Anyone know anything about drones?
 

I might want to get one but not sure what to look for.

What is the best one on the market right now? cost? camera, gps, etc. TIA

What do you want one for?

What's your purpose with it? Do you want to shoot films, or do you just want a toy to play with?

I want to make destination type videos so I can add it to my youtube channel. Videos of parks, tourist places, landmarks, stuff like that.

DJI is probably the best in the market... I suggest an Inspire 1

The thing I like them is there are plenty of spare parts from different manufacturers that are compatible with DJi.

One thing about them is get plenty of batteries.. you will need them. It take quite a while (roughly an hour) to charge each one which last about 15 minutes on a good day.

The Inspire1 is so baller
hows the phantom?

It depends on what you want to do. There's a new one coming on market (Lily) that would follow you around once thrown on the air. It's pretty cool.

I've always wanted a drone

DJI phantoms are so affordable
especially in asia

Too bad that one doesn't have avoidance detection. Unless you're in a open park / ocean, chances are it will fly into something.

I am a part of a makerspace and one of our members builds drones. The second one he build he used the 3D printer we have for the airframe. The thing is ridiculously fast. First flight he crashed it into a lamp post. He just reprinted the part and it was flying again in no time. He is working on a kit with another member who owns BCrobotics.com . The cost should be around $350 plus 3d printed parts.

specs on the drone? I browsed around bcrobotics.com and couldn't find it. $350 that is similar to a phantom (and maybe an arm for a gopro) would be sweet.

just a warning...but i heard of too many fly aways from DJI phantoms....like completely having a mind of its own and going 100's of feet in the air and crashing down to little parts.:heckno:

Google it,i looked at it last year and don't know if they fixed the problem yet...They sure didn't want to own up to it and said it was User error yet it was all over forums . :rukidding:

I really want this one

A little off topic, but these are cool:

i was at burnaby hobbies last week and there was a customer asking about drones as a newbie, and the shop was walking him through their inventory of starter drones to full out racing versions... freaking fast:

I've done quite a bit of research on the topic the past month.

the Lily is going to be kinda useless because battery is not removable...that means you better get the nice shots you want within 15-20 minutes.

Phantom 3 just came out and has been getting really great reviews, but DJI's customer service is notorious for being non-responsive and when you buy a $1k+ toy that's kinda important...esp with the horror stories of flyaways. The demand for them has been really high and the value is quite terrific.

I pre-ordered the new drone from 3D Robotics which has some great features like virtual cable cam, orbit, follow-me, full GoPro controls and live HDMI output.

BTW GoPro is currently developing their own drones

They are still working on the kit so it's not on the site yet. The best thing is it is completely Customizable. Being a kit you put together you will know how to fix it when you break it. We had a guy bring in a DJI Phantom that he had crashed. We tried to fix it but it still was not 100% when he took it back.

I'm quite intrigued by the 3DR Solo. Would love to see one in action first, though. Been debating buying a proper quadcopter for a while now and I'm glad to see that they've been progressively getting better and better.

the 3DR is something Im more interested in
seems to be a better product than DJI...
I unno I was sold quicker on that one video than the DJI

they released their gimbal footage few days ago
pre-production model...unedited hence still fisheyed
needs to be rigorously tested in moderate wind conditions

I still prefer DJI especially in terms of volume, you will at least get firmware upgrades. Drones is still in the hobbyist stage, there will be a lot of churn in companies. I would like to see what GoPro comes out next. Also remember if you are going to do FPV etc, make sure the accompanied app is at least decent.

I am considering getting the Matrice 100. Just to do some more modifications and make add ons. Having the CAN bus exposed make debugging so much easier (I am building a control logging module). The only thing I doesn't sit well with me is screw down terminals sucks for things that are in motion.

Also remember the LiPo battery density is not that great.. so scale down your expectations that you can fly for more than 30 minutes etc.

As for DJi repairs. Nearly the parts can be ordered (you can literally order enough parts to build one yourself).

Compared with other Chinese companies.. I don't think DJI is that bad. They couriered parts took a few days but it was free.

If you're going to shoot production style film go for 6+ rotors. Otherwise 4 rotors are the most fun. DJI manufactures the best setups for a beginner but you're not going to have fun at all. Best flight I've had was from Horizons on burnaby mountain to the rock in deep cove.

http://i.imgur.com/vn6W58K.jpg

check this thing out:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ransformer-uav

lol blows every other drone outta the water LOL!

look at the specs... awesome.

i was doing some research...

i duno how this actually performs... but it seems good and cheap vs the competition for what you get:

STORM Drone 8 GPS Flying Platform - HeliPal

8 rotor drone.



i was also thinking... once they have graphene drones... they would be SO fucking light and so fast.... 3d printed graphene drones.

anyway... can any drone expert tell me if that storm drone 8 looks decent? i couldnt find any reviews... but it seems like the best bang for your buck... the size, the rotors, the .. everything you get seems way better bang for your buck than any of the bigger corp drones

Whoa, that thing is awesome. $2k price tag though :rukidding:

The thing is DJI higher end and other CF based drones like self built 6 - 8 copters are light and strong already. (even fiber glass / plastic of lower end ones are pretty light but they tend to shatter). The limiting factor is the batteries. Graphene doesn't solve the energy density problem (your copter have to lift the weight of the battery, so far no one came up with the idea of dropping depleted batteries while in flight).

If you want anything more than 4 rotors.. do a self built one.. just don't be stupid like Enrique Iglesias and stick your fingers in them because they will cut your fingers, especially anything with 6 or more rotors.

Remember drones are basically RC copters that are software programmable, you should be able to have way points etc. A lot of the ones on the market aren't even capable of the basic functions so they are just RC toys. So adjust your expectations. Honestly I would making a decent drone is not easy and first batch will always be buggy. I would avoid any kickstarter type projects, unless you are ready for disappointment.