Chasing Dory, the cheapest underwater drone. In-depth test and review.

Greetings sailors,
Today we tested the cheapest underwater drone (ROV) we have found, the Chasing Dory. And not because it is the cheapest it is, far from it, bad.
Today we add a submarine to our ship!

Join us in this test, which ends up becoming an almost epic story in our video. Know the main details, tips and links to buy it in this post.

Chasing Dory is a small submarine that will be very practical in some of the usual situations on our ship, but above all, that it will be a very fun toy to have … And that is only worth 500 euros, basically as a drone of those that flies of average price.

Motivation

Well, I do not know if it is necessary to give you reasons to buy an underwater drone .. At the moment of truth, apart from the fun that is its handling, enter the bottom of the sea while watching in real time, on the screen of your mobile, what is being found and you can easily direct it. We can also find some more practical utilities, such as:

• The review of the bottom when we are going to drop anchor or see if the anchor has caught correctly and we can spend the night at anchor with peace of mind
• Check the hull of our boat comfortably to see anodes, possible damage (especially if you are a boat rental or expert), dirt, or condition of the propeller.
• Fishing location, observe the presence of fishing and the operation of the baits, etc.
• Recording of underwater life, including divers.
• Search for lost items and treasures !! In the video we find one …
• Underwater structures review
• Spending a great afternoon with your children or grandchildren is a good gift, very easy to handle and with an hour of autonomy.
• Or recording bucolic images, if you are a nautical Youtuber … I don’t know how I can be the only one who has one, while all nautical Youtubers have a drone that flies …

At the moment of truth, and this I say after having used it for a month .. The best thing is that it is a super fun toy!

Purchases

In this case there is not much to buy, in the end it is the drone (ROV for purists) itself, the choice of an accessory and, above all, the most difficult thing: choosing the right place to buy.

We have chosen the Chasing Dory for the price, mainly because it was the best we could afford and it just so happens that it is also the cheapest.

It has a camera, it can be submerged up to 15 meters and you can handle it in real time in a very simple way with your mobile and seeing what happens at all times.

When buying it, keep in mind that it is already something that costs more than 400 euros, so taxes and customs, depending on where you buy it, can be a determining factor.

The first thing is which option to buy, because there are two options: Buy only the drone, or buy it also with the remote control, which also includes a travel backpack and a towel .. Usually only the remote is sold for about 70 euros, And yet buying everything in a pack costs only about 20 euros more than buying only the drone, in the purchase link in Spain. So I personally chose the second option.

As for where to buy it, then three options (this time I do not leave you Amazon links, because there are sold it for up to 6000 euros):

Direct from Spain (that’s how I bought it), just a couple of days to arrive. The price is about 540 euros, I leave you a link below .. the problem is that there are 4 counted, so if you are interested in having him quickly and without adunes you can wake up.

• You have it on Aliexpress at this link https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_A9733z

Sent from china by Aliexpress, a couple of vendor links .. The best thing is to choose standard shipping (no DHL) and so you can have the opportunity that there are no tariffs and customs .. If not, calculate the order of 120 euros more. Surely, even if they charge you customs, it is the cheapest way to buy it and in a couple of weeks you will have it at home.

• For 400 euros without remote control: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ANs0mB
• From 420 to 500 with different accessory options https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ApsErh

Finally, the last option is to buy it directly at the manufacturer’s store, 549 euros with shipping and customs costs included. Option as reliable as buying it in Spain.

https://www.chasing.com/chasing-dory.html?key=NjBiMzk3NTVhNDgyNw==

The controls and accessories are scarce, although I already told you that the control can be purchased separately later and the drone is perfectly manageable with the mobile without a remote control.

Unboxing

As we bought it in Spain, it arrived surprisingly fast. Two days after buying it he already had it at home. In the video you have all the details of what came in the pack. although it basically corresponds to the photo.

Start-up and basic operation

We are going to test it first in a controlled environment, such as a swimming pool, or a small lagoon or on the shore … with the clearest possible waters to get a bit of ease.

First of all, download the Chasing Go 2 application from Google play or the Apple store.

With it already installed, we are going to connect everything. It does not have an ignition switch, so simply, and after fully charging it, we are going to connect the cable to the drone (making sure that it is well tied and with its O-ring) and then to the buoy … and it will beep to indicate that it is working .

At this moment, with our mobile we can connect to a new wifi network that we will see that it will be called doryXXXXX to which we will have to connect … With that we will be able to open the application and it will be able to connect us, if connected to the wifi when opening it does not connect Put “device not connected”, try deactivating the data on your phone, which I had to do to make it work well for me.

And that’s it, we are already seeing the images of the drone, we can even connect the bluetooth remote control, simply turning on and choosing it … and we can throw it into the water for our first tests:

The first and most important thing is that it floats … that is, if it runs out of battery, or if we turn off the engines, or in any situation it will float to the surface and stay there.

In order for it to be submerged, the motors must be switched on by pressing the power button.

From here we have a command to descend and ascend (we will see the depth and temperature of the water).

The other control will allow us to turn to one side or the other and move forward or backward.

We finally have two more settings. The lighting of the bulbs that it has, with a wheel or a button on the screen) and the inclination to see if we want to look up or down.

When we have it tilted, the drone will have a tendency to move forward or backward that we will have to compensate with the forward or backward command.

But otherwise it is quite simple to handle. It has two response levels, slow and fast, which makes it more stable or more reactive and that you change by pressing on the screen …

And of course the possibility of taking photos or recording video on the drone itself that we then download over the Wi-Fi, even transmit live video over the internet.

Well, with this already learned, let’s really use it.

Operating at sea

In the video you have tons of videos and images of how well it works and how easy it is to handle. If you are lucky and you are in an area of crystalline waters, the images will be spectacular .. And if you are in the Cantabrian, it will surprise you, because you will see things that you would never see from the surface (because of the little transparent water usually).

Conclusions

Well, the truth is that we are very happy with the drone. I already told you that it is mainly a toy, and that it works great.

It is very easy to handle, although there are easier and more difficult situations.

For example, moving around a sailboat with its daggerboard, the blade, the propeller … you have to be careful, because if you enter from one side and exit from the other you can end up with the cable wrapped around something and having to get your ass wet ..

But it is all a matter of practicing, its autonomy is very good and you can be now perfectly without charging the battery .. There are some improvements that would be good and that we have proposed to those of Chassing, to see if they will listen to us .. even now They could send us one of the good ones they have for free or something.

Here in the Cantabrian Sea, the visibility of the sea is quite small, but with the drone you can get very close to what you want to see. I am looking forward to trying it in the Mediterranean in crystal clear waters. The good thing about it is that with the backpack it has It is very comfortable to transport and obviously you can use it from the coast, you do not necessarily need to have a boat.