Teardown: Cheerson CX-10 micro quadcopter

[@punkoutnz]

I bought one of these for myself for Christmas and damn it's a lot of fun! Be great through winter too cos you can fly them indoors easily so no need to worry about the weather! Gonna use it to hone my skills on before I start getting into the bigger quads. Your videos have been a fantastic resource in that regard as well so cheers to all the time and effort you put into this channel!

[@stewjw]

I've been flying my little CX-10 for over a week now. I have the blue pcb version (green case). There's some debate over the original red one being better than the blue or green. People have already hacked them but mines fine as it is. It a took about 6 flights for the motors to loosen up to reduce drifting but now it flies well and the flip its does are vey cute & tight. It suffers from blade wash out and so can unexpectedly lose height but you get used to it. This is the best and only RC aircraft I've bought at this price and it actually works well. Thanks Bruce for bringing it to my attention. I'm not sure about the included USB charger which charges very fast. I use my normal Lipo charge with an adpater for the small connector and charge at 1C, 100mAh, 3.7Vp. The instructions are also rubbish even in English. To start switch on the remote then the quad with the throttle in the down position wait for two beeps, then move throttle to max, it beeps, move throttle to min it beeps and you are ready to go. Sensitivity is changed by pressing the left throttle joystick, 3 settings. The flips are done by pressing the right control stick which causes it to beep untill you move the control stick fully in the direction you want to flip. There is calibration procedure mentioned in the manual but I suspect with the new pcb boards and firmware this is now unncessary and moving the sticks to the calibration position just causes the light to flash repetitively. The blue LEDs flashing when the Lipo gets low is a nice touch and the Blue and red LEDs work well for orientation. Nice little quad.

[@azgarogly]

I'm wondering, if You glue the motors to the board and fly it without a shell, how much performance difference would it make? And If You'd replace battery with a bigger one for shell weight removed... have You any time to give it a try?

[@mwint1982]

I actually tried this. The glue doesn't last and your props collide into each other first crash and go spinning off into nowhere. The body, etc, adds much needed support for little weight.

[@need4drift]

Nice video Bruce. I have one of these and i love it! I put 2 100 mah lipos on it, making it probably the worlds 1st modified CX-10 and still flies great! I learn a lot from your videos so thank you and wish u all the best! :D

[@LukasBonny]

So many videos lately, thats awesome, great work!

[@kalaneburatram2478]

Keep up your great job, Bruce! I have both CX-10 & WLToys V676 (pretty much the same in looks, performance, price & fun): but the great thing with V676 is that you can bind it to your FS-TH9X with er9x, and then it flies like on rails: ok, no flips :-( Great flight experience! And +, it features headless mode, great for beginners like my 7 y.o. daughter: I configured it in trainer mode with a cheap FS-CT6B to teach her to fly a "multirotor" in the living room. Give it a try!

[@TheEPROM9]

Only bad thing with these small quads is the brushes in the motors can ware out quickly if you fly them a lot. Hell of a lot of fun to fly around, plus the small size makes them harmless so I have no problem flying these round class in uni. My Hubsan Q4 I managed to impail in the ceiling.

[@Jrtwhd]

Thanks for pointing out the wire is the antennae, I was fixing my Syma X12 and thought it was a stray wire that needed to be soldered on at both ends.

[@MrSilverback62]

Be careful flying this quad around the shop. The fun police might show up.

[@rctv-uk3126]

Lisa (her indoors) flew one of these recently in a fair bit of wind and loved it! Great vid Bruce these teardown vids are awesome! ATB Malc Team Nana UK Division

[@FrodeEskelund]

Nice teardown! I own one myself, and it is a blast to fly for such a tiny bit of machinery. There is a typo in the review, however. The microcontroller used in this is not a STM320***, but at STM32F050K4. Keep up the good work, Bruce!

[@mboiko]

Bruce, if you like the Cheerson CX-10 for it's value....you'll love the Syma X5C-1 (Upgraded Version).. Maximum Bang for the Buck for sure.

[@GunnerRA155]

I have one and its great fun, and due to its size practically indestructible through normal use. Brian :)

[@mboland69]

Just a heads up on these. The local LHS took a shipment of them and they have had nearly 30% faulty. Might have been a bad batch but be aware of your returns path if faulty. At least 15% were DOA out of the box. Main faults are 1 - the leans, think horizontal is 45deg and 2 - intermittent radio loss after 1 to 2 min flight causing darts dives and drops at unexpected times. I will agree though that they a great fun to fly.

[@808GT]

Thank you Bruce, excellent video. I have to say I am surprised to see anything soldered manually here. I can only imagine the pennies the manual laborer must be making on this, which is actually quite sad.

[@CrackerMcGillicuddy]

I just ordered one. I'm Jonesin' for some RC time. Winter here in the frozen north ya know.

[@jonbbaca5580]

You should do a teardown of the new one, I think it's the CX10-W, it's got a camera, micro ad slot and a Wi-Fi vtx. All that and its the same tiny size

[@Heppie89]

Please could you review the Tarot mini 250 frame

[@karmakazi219]

Yeah! I just learned about the Tarot 250 last night. I think I will built one after I finish my 650.

[@RichardBuckman]

You should check out the este proto x...It's essentially the same size with a slightly different frame, but the batteries are easier to get to and you can swap them out without soldering as long as you don't get the oldest versions. =]

[@GadgetReviewVideos]

Wish I had your model. I got received one as a gift and one motor wasn't soldered in, it kept shorting our with the one wire dangling around and it would, crash. I first thought it was the controller. Mine has all that RF goodness but on on a single soldered separate PCB board like yours. Mine RF goodness looks hand soldered with a broken inductor and just doesn't look good. But after opening the quad they now have the antenna as a PCB trace built into the board, no wire that I can pop out to improve reception so that also might be part the issue. They seemed to make the quad PCB cheaper now this way, but it's like a Bluetooth antenna and not as good like your for distance. And as I said the controller RF side is a mess with cheaper labor doing hand soldering. So the motor is burnt after shorting, i took it apart and confirmed the contacts are charged pretty bad? I will replace it but I don't expect it to be much better after seeing the difference. Maybe I shouldn't have ordered the motor and just gave up after seeing the older model. Oh well, I did order one since I thought my crash broke it originally and felt bad as it was a gift, turns out I ordered a CX-10A model. As of now I'm not sure I would recommend it since they have gone cheaper on the build and a worse RF on both sides, the quad and controller. So I guess I will see if this one is built more like yours. Maybe different manufacturing plans they are outsourcing to for building them and the next one will be done more like yours if I'm lucky. If not then I'll start looking for one from another company.

[@MarkTheMorose]

My CX10 is quite different inside; the board layout for one, and no antenna!

[@mooosestang]

So the screws don't hold the top plate on? One of my clips is all ready broken and i'm sure i'll break more.

[@videomax702]

there have been several PCBs for the CX-10. i have seen green, red and now BLUE

[@KennethElstonBAK]

Bruce, have you had a chance to get your hands on one of the CX-10A's? I'm hearing that they have an improved gyro over the CX-10, a heading lock mode, and a better battery that charges faster and gives longer flying times.

[@SundayShi]

Hi Bruce nice review! Do you think it's possible to bind this little thing with a bigger transmitter like Taranis?

[@blackmennewstyle]

Congratulations CX-10, you just received Bruce's approval: Briiilliiiant chinese stuff :D

[@mountainbiker4450]

Interesting video. I'm wondering though why they didn't make a jst connector for the battery so you don't have to desolder the battery for a new one. I believe the similar Hubsan H111 has such a connector.

[@r3verseb4ckfl1p]

Hey there, great video mate. I have been searching the net for ages to find out. I bought a cheerson cx10 then crashed it, it got messed up so I bought another exactly the same. I stupidly threw the first transmitter out thinking if I bought another one that the new transmitter would be able to bind with both as theyre both the same quad, do you know why the new transmitter will only bind to the new quad and not the first cheerson cx 10 that i bought?

[@slinkytreekreeper]

Felix wrote some firmware to spectrum stuff for flashing in to this quad. Same guy who designed the kiss esc.

[@johnf650dakar]

there seems be few different internals on the cx-10 some people who bought spares (not sure why they so cheap new) found internals are different I love mine great fun when waiting for lips charge

[@KraussEMUS1]

I was just wondering if anyone knows if there are any small possibly even sub-gram microcopter boards like this, that have accessible ESC output signal terminals. The board in the video and other similar really small quadcopter boards that I have seen, seem to just have motor signal outputs.

[@hamadmusabeh]

i have the same unit , was hoping if you can make a video on how to convert the tx to mode 3

[@atomicskull6405]

What gyro chip is this thing using? Looked like it had an Invensense MPU-3050C or ITG-3205 or something similar on the top of the board there.

[@pharrohku5922]

Have you ever tested the Cheerson CX-20 If so any pointer on it to make it better Like I have upgraded the props to self tightening 9443 plastic/nylon Much smoother with these props and quieter

[@Phrancis5]

Darn, I was really hoping to mod the controller to switch yaw and banking to the opposite control sticks for mode 4 flying, but it looks like everything is on the circuit board and no wires to switch...

[@markybyeah]

I have one of these, but the battery only lasts around 3 minutes in doors on low speed setting and then the low voltage warning kicks in, time to charge again... Quad fly's ok - shame about the flight time though.

[@hyumahoshi]

Hello! Where i can find a battery for this drone? Mine have the Shida 100mAh too but i dunno where to buy it. thanks in advance

[@Rchacker]

Nice chups bro.

[@macphly86]

Worth having... but the motors would only survive 1-2 hours of flight time. Even not crashing it. The brushes will simply be worn out. But A LOT OF FUN in- AND outdoors (light wind) ;)

[@macphly86]

you're going to have the trifecta reviewed btw? would appreciate it ;)

[@ArsonHammockHanger]

My daughter just plugged in the charger backwards. Ugh. I've only had my CX-10 for two day, and now I can't get the charger to stay plugged in to get a charge. Does anyone know any fix for this? On the first day I had a hard landing, and one of the wires from the motor came off the board, but I was able to re-solder. I have not been able to figure the charger out.

[@LeeJackson3d]

Bruce, I have this mini and Have a weird problem. I bent a motor after many times flying it, and suddenly when i powered it up I got the throttle to about mid way and all 4 motors shut down. If I take the throttle back down then up again it does the same. Now, i replaced the bent motor thinking it just maybe that but still the same and heres the weird bit - It only seems to do it when I have a prop on that particular motor. If i take the prop off and throttle up, all 4 motors stay spinning. Put the prop back on and they all cut out.. Only thing im thinking is that the prop is causing the motor Axel to lift - but I don't know why that would be an issue. Not a biggie since there only £12 hah but weird.

[@agbhargihad7325]

Lee Jackson it is the stuck prop motor protection kicking in.

[@LeeJackson3d]

dont suppose you would know how to solve this issue. Prop is fine, motor is new and tried a few - thanks for the reply tho

[@jamest6090]

Lee Jackson Were able to figure out how to fix this? I've got the same problem...

[@Raptor50aus]

I converted my ProtoX transmitter same as the CX-10 from mode 2 to mode 1

[@psclark2416]

Hi can you show us how to setup gps on a naze 23 board and where all the wires go thanks great show by the way pete from uk

[@ScottElder]

Isn't technology great? *Good job Bruce - **_never grow up._* :)

[@putracahya2005]

if mine is fully charged, it only flies for a few seconds then goes down again, what's the problem?

[@GibbonFPV]

.nice video! I just won one of these, thanks to the RC saylors. Well it's a proto x but it's the same thing. :)

[@rallekralle11]

Actually, this is a bit easier to fly than the proto X

[@GibbonFPV]

I'm sure I will manage :)

[@dalemurray6834]

nice solder joint (not) bottom left corner , stick mount when view of circuit board at 1:11

[@daniellopez483]

I wish I could have one I m only 13 years old and I now how to fly it but don t have the enough money to get one

[@miguelh.m.m.6911]

How long will it fly with one battery and how long will it take to charge it again ?

[@tahayt6142]

Sad it doesn't have one of those antenna imputs so u can put a bigger one on the controller

[@locouk]

I've recently ordered the CX-10A, lots of people are saying it has a less than 10 minute charge time. The Banggood data info says 30 mins, but I assume it's a poorly reviewed CX-10 data thing.

[@Aswin_CSE]

Cx 10 charges in 10 to 12 mins and flies 4 to 5 mins

[@locouk]

Aswin Girish Yes, mine arrive about 3 months ago. I wonder why all lipo's can't be the fast charge type?

[@AdamKouse]

I measured the charge current from that little charger that comes in the box and I feel bad for the little lipo. That charger is the cheapest of the cheap. It just slams a constant 4.2v in the thing, no charge curve, and does so at ~440mA. That's over 4C! No lipo is gonna last long with abuse like that. I ended up cutting off the cable and hooking it up to a little USB charger that does ~200mA and follows a more proper charging procedure.

[@technospear]

The battery is soldered to the board?

[@_droid]

There are basically no design costs for this. For the most part they copy (steal or use opensource) other people's work then shove it through their unbelievably cheap manufacturing processes. I often wonder if their manufacturing and shipping runs at a loss with government subsidies or something with the sole purpose of undercutting the whole rest of the world as a long term plan for dominance or at the very least access to everyone else's designs. I should be clear though because simultaneously there is a lot of unique and innovative research and development going on in China. More so than other countries I would argue. There are many smart people there.

[@_droid]

mPky1 Not subsidize "drones" per se but subsidize *all* manufacturing and shipping in China. They get the money from exploiting their generally illiterate and poor population living in substandard conditions.

[@RichardBuckman]

It's fairly simple to program a quadcopter, so my guess is they didn't even bother stealing something open source since it's almost more work to modify code than to just reprogram it, considering how cheap it was. It would in fact be stealing if it was GPLed code because they didn't share the source code, and didn't advertise it as GPLed. Although if it was some other open source license it might be ok depending on the licence. Consider this quadcopter code done at a high school: www.thomasteisberg.com/quadcopter/code/ It's not very many files, and none of them is very big. The knowledge required to put together a board like this is far more than the knowledge needed to code it.

[@RichardBuckman]

mPky1 But it's being sold in the US. Besides, even if it wasn't legally stealing, it'd still be ethically stealing.

[@RichardBuckman]

mPky1 But it would still be illegal to sell it in the United States, even if it is legal in China. But anyways, I doubt this has gpl ed software on it. I'm just saying that if it did, it would be copyright infringement to sell them in any country which recognizes the Gpl.

[@RichardBuckman]

Richard Buckman Also, since china is a member of the WTO (world trade organization), they legally are supposed to respect US copyright, which means the GPL would still hold in china. I'm not saying it would ever be enforced in china, whether people regularly follow the law there is another thing, but it is still techinically illegal.

[@tayneilson]

awesome!!!!

[@MaxPowerz01]

You have an original "Abe" model the first revision, there are 2 versions one with the red board "Abe" and one with a green board, The Green PCB model which uses a different radio chip and has been revised, it's either a second revision or a knock off..

[@MaxPowerz01]

Also, Have you seen the "Deviation" mods done to the devo7 controller? Hacked firmware and multiple transmitters in one package for an all in one fly anything solution.. Link.. www.deviationtx.com/

[@jibba0202]

2:25 there is a joint that is clearly not soldered!!! How did Bruce not mention this???? When he picks shit out of everything else?

[@ulaB]

Those 4 big solder points seem to be the anchor points for the sticks. All of them are on the ground pathway. It's probably enough to just use three. I'm also guessing that's why they are the only ones that were soldered manually because someone has to put the parts on the board.

[@xjet]

jibba02 I didn't notice that until after I'd edited the video -- but as Balu says, it's not critical, it's simply one of the stick mount points so doesn't affect the operation of the unit. Remember -- it's $15 :-)

[@BenPortmanlewes]

***** I think they're hand soldered coz that's the bit that gives you the modes... I'm a lefty and so sometimes have to unsolder them and switch the pot units around, So I say hand soldered to mode 1 or 2 depending.

[@masonreimert]

It does not need to be!

[@rallekralle11]

I wonder if you could put a camera on it

[@vince086]

Probably not but if you are looking for one with a camera check out the HT F803. Bit bigger than this and comes with a standard def camera and transmitter built in, also under 50$ I think.

[@tarunbirsingh6384]

What does trimming adjustments do?

[@Jrtwhd]

+Aman Lary if the drone tends to drift in one direction, you can counter it using trim adjustment buttons.

[@shutdahellup69420]

Yes!!! i replaced 100mAh with 250mAh lipo!!!!

[@enescelebi5663]

Shut da hell up how long can it fly now?

[@shutdahellup69420]

More like twice the time

[@enescelebi5663]

how do we charge the cx10 drone? is it safe to charge with apple charger?

[@azsxdcfvgbhnjmhn]

im seeing these on ebay for decent prices, do you think they are the same design as the one on your video?

[@НиколаНиколов-м1л]

+azsxdcfvgbhnjmhn the newer slightly changed the pcb but i have one and its working great

[@MrHavoc1001]

It's so cheap because the sell a hundred million of these things, quantity over quality.

[@pokies100]

If you sell 1 billion units and make one dollar each then how much profit for the manufacturer? Low cost and small means many are sold.

[@Heshhion]

Notice its the same thumbs down every vid.. Some people need counseling..

[@luc3932]

uhm mine doesn't have an antenna in the the quad..

[@carbon1255]

+doge if it works fine, less weight!

[@julienboller2165]

Pour une réparation 👨‍🔧

[@agbhargihad7325]

easy to get cost down when you make 1gazillion of them..

[@JaredReabow]

fly it without the plastic, you would get better flight times

[@TwistedIntentions79]

Mine cost less the $18 us free shipping

[@erg0centric]

Cheerson Nanacopter

[@mikeandjennycheung7764]

that looks wrong, the transmitter front.

[@MandyGates]

i got mine for $9

[@missmiss4350]

than

[@LanceChee]

blue bewbs... LOL!

[@BenPortmanlewes]

Here goes, neck out, Hubsan q4 is better. Underpowered a little, but the FC is better.....(ducks)

[@fettywap5478]

you talk too fast