Eachine E013 FPV Drone Review

I've been keen on getting a FPV drone, but the initial expense and the bad weather have been two big blockers. However recently a buddy, keen to get me into the sport introduced me to the Eachine E013 FPV drone as a great way to sample the class, so I took the plunge and decided to try one out :)

What comes in the box?

As this kit is R.T.F (Ready to fly), it comes with everything you need to experience FPV flying. The Drone, A Eachine VR006 headset, 220mah lipo battery, USB charge leads for the drone and the headset, spare blades, transmitter and a screwdriver.

The drone itself is very small 83x83mm span and around 45mm high. It's made of plastic with a lexan canopy and weighs less than 20g so it is nice and light.

The drone has a 170 degree Horizontal and 120 deg vertical FOV camera, and it has a vtx (Video transmitter) which is 25mW 40ch with a linear polarised antenna. (I have no idea what that means other than the FPV guys I know say that it will work with most headsets). Importantly it is transmitted over 5.8ghz which means that there is very little lag on the video signal.

To change the VTX channel on the drone you can press the little button on the canopy by the antenna

The Drone has brushed motors, and the blades are protected within the frame. The drone is light but feels strong and is hopefully crash resistant.

The battery is mounted underneath the Quad, it just slides in and it a snug fit.

The controller is quite small, and you need to fit 3xAA batteries (Not included). The sticks are longer than most of these small drone type of transmitters and the tips are aluminium, the extra length does provide you with a more tactile feel than the stubby short sticks that are on a lot of cheap drone handsets.

The controller has a range of trim buttons, although in reality the self calibration on the drone is so good I hardly ever use them. There is also a button on the top left to change the flight mode, by default it is on slow, but with a simple press you can go to medium and fast. These are all variations of the self levelling flight mode, which whilst not offering a full acro mode is more than sensitive enough for beginners to be getting to grips with. If you want to flip you can press the top right button.

The headset is very light and comfortable to wear. It has a built in lipo battery so you just charge it with the included USB cable. I get around 60 minutes use out of it before I need to charge it.

The headset auto-scans for signals so you just press the scan button and it will find the available drone signals. Very easy to use. There is also a head up display which shows you the voltage of the headset battery and the current frequency.

The other buttons on the headset are for contrast and brightness changes via a menu, and there is also a USB charging slot. (When charging you will see a red light)

The image is very sharp when you consider the price. The only issue is that you cannot move the screen to change the focus, so it can be a little blurry, or it might be an issue if you wear glasses. Luckily I have no issues.

Charging the drone is done via the usb cable, it does take around 35-40 minutes to charge the battery so I would suggest getting a couple more batteries as they are pretty cheap.. as flying this drone is very addictive.

Take off procedure.

1. Switch on the headset
2. Plug the battery into the drone and place it on a flat surface so the gyro will calibrate
3. Switch on the transmitter, to bind it to the drone you need to move the throttle up and then down to hear a beep and the drone is then binded. 

Flying

I have flown planes and some basic toy drones before so I am not very experienced with drone flying, I class myself very much as a beginner.

I didn't go straight into flying with the goggles, I wanted to get used to flying the drone first via the conventional line of sight method. As I hit the throttle the drone rose into the air and felt incredibly stable, I dipped the nose and flew forward into the lounge and circled around with ease. The drone's 4 axis gyro was superb and provided stable easy flight. This was the most stable craft I had every flown.  After around 4 mins the battery was low so I charged it again (40 mins is a long wait when eager to go again).

This time I decided to try FPV flying, sitting on the sofa to took off and was instantly immersed in the sensation of FPV flying. I took it very slowly at first and trickled forward, it might have looked slow from outside, but in the googles I was loving my first experience with FPV. I did a few very slow patrols of the room before landing on the coffee table.

Next battery I started to get a little more adventurous. I flew into the kitchen, did a few annoying fly by's of the of the wife and brought it back to the coffee table (The new makeshift landing pad). Along the way I bounced of a few doors, but the stable flight and protected blades just ensured that the drone would simply bounce off the objects, not fall to the ground in a heap.

I spent a lot of the day charging more and more batteries and becoming more and more adventurous with the Eachine E013. Flying it all around the house whilst I sat on the sofa, I even flew it out of the kitchen window, around the garden and back in again. The video signal was good, it would break up at some times but it never would cut out completely.  The drone had a lot of crashes along the way and proved to be very crash resistant. I have not had any breakages.

I've now been flying the drone for well over a week, and it is still going strong, I use the faster modes most of the time, (Medium for indoors and fast for outdoors). The drone is light so you can only fly outdoors if there is no wind, otherwise you will be fighting a loosing battle with the elements.

Overall

I'm really impressed with the Eachine E013, it's become a major time sink for me and a major annoyance for the dog :) The biggest annoyance is that the battery life is quite short so having at least one other battery helps.

Also I found that if I charged the battery with my proper lipo charger I would get more charge in the battery (Although you need to be safe and charge at 1c so only 0.22 amps) That did get me some more flight time.

As a gateway into trying FPV I find it hard to see how this can be beaten. It has really whetted my appetite for this part of the hobby. It is not a full blown Tiny whoop but it is definitely agile and fast enough to fly indoors, it also seems to be crash resistant, and its a great price.

Purchasing the E013 kit

You can purchase the Eachine E013 FPV kit from Banggood.

Here is the direct link UK  UK Warehouse
Here is the direct link US USA warehouse
Here is the direct link Global Global warehouse