R/C heli drone things

Tunakid #2 got one of these for Christmas

http://www.amazon.com/UDI-U846-2-4Ghz-Channel-Headless/dp/B00W663FNA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451503994&sr=8-1&keywords=udi+u846

It was a pretty terrible story. The first one was different, and he got it from his Grandmother, and it didn't work. We replaced it with this item. The first one of those didn't work either, so we returned it and got another. This one worked.

It's actually a pretty neat piece. It's quick, has six propellers to make it unique, does flips and such, and has good power. No prop guard though. He, within a few weeks, broke one of the motors. Despite them providing the part number (0612) for the motor, it doesn't actually seem to be available. We're going in halfsies, to either repair the motor, or replace the drone, since he had such a rough time with it. Also, he's six.

There are approximately 7,412,339,096 drones available, ranging from a penny to a billion dollars. I may be making some of that up.

Ideally, we'd get a Propel Neutron, but smaller, and cheaper. Propel supports their stuff pretty well, which is becoming more important, and the Neutron (Tunakid #1) and the Atom (mine) are pretty awesome drones.

Estes also makes them - any good?

Any thoughts? Help!

He has something like $20 saved, but he (and I!!) would rather not spend that much if possible.

I like the cherson CX-10. Small, cheap and common enough that there is an aftermarket for things like prop guards and props. I just ordered one for my 8 year old.

Linky

The six rotor one seems to be much easier to learn to fly.

Looks like you can get the motor here: http://micro-motor-warehouse.com/collections/0612-motors/products/cl-0612-19

Does that look like the one that broke? (BTW, you probably already found that site, but just in case you had not).

-Rob

for a first drone Hubsan X4 H107, its small, durable and easy to get parts for. Learning to fly drones involves many hours of crashing drones, cheap is your friend. Before I built my "good" drone I spent 2 months just flying that little hubsan around my yard for a 20 minutes every night, Im still not good at it, but I dont crash my E36 M3 on to the roof of my house anymore, its a start.

rob_lewis wrote: The six rotor one seems to be much easier to learn to fly. Looks like you can get the motor here: http://micro-motor-warehouse.com/collections/0612-motors/products/cl-0612-19 Does that look like the one that broke? (BTW, you probably already found that site, but just in case you had not). -Rob

I didn't, but I am probably not going to spend $20 on a set of motors which may or may not work versus $25 for a new heli.

Grrrr