Recommendations for a good indoor practice drone

[rmb]

I am a comercial 107 pilot and I find that you can get rusty pretty quickly. As I live in the Northeast and the weather is about to get bad it will be hard to stay crispy in the controls. What I was wondering is if anyone can suggest a good SMALL indoor drone to stay in shape. I don't care about a great camera or flips and tricks, just a solid responsive drone that I can do some precision flying in my living room. Also I would want it to have removable batteries so that I can get 2 or 3.

Thanks,

rb

 

[sputnik378]

Tinyhawk... that is all

 

[AeroMirage]

Spark or Mavic Air are good indoors. Or Tello...

 

[rmb]

Tinyhawk... that is all

Thanks sputnik378 for the suggestion, I will look it up. What is it that you like about it?

 

[rmb]

Spark or Mavic Air are good indoors. Or Tello...

Thanks. As I have a Mavic and have flown a spark, they are too big and loud for what I am looking for. Perhaps a tello.
I really just need a little critter that keeps my light touch in practice as well as my ATTI skills

 

[rswong21]

Look into DJI’s new flight simulator, there’s a free version and a full enterprise edition, you even use your Inspire controller! Doesn’t get better than that!

 

[rmb]

Thank you all!!!
I will probably go with the Blade nano qx. The reviews are amazing for indoor practice. The tello is a better drone, but still a bit big and loud for practice in small spaces. Regarding the simulator, you are spot on and that would definitly be my first choice, however sadly I am a mac person and do not own a PC. If anyone is interested in seeing this very small quite dude, here is a link to a review.

 

[Mixchief]

Thank you all!!!
I will probably go with the Blade nano qx. The reviews are amazing for indoor practice. The tello is a better drone, but still a bit big and loud for practice in small spaces. Regarding the simulator, you are spot on and that would definitly be my first choice, however sadly I am a mac person and do not own a PC. If anyone is interested in seeing this very small quite dude, here is a link to a review.

have you tried Parallels to create a windows clone on a Mac? When I first got into the Drone world I had a Yuneec Q500 and got the flight sim which was also Windows exclusive, but it ran well on my Mac with Parallels and Windows 7, I now have Windows 8, but I think the DJI SIM needs 10? I hate 10 anyway LOL

 

[dougcjohn]

have you tried Parallels to create a windows clone on a Mac? When I first got into the Drone world I had a Yuneec Q500 and got the flight sim which was also Windows exclusive, but it ran well on my Mac with Parallels and Windows 7, I now have Windows 8, but I think the DJI SIM needs 10? I hate 10 anyway LOL

Mac with Parallels or VMWare works great. Other great option is BootCamp, although the new Mac OS requires Win10 for Bootcamp going forward. Nice thing about VMWare is you can move the VM's to any other VMPlayer on Mac or Windows. I run Bootcamp and both flavors of VM's. Sometimes, like for DJI Asst2, it just works and connects better with Bootcamp Win10 compared to VM.

If Win10 sucks due to lack of old style Program Menu and method of finding things... grab StarDock's Start10 and it'll make Win10 look and navigate like Win7. I moved my whole office environment to StarDock... it updates and keeps current with Windows update. No reason staff needs to waste time learning new navigation on the OS under all their daily applications. I rarely find Users enjoying the Tile Menus.

But if you have a modern system, the last few Win10 versions (1803) have been very stable and much improved... I'd say much better than Win7 and 1 year ago I didn't like Win10. On the same note... Win7 won't be phased out for some time, it's still primary OS in businesses.

Start10
Start10 : Software from Stardock

Incidently while on the Mac Bootcamp subject. I find a Win10 Bootcamp is often a better performer and more stable than a Window's Brand hardware. Why? Well my opinion is the Drivers and SW Interfaces. For all Windows systems, the drivers usually work with a multitude of boards and architecture. The Mac hardware's drivers & interface are more closely written for specific hardware providing smaller code and more stable.

I boot to Windows and gain the added benefit of all Mac hardware works... the multi-pressure touch pad, Mac mouse features, etc.

 

[Mixchief]

What I like about Parallels that bootcamp doesn't give is the double platform simultaneously running, so you have the best of both, or more worlds if your computer can handle the strain

 

[Taco of the Hillpeople]

Been flying my Tello inside today. Due to rain. Even run an obstacle course. Dislikes under the dining room though. Low ambient light notification. But a great indoor drone.

 

[ArcticRoc]

I really like the Drocon Scouter $25 and the Ryze Tello $99 (+ need to buy a separate controller).

They are very different units, but both great for keeping up on the sticks indoors. Happy flying!

 

[jamesbastable]

When I practice indoors I use something called a Nano Q4 - https://amzn.to/2BCh4pT

They're not much money and once configured quite stable indoors.

 

[Cameradroid]

Just installed Windows 10 on Bootcamp - 2013 iMac running High Sierra. DJI Flight Simulator will not load. mmmmm... thinks...

 

[Mixchief]

Just installed Windows 10 on Bootcamp - 2013 iMac running High Sierra. DJI Flight Simulator will not load. mmmmm... thinks...

I use Parallels and the simulator ran great for a while, then I got an error about Simulator needing some extension and now it will load but not run.

 

[rmb]

I use Parallels and the simulator ran great for a while, then I got an error about Simulator needing some extension and now it will load but not run.

You and me both. Parallels keeps asking for an extension that I can’t find. Hard to believe that DJI that supports iOS so nicely, believes that the majority of the drone world are only on PCs.
Sigh...

 

[dougcjohn]

You and me both. Parallels keeps asking for an extension that I can’t find. Hard to believe that DJI that supports iOS so nicely, believes that the majority of the drone world are only on PCs.
Sigh...

Running the VM Window systems does add a hardware interface layer to the machine, but most of the time that is not the issue. It is odd how this has cropped up and there would be a slight possibility it's associated to the hardware logical interface layer. Hopefully that can be resolved with an update. Parallels did issue an update recently that addressed a few interface layer issues. Current Version is 14.1.3 (Bld 45485). Not sure if that would help. I'd lean more towards video processor or various driver updates.

The direct Bootcamp OS failure expressed by @Cameradroid is the most odd. Technically, if current on drivers wouldn't be any different than the majority of the PC's running the Simulator. Architecturally, a Direct boot to Windows 10 partition on Mac is an intel environment, similar or same video processors, bus interface, and even the HD partition NTFS. Direct Booted Bootcamp OS is not emulating, it's direct hardware access Widows OS and Apple provides the required drivers for the components that are normally an improvement over generic drivers provided by Windows or 3rd Party. I'd assume it's failing on a component, most likely related to the video processor; I'd check if any new drivers are available. There were a few problematic Windows 10 versions too, I've found the most overall stable versions are 1803 & 1809, the 17xx versions were very problematic on video, USB, various app interfaces... on All Systems, including Windows hardware a few years old. Several older Macs will bark at installing 1803, but you can get around it by downloading the Windows10 updater directly. If 1803 is successfully performed, you can try 1809 but 1803 should be stable OS.

For Parallels, the Bootcamp VM will normally hang & fail on the 18xx upgrades. I've found you need to use Bootcamp direct, perform the 18xx upgrades and after Windows has downloaded all the various updates, then try the Parallels again... sometimes requires to delete the current Bootcamp VM and recreate a new on based on the Win10 18xx versions.

Which Simulator is being used, the free download or the licensed version? Not sure if any difference, but I thought I'd download the free version and see how it runs, I have several Macs... from a Mac mini i7, iMac frozen to HighSierra, MacBook Pros (new & old) and new Windows Surface.

 

[Cameradroid]

Which Simulator is being used, the free download or the licensed version? Not sure if any difference, but I thought I'd download the free version and see how it runs, I have several Macs... from a Mac mini i7, iMac frozen to HighSierra, MacBook Pros (new & old) and new Windows Surface.

Thanks for the (remarkably thorough) reply. Mine is the free version. I'll check video driver updates. If no good then maybe Parallels. Enterprise version appears to cost over AUD$2K...wow. Cheaper to buy PC.

 

[dougcjohn]

Thanks for the (remarkably thorough) reply. Mine is the free version. I'll check video driver updates. If no good then maybe Parallels. Enterprise version appears to cost over AUD$2K...wow. Cheaper to buy PC.

I wouldn't worry about Parallels version... the paid subscription yearly Pro vs Ent version, same core engine just open license for wider base of MAC addresses.

The Key I've learned over the years supporting business systems & the Mac system component is Parallels or VMWare's Fusion are both great VM tools for the Mac. Although, the Windows 10 environment is now so dependent on hardware interface layer and default drivers, it's a bit challenging on the Mac unless you confign & update the Bootcamp partition first, if it won't successfully run correctly, the VM's won't perform either. Instead of making the small Boot VM Call of Bootcamp... the 10-50meg VM, select to make the FULL VM of Bootcamp so you obtain a full working VM. You can then copy it and build different Win10 environments. I use a Boot VM of Bootcamp normally so my Bootcamp receives the same program updates, etc. that the VM receives. But I make a few FULL Bootcamp VM's to have separate Win10 systems.

One advantage of VM Ware Fusion, it will run any VMWare Windows OS VM system, made by VMWare Wk-Station... so essentially, if you migrate an fully operating Windows 10 Notebook or Wk-Station to a VMWare VM using VM Wk-Station Pro; it can be played on a Mac with VMWare Fusion. Compared to Parallels, you have to build the VM within a Mac's environment from ground up. I've played with moving Parallels VM to VMWare successfully, but not as successful in bringing VMWare VM to Parallels. The older Win95-XP VMWare VM would migrate, but the Win10 VMs are fussy. That all said, I actually prefer the Parallels Pro environment over Fusion Pro... if based on a Physical Bootcamp OS used as a VM.

Back to subject... I'll have to download and try it too... but I'll bet the video drivers are biting the Simulator running correctly. I haven't tried the new DJI Simulator yet, I was really interested in the full paid version until I saw the price. In modern times, that's a pricey simulator!

 

[Cameradroid]

Back to subject... I'll have to download and try it too... but I'll bet the video drivers are biting the Simulator running correctly. I haven't tried the new DJI Simulator yet, I was really interested in the full paid version until I saw the price. In modern times, that's a pricey simulator!

Bingo! Updated NVidia drivers and program launches fine, BUT does not recognise Inspire 2 controller. Bah! Humbug!