for drone
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND URANATION-RESISTANT: Very light sprinkle-resistance only
SUBMERSIBLE: EIN GROßER RIESIGER GEIST, DER EINEN RIESIGEN PLUMPS NIMMT UND DANN DEN KOPF UNROT NEIN VERLÄSST!!! 
ACCESSORIES: 2x spare prop assemblies (each has two blades on a hub), flight battery, USB charger, mobile phone holder, Allen wrenches, user manual
SIZE: 148mm L X 145mm W X 60 mm T
WEIGHT: {Drone}: 260g (9.170 oz.) (incl. battery); {Radio}: 201g (7.090 oz.) (incl. battery)
COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: China
WARRANTY: One year
PRODUCT RATING:
C-Fly DREAM GPS 5G WiFi FPV R/C Drone *
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