In this review, we compare the Eachine E010 and Eachine H8. First part of the article we summarize the pro’s and con’s of both quadcopters, second part of the review we go into detail of each quad.

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Article is written by IntoFPV member – Tom BD Bad.

Comparing The Eachine H8 and E010 At A Glance

This is a very difficult comparison to make, both of these quadcopters are brilliant in their own right. Both offer a 1s (3.7v) 150mAh (30c discharge rate) stock battery, offering a flight time of 6-7 mins, though the 2 quads have different battery connectors, the E010 has JST PH 2.0mm while the H8 has the LOSI connector.

The controller of the H8 requires 3 AAA batteries while the E010 requires 2 AA batteries. Both offer the same set of features:

2.4Ghz 4 channels
3D or 360 Eversion (auto flip)
Headless or CF mode
2 speed modes, and a return home feature that doesn’t work!

Weight:

E010 dry weight – 18g all up weight – 22g
H8 dry weight – 16g all up weight – 21g

I think that the Eachine E010 is one of the best 1st or beginner quads available, it’s forgiving in crashes, easy to control, very stable, and you will probably continue flying it, for years indoors, regardless what you fly outside. The E010 is perfect for ‘proximity’ flying and racing around the lounge. Because of The E010’s small size it’s easy to set up a track – round the bottle, over the cardboard box, under the stool and across the finish line though the back of the dining chair!

The E010 does need to be flown inside to feel the excitement of near misses, outside it struggles with the wind, in the open air feels a bit cumbersome and slightly under-powered. The E010 can, however, be upgraded and every part replaced or added to with options from insane speed (19000kv) motors, upgraded batteries, a camera and different camera mounts, all in a myriad different colours and designs to form the ‘TinyWhoop.’ RakonHeli even makes a special carbon fibre and aluminium fuselage to fit the board and 6mm motors!

The Eachine H8 is probably the natural progression from the E010, it’s a lot faster and more slippery than the E010, but just as much, if not more fun, to fly. It will reward the pilot who has flown the E010 for a week or 2 first. The H8 can shock with awesome agility and punch, the flips are much easier to recover from than the E010 – with its added punch you can comfortably recover from double and even triple flips, just cut the power as you initiate the flip to execute double (or more) flips.

The H8’s prop guards are shaped like grappling hooks so be cautious flying around trees. I lost my H8 in a tree for 2 nights in the rain, when the wind deigned to give it back I just needed to clean the battery terminals charge it up and off it went! At this point I must mention the yaw rate of the H8, in ‘low rate mode’ it’s pretty quick in ‘high rates’ yaw becomes so fast that can be difficult to control, once you get used to just how fast it spins, though, it does make for some pretty sweet maneuvers. Aerial J-turn’s or 180’s are hard to pull off, you have to be so quick on the transfer of pitch that often you have spun too far and fly off in an almost random direction!

Which One Should You Get?

I think the best choice for you, really comes down to a lot of things…

If you live far from a field to fly outside, or where you live has terrible weather for long months of the year (I’m originally from London so used to be plagued by both of these factors) then the E010 will probably offer the most use. If however you live somewhere that the weather is great for flying, most of the time, (I live in South Africa now, so am blessed with good weather) then the H8 would probably be a better choice. If you are an experienced hand with quads the H8 will probably be more rewarding, but if you have kids that you would like to get into the hobby the E010 is the way to go.

Honestly I’m very glad I have both!

Where the E010’s stability is great practice for beginner maneuvers, the H8’s speed trains reactions! Though the H8 would simply embarrass the E010 in race outdoors, on a lounge floor track inside, the H8 would be like an F1 car on a go kart track, pretty much impossible to handle!

E010 Pro’s

Very stable
Easy to fly
Great fun indoors
Safe
Good for kids (even those slightly younger than 14?)
Rarely have to replace props
Easily Upgrade to a TinyWhooop!

H8 Pro’s

Very fast
Agile
Powerful
Very robust
Flies well, even in slightly windy conditions
More hackable?

E010 Con’s

Slightly underpowered
feels slow outdoors
Susceptible to wind
Brittle plastic?

H8 Con’s

Not for use indoors
Too fast for younger kids
break / lose props
More effort to hack?

Closer Look At the Eachine H8

The Eachine H8 mini is great fun, it’s agile, punchy and fast, it can turn on a dime and does extremely fast flips on the same coin! The yaw authority in ‘high rate mode’ is so fast it can make the H8 mini difficult to control, but once you have the hang of it, it makes for some really cool maneuvers! Build quality ‘on the whole’ is very good, the main body is very sturdy and stands up to heavy impacts surprisingly well. If you fly at all like me, pushing my abilities to the limit.

Buy LOTS of spare props! It’s a bit fast for a 1st timer (like I am) but I learn well being thrown in
the deep end!

Appearance

The H8 mini, in black, is has a touch of the Batman look about it, (to my eyes anyway) which I thought was cool. It does, however, tend to disappear into the dappled shadows cast by trees or bushes.

The LED’s on the quad are nice and bright if a bit confusing – the blue LED’s are on the back, the red LED’s are on the front, it made me think “They have put the ‘brake lights’ on the wrong end!” The other down point of the LED’s is that they are buried inside the arms and therefore are only visible if you are flying right above yourself. With the white version of the H8 mini the LED’s are visible through the plastic of the arms. Due to this I would actually rather sacrifice the Batman looks for the (easier to see/find) white version.

Spare Part

Sadly the Eachine H8 only comes with 2 spare propellers (1xCW 1xCCW,) it would have been nice to have a full set. Also included in the bag of spares is a small screwdriver, to facilitate accessing the control board, rubber feet to protect the motor housings, and a USB charger.

Build Quality

The build quality of the H8 mini is ok, I found that any vibrations transfer quite a lot of energy into the propeller protectors making them vibrate which can interrupt the rotation of the propellers.

I (carefully) submerged the prop guards in hot water so I could manipulate them so they are less likely to impede the propellers, an easy enough modification but a little frustrating that it is necessary.

The USB charger does not appear to be fantastic quality but it does stop charging (LED goes off) when the battery reaches ~ 4.2v, so it’s not over or under charging.

Aside from the issue with the prop guards, the quality delivered by Eachine is actually pretty impressive. I have literally crashed the H8 mini as hard as it can be crashed, high rate mode, full forward pitch, with a punch of max throttle… crashed straight into a wooden post and the only ill effects were the prop guards needed to be re-aligned, again!

Controller

Lots of people have problems with the H8 mini’s controller – It’s tiny, even for a child aged 14+
Saying that I found it easy enough to control but having a bit more throw on the controls would help keep that crazy yaw in check! I have dropped my controller a few times, it literally slipped through my fingers, it’s that small! It didn’t even suffer a scratch but the white plastic power switch came off the actual board switch, just put it back on, no probs!

Weight

Dry weight (without battery) – 16g
All up weight (with stock 150mAh battery installed) – 21g

Flight Characteristics

The H8 mini, even in ‘low rate mode’ is wicked fast, no doubt this is NOT a toy for indoor use and probably not an ideal 1st or beginner quad! I agree with the age restriction of 14 years and over, this quad could easily ‘take out an eye’ if not carefully operated! In ‘high rate mode’ the quad is even faster and here enters the insane yaw authority which has been widely documented… The H8 spins like a ‘Whirling Dervish’ being chased by the dysney character Taz!

It is very easy to lose orientation with the quad turning so fast, this is compounded by the fact that all the props are the same white colour. The Eachine H8 mini is easily powerful enough to handle mildly windy conditions, but beware of over-confidence, I lost my first one in a tree within 3 days!

Features

The Eachine H8 Mini offers the usual range of features for a ‘toy grade’ quad

2 speed modes
‘3D Eversion’ means it’s able to flip forward, backwards and sideways
Headless mode removes the orientation of the quad so the pitch stick moves the quad closer or further away from you regardless of which direction the quad is ‘facing.’ The roll control offers the same characteristic of flying left or right regardless of the quads orientation
The ‘return home’ feature seems to be well documented across the range of toy grade
quads, and the consensus of opinion is that it DOESN’T WORK!

Overall

The H8 mini is great fun to fly, very fast, agile and punchy. Click the right stick and use the pitch/roll to execute a forward, backwards or sideways flip, the quad manages to pull these maneuvers off in a tiny space and without loosing much altitude. To enter high rate mode use the ‘trim’ button under the throttle stick, 1 beep for low rates 2 beeps for high rates and get ready for jaw dropping yaw! The headless mode I find a bit of a gimmick but it’s fun to be able to spin like a top and still have simple controls. The return home function is notorious on most toy grade quads, it uses a ‘dead reckoning’ system that really doesn’t work well. I call it “The disappear into a bush” button, and it’s better left alone!

Tips

Prop Guards – My first tip is make sure that the prop guards are not interfering with the props, if they are, DON’T use a lighter to warm the plastic, a cup of freshly boiled water is hot enough to make the plastic pliable. Flex the main spar from the arm downwards to straighten, then flex the 2 side spars upwards to protect from impacts to the top, checking all the time for prop clearance.

Once you are confident enough you might even want to snip the prop guards off to save a gram…

Increased Visibility – To increase visibility of the black version, put a blob of hot glue or clear silicone over the LED’s on the bottom of the quads arms. The translucent material lights up with the LED’s light and makes it much easier to see in low light. Another tip is to use some bright colour nail polish to paint the front or back props, or even the fuselage of the quad to help with orientation at a distance.

Increased Range – To increase the range of the H8 a hole can be drilled through the white plastic front of the controller, and the transmitter aerial can be pulled through. The same can be done with the canopy of the quad itself, there is an added bonus to exposing the aerial on the quad – the LED’s light up the clear plastic insulated coating of the wire, further increasing visibility.

Hacks

Bigger motors? I have tried attaching the H8 mini board to a Hobby King ‘Wisp’ frame using 8mm motors (compared to the stock 6mm) with partial success. I will be using better quality 8mm motors and ‘ladybird’ props when I try this again. QR Ladybird Props and Racerstar brushed 8.5x20mm motors on order from BangGood…

Accro mode – A member of the community at RCForums.com (Silverxxx) has made a firmware hack to update the flight controller of the H8 to offer a full accro mode, this requires an ‘ST-link V2’ which I also have on order from BangGood. I will update with details of this when I have it….

Brushless Flight Controller! -I have heard that the H8 mini board can actually run brushless motors (via ESC’s of course), I will be looking into implementing this hack in the coming year too…

The H8 has also been ‘tiny whooped’ by adding a micro FPV camera to it, but camera mounts and antenna protectors aren’t readily available like they are for the Blade ‘Inductrix’ and its clones Eachine E010, JJRC H36, Ni-Hui E010 etc.

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed a few discrepancies in some of the photo’s here, I have broken all my CCW spare props so the ones in the photos are positioned incorrectly! The body of the H8 with the prop guards still attached no longer has motors or board installed so the props are just balanced on the tips of the arms for aesthetics!

Closer Look At the Eachine E010

The Eachine E010 is perfect as a 1st quadcopter for beginners, its very easy to fly, extremely stable, and great fun to fly indoors. In low rates the word I would use to describe it is placid, even in high rates it is very forgiving.

The ducted props make the thrust very linear (all thrust goes straight down,) the ducts themselves have a large surface area which prohibits drift, aids with stability and allows the quad to come to a stop with minimal ‘opposite stick’ input. The Eachine E010 is so stable it makes it the perfect quad for proximity flying indoors and that it has become the quad of choice for a tiny whoop is no surprise.

I understand the 14 years and over age rating, but, the E010 would suit younger children too, obviously you know your kids – have a go first (inspiration to get one for yourself!) and see if you think it’s dangerous. Personally I feel any kid 10 years and up (with adult supervision) will have great fun.

Looks

It looks, well considering it’s a clone, it looks like the Blade ‘Inductrix.’ I think it’s a very cool looking quad in any of the colours available, and there are quite a few choices provided by Eachine, JJRC, Ni-Hui and Blade. In my opinion it looks a bit like the Pagani Zonda supercar, the way the cockpit rises out of the body and the ‘window’ wraps around the cockpit.

Spare Parts

Eachine provide a full set of props with the E010 (unlike the H8) which is great,but the ducts provide such great protection for the props it unlikely that they would need to be replaced any time soon. Again unlike the H8 there is no screwdriver provided, but the canopy is attached using clips rather than screws so a screwdriver is unnecessary to access the board. A USB charger is also supplied.