Holy Stone HS550 Brushless 4K Drone, $236.99 (holystone.com...)
Manufactured by Xiamen Huoshiquan Import & Export Co. LTD. for Holy Stone (https://fccid.io/2AJ55)
Last updated 03-19-22
The Holy Stone HS550 Brushless 4K Drone (hereinafter, probably just called the HS550) is a mid-sized (450mm L x 450mm W x 75mm D), somewhat surprisingly light (635.8g {22.42 oz.}) drone that features GPS stabilisation, a rechargeable 2S (two cell) 2,800mAh Li:Po (lithium polymer) flight battery, and the ability to tilt the camera's lens over a 110° range -- from pointing straight forward and slightly up to pointing straight down.
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 couple of years 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 (I tend to avoid brushed-motor quads these days because of their very short life!)
3: It has a gyro -- that means it's easy to fly even for a "craptastic" pilot like me.
4: It has all of those wonderful LEDs
5: 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.
6: In addition to optical flow, it has two ultrasonic transducers to aid in low-altitude and indoor flights.
7: It has folding pylons (arms) and propellers; this makes the HS550 easier to store and transport.
The HS550 is in the lower-end of being HOBBY GRADE, rather than just being another run-of-the-mill pisson toy grade drone.
It's not puny for one thing (it isn't huge, but it isn't microscopic either); and it sports BRUSHLESS motors that deliver incredible amounts of power and have a far longer useable lifetime than their brushed counterparts.
It sports a 4K camera with a 110° FOV (Field Of View) and a 5.8GHz transmitter to furnish a live video feed to the app; both still photos and aerial video can be taken with it!
Unfortunately though, its camera has one of those fv¢k¡ñg assinine fisheye lenses, so anything above or below center will be awkwardly curved.
(In my maiden flight however, the "intensity" of the fisheye effect was significantly less than I've seen on videos of this drone's flight that I've watched on YourTube and less than that of my Contixo F24 1080p Brushless Foldable Drone w/ Gimbal.)
If you choose to 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 HS550 has a very substantial, sturdy feel to it; it does not at all feel flimsy or loose like many products of, "Hoo Phlung Pu" origin so often do.
When you deploy (unfold) the pylons (arms), you can tell at once that the HS550 just exudes quality!
I believe that the HS550 can withstand winds of up to 22mph (35.42kph) thanks to that GPS stabilisation!
This quadcopter is a bit more complicated to get it to take off than your average toy-grade drone...here's how to get it off the ground:
As with any rechargeable product, charge the drone first, insert a Class 10 or higher 4GB+ MicroSD memory chip into the drone, install two AA cells into the radio, and then you can pretend to fly a humongous dragonfly (well, that's what kitty cats would think it was if it were designed to be flown in a small living room -- you CAN fly it indoors, but you'll want a decent amount of space such an empty two-car garage at minimum!)
First off, load the app called, "Ophelia Go" (the Android version from Google Play) onto your 5G WiFi cellular telephone handset.
1: Turn the radio on by sliding the ribbed switch located just below and to the left of the righthand joystick to the right until it stops.
2: Unfold the pylons (arms) starting with the two front ones. Once that is done, unfold the two rear pylons. Place the drone on the ground.
Press and hold the POWER button on the drone (it's located on the top of the drone's fuselage near the front); for three seconds and then release it; the drone will emit a short series of tones.
At this point you may deploy the "antennae" -- or leave the righthand one folded. It appears to be a decoy added to the radio for cosmetic purposes; however the lefthand antenna is genuine.
3: Go into your phone's WiFi settings, and connect the one named Holy StoneFPV {string of letters and numbers}.
Then launch the app.
4: At this point, you'll need to perform a geomagnetic calibration of the drone. Pull both joysticks on the radio down and to the right. All of the lights on the undersides of the drone's pylons will flash a light green. Rotate the drone horizontally several times and then check the lights. When they change to dark green, turn the drone so that its camera faces either up or down, and rotate the drone several more times. When the lights on the front pylons turn red, then you can place the drone on the ground.
When all of the drone's LEDs turn steady-on, you're ready to take off.
Press & release the "lock" button on the radio to start the motors at idle speed. Now, push up on the left stick or press the Auto Takeoff button on the remote near the upper left corner, and the drone should now blast off and possibly leave an expanding cloud of dust (if you launched in a dry, dusty area anyway).
Congratulations, you're now a pilot!!!
For additional instructions & tips on how to fly, please read the instructional material that comes with the product.
On the remote control, slide the ribbed switch to the left. On the drone, press & hold the "OFF/ON" button for a couple of seconds (until all of the lights on the drone have extinguished), and then release it. This should neutralise both of them.
Fold everything up, place the items back into whatever bag that you brought along, and go about your merry way.
The app records video to your mobile device whether you want it to or not; you'll want to go into the device's File Manager and delete them periodically or else you'll start seeing errors and other issues regarding low memory. *
If you're recording video and wish to take a still photograph, you must first neutralise video recording. Then take your still photo(s), and then restart video recording.
Videos are saved in clips of approx. 1,500,000 bytes (~5:00 runtime) so don't be surprised to see multiple videos on your MicroSD chip after each flight.
Most droners (drone pilots) prefer their flight videos split up this way; that way, if one video clip is fuxxored (corrupted), you don't lose the whole flight.
You can fly the HS550 strictly-dictly LOS (Line Of Sight) -- no FPV device is necessary even for preflight calibration.
If signal to the app is lost in-flight, the drone should automatically reconnect when it acquires signal again. Some HS550 owners report that they have to manually reconnect, but my particular HS550 does this automatically.
The battery in the HS550 is rechargeable.
To charge the Li:Po battery in the HS550, plug up the furnished charge cable into any free USB receptacle on your Pee-Cee or Mac computer.
Plug the smaller end of the USB cable (USB Type C) into the charger.
Plug the battery into one of the two bays located on that piece connected to the charger; gently push in on the battery until it clicks into place.
A large green "battery charging" graphic on the charger should now begin showing the battery charge status with "bars" in the battery moving from bottom to top; when the bars occupy the entire "battery" graphic and are no longer blinking, you may safely unplug the battery from the charger and unplug the charger itself from your computer.
Brief video on YourTube showing the battery charger for this drone indicating charge cycle in progress.
There is no battery in the second battery bay.
Fully charging the HS550's battery should give you approx. 22 minutes (advertised) of flying time.
You may plug a second battery into the second battery bay on the charger if desired; please note though that you will also have to plug up a second USB-to-USB Type C cable into your computer and into the charger.
Photograph of the battery charger with one battery installed.
To change the AA cells in the radio, slide the battery door off, carry it to the top of the basement stairs, and kick it down those stairs into the basement crawling with thousands of hungry damselfly larvae that need to have a wee -- they'll think it's something yummy to eat and start chewing on it, but quickly find it unpalatable, so they all pass micturition on it...O WAIT!!! YOU'LL NEED THAT!!! So just set it aside instead.
Remove the two used AA cells from the compartment, and dispose of or recycle them as you see fit.
Insert two new AA cells into the compartment, orienting each cell so its flat-end (-) negative faces a 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 damselfly larvae that really need to go pee-pee now?
FWIW: damselfly larvae are aquatic insects; they live in fresh water such as ponds, slow-moving rivers, lakes, etc. so you aren't going to find any in the basement.
This R/C drone is meant to be used as a toy in a large dry area outdoors or a large indoor venue, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around all the time, thrashed, trashed, bashed, and abused; so I won't throw it against the wall, stomp on it, viciously chuck it at one of those wall-mounted porcelain uranators to see if it becomes broken (the drone, not the uranator!), 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, launch it into the upper atmosphere of Gamalon V** so that chairman Sonji gets all piddled-off about it, or inflict upon it punishments that I might inflict upon a flashlight.
This drone has foldable pylons (arms) and folding props; this makes transport and storage a whole lot easier.
The drone uses 2.4GHz RF radiation to communicate with its radio, and its camera uses 5.8GHz (802.11ac or just 5G WiFi) to relay its photographic and videographic data back to your smartphone or tablet.
There is an optical flow sensor on the bottom of the drone; this helps to maintain the drone's position at lower altitudes. The ambient light level must be fairly high in order for this optical flow positioning system to function though, so please do not expect it to function on night missions.
Optical flow is functional to 3 meters (9.84 feet) in altitude.
There are also two bright white landing lights on the underside of the drone's fuselage; you may energise these prior to landing if you've made one of those pesky night missions.
The mobile phone holder on the radio can accomodate handsets up to 85.20mm (3.35") wide.
The camera lens has a 110° wide-angle FOV that will allow you to capture more detail and it features a 1/3" Sony CMOS sensor.
One thing that I noted immediately upon opening the box was just how heavy the kit was.
ALL OF THE FLIGHT VIDEOS ARE ON THEIR OWN WEB PAGE
SO THAT THIS EVAL. WOULD NOT BECOME TOO CUMBERSOME!!!
Photograph of the radio (transmitter) in its feral state.
Photograph of the radio (transmitter) for this drone with a cellular telephone handset clipped into place.
Photograph of the radio while turned on in order to allow you to see the OLED display.
Photograph of the underside of the drone, specfically so that you can see the camera for the optical flow positioning system, the two ultrasonic sensors (left) and the two landing lights (right).
Aerial photograph taken by this drone.
Click on the pic to see it full-sized (as the drone recorded it).
Spectrographic analysis of the OLEDs in this drone's radio.
I don't see OLEDs that often; that's why I performed spectroscopy of these.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at hs550.txt
TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on Ebay on 02-28-2022 and was received at 10:18am PST on 03-03-2022.
** From the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Final Mission".
The fact that it came WITHOUT a case is what caused it to be rated less than five stars.
UPDATE: 00-00-00
MANUFACTURER: Xiamen Huoshiquan Import & Export Co. LTD. for Holy Stone
PRODUCT TYPE: Medium-sized hobby-grade drone w/ GPS, ultrasonic, & optical flow
LAMP TYPE: LED
No. OF LAMPS: At least 27 (8x RGB in the drone's pylons, and 2x high-power white in drone, OLED display in radio, 16 in battery charger)
BEAM TYPE: N/A
REFLECTOR TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Pushbutton on/off on drone, slide switch on/off on radio
CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
BEZEL: N/A
BATTERY: 1x 7.40V 2,800mAh Li:Po for drone, 2x AA cells for radio
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND POLAR BEAR MICTURITION-RESISTANT: Very light sprinkle-resistance at maximum (though if a polar bear really does go poddy on it, you've got FAR bigger problems than a stinky dead drone, hahaha!!! )
SUBMERSIBLE: ¡¡¡EL DIABLO USANDO UN PAÑAL CARGADO EN SERIO, NO!!!
ACCESSORIES: USB charging cable, charger, 1x flight battery, 4x spare blade sets, Phillps screwdriver
SIZE: (Stowed): 190 mm L x 130mm W x 75mm D; (Deployed): 450mm L x 450mm W x 75mm D
WEIGHT: 635.8g {22.42 oz.} (incl. flight battery & MicroSD chip); battery alone: 166.8g (5.88 oz.); radio: 265.7g (9.37 oz.); battery charger: 145.20g (5.12 oz.)
COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: China
WARRANTY: 30 days
Do you manufacture or sell a drone, quadcopter, tricopter, hexcopter (or other UAV) or drone accessories?
Want to see it tested by a real person, under real working conditions? Do you then want to see how your vehicle did? If you have a sample available for this type of real-world, real-time testing, please contact me at happydd1964@gmail.com.
Unsolicited quadcopters, UAVs, drones, drone accessories, etc. appearing in the mail are welcome, and it will automatically be assumed that you sent it in order to have it tested and evaluated for this site.
Be sure to include contact info or your company website's URL so visitors here will know where to purchase your product.
This page is a frame from a website. If you arrived on this page through an outside link, you can get the "full meal deal" by clicking here.
" 
, so what the hey
)
