P3/P2 comparisons and thoughts

[Ando]

Hi All,

New P3A user here. I got this bird for Christmas and really love it!. My 10 year old son loves RC as well, so I bought him a Hubsan 501s thinking that would be a good start for him since it had GPS/RTH and follow me. The 501s has not been a good experience so far as is has dies in mid-air twice and we have broken all the props (even the spare set). Was thinking of returning this and getting something else with the same features and saw a Cheerson CX-20. It seems like a pretty good bird, but for the price it seems like I can get a P2 for the same money. He really wants a camera with a gimble as well, and I have seen a tutorial for the Cheerson to do this, but I am wondering if it makes more sense to buy a used P2V. Does anyone have any experience with the P2s? Any pros/cons or other things I should consider? It looks like the P2 has a lot of teh same parts as the P3s (Props, Batteries?, etc) Does anyone know if the parts are the same between P2 and P3?


Thanks,
Andy

 

[PaulSouthport]

I had a P2V before the P3. It's a great machine, but be aware you'd need the P2V+ if you want a stabilised gimbal. the P2V gimbal allows remote pitch control (via an on-screen slider or additional control adding to the remote). There is no flight recorder on the P2 and limited bells and whistles (IOC) of the P3 series. Plus, less range unless you invest in upgrades.

I had 501S and 502S before, both were good on paper, and fun to fly, but entirely unreliable.
What's your budget? If you stretched to the P3S you could share batteries and chargers - I expect there will be a few going 2nd hand by now.

Another option, possibly, the Upair One. I have no experience of that one, it's basically a P3 clone, mixed reviews but fairly cheap

 

[Ando]

Thanks Paul,
I spent $180 on the 502s so I was looking for something not much more (maybe up to $250). I have looked at the 501s (the big brother) and have seen them used for around that range. So you had issues with the 501s as well? I thought it was a bit more reliable as it had brush-less motors.

 

[PaulSouthport]

Hi, the 501 is a decent quad, a lot of features for the money. The problem I found was unreliable gps/compass leading to regular TBE and the slightly beta-testing feel to the firmware.
There are a lot of reports of quads dropping from the sky or flyaway - without the benefit of flight logs and given the typical user demographic - the majority will be user error.