[greggold]

What is the best FPV drone for flying indoors, especially if you live in a normal house or apartment that lacks high ceilings? I have tested 8 drones with the DJI O4 lite video system that are suited to indoor flying, although I have also flown them in the backyard, the street, over rivers and canals, bush tracks and reserves, and local parks including tiny parks. Of the 8 drones, 2 are 1S drones and 6 are 2S, and the 1S drones are notably smaller and lighter. All these drones give excellent and stunning video performance with either the DJI goggles 3 or the goggles N3.

To fly a fpv drone with the DJI O4 lite video system you need either the DJI goggles 3 AUD 869 or the DJI goggles N3 AUD 359. Both give excellent results.

DJI Neo  drone AUD 299.  To fly this as a FPV drone you need the DJI FPV controller 3 AUD229

The other drones are flown with any elrs transmitter/controller.

NEWBEEDRONE ACROBEE75 HD O4 2S  AUD404
 
HAPPYMODEL MOBULA7  O4 2S racing drone  AUD499

BETAFLIGHT FEMTO 2" 2S  AUD 390

SUB250 NANOFLY20 2S 2 Inch HD O4  AUD549 

FLYLENS 75 O4 2S Whoop FPV Drone AUD 414

FIREFLY18 1S Nano Baby V3 O4 with Flywoo DJI O4 Lite Wide-Angle Lens 360AUD

METEOR75 PRO 1S O4  416AUD 

Indoor fpv is difficult and harder than I expected. Beginners should definitely learn to fly outdoors first. When flying indoors sensible people (I include myself, and top fpv gurus such as Bardwell and Captain Drone) fly in angle mode, although real men claim to fly in acro mode.

The WINNER: The DJI Neo is the winner by a large margin. It makes flying indoors easy, because it has rock steady stability. With the other 7 drones, if you loose full concentration for a split second you may bang into a ceiling or a wall; this helps explain why all but 2 of the above drones have prop guards. With the Neo you have an option to convert the  DJI FPV controller 3 into full manual mode, which makes it fly like any other fpv drone. However I use the controller in the default mode it is sold with, ie angle mode + stabilisation. With the Neo in angle+stabilisation if you release the sticks it hovers in place at constant altitude, which is not the case with the other drones.

[caffeine]

Good synopsis Greg,

I've found the only drawback with the Neo is the position hold is based on camera vision, so it relies on good lighting, If you fly it in dimly lit areas (inside or out) it can get a bit confused and start to lose position hold and drift quickly.

It will warn you in the goggles if it is struggling though, so that's quite helpful.

I habve heard (but not experienced) that if you drive the Neo low over water, then the downward vision and infrared sensor can get confused by the reflective nature of the water and it may not be able to calculate height correctly, causing it to fly into the water.

Those small points aside, I agree that the Neo is the best starter drone out there. I can confidently hand the goggles and controller over to someone who has never flown anything in their life before, and they can quickly get the hang of buzzing around, with little fear of loss or damage.

[greggold]

There is considerable discussion of the performance of the Neo over water. If you fly it in manual mode with the FPV controller then the problem goes away because the sensor is having no effect. If you are in a mode with stabilisation (I am not sure if sport mode is using the downward sensor, I know normal mode is) then the sensor is active and then if it becomes confused a crash may possible although the pilot should be able to detect a dive and climb out. I always fly the Neo at 20m height when flying over the Lane Cove river and I in my experience sensor confusion does not occur at that height.

For flying over water at the beach the Neo is not the best drone in any case as it does not handle wind well. I am thinking of doing some whale or shark watching at the beach, and the dji mini 4 pro - which is not an fpv drone, it uses a controller with a screen such as the RC2- may be the best choice as it got a great camera and you can adjust it to point directly down.
The O4 lite video system works best in daylight, however in the bush reserve where I fly there is heavy shade and all my drones struggle in early morning light. The O4 lite drones handle low light conditions better than the O3 ones, the O4 image is brighter and seems more detailed.