Parrot Bebop Accessories Guide – from our survey

QuadHangar’s surveys are hot! After the success of the DJI Phantom 3 Accessories Guide we started a survey for the popular and fun Parrot Bebop quadcopter.

Also this time we had a great reaction from the community and lots of interesting feedback.

We got 91 awesome responses from enthusiastic Beboppers.

In this article we’ll go over the results and then show you what are the most trendy accessories for this popular quadcopter.

This guide is divided in parts:

• The respondents: who they are
• The accessories: most & less wanted
• Other accessories: what we didn’t expect

The respondents: who they are

The first questions were to understand who responded to our survey calls.

1. Do you own a Parrot Bebop?

Almost all the respondents already own  a Bebop.
58% has the model without Skycontroller, that can be piloted with a tablet/smarphone device, while 38% bought the Bebop with Skycontroller.

The $300 USD extra for the Skycontroller made the price goes into a more crowded market, with DJI quadcopters as a possible alternative.

Have you already bought accessories for your Bebop?

 

Yes!	55	60.4%
I’m choosing now	12	13.2%
No	24	26.4%

More than half respondents already bought one or more accessories for their Bebop quadcopter. 26% didn’t buy an accessory (so far), but it’s clear that the accessory market is huge for Bebop users.

Which accessories have you bought?

Batteries	43	66.2%
Propellers	24	36.9%
Travel Case / Backpack	28	43.1%
FPV System	3	4.6%
Led / light kit	7	10.8%
Extra charger	16	24.6%
Car Charger	2	3.1%
Sun shade (for monitor)	4	6.2%
Replacement parts	30	46.2%
Other	6	9.2%

The top 3 most wanted accessories are:

1. Batteries
2. Replacement parts
3. Travel solutions

While batteries aren’t a surprise (the standard Bebop battery last just 13 minutes, and it’s delivered with two of them), I’m surprise to see so much demand for replacement parts.

But, as a Bebop owner myself, I can tell you that it’s easy to have too much fun flying around and… crash the toy.

If you could choose only ONE accessory, which one would you buy?

Batteries	38	41.8%
Propellers	2	2.2%
Travel Case / Backpack	4	4.4%
FPV System	9	9.9%
Led / light kit	0	0%
Car Charger	3	3.3%
Extra Charger	4	4.4%
Sun shade (for monitor)	0	0%
Replacement parts	8	8.8%
Skycontroller	21	23.1%
Other	2	2.2%

People wants more batteries to have more flying fun. But also the Skycontroller is a very desirable accessory. It surely increase the control and the whole flying experience.

We asked: How likely will you buy each of the following accessories?

Batteries

No surprise here. You don’t take your Bebop out in a nice day for 13+13 = 26 minutes of fun. The solution? Buy more and more batteries!

Luckily there are after-market cheaper battery options. There are also extended batteries but they don’t seem to provide any longer flying experience.

Propellers

I read that 40% of ‘maybe’ like ‘I’ll buy if I break the ones I have’. Luckily the Bebop is shipped with an extra set of propellers, because propellers do break, bend, get damaged.

Travel Case / Backpack

Here the opinions are well spread across the options. It’s (not surprisingly) a love-hate relationship: some wants the prop guards to protect their quadcopter, them self and the people around – while others see them as an annoyance that is affecting the flying characteristics (especially when wind is blowing).

FPV System

Not too much interest for FPV solutions among the Beboppers. The main issue is that the video is streamed over the wi-fi and the lag is disturbing.

Not sure if Parrot will ever fix that, but if you really are in the market for a FPV system you’ll need the Skycontroller (that comes with HDMI connector) and a fat wallet.

Led / light kit

Bebop pilots like some led on their toy, and maybe are a bit jealous of their friends with Phantom drones.

Just 26% of the respondents are not considering getting a light kit.

Car charger

You can see here who needs to drive to a quiet place to fly his/her Bebop. It’s a mixed result, but there’s a market for car chargers and if you’re shopping for one here is our pick.

Extra charger

What does this leave us? With a lot of maybe…

Sun shade (for monitor)

GPS localizer

Replacement Parts

The big surprise of this survey are the replacement parts. Only 4% is not considering buying them!

Bebop flyers quickly learnt how to fix their machine, and to do that they need to get the right parts. Parrot did a very good job releasing a series of fantastic videos explaining how to fix the Bebop (check them here).

Skycontroller

Ahh… Skycontroller. Either you dream about it or you can’t care less. It all depends on what you want to do and achieve with your Bebop.

Parrot announced that the Skycontroller will soon be available separately. For the time being, you can only get it bundled with the Bebop which is pretty sad, considering that the Bebop is a good choice for beginner flyers and many of them get hooked into this fantastic hobby (and wants more).

Other accessories

The survey answers show that Bebop pilots want few more accessories.

Camera Lens Cover

The Bebop camera lens doesn’t have delicate mechanical parts, but is quite exposed and can easily get damaged in a crash.

Quite some responses mentioned the need for a lens cover… we got you covered with this nice one!

What doesn’t Exist

Here some comments about accessories that respondents would really like to see in the future.

• “A better camera!” / “I want a 4k camera. badly.”
• “Light weight high capacity battery.”
• “Floatation pontoons.” – our favorite
• “Parachute for fail safe”
• “GoPro attachment”
• “wifi-less transceivers” – not sure I understand this
• “Protective landing gear, a BB gun,” – LOL
• “Rear facing camera”
• “A battery that will allow more than 30 minutes of flight time.”
• “Decals”

Dear Parrot, I hope you’re reading this!

And now, your turn. Let’s talk about Bebop accessories a little more in the comments.