3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on December 6, 2012 at 12:13pm

It's a lovely design and a good price. But it's not a UAV (no waypoints or programmable mission). 

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on December 6, 2012 at 12:16pm

I reckon its about $350 too much for what it is, in fact that leads to the question what is the entry level price point?

Comment by Patrick Egan on December 6, 2012 at 12:24pm

I'd still like to get one in the shed ;-) 

Distributor Comment by UnmannedTechShop.co.uk on December 6, 2012 at 1:10pm

Yep I agree, a nice design and compact RC unit is definately usefull, but price does seem abit on the steep side.  A cheaper alternative would be the iFly 4 Quad, that can be upgraded with a 2 axis gimbal, soon to have GPS upgrade too.  Its not going to be a full UAV, but will have some very usefull features.

Comment by Peter Meister on December 6, 2012 at 1:44pm

Its really a nice looking ship, I am with Gary though on price. Also a 4xAA radio does not seem logical to combine with such a nice quad. But that said, if they sell just the frame and gear then maybe its worth it!

Developer Comment by R_Lefebvre on December 6, 2012 at 2:05pm

I don't know why people would say it's too expensive.  I think it's a pretty fair price.  You simply aren't going to get a quality system for less than that.  It's a nice frame, 4 motors, 4 ESC's, and the FC, all ready to go.  It's going to be hard to beat that.

Yes, it's not a full UAV.  Yes, they could make it one by snapping their fingers (include their already developed Click and Go software), but that's their business decision.

Comment by Crasher on December 6, 2012 at 2:58pm

Two years ago keeping an autonomous multicopter in the air for even a single Lipo was a feat, fast forward two years and we have this. GPS position hold, RTL, pretty damn impressive.

Comment by quadrocopter on December 6, 2012 at 4:42pm

Its targeted at children, i think the price is right. If i was 16 again.....

It would be Dear Santa......

Comment by Miles Smith on December 6, 2012 at 6:55pm

TBH, the 4xAA makes it easier to integrate into everyday life. Especially if you can charge the drones batteries using a standard wallwart that's presumably included. No need to know anything about lipo tech.

Distributor Comment by Martint BuildYourOwnDrone.co.uk on December 7, 2012 at 5:52am

I have both the IFly 4 quad and the DJI Phantom sitting on my desk right now, I have flown them both and the money on the units is about the same when you add the GPS, radio & battery to the IFly, this is the future of the small UAV, the Ready To Fly market is about to find it's feet, and the price point will drop as the feature list gets longer and more robust in reliability.

I think the more interesting point here on the systems is the price point and the functions, only 18 months ago we would have only had dreams about these features at these price points, the return to home feature is the number one request I now have from people looking to buy and use these systems, the second requirement is to mount a camera to them, the times are changing very quickly and the next 12 months will see far more of these ready to fly offerings on sale for people that just want to fly and have fun and not concern themselves with the "how" it all works.

Chris said it once when we were talking about a year ago, “these will be a super market purchase” in the near future, this might just be fact very soon, these are the first steps to main stream use of the systems and next Christmas we might just be looking at the latest “drone” as a gift for little more than £100 built and ready to go from the box……. will thay have all the features of the ArduPilot, I guess they might well at the speed tech prices drop and new features are added.

 

Regards

 

Martin. 

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