The Eachine Novice 1 on the surface is a great kit for beginners looking to get into flying FPV. You’ll get the drone, remote, batteries, FPV goggles and even a nice carrying case. Depending on how many batteries you want you can get the kit for as cheap as $137. That is a steal. It is almost too good to be true. That’s because it is.
The Eachine Novice 1
The Eachine Novice 1 is the low cost kit I’ve been asking for. It is low cost and includes everything you need to get started. Emax was the first manufacturer to put out an RTF Tinyhawk kit that I really liked and it looked like Eachine was on their way to releasing a less expensive version. However this kit has two major downfalls. But first let’s talk about what I like and that is the Novice itself.
The Good
The quadcopter itself is fantastic. I do like the drone part of the Eachine Novice I RTF kit. This is a whoop style drone with brushless 1102, 13500KV motors. They pack a bunch and can handle either a 1S or 2S battery. You’ll get at least two 300 mah batteries with the kit and up to 10. That is fantastic except the 300 mah are a little small and a 450 or larger battery would have been a better choice. It’s zippy when you are flying 2S but is more than adequate flying indoors on 1S.
The flight controller is an F4 AIO board. The build in ESCs are DShot 600 compatible. It has a built in SPI receiver and mine is Frsky compatible. It is a D8 receiver which is more important now that FrSky has stopped supporting it in its newest model transmitters so keept that in mind.
The Bad
The remote on this drone is terrible. It is almost unflyable. There is so much deadband that controlling the drone in tight spaces is nearly impossible. You could probably fly it outside in a wide open field but what fun is that. This is easily the worst remote I have ever used. The good news is you can bind the Novice 1 to any compatible FrSky D8 remote. After I did that flying it was a breeze.
Unfortunately the remote isn’t the only bad part about this kit. The googles are equally terrible. The are small, uncomfortable and dim. Not only are they uncomfortable but they are downright painful to wear for any period of time. I’m pretty sure no one bothered to test this unit before they decided to start shipping.
So the Novice is bad, now what?
There is hope that the Novice I will be released as a bind and fly drone. It is a quality quad that was unfortunately packaged with poor components.
If you want a good all in one kit I would recommend the Emax Tinyhawk. It is truely a good package. The Tinyhawk and Tinyhawk S are two of my favorite drones and definitely my favorite whoops. Eachine has a Novice 2 and Novice 3 on the way and it seems they have upgraded them along the way. We shall see.
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