PowerEgg X, not as fertile as I’d hoped

My initial experience with the recently released Powervision PowerEgg X has so far been very disappointing, but I’ll start first with some good bits.

Construction.

The quality of the materials used in the manufacture are very good as is the overall build. Nothing about it feels cheap, and the quality of the controller leaves all the Mavic range wanting. It even has waterproof rubber boots around the control sticks and gimbals. It uses WiFi only for connecting the mobile device to the main body when used as a handheld camera. In drone mode the mobile device connects to the controller using a USB connection. The controller appears to connect to the drone using a proprietary link, possibly something similar to Ocusync or Lightbridge as the control commands, telemetry, and 1080p video downlink are all on the same data stream. I’ve yet to look at this on a spectrum analyser and collect some bits to try and identify the protocol.

The AI tracking is very spooky. The camera can move nearly 180 on the horizontal axis and during testing I could walk out of the room, out of view, and on my return it would lock onto me instantly. The second try with this I sent my wife into the room and the camera remained stationary until I reentered whereby it locked onto me again.

The received video on the mobile device, in this case my iPad, was very clear and sharp. Captured video and photos were also very clear and sharp.

Now the not so good stuff.

Powervision offer the Vision+2 app on both iOS and Android. Unfortunately I’m finding the Android APP an unmitigated disaster. I tried the Android APP on a Samsung S6 (listed as one of their tested devices), a Samsung S7, and a Huawei M5Lite8 tablet. Both Samsung devices were not able to display the video downlink making them useless. The Huawei tablet did display the live video feed but the APP would randomly crash or revert back to the home screen, both in camera and drone mode. Certainly something you don’t want to happen while in flight. The whole system would work flawlessly on the iPad but as the mount on the controller is only big enough to hold a standard sized phone, and I don’t have an iPhone, I could not test the flying abilities.

Powervision are rumoured to have exceptional customer support. When I sent an email detailing my issues I received a reply within five minutes. Unfortunately this wasn’t an offer of a solution but to tell me they had opened an account for me on their system and that a ticket had been created. As I sent the email toward the end of the business day on Friday I’m not expecting any further comms until tomorrow at the earliest. However I have been able to add more info/details to the ticket via their support system over this weekend.

Overall I think the release of this product was rushed in order that Powervision could make a big noise at this years CES. In the first three days after delivery they have updated the Android APP twice, both on the Play Store and the direct download on their webpage, but for some reason there are small differences between the two downloads. The Play Store download does not display a map on the map screen whereas the direct download does.

Nidge.

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does not sound to :egg: “eggciting” then Nidge from your first trials.
Does looks the dogs danglers at first sight.

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It is a nice looking and versatile system but I won’t be putting my operator number on it until they sort the Android APP out, or I’m gifted a suitable iPhone.

Nidge.

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An update, especially relevant to my earlier statement above.

I sent my initial feedback last Friday, close to end of business hours on mainland Europe, so I wasn’t expecting any response over the weekend.

Just after 7am, this morning, I had a response from Powervision’s European Tech Lead (not some copy and paste monkey a’la DJI).

Since then we have been in near constant contact exchanging info as we work through the issues.

So to surmise, so far the rumours appear to be true and reflect my similar experiences to that of Parrot and Yuneec support services.

Nidge.

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Have you offered your services as beta tester, I got a couple of GoPro’s that way and some dollars too ;o)

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We’ve only had our first date. I’ll need a few more days back and forth before I plan any evil intentions. :smiling_imp:

Nidge

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Not Evil just wanting to share your experiences based on good technical knowledge for the benefit of a Customer Based marketing company (as a posed to a competitor based one Along withe the welfare of the future purchaser of course

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UPDATE.

It’s been a week of installing, uninstalling, the APP. Going through system files, and getting typical responses from Powervision’s support staff including the obligatory “Have you tried turning it off, and on again”. All attempts have resulted in absolutely no improvement :cry:.

I then went the route of trying to identify what hardware within the Samsung devices I have, S6 and S7 which are not exactly low end phones, and I came to the conclusion that the GPU’s were not happy with the way the APP was trying to render the live video.

As my Huawei M5Lite8 tablet works with the APP, but cannot be mounted onto the controller, I performed a search of suitable handsets that use the same GPU as the tablet and went with Huawei again, this time the P30 Lite.

I’ve just installed the Powervision APP on the new phone and… :smiley::smiley::smiley:.

Perfect high resolution live video via both WiFi and USB-C connections. Just in time for the arrival of Storm Jorge :cry:.

I’m now in too minds if I should let Powervision in on the secret.

Nidge.

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Nah!.. Knowledge is power… :wink:

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I would treat them with the same contempt they treated you !.
Na !, keep it to yourself !.
P.S. Nidge, top marks for finding it out !

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It will be interesting to see how you get on actually using it in the different modes.

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  • Scrambled
  • Poached
  • Fried
  • Coddled
  • Soft Boiled
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@OzoneVibe eggxactly. as its powered it should be able to prepare all of the above and deliver the meal to the table!!!

Today I was able to get the PowerEgg X into the air for the first time. I had to be stealthy as I’ve yet to get a label printer to put that all important operator I.D. on it, so it was just a simple mooch about above the driveway.

My observations are that.

  1. For its size it’s relatively quiet.
  2. It’s very stable. The wind was blowing about 15mph and gusting at 25mph, but the PEX barely battered an eyelid.

Some users have complained that when recording at 4K @ 30fps and 60fps the footage was glitchy or didn’t save properly. I’m using a 128GB (max capacity) Intergral 130MB/s V30 U3 micro SD card and didn’t notice any issues.

Powervision contacted me earlier today asking if I’d test a revised APP and FW. The FW is an update for the Smart Battery and the way it self discharges to storage level when not used for ten days. For my troubles they have given me their Power Care package free of charge, which is similar to DJI’s Refresh thing, so I don’t feel as violated as I did a few days ago.

Now I just need some suitable weather to burn a few batteries in anger.

Nidge.

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For you troubles DJI would send you an invoice. :wink:

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Funny you should say that.

Back in the day of the Phantom 1 I was quite a prolific poster on the DJI forum. One day I received an email from one of their representatives commending me on the advice I’d afforded to others, AND, asking if would I be interested in authoring their Wiki Pages. They offered me $5 in DJI Funny Money as an incentive.

I may have the appearance of a cabbage but I ain’t that green, or desperate.

Nidge.

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Having just seen news of this, courtesy of a friends review (PowerEgg X | PowerVision Robot Official Website | Innovate The Future powervisoin) I have a couple of things to say …

  1. How creepy is that tracking?
  2. But I love that it’s waterproof and accessories can be bought for it to land / take off on water.

oh and…

  1. That is seriously one ugly bit of kit.

I actually quite like the look of it. It’s a refreshing change from everything having to look like a Mavic, and it makes more sense from an aerodynamic stance.

I have to say, after a little more playtime today, that I’m very impressed with its stability, so much so I wouldn’t have any issue flying this indoor even though it’s wheelbase is bigger than other offerings. I was able to leave it in a hover, 10ft of the ground and between two houses with a separation of about 12ft, for an entire battery without any input from the sticks, and that was with some surprise gusts of wind included. I’ve never used obstacle avoidance and thankfully I can easily turn this feature off, as it was alerting me to objects 10metres in front of it with constant beeping. Over all the tune is very good in standard trim. I’m hoping to see how well it handles in its splishy splashy outfit, seeing as how this is selectable in the APP and enables a different tune.

I’m currently running it on a Beta Firmware and a Beta Android APP and only one issue is concerning me, and that is in auto exposure mode the resultant image is blown out when using evaluative metering, Centre Weighted and Spot Metering work fine. The test images and video so far have proven to be pin sharp across the whole frame at all resolutions, something that was not the case for some users on earlier firmware releases.

Things I’d like to see in future revisions, or made available as accessories, are the ability to mount a tablet to the controller, and a way of mounting a mobile phone to the body when used as a handheld camera.

Regards

Nidge

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Did you buy this or are you reviewing / testing it for them in some manner? If the latter, how does one get in on that action :wink:

And each to their own, but I still think it’s ugly.

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I was a beta tester for the GoPro Karma (and Hero 5), just filled In the warranty card and then got a random email.

I also do it for Tesco and Morphy Richards, had some nice stuff off both them

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