The SKEYE Pico Drone is a great little drone for newbie (and advanced) fliers who want something that is small enough to fly indoors but is also well made and works well.
I am a total drone newbie and wanted to start with something small that I could fly indoors with my son. I had a really old Alien Microfly that was on its last legs, but my two-year-old loved watching it go. So I jumped on Amazon looking for a replacement. Unfortunately, I purchased a cheap piece of junk that couldn’t fly and broke after its first crash. I returned it and decided to go droneless a while longer.
As luck would have it, TRNDLabs reached out the GeekDad the same day I sent that drone back and offered to send us a SKEYE Pico Drone to test out. I jumped at the chance to try again with a similar-sized drone.
As soon as it arrived, I quickly popped open the box so I could get it charging while my son napped. I wanted it to be ready to go as soon as he woke up. I immediately noticed a huge difference in quality from the previous drone. The SKEYE actually felt like it was built to last. The box contained the drone, the controller, a special USB charger, a quick instruction guide, and four extra propellers.
The USB plug itself lights up red when the drone is charging. This makes it really easy to see from a distance if charging is complete. The remote itself also has a nice little drone storage spot so you can lock your drone in safely for portability and so your cats don’t knock it off the counter and bat it around the house.
Once charging was done, I popped two AAA batteries into the remote and linked them up. You turn on the drone, then turn on the remote and push the left throttle control up and down fairly quickly to enter beginner mode. Within just a couple of minutes, I was actually able to have some amount of control over the drone and felt confident enough to actually fly it around the house a bit.
Although I did crash a few times, one of the things that is great about this drone is that the propellers come off when you crash hard. Now, that may not sound ideal, but considering on the last drone I tried, the propellers broke when I crashed, popping off is a much better outcome! And so far, despite all of my crashes, I have not yet had to use one of the included spares. And popping them back on is so easy that even my two-year-old can do it.
But, of course, how much fun I had with it and how much I enjoyed it (a lot) is nothing in comparison to how much my son enjoyed it. He ran around laughing and yelling as the SKEYE Pico Drone flew around our house, and our dogs and cats barked and chased it. I even let him take control of it both guided and solo. While he doesn’t really have the fine motor control to actually fly it solo yet, I wasn’t worried about him breaking it since I’d tested its durability myself. He really enjoyed being the one to make it go, even if for just a few seconds at a time.
There are two more advanced modes I have not yet attempted, and the SKEYE can supposedly do things like spinning and 360º mid-air flips, I’m still working on just making it fly around the house without hitting anything or crashing.
If you are in the market for a small drone as your first attempt at drones, or even as a veteran looking for something fun to play with around the house, I’d highly recommend giving the SKEYE Pico Drone a try.
I have 4 of those little fuckers. My recommendation is: DO NOT CRASH WITH IT AT ALL, NEVER EVER!!!
I have 2 from SKEYE and 2 from Floureon [they name it FX-10 mini]. But in fact, it doesn’t really matter who you get it from. As I found out that all of them are exactly the same. Same inner electronics, same plastic case, same controller. So those are only rebranded and all those self-styled manufacturers just get some OEM version of this pico drone and then re-design them according to their rules, like put their logo on it, etc.
So that’s all as a foreword …now to the problem. As I said, do not crash it. First one I got was flying fine straight outta the box. Then cuz I am a mediocre pilot I crashed it, but honestly, who doesn’t. I was flying inside so it felt to carpet or bed…which are assumed as soft surfaces, right. Well, after like a 4th crash it started acting up. Which means that one motor wasn’t spinning properly. Sometimes it does spin, sometimes it doesn’t. However what it results into is that the motor gets extremely hot. And if I say extremely, I mean it. The plastic cover starts melting, yeah I’m not even kidding.
As I said, I have 4 of those lil bastards, and 3 (2x SKEYE + 1x FX-10) of them suffers this behavior. So I really dare to say what I’m gonna say.
The motor is VERY delicate and if you crash the quad and it falls down on a floor (regardless it is softer surface), some part in the motor just won’t survive it and that’s when your problems start. The only solution is to replace the motor.
Yikes! Thanks for the warning. We haven’t run into this issue yet thankfully but will definitely keep an eye out for it!
Yeah, check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAp8Fogh9Yc
It the end you can see it started spinning, but that is pretty random.
I have 2 of these Pico Drones and both of them do not fly correctly after a short amount of usage – basically they just tip over and do not even take off even after re- calibration etc.,