INTRODUCTION #

Mid-2015 were introduced first easy3D toy-quadcopters where from a simple button, the flying machine flips of 180 degrees, inverse motor rotation sens and inverse all associated control stick commands to make the life more easy for beginners pilots. Here, Eachine introduces a new revision of their former H8-3D mini, i.e. the H8S-3D mini. No extra functionalities introduced with this new revision, but what are the differences ?

BOX CONTENT #

• 1 x Eachine H8S-3D (with a 1S 150mAh LiPo with microLOSI connector)
• 1 x Transmitter (using 3xAAA batteries not included)
• 1 x USB charging cable
• 4 x Spare props (2 CW, 2 CCW)
• 4 x Rubber feet
• 1 x Screwdriver
• 1 x Instruction manual (English)

OVERVIEW #

The H8-3D on the left and the new edition on the right The new version is slightly more compact (~15% smaller, body and props)

Motors #

Prop guard can’t be removed there are directly integrated into the top canopy part.

LiPo #

A 1S 150mAh LiPo with microLOSI connector and 30C for discharge rate.

Disassembling #

No big surprize, a XN297 for the 2.4G part. The 6-axis stabilization by a M681. The MCU is a STM32 ARM core.
 
Unfortunatly, the H8S-3D uses a different protocol than the former edition. More I was not able to bind with an existing XN297 radio protocol…. It’s a real pity to change the radio protocol for each new introduced model. This model is Banggood version of Banyang mode… so it can be bound with the Banyang deviationTX protocol. You can fly with… but not all buttons are yet confirmed to be working with

Transmitter #

 
The transmitter have two shoulder buttons. The left one permits to flip the quad of 180 degrees and to fly inverted. As soon as this button is pressed; the quad increases throttle to take 1m of altitude, flips of 180 degrees and in a fraction of second, motors invert their sens of rotation. The right shoulder button is the classic 360 degrees flips. On the front pannel, 8 tiny buttons. The four rights are trim buttons. The left ones from top to bottom represents: headless, one key return, expert mode and beginner mode respectively.
To calibrate accelero, you have to push both stick in lower-right position. Headless course can be set also by pushing both sticks in lower-left.

FIRST USAGE #

The Eachine H8S-3D; thanks to its lightweight property, have good vertical ascend rates, hover around 35-40% of throttle. The first speed mode offers a fast yaw rate and pich & roll are pretty correct. This mode is probably already too fast for ultra beginners. The H8S-3D handle well moderates winds., it’s a nice surprize. The control range is also good, 20-30m guaranted without drop out. Of course, this control range can be extended with the classic antenna mod.The second “expert” mode proposes a “crazy” yaw rate to be played with the headless for crazy pirouettes. Forget fast forward and precize banking with this expert mode. I regret the absence of an intermediate mode with the same yaw rate of the first one but with the pitch & roll of the second one. The inversion button is really efficient but be aware for indoors flights to not reach the ceiling when the 180 flips are applied. When flipped, directions remain the same … so versus time, the interest of the inverted flight will decrease fast. Good news, 360 flips are still here. I noticed a bug in the firmware: After an inversion in beginner rate, then another 180 degrees flip to return in normal situation then enter into expert mode, you controls can be become inverted. Minor detail also, some different prop’s color would have been better to keep orientation. With the 150mah LiPo battery, the average flight time is around 5min.

Can be controller with DeviationTX compatible radio modded with a nRF24L01 RF chip. Select the Banyang protocol

CONCLUSIONS #

A nice little and cheap surprize: the H8S-3D is first of all a nice, agile machine with some easy3D capacity. Like automatic flips, inverted flighs will boring you relatively fast versus time since controls remain the same: no new flying skill challenge here. The H8S-3D handle well moderate winds and is crash resistant due to its lightweight & builtin propguards. For such machine, especially with the stress associated with 3D inversion, I strongly advise to stock in advance at least a CW and a CCW motors. To conclude, for 18 USD, you can’t be wrong with this machine.

UNBOXING #

PROS #

• Cheap RTF 3D machine
• Nice flyer
• Good amount of power
• Easy 3D flyer
• 180/360 flip buttons
• Good radio range out of the box
• Removable LiPo
• Relatively wind resistant
• Partial DeviationTX support

CONS #

– Commands inverted in some circonstances
– Tiny transmitter
– YaP (Yet another Protocol) Banayang protocol based.
– Lack an intermediate speed mode.
– 4 black props
– LiPo hard to insert/remove
RCgroups:  http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2651315#post34607014
This quadcopter have been courtesy provided by Banggood in order to make a fair and not biased review. I would like to thank them for this attitude.
You can find it actually for 18USD at  http://www.banggood.com/Eachine-H8S-3D-Mini-Inverted-Flight-2_4G-4CH-6Axis-One-Key-Return-RC-Quadcopter-RTF-p-1025599.html