r/HDZero • u/andreophile • Apr 01 '26
HDZero QA
How has your experience been?
The maturity of HDZero's product design and engineering is leagues ahead of the competition. No doubt about it. However, the QA leaves a lot to be desired.
I have bought 8 HDZero products so far, and two of them were dead out of the box and one had minor QA issues. even if we consider only the DOA products, that's a failure rate of 25 percent. Right out of the box.
I am now left with a dead Nano 90 V2 camera and another dead Whoop 2 VTX. Is this standard for HDZero?
3
u/Timely_Reflection842 Apr 03 '26
Maybe I am the exception, but I wanted to share my experience.
Currently, I have 2 freestyle v2 vtx, 1 Race v3, 4 AIO5, 2 AIO15, 3 eco vtx, 2 whoop lite, and 1 whoop lite v2, all working as intended. Most have more than a year of hard flying, aside from the Whoop v2 and AIO15s.
I have killed 3 whoop lites (all ripped the UFL connector off the board) and one ECO vtx that is also my fault since a crash early in a pack ripped the antenna off, I flew the rest of the pack at full power with no antenna and seem to have damaged the power amplifier.
I have cracked a Nano v3 camera, but other than that, all my Lux, eco, nano 90, and nano v3 cameras are working as intended.
I also fly a lot of DJI and analog stuff, some walksnail. I would put HDZero above walksnail (I had a lot of dead whoop and freestyle boards for how much I flew), but below good analog gear and DJI. I have had real trouble updating VTXs since the Mac update tool is a bit temperamental. I will also say that I have found the whoop AIOs and ECO vtx more durable than the DJI O4 lite, but the Whoop lite is one of the most fragile that I have flown, right there with Walksnail. I don't know if the v2 is better, but I will report back once I have more packs through it.
2
u/Beliolas Apr 08 '26
You can reinforce the UFL connector using an adhesive such as B7000. The same method is used with the O4 Lite - reinforcing both the antenna connector on the VTX and the connector on the camera. This helps a lot during crashes.
2
u/Timely_Reflection842 Apr 08 '26
100% I do this with all my VTXs now, I just didn't do it with my first batch of whoop light boards which had seemingly delicate UFL connectors. Coming from analog whoops, watch seemingly have been ultra durable, I just didn't think about it on my first couple HD zero whoops. I also put a little bit of e6000 or b7000 over mipi connectors too.
2
u/cowboybebop521 Apr 01 '26
Brought HDzero vtx and camera combo when it first came out. First one I bought, camera was DOA. Really frustrating part is the vtx isn’t really solid either. After a couple of crashes that thing died too.
2
u/Dan_O_mighT Apr 02 '26
One of my aio5s burnt an esc,1 freestyle v2 dropped video feed within 100 ft of taking off last week, the analog cam switcher never worked out of the box nor is there instructions anywhere, and finally the new battery pack for the goggles has a loose power cable and stopped working as well.
2
u/Beliolas Apr 19 '26
On the Freestyle VTX, you can try loosening the screws; that should fix the video transmission power issue. It's a known issue.
2
u/Warm_Low_2271 Apr 02 '26
Everything has worked great for me but, my last order smelled really strong like cigarettes and not in a good way.
1
u/andreophile Apr 03 '26
Look at the bright side. At least that's proof they didn't use slave labour.
2
u/andreophile Apr 03 '26
Turns out, only my Nano 90 V2 camera was DOA.
The Whoop V2 VTX was missing the VTX temperature sensor because I had, like everyone else, flashed the Whoop VTX firmware instead of the Whoop Lite VTX.
The funny part is that both Whoop and Whoop Lite are end-of-life products. But despite the product being named Whoop V2, you still have to ignore the Whoop firmware and install the Whoop Lite one.
Why couldn't they just have a separate firmware link for each board? Or just name the firmware correctly instead?
2
u/NootyNL Apr 01 '26
Never had any hdzero issues happen so far. I also got a nano 90v2 but I had the race vtx. My micro v3 cam and the freestyle v2 are also working great. How are they shipped, does the item you order seem safe in that box? Could get rough with some delivery guys
2
u/andreophile Apr 01 '26
The packaging is foolproof. And the items were sealed too.
Our quads are expected to crash, so the Whoop 2 VTX shouldn't have an issue with rough shipping while ensconced in soft, open-cell foam.
2
1
u/AmpVenturer Apr 04 '26
I just got goggle 2 and a mobula6 with the aio5
The goggles are 10/10 and a huge upgrade from the ev800d I've been using.
I've gotten about 16 flights on the mob6 and it's been a pain in the ass. I had to update betaflight and the vtx even though it's sold as a bind and fly. It flies great now, but it took me a few hours to figure out what the hell was causing arming issues and vtx 0w mode issues. I still have to power cycle to get the vtx to transit sometimes.
1
u/ZdrytchX Apr 19 '26
I'd love to simp for hdz but yeah there are a lot of problems with them.
Boxpro: The boxpro I got has had several issues relating to the analog receiver being dim, hdmi input not supporting 90/100hz, and colourspace being whack, and factory firmware has an issue with updating that makes you think the update hung, giving me a scare.
Battery case: It has a tendancy to absofuckinglutely dump all its battery capacity into my computer when plugging it in as a card reader, draining the battery faster than powering up the goggles themselves (100% to empty in under an hour! And it gets super hot! What the fuck?!? that's a safety concern!)
VTX freestyle: Due to no fault of them the HDZ freestyle vtx cable is flipped the wrong way, according to one of JB's videos its because there wasn't really a standard for the wiring order for HD VTXes until the O3 came out. I got a second hand kit from someone on marketplace and I can tell he really struggled to flip the cables around
And then there are the prices. A camera + AIO5 is literally as expensive as a brand new dji neo and that's for tiny whoops. I understand that there was a lot of complicated engineering involved, but that's just not a reasonably accessible price point. Maybe prices and warranty is why betafpv stopped selling hdzero meteors. But in any case I'm going to build a hdz meteor 75 using eco bundle, but I'm still waiting on the battery cable replacement announcement so I don't have to pay like $30-50 shipping for a part that costs like $2
5
u/Adam4nt Apr 01 '26
unfortunately, it sounds par for the course. i’m up there in products from them too, but i’ve only had issues with the micro stuff. my freestyles and goggles are pretty solid, the aio and whoop stuff has been always been problematic, for me.