Daming 007 ‘Spy’ quadcopter review, courtesy of
The Daming 007 ‘Spy’ (DM007) is an affordable toy-grade quadcopter featuring a gyroscope stabilization system on 3-axis (6-axis as manufacturers like to advertise), that comes in a complete Ready-To-Fly (RTF) package. Underneath the quadcopter canopy, a 2MP camera is mounted (it is removable) capable of shooting video and taking photos in HD resolution. The DM007 is available in two colours - black and white – where the black one has a more aggressive look; however, the white version is advised if you plan on doing night flying. The review model was the black version. This is the upgraded version.
Inside the DM007 package you will find:
- The DM007 quadcopter, fully assembled with the camera and blade guards installed
- The Transmitter
- The quadcopter battery (2S LiPo 400mAh, an upgrade from the original 350mAh one)
- An A/C wall charger for the battery. The charger connects to the battery via the power port (it does not have a balance port) and has a LED indicator providing information for the battery charging process (RED when charging, GREEN when the battery is fully charged)
- A full set of four replacement blades, two clockwise (CW, marked B2) and two counter-clockwise (CCW, marked A2)
- A 4GB microSD card (an upgrade from the original 2GB version)
- A microSD to USB card reader
- An operation manual
The DM007 canopy is made of plastic but this upgraded version has more strong arms and landing gear. The plastic canopy has a matte finish, which makes the black colour version look and feel like a quality product. The quadcopter does not feature LEDs on the arms but instead has different LEDs on the front and on the back on the canopy. This might confuse beginners at first but it is easy to distinguish the front and the back after observing the lights; the rear has also red LEDs to distinguish from the blue ones on the front. The whole construction is strong and the blade guards help a lot on keeping both the blades and the motor axle safe. Unlike other direct-drive implementations, these blade guards do not bend easily but they are ‘elastic’ enough to re-shape them back to normal, in case of a severe crash.
The DM007 is unique in size: at 168mm motor-to-motor distance, it is bigger than a Mini – such as the Eachine H8 mini – but smaller than 180mm quadcopters. It is the only toy-grade quadcopter at this size that uses 2S LiPo power.
The battery in this upgraded version is 2S 400mAh with unknown C-rate. It does not have a balance plug – like the majority of LiPo batteries with more than one cell – and charging takes place via the power plug. This could affect the battery life in the long term, as there is no guarantee that the battery cells will be balanced. The stock charger is 500mAh and can charge the battery in about 90 minutes. The only reason I can think of not having a balance plug is no other than space saving, as fitting this large battery inside the tight battery compartment takes some effort. The spare batteries are cheap – and all spare parts - so the lack of balance port is not a big deal for this toy quadcopter.
The DM007 camera comes as a pod mounted on top of the sliding battery bay, secured with two screws; removing these screws, the camera can be removed by unplugging the camera cable. The microSD card slot is at the back of the camera pod and the card pins should face you while holding the quadcopter (it cannot be inserted otherwise and ‘clicks’ when in place). The camera shoots pictures and videos at 1280x720 resolution (HD) and is pretty good for the price of this RTF package. It is mounted correctly and does not have the shooting angle issues the H8c camera has.
Like every quadcopter using brushed motors, you should “break” your motors. To do this, just hold the quadcopter with your arm and run the motors on the lowest possible throttle for 1-2 minutes. Let the motors cool down after this and you are ready to fly.
The DM007 comes with a standard-looking transmitter. The transmitter operates on 4 AA batteries and uses 2.4GHz signal to connect with the aircraft. The TX size is nice, it has the correct size for all hand types and it is pretty light even with the batteries installed. The protocol used is based on JD395 – like the CX-10 uses – and it is DeviationTX ready (see here for more information). Upon signal connection loss between the TX and the quadcopter, the quadcopter motors stop after 2 seconds so no issues with flyaways.
Overall, the Daming 007 ‘Spy’ quadcopter is a great choice for ‘intermediate beginners’ pilots. It is very fast and agile, has lots of power due to the 7.4V platform it utilizes and it is a pretty complete RTF package with excellent value for money. It can fly inside – provided that you have enough space because it is very fast even on beginners mode – and outside but you are advised (it is also stated in the operation manual) to not fly it outside with winds stronger than 4 Beaufort, as it is not easy – due to its size – to fight such strong winds. It is a great choice for practicing speed flying and orientation – due to the bright LEDs used – for someone who wants to fly racing quadcopters.
An analytical video review (in Greek with English subtitles) with test flight (inside and outside at winds over 5 Beaufort) is available:
Daming 007 ‘Spy’ complete review with test flight, courtesy of Gearbest.com
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