My New Drone/Bicycle Strobes

Well, that was all FAR too simple.. note: the image below has been through Google translate and so will likely have the odd foo-pah.

And I bought these for what reason? Well, having just ordered a “new-to-me” sub-250gm drone and while eagerly awaiting it’s arrival, I watched every video going on the web (determined to be an expert by the time it came to actually using the drone in approved areas – having lost a cheap drone years ago due to inexperience) and in one video, I saw an American fellow demonstrate his drone near sunset and using an underbody strobe – to make it difficult to lose sight of the drone if it gets dark sooner than expected. WELL wasn’t that interesting but when I started checking prices, his cute little light was something in excess of €50 on AliExpress and nearer €90 (around $95 or £78) on Amazon.

Not wanting to pay that much I started to check both sites for other options and there are many which are suitable for bike (and I hope walking) as well as drone use. I was wary as to whether something at €15 Amazon price could be any good – but took the plunge anyway.

The next day my Amazon order arrived and I’ve been sitting here enthusing about my purchase – 2 watertight light units, a WiFi remote with CR2016 battery fitted and a SPARE battery provided. The package also contains a micro-USB to USB charge lead for the lights which themselves contain rechargeable batteries (thinking about it, handy to have a spare light in case one gives up earlier than planned).

But these are far from simple strobes – you have a big range of mode controls via the remote including simple bright white strobe through to full-on in any colour or combinations of colour and white, strobing and non-strobing. Depending on the weight it occurs to me that one at the back and one at the front (underside in both cases) of the drone could be handy. Meanwhile next time I’m out walking at night…

The lights have built-in magnetic mounts and also come complete with rubber bands and 2 adhesive pads. You also get a warning triangle and an instruction leaflet in Chinese and perfect English – what more could you want at the price – but the big question is – how bright is the strobe? I doubt I can demo this effectively using a mobile phone but I’ll try…

AND… WEIGHT… took out my wife’s lovely new digital scales – 24gm exactly.

All-in, not a bad purchase.

Update: Thanks for the feedback chaps, earlier tonight I hooked these two lights onto the rear arms of the drone using the supplied rubber bands – strobe white with red on the left, strobe white with green on the right. WELL, that was interesting, not only could I see the drone in near darkness (I didn’t dare take it up at night before the lights) but at reasonable distances I could tell which direction the drone was turned – the red/green setup works really well. Unfortunately as you might expect the colours are not as effective as the white.

I went through two drone battery charges while testing these lights and no sign of their rechargeable batteries going down.

Ok, so the drone itself has a rather dim white light on the front (can be made any colour but they are all so dim as to be useless)… these two lights are a game-changer for me. However in any but a deserted backwater I wouldn’t dare use them as the combined weight of the two approaches 50gm – taking the drone over the 250gm weight limit. I may have to start looking deeper into the lights suggested by a helpful reader in here – the Strobon C2 – up to now, no joy finding them in Spain (nothing on AliExpress or Amazon even). Functionally however mine are fine and don’t seem to have any obvious effect on the flight. I’m sure they’ll reduce flight time but that’s something for another day.

I need a second drone so I can watch the first one’s lights mid-flight…. 🙂