Hitec Vektor 280 Quadcopter Review
Hitec released a new racer drone on the market which is called the Vektor 280. It’s a small drone, with powerful high-performance motors and it has FPV quality that features even an integrated circuit board. The whole drone is built on a carbon fibre frame. The drone is not for capturing footage, instead, it’s a great thing to fly between obstacles and race with your friends. If you think that you should need a drone like this, check out this Hitec Vektor 280 Quadcopter Review to see the pros and cons of the drone.
Specs:
- Ready to fly a drone
- Integrated with the ESC’s, Flight Controller and Video Transmitter
- High-Quality Carbon Fiber Frame
- Four 20-Amp Speed Controls with SimonK OneShot Setting
- Open Pilot CC3D Flight Controller
- 5.8GHz 600mw Video Transmitter
- Bright Intelligent LED System
- Low Battery Warning Feature
- Drone Finder Function
- Weight: 348 grams/12.28 ounces
Build
The drone is ready to fly (RTF) drone. This means that the drone is fully assembled at the moment when you got the package. The only thing you have to do is to attach the battery to the drone. The little flyer belongs to the 280mm size class, and it weighs only 348g without battery. This, paired with the 2204 2150KV brushless motors and the 6×3 propellers results in fast and a manoeuvrable drone.
The whole drone is built on carbon fibre, which is one of the lightest material in the drone industry. But it’s not just light, but also very durable, so it can survive most of the crushes, which saves all the hardware and chipset on it. The shell on top is a see-through shell, so all the electronics on the inside can be seen without removing the cover. This is a cool design feature that makes the drone even better looking and more interesting and unique.
Flight experience
The drone has a pretty long flight time compared to other small drones. For example, the Potensic A20W, which is about the same category can fly for around 5 minutes, while the Hitec Vektor 280 can fly around 9-12 minutes.
The transmitter works with the following flight control system:
- CC3D Atom with Open Pilot
- Powerful STM32 32-bit MCU with 128KB Flash and 20KB RAM
- MPU6000 3 Axis Gyroscope / Accelerometer
- Supported Software: Windows, Mac and Linux
- Associated with PWM, PPM, Spektrum® Satellite and S-Bus Receivers
When flying the drone you have 2 flight modes, a Stability mode and an Acro mode. In the stability mode, the drone is more stable as the name suggests. The movements are not that suddenly, and the speed is moderate. However, in the Acro mode, the drone is agile and bit unstable. But this can open up the possibility to perform flips and quick turns, which is ideal for a race track.
Camera and FPV
The Vektor 280 has a 400,000 Pixel camera which is FPV compatible. It contains an FPVand 5.8GHz 600mw video transmitter. The controller in the case of these drones can’t support a phone, so the only way to see the live stream of the camera in FPV is to connect it to an FPV goggle. Unfortunately, this is not provided in the package, you have to buy it on your own.Â
