If you've read some of my other posts about remote controlled models such as cars or drones you probably already know that I love to tinker around with small RC models, so there is no chance that I would pass over the chance to play around with a really tiny radio controlled drone. The drone I will be presenting here is Liang Sheng LS-111 which is a really small quadcopter that can fit inside the palm of your hand even with the transmitter, and yet it does fly surprisingly well and is really fast. It is interesting to note that Liang Sheng has apparently copied the Hubsan H111 Nano Q4 drone, though even if both look very similar there are some differences between the two apparently. Makes you wonder where the world has gone when one Chinese company copies the products of another Chinese company...
More About the Liang Sheng LS-111 Nano Drone
The Liang Sheng LS-111 RC nano quadcopter comes packed in a very compact and small box that looks pretty nice. The top is transparent and shows the drone inside, there are multiple colors available, the one I got to play around with was a green one. You can find the drone for about $20-30 USD in terms of price and interestingly enough the other model that it was copied from apparently (Hubsan is a known name for small scale RC drones) is similarly priced at the moment. I'm not sure if they will be compatible with each other like being able to use the remote of one with the other and vice versa, but spare parts such as motors and propellers or plastic body parts should fit on both.
Opening the box of the drone you will find all the accessories it comes with, pretty much everything that you need to get started, apart from some batteries for the transmitter (remote control). You get the drone itself fully assembled and ready to be used (after charging the built-in Lithium battery), a transmitter, USB charger for the drone's battery, manual and a spare set of propellers for all 4 motors. What you would need to get separately are two 1.5V AAA size batteries (preferably rechargeable) for the radio controller and you will be ready to fly.
The manual, like with most cheaper Chinese made products is not very detailed, not it is very well written in English. If you have used a small drone like this one already you will be quickly able to get up to speed with the basic functions and how to use the drone. The important thing to note are the three levels of sensitivity and speed that are being switched by pressing the left stick as well as the acrobatic modes performed with the right stick. The rest of the controls are pretty much the same as with other RC transmitters used to fly.
The LS-111 drone is essentially one big PCB with everything integrated on it, along with some plastic parts that hold the motors. The plastic parts are a bit flimsy and especially the motor holders are not a very tight fit, so they kind of move more than they should in my opinion. Surprisingly enough that does not apparently affect much the good behavior of the drone in flight. Still you need to be careful when holding the drone as the plastic parts are not that strong and can easily break if you are not careful enough. Another thing to be careful with is the motor cables, especially when changing propellers as they can easily break and regular users don't go taking out a soldering iron to fix the problem.
The remote controller for the drone is really small, and I really mean small. You need to hold that one with both your hands and with thumbs on the two sticks for the operation of the drone. Frankly said before actually trying it I thought that it will not be easy to use, but surprisingly it was fitting nicely in my hands and the sticks were convenient and pretty responsive to my commands. The transmitter itself is pretty simple, so once you fire it up and connect to the drone you will need only the sticks. The other buttons available are digital trims, the power on/off button and a red light LED that indicated when the remote is on.
Before you are ready to make your first flight you need to charge the built-in Lithium battery using the provided USB charger. You can plug in the charger in a USB port of your computer or laptop or use a dedicated USB charger to charge the battery of the drone. The red light on the charger is lit while charging, when it goes off you are fully charged and ready to fly. A fully charged battery could last you for about 5 minutes of flight time in average, though it depends on how you fly and at what level of speed/sensitivity you do. The charging time should be about 30-40 minutes, so you will be forced to take a pause to charge the battery. Since the battery is not easily replaceable by the user, though it can be changed, the wait is unavoidable.
Time for The First Flight
Before turning anything on make sure that the left stick of the remote controller is all the way down, this is your throttle, so you do not want to have any of it when you connect the drone. First you need to turn on the drone, there is a small switch at the bottom that you need to flip to the other position. Make sure that when you turn the drone on you immediately place it on a flat surface as it needs to calibrate, you will see the lights flashing. Then you can switch on the remote controller and in a moment it should connect to the drone and the lights of the drone should stop flashing meaning that you have successfully connected them.
You will notice that the LEDs on the drone are really bright, so that even if you try flying in darkness you will still be able to see the drone and know what is front and what rear is. The colors of the front and rear LEDs are different - blue for front and red for back, there are also two additional blue LEDs on the front of the drone. The battery charging connector is on the back of the drone and that can be your marker for easily distinguishing between the front and read when the drone is not on. The body on top does not have a that much different shape for the front and for the back, so you might get confused if the LEDs are not on to help you, but the charging connector is the easiest mark.
It is recommended that you start by flying in a wider space without things that you can easily break, from a flat surface and away from the AC if there is one around as any air movement can make it harder for you to get started. If you are a total newbie you may need some time getting the hang of the controls, so it is wise to start with a slower speed/sensitivity setting, because the drone is really fast and agile even when not at the max speed setting. I can easily take off from my hand or by even throwing it in the air and then quickly taking the controls to make sure it stays in the air, though that requires some experience.
The good thing is that the drone is pretty strong and does not break easily, so even if you crash it a couple of times it will most likely still be just fine and continue to operate normally. Spare parts are available, so even if you break something it is not costly to get a spare and replace it, unless you totally break the whole drone or loose it somewhere why flying. This small drone is intended for use indoors as it does not have that great operating range and is really small and you will quickly lose sight of it if you fly further away. It does not do so well in windy conditions, though light wind may not be a problem for a pilot with some experience.
Taking Things Apart...
Ok, so I do love taking thing apart in order to see what the build quality is and the components used and this micro drone is no exception. The LS-111 drone does offer a decent build quality at least in terms of the main board and the components on it and that is pretty much the most part of the drone actually as I already mentioned. There is a connector for the 3.7V 100 mAh LiPo battery used, so you can replace it if it starts causing you problems, but you need to be very careful when removing the top of the plastic body as it is pretty easy to break. The components soldered to the board are also covered with some sort of additional transparent coating in order to make them more reliable and durable in crashes or to vibrations.
The build quality of the radio control is also pretty good ad I was pleasantly surprised by the good potentiometers used for the control sticks both in terms of feel and in term of accuracy. Sure I have used much better ones, but in controllers that cost many times the total cost of the whole package here, so for the price of the product they are surprisingly good. Of course don't expect top quality, this is a cheap Chinese product and a clone at that, but still Liang Sheng did well.
The only thing that I did not like much was the USB charger for the drone's battery, pretty simple and not that well-built and on top of that glued USB connector with the electronics built-in. With Lithium batteries it is never wise idea to leave them charging unattended and in this case it is also something that you might want to be careful with. Even though the charger does seem to be working fine based on my experience and the drone battery having a protection circuit it is still wise to keep an eye on the charger while in use... especially if you plug it in your desktop computer or a laptop's USB.
What is the Conclusion
The Liang Sheng LS-111 RC nano quadcopter is a fun thing to play around with, it is a decent drone for the very cheap price it is available at and has some surprisingly good features. The drone flies well and is fast and agile, pretty durable and reliable, here are also pretty cheap spare parts available. The build quality is not the best, though it is sufficient for good results. The drone itself is quite fun to fly and play around with indoors, not very suitable for use outdoors mainly due to the small size. It is not a toy for small kids, it can be flown easily by older kids, especially if they have some experience flying drones already and of course is a fun thing for adults to play around at home or even in the office annoying your colleagues especially after you acquire some nice flying skills. It might be a good and inexpensive first step into drones, especially if you want to get to know the controls and not worry that your mistakes could cost you much if you break the drone or that you may hurt badly yourself or somebody else due to your lack of experience. Due to the small size and weight this drone is pretty harmless for a person, though you can still break some stuff flying it if you are not careful enough and not very experienced yet.
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