JYU Hornet 2: Redesigned Hornet S

ATTENTION! Rec­om­mend­ed to refrain from buy­ing JYU brand prod­ucts. As of July 2019, the devel­op­er ceased pro­duc­tion and sup­port of its prod­ucts with­out warn­ing. All JYU inter­net resources are not work­ing, the mobile app is not avail­able for down­load!

About the brand

JYU is a brand owned by the Chi­nese com­pa­ny IMAXRC, which has made itself known thanks to charg­ers wide­ly used through­out the world for ser­vic­ing bat­ter­ies of var­i­ous R / C mod­els. Hav­ing received recog­ni­tion from the con­sumer in the field of mem­o­ry, the devel­op­er went fur­ther and since 2014 began to design, devel­op and pro­duce house­hold UAVs.

Until recent­ly, the range of JYU drones con­sist­ed of only 2 mod­els: Spi­der X and Hor­net S, where the lat­ter, in turn, has already been test­ed by many fans of the drone hob­by. In prac­tice, the Hor­net S turned out to be a “raw prod­uct” and need­ed to be improved. Appar­ent­ly, the devel­op­er lis­tened to con­sumer crit­i­cism and lat­er intro­duced a mod­i­fied ver­sion of the drone — Hor­net 2, which will be dis­cussed lat­er.

Peculiarities

• GPS/GLONASS
• Improved new smart bat­tery
• Flight time up to 28 min­utes
• Removal dis­tance up to 2km
• 3 × new cam­era options from FHD to 4K
• 3‑Axis R/C Gim­bal with Quick Mount Mech­a­nism
• Autonomous flight modes
• WF8 wrist con­troller
• Mod­i­fied equip­ment
• New b/c motors
• Mod­i­fied impact-resis­tant case
• Com­plete­ly redesigned drone elec­tron­ics

Equipment

The man­u­fac­tur­er offers Hor­net 2 in 4 ver­sions:

standard version

• 1 × Hor­net 2 GPS quad­copter
• 1 × Hard­ware
• 1 × Bat­tery
• Instruc­tion (in Russ­ian)

FPV Display Version

• 1 × Hor­net 2 GPS quad­copter
• 1 × head­ing FHD FPV cam­era (С3) with quick mount­ing mech­a­nism
• 1 × FPV LCD dis­play
• 1 × Hard­ware
• 1 × Bat­tery
• Instruc­tion (in Russ­ian)

2.7K Camera Gimbal Version

• 1 × Hor­net 2 GPS quad­copter
• 1 × 2.7K cam­era (C5) on a 3‑axis B/C gim­bal with a quick mount mech­a­nism
• 1 × Hard­ware
• 1 × Bat­tery
• Instruc­tion (in Russ­ian)

4K Camera Gimbal Version

• 1 × Hor­net 2 GPS quad­copter
• 1 × 4K cam­era (C6) on 3‑axis B/C gim­bal with quick mount­ing mech­a­nism
• 1 × Hard­ware
• 1 × Bat­tery
• Instruc­tion (in Russ­ian)

With the Hor­net 2, all elec­tron­ics are com­bined into a sin­gle elec­tron­ic com­po­nent, which allowed the devel­op­ers to make room for a more pow­er­ful pow­er source.

IMU — the sen­sor on the Hor­net 2 is installed on vibra­tion-damp­ing ele­ments that reduce the neg­a­tive impact of vibra­tions on the oper­a­tion of the gyro­scope and accelerom­e­ter includ­ed in itcom­pass and barom­e­ter.

Specification

Drone

Brand:

JYU

Mod­el:

Hor­net 2

Diag­o­nal size (with­out screws):

280mm

Take­off weight:

1.8kg

Max. take­off speed:

14.4km/h

Max. sink rate:

7.2km/h

Max. flight speed:

36km/h

Max. height above sea lev­el:

4km

Flight dura­tion:

28min (for FPV ver­sion) / 20min (for 3‑axis gim­bal ver­sion)

Removal dis­tance:

up to 2km

Work­ing tem­per­a­ture range:

0–40℃

GPS:

GPS/GLONASS

Hov­er Accu­ra­cy:

1.5m

Bear­ing screws:

7304

Motors:

B/K 2205

Weight (includ­ing bat­tery):

800gr

*The body of the drone is made of mod­i­fied high-impact poly­car­bon­ate alloy. The inte­ri­or was rein­forced with an X‑shaped stiff­en­er, which in gen­er­al increased the impact resis­tance by more than 30%.

battery

Capac­i­ty:

3600mAh

Volt­age:

14.8V

Bat­tery type:

LiPo (4S)

Pow­er:

54Wh

The weight:

190gr

Work­ing tem­per­a­ture range:

0–40℃

Max. charge pow­er:

70W

suspension

Work­ing angu­lar range of sus­pen­sion:

+20 to ‑90 degrees

Accu­ra­cy:

+/- 0.05 degrees

The weight:

170gr

Camera

Course FPV

FOV:

150°

ISO range:

50–800

Pho­to modes:

Sin­gle

Pho­to res­o­lu­tion:

8MP (3264×2448)

Video modes:

1080P at 30fps
720P at 60fps

Pho­to For­mat:

JPEG

Video For­mat:

MP4

Stor­age device:

TF(MicroSD) cards 8GB, 32GB (MAX)

2.7K camera

FOV:

120°

ISO range:

50–400

Pho­to modes:

sin­gle

Pho­to res­o­lu­tion:

8MP (3264×2448)

Video modes:

2.7K at 30fps
1080P at 60fps

Pho­to For­mat:

JPEG

Video For­mat:

MP4

Stor­age device:

TF(MicroSD) card 8GB, 64GB (MAX)

Work­ing tem­per­a­ture range:

-10 to 50℃

*Exter­nal 2.4G anten­nas. Max. trans­mis­sion dis­tance accord­ing to spec­i­fi­ca­tion (FCC): 2000m; (CE): 800m.

4K camera

FOV:

90°

ISO range:

50–1600

Pho­to modes:

Single/Serial

Pho­to res­o­lu­tion:

12MP (4608×3456)

Video modes:

4K at 30fps
1080P at 120fps
720P at 240fps

Pho­to For­mat:

JPEG

Video For­mat:

MP4

Stor­age device:

TF(MicroSD) card 8GB, 64GB (MAX)

Work­ing tem­per­a­ture range:

-10 to 50℃

Equipment

Oper­at­ing fre­quen­cy range:

2.400 — 2.483GHz and 5.725 — 5.825GHz

Max. trans­mis­sion dis­tance:

2.400 — 2.483GHz (no inter­fer­ence)
FCC: 2000m; CE: 800m
5.725 — 5.825 GHz (no inter­fer­ence)
FCC: 2000m; CE: 800m

Trans­mit­ter pow­er (EIRP):

2.400 — 2.483GHz
26dBm (FCC), 17dBm (CE)
5.725 — 5.825GHz
28dBm (FCC)
14dBm.(CE)

Food:

2200mAh LiPo IS

Work­ing Current/Voltage:

0.5A / 3.7V

Video out­put:

WiFi (Aer­i­al Ver­sion)
2.5mm jack (FPV ver­sion)

Motors

Unlike the pre­vi­ous mod­el, the Hor­net 2 received less pow­er­ful B/C motors of the 2205 type. Now the max­i­mum hor­i­zon­tal flight speed is 36 km/h (the Hor­net S is 120 km/h).

Camera

The Hor­net 2 quadro­copter, depend­ing on the con­fig­u­ra­tion, can be equipped with 3 cam­era options:

1. Head­ing FHD FPV cam­era (C3) with man­u­al tilt angle adjust­ment and quick mount­ing mech­a­nism
2. 2.7K cam­era (С5) on a 3‑axis non-slip gim­bal with quick mount­ing mech­a­nism
3. 4K cam­era (C6) on 3‑axis B/C gim­bal with quick mount­ing mech­a­nism

*Drone with head­ing FHD FPV cam­era (С3).

*2.7K cam­era (C5) and 4K cam­era (C6) on 3‑axis B/C gim­bal.

Food

*Bat­ter­ies from left to right: Hor­net S/Hornet 2.

Hor­net 2 is equipped with an improved intel­li­gent bat­tery, which, unlike the bat­tery of the pre­vi­ous drone, received an increase in pow­er by as much as 44%, now instead of a 3‑cell bat­tery, a 4‑cell 3600mAh bat­tery is installed (the bat­tery for the Hor­net S is 3S 2500mAh).

The built-in micro­con­troller MCU (Micro Con­trol Unit) gives intel­li­gence to the bat­tery, which allows you to con­trol each bank sep­a­rate­ly. This approach ensured even volt­age con­sump­tion, thus increas­ing the total flight time: up to 28 min­utes for the FPV ver­sion and up to 20 min­utes for the 3‑axis gim­bal ver­sion (Hor­net S flight time = 15–20 min­utes).

Also, thanks to the micro­con­troller, the drone received a bat­tery stor­age mode, it is active at the moment when you are not using the quad. By adding pow­er to the pow­er sup­ply, the devel­op­er did not dis­re­gard the ven­ti­la­tion of the bat­tery com­part­ment. Now each bat­tery bank has its own air chan­nel, thus elim­i­nat­ing exces­sive over­heat­ing of the bat­tery.

The MCU is the con­trol cen­ter of the Hor­net 2. It col­lects data from the entire sys­tem, includ­ing engine speed, cur­rent loca­tion, and cur­rent bat­tery charge. Pro­cess­ing and analy­sis of flight data is car­ried out in real time.

Control

Hor­net 2 hard­ware has also been mod­i­fied by the devel­op­er. The oper­at­ing fre­quen­cy range has been sig­nif­i­cant­ly expand­ed, the trans­mis­sion range has been increased from 1.2 to 2 km. It has become more com­fort­able due to the addi­tion of round­ed sil­i­cone molds at the bot­tom of it. The built-in pow­er sup­ply has been replaced and now instead of 4000mAh LiPo IS, there is a 2200mAh LiPo IS bat­tery. This allowed to reduce the over­all weight of the app. At the same time, the devel­op­er assured that such a replace­ment had prac­ti­cal­ly no effect on the oper­at­ing time of the remote con­trol as a whole.

Wrist Controller (WF8)

The Wrist Con­troller (WF8) is an 8‑channel trans­mit­ter oper­at­ing at 5.8GHz. In real time, it trans­mits data about its loca­tion (posi­tion­ing via GPS / Glonass) to the drone. Based on the received data, Hor­net 2 auto­mat­i­cal­ly tracks the move­ment of the Wrist Con­troller.

Wrist Con­troller (WF8) Not includ­ed and must be pur­chased sep­a­rate­ly!

The con­troller great­ly sim­pli­fies the con­trol of the drone when the use of clas­sic equip­ment is not rel­e­vant for the user. Depend­ing on the fol­low­ing modes, the drone can take dif­fer­ent angles rel­a­tive to the bracelet.

Follow modes

1. stan­dard mode — the drone clas­si­cal­ly fol­lows the bracelet from the back. The flight alti­tude of the Hor­net 2 is set by the pilot.
2. par­al­lel fol­low — the drone fol­lows par­al­lel to the bracelet, shoot­ing from the side. The flight alti­tude of the Hor­net 2 is set by the pilot.
3. point of inter­est — the point of inter­est here is the bracelet, around which the drone will fly around. The flight alti­tude of the Hor­net 2 is set by the pilot.

Standalone features and modes

• way­points – flight along a pre-record­ed route. The pilot at the time of the flight can focus his shoot­ing exclu­sive­ly on shoot­ing.
• point of inter­est – The air­craft flies around the record­ed point. The pilot at this moment can con­trol the cam­era, radius, speed and flight alti­tude.
• fol­low me – the func­tion is active when using the WF8 hand con­troller, the drone obe­di­ent­ly fol­lows the own­er of the WF8.
• One key return — one press of the but­ton and the drone will return to the take-off place.
• Low bat­tery auto return – The air­craft will auto­mat­i­cal­ly return to its take-off loca­tion if its pow­er drops below the opti­mal val­ue.
• Low Pow­er Geo Fenc­ing – if the drone’s bat­tery is not suf­fi­cient­ly charged at the time of take­off, the flight will be lim­it­ed to 20 meters in height and radius.
• Out of Range Return to Home – in case of loss of sig­nal between the air­craft and equip­ment, Hor­net 2 will auto­mat­i­cal­ly return to the take-off loca­tion.
• begin­ner mode – begin­ner mode sig­nif­i­cant­ly lim­its the activ­i­ty of the drone, which is very use­ful at the time of learn­ing to fly.

App

It is pos­si­ble to dis­play a pic­ture from the drone’s cam­era in real time through a mobile appli­ca­tion — JYU FLY for IOS and Android devices (QR-code in the instruc­tions on page 3).

Price

ATTENTION! Rec­om­mend­ed to refrain from buy­ing JYU brand prod­ucts. As of July 2019, the devel­op­er ceased pro­duc­tion and sup­port of its prod­ucts with­out warn­ing. All Inter­net resources do not work, the mobile appli­ca­tion is not avail­able for down­load!

The Hor­net 2 quadro­copter is avail­able for sale on var­i­ous Inter­net trad­ing plat­forms at a price of 19,000 — 35,000 rubles (the price depends on the select­ed con­fig­u­ra­tion).

Conclusion

JYU Hor­net 2 Aer­i­al Ver­sion 4K from $287

Func­tion­al­i­ty

9/10

Flight time

9/10

flight qual­i­ties

9/10

com­pact­ness

5/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

7/10

Price qual­i­ty

8/10

pros

• Design
• Exe­cu­tion qual­i­ty
• Strength
• Flight qual­i­ties
• Pre-pro­grammed flight modes
• satel­lite posi­tion­ing
• WF8 wrist con­troller
• Ready to fly out of the box
• Price

Minuses

• The qual­i­ty of shoot­ing stock cam­eras leaves much to be desired

Let’s hope that the mod­i­fied Hor­net 2 will be much bet­ter than its pre­de­ces­sor and all the prob­lems asso­ci­at­ed with OSD, ESC, stock cam­era shoot­ing qual­i­ty, over­heat­ing of the cam­era trans­mit­ter, incor­rect oper­a­tion of elec­tron­ics and soft­ware in gen­er­al will be elim­i­nat­ed. Oth­er­wise, this mod­el will also not receive recog­ni­tion among ama­teurs. Who needs these “danc­ing with a tam­bourine” after buy­ing a drone for 30K.

Video

Video with Hor­net 2 quad­copter.

The qual­i­ty of shoot­ing 4K cam­era drone Hor­net 2.