I made this little mod to a Syma X8 Clone quadcopter. It's a Jamara Payload with GPS and Altitude Hold which really looks very ugly in it's original state.

I just want to have some fun with it and learn to fly a quadcopter, so I decided to choose a cheap one, but I never could leave anything untouched

As I'm a totally military fanatic, I had decided to built a pseudo realistic military drone out of it.

Also changed the motors to brushless and mounted some better antennas to it and the radio transmitter. The position lights are fully functional and work like they do in real airplanes, too (flashlight etc.) The battery is changed to a more powerful 3s 11,1V lipo.

A lot of fun to fly now!

P.S: The last picture is the original design

- added a low battery warner also
- changed the position of the GPS receiver to the "radar dome"
- changed the behavior of the "collective", so that it works like it did for my old RC-heli from the past (sadly this one is history after a real bad crash )
- added 4 brushless regulators for the motors ( fortunately another clone without GPS, but brushless motors also exist. This one had nearly the same mainboard, so I just tried if my board is also able to trigger the brushless regulators correctly - and it worked / the same goes for the 3s lipo, no problems here, although the original one was a 2s)

LOL, that's an original concept, cute idea.

That's awesome, and shows a lot of skill.

I'm surprised the vertical fin and dome doesn't have an effect on flight at all.

Thank's!



It for sure has, but it's not a problem if you only cruise arround. Ok fast sideways isn't a good idea now, but I always flew my models slow and more scale-like.

The only time I wanted to fly more aggressive ended up with the mentioned crash of my old heli, so never again

In foward flight and in long turns it's more stable now and all other maneuvers are still possible but not at full throttle.

I started the work at a second quadcopter also, wich is a bit larger and I have also built such horizontal stabiliser to it. This time I did a bit more and coupled a functional rudder to the yaw axis. No testflight until now and I don't know if I will be able to do it this summer, but if it works I will report it here. If not of course also (will be a lot to laugh then)

This one is a totally different model (Reely Shadow 2.0) I could get at Ebay for a very cheap price. Against all my fears, all of its system were working very well, only the cam-gimbal was broken. I just bought one from Walkera and now all is completely working. This will also be a "military drone" again but this time in Nato olive color

Looks so much better than the original gaudy drone. Cool af.

Thank's! Yes I also think this way it's more "flyable", but it will still remain a toy drone. Even the Shadow 2.0 is more a toy then a real camera drone.

Maybe some day I will slaughter my piggy bank and go for a DJI Phantom 3 or 4.

Never thought that making photos or videos of the nature could capture my interest, but this way it's really fascinating .

Looks excellent, really get a little USAF/Startrek vibe from it.

Started with a Syma X5, well, it was cheap in the local toystore and it was under the 1kg limit for back garden/un-regulated R/C aircraft. I now have a phantom 4 pro but still use the Syma, the only frustrating thing about it is the limited time with the battery pack even with a larger pack I'm still only getting about 10 minutes out of it, so lots of packs and chargers

DJI have clamped down on local rules with their latest update, I'm now limited to 30m altitude at my location (previous height record for me was 102m), where as in the UK I could take it up to 400ft + The rules in Belgium are quite strict, under 1kg then you can fly it in your own property to a height of 10m or at a designated model aircraft site where you can fly up to what the site is licenced to, from 1kg to 150kg as a private person you can fly with a club at their designated flying site up to what the licence says. Even with a professional licence (Class2) you are restricted to 45m (150ft) or an enhanced licence (Class1a or class 1b) then you are allowed to fly up to 90m(300ft)

The Syma at 900g is just under the 1kg and even for it's short battery life it is surprisingly quick when you put it into sport mode, certainly tops 30mph/50km/h.

Yes, the new EU rules that are coming here in Germany are also very strikt now. My Shadow just below 2kg.
This was ok with the old rules, but now I have to make a licence for it to fly it under the new rules.

I never have tested the Shadow and it is still unfinished. I have to make some test flights also, to see if it is flying at all, after all the modifications I made. But even for those little test hopps, I need a flying licence in the strict sense.

This licence isn't very cheap and it's only lucrative if you really use it after you made it. If the Shadow isn't able to fly I will not need any licence for the next time, cause I want to finish my homepit project at first. This will definitely take another two years, and how things are at the moment, nobody knows if this licence is also valid in two to three years.

At the moment they change the rules nearly every year here in Germany

P.S: My Syma X8 is also not really flying any longer as 10-14 minutes, even with the dual 3s lipo pack. It's a little longer as with a single pack, but the additional weight cuts the flight-time on the other hand, so finally I get at most about 3-4 minutes more. The advantage is that the additional weight makes it a bit more stable at windy days.

Yeah it's the same here, if I want to fly the P4P out and about, I need training and a licence, it costs around €1800 the last time I looked. I'm quite close to KB airbase and, like today, directly under the flight path as the F-16s turn on to finals, it depends on what they are doing as to what height they are at, but it won't be the first time the pilot has waved as I am in the garden hanging the washing.

The X5 had a flight time of around 5 to 7 minutes with it's original battery so getting it up to 10 minutes or so is quite good, I also changed the camera to a full HD one but it does not transmit the video back to the phone/tablet so you have to guess where it's pointing etc. I also recently go some 3 bladed propellers but not given them a flight yet.

Wow, for drones less than 55 pounds there is no licensing requirements to operate in the USA - in a non-commercial capacity, of course.

If one really wants to get fancy, one can take the written exam (around 150 USD) and get an FAA license (around 20 USD).

That's an impressive design you got there. Don't forget to post some videos when you take it to fly.