World's First Drone With A Throw-And-Shoot Camera

I thought it was going to be well over a grand, but $500 is not too bad. We do a lot of 14ers in Colorado and that would be ideal for the loop camera view. Plus going down Mountain Bike trails.. Awesome!
 
pgwalsh said:
I thought it was going to be well over a grand, but $500 is not too bad. We do a lot of 14ers in Colorado and that would be ideal for the loop camera view. Plus going down Mountain Bike trails.. Awesome!
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$500 to pre-order, $1,000 once it's released.

$500 is a no brainer, but I think I'd have to wait for a review for something like this. For $1,000 I'd need a more specific need beyond the cool factor.
 
Taco said:
$500 to pre-order, $1,000 once it's released.

$500 is a no brainer, but I think I'd have to wait for a review for something like this. For $1,000 I'd need a more specific need beyond the cool factor.
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^^ +1
 
Can't wait for the first person to toss one off a bridge and it keeps on fallin'... :eek:
 
This is going to be the GoPro of its niche, if it works.
 
ok, there is a drone for everything and if there isn't it surely is being made (sounds kina like rule34). no need to report on every drone someone builds, tbh.
 
pgwalsh said:
I thought it was going to be well over a grand, but $500 is not too bad. We do a lot of 14ers in Colorado and that would be ideal for the loop camera view. Plus going down Mountain Bike trails.. Awesome!
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Gonna have to see how it handles navigating through non-open terrain first. What happens when it crashes into a tree? Say you go over a jump, the copter tries to increase elevation to maintain height above you and hits branches above it. Even at 1k, I doubt it has the ability to see all objects/obstacles around the entire copter.
 
Like stated by the company , no hit detection. So use it on an open field .

If this thing could be controlled remotely , its a no brainer. But i never found my answer.
 
Biznatch said:
Gonna have to see how it handles navigating through non-open terrain first. What happens when it crashes into a tree? Say you go over a jump, the copter tries to increase elevation to maintain height above you and hits branches above it. Even at 1k, I doubt it has the ability to see all objects/obstacles around the entire copter.
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FAQ on site says it can't handle obstacles. At least they are up front about it.
 
Honestly that is really impressive for what is effectively a first generation device. I look forward to seeing what they can do with it after a few generations. I can see these kinds of things completely usurping GoPro when they have collision detection, longer battery life or an easily swapped battery pack and hover around the $500 mark for perhaps the basic version and top out around $1000 for all the bells and whistles. Hell I would love something like this for family type events that I want to record. Instead of being the poor sucker stuck holding the camera filming the family having a great time you could be part of it.
 
Seems like they showed very ideal usage in their video. Unless something like this has some kind of proximity detection with contact avoidance, it is doomed to eventually crash and burn. Might as well throw five $100 bills air and see what kind of video you get. Even having some kind of cage over the propellers to protect them and try to bounce off of obstacles instead of just crashing a burning would be a step up. If you have a wide open area you want to film in, this would be great. I bike and hike in the woods of the PNW and this thing wouldn't be in the air for long anywhere I would want to use it. I can think of a LOT of places I would want to use this thing but none that are practical to use it.

The "following" tech seems to work well but I would be worried that the marketing videos were the ideal and not the norm in practice. Being water resistant is a nice selling feature and its missing from a lot of products like this. The price is good for what you get and probably doesn't support much more than what they are selling. Make it more resistant to impacts and include contact avoidance and they could easily charge twice as much. And for me, their "status LEDs" that make it look like a face are definitely not the right choice. It doesn't fit with the outdoor adventure type that they seem to be marketing to. The name is also bad for the same reason. I like the direction this product seems to be going and the pricepoint they chose but it still needs some tweaks and additional features to gain traction in the market they seem to be going for.
 
Taco said:
FAQ on site says it can't handle obstacles. At least they are up front about it.
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Honestly for a first gen $500 device even without being able to dodge obstacles it's still pretty impressive if it works the way they show it working in the video.
 
Sadly 25mph is just a bit too slow for some of the boating applications that I would use this for. The ski hills that I go to are a little too heavily wooded for this and can be crowded. Got to be a good neighbor. At least the lake is more wide open.
 
Biznatch said:
Gonna have to see how it handles navigating through non-open terrain first. What happens when it crashes into a tree? Say you go over a jump, the copter tries to increase elevation to maintain height above you and hits branches above it. Even at 1k, I doubt it has the ability to see all objects/obstacles around the entire copter.
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No current gen public drone has the ability to self navigate trees as it's not ask simple proximity sensor. That's more than a simple sensor, it's machine vision. I can't say much, but even the drones I have seen don't have this ability and they cost 6 figures or more.

Also, I'm curious if this will have issues with the FAA. They require ALL drones be piloted regardless of application (personal or commercial). Doesn't sound like this thing is.
 
So 1/2 price for a pre-order, is this thing actually made and working as advertised? Or are they still in the "working the bugs out phase".

While definitely cool, I can see so much going wrong with this like tossing it off a bridge... awe shit forgot to flip it on, or tossing it over a lava flow... awe shit tazed by park ranger.
 
Pretty cool.

The company better cash in as much as they can before everyone else starts copying it (and driving down the price which is good for us).
 
Don't we already have this function on current flight controllers? I know some guys were showing off themselves being following while cycling with their multiwii and APMs. I guess the difference here is that there's no tweaking required?

Also, FAA is going to have a field day. This is an honest to goodness drone. Does that mean the ones we're flying now can go back to just being called RC models?
 
blackbeasst said:
edit: DOH
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Just like I anticipated, this is still in the bug working out phase which is why he's got the "gimme your money now and it's half off!" sale. Those videos of the initial are completely fabricated mock ups to make it look like this is what it could 'really' be, where as the video linked here shows some big box transmitter the guy is holding which the others didn't have.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Just like I anticipated, this is still in the bug working out phase which is why he's got the "gimme your money now and it's half off!" sale. Those videos of the initial are completely fabricated mock ups to make it look like this is what it could 'really' be, where as the video linked here shows some big box transmitter the guy is holding which the others didn't have.
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If he has no self guided prototype, he's years off ...
 
sfsuphysics said:
Just like I anticipated, this is still in the bug working out phase which is why he's got the "gimme your money now and it's half off!" sale. Those videos of the initial are completely fabricated mock ups to make it look like this is what it could 'really' be, where as the video linked here shows some big box transmitter the guy is holding which the others didn't have.
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Should be able to be scaled down. He is probably just using that for development.

xorbe said:
If he has no self guided prototype, he's years off ...
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He makes it appear it is following him at the end of the "DOH" video.. Whether it actually is is unknown.

This is essentially a crowdfunding concept, so you are definitely gambling with a lot of money here.
 
Cool but definitely a no buy from me if it can't avoid hitting objects in its path.

Seems like that should be a priority, not hitting things in its path while filming. That severely limits where you can use it and what you can use it while doing.

For instance Skiing. That means only wide-open courses, nothing near trees or ski-lifts, etc.
 
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