3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on March 25, 2011 at 1:13pm

This is awesome! I've signed up for one. It's a great deal at $70...

Comment by Kirill on March 25, 2011 at 2:14pm

Very cool!

Ari, do you plan to make an Android compatible software?

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on March 25, 2011 at 2:36pm

Might be a bit late, this was at the Nuremberg toy fair, Rob saw it in action I did'nt

Comment by Ari Krupnik on March 25, 2011 at 3:19pm

@Kirill: I can port the app to Android if there is sufficient demand. Perhaps I can have a separate Kickstarter project for the Android port, so people who want it can show their commitment.

 

@Gary: Thank you for the image. I had heard about it from Paul Beard, but this is the first time I see a picture. The TR1000 is a telemetry display; you cannot control anything on the airplane with it. iPhly is a transmitter, and it's open source and vendor-neutral. It works with any RF system, not just Spektrum's. Plus, it's available today rather than in the future.

 

Horizon Hobby (owners of Spektrum) are talking to me about a job developing their iPhone product line. They want competitive advantage by vertical integration, i.e. closed system. They want to lock you into their product line. I say this with no judgment--it's a sound business strategy. My strategy is to keep iPhly open source, so you can combine it with any other components you like, and tinker with the source as you like. If Kickstarter funding fails and my product doesn't sell, the Horizon option may become more appealing for me.

Comment by Jack Crossfire on March 25, 2011 at 3:21pm

Didn't quite get the point of hanging the phone off such a large piece of hardware, other than marketing.  If such a large brick is necessary, why not just put the user interface on the brick & eliminate the need for the clamps & connector?  It seems the most direct route is something like the WiFi receiver that was pitched here a while ago, so the phone could use its internal WiFi.

3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on March 25, 2011 at 3:30pm

Jack: the Wifi router (xbee->wifi->mobile devices) that we're developing is just for ground stations, which is to say telemetry down and commands up. I think the latency would be too large for real-time RC control.

Comment by Jack Crossfire on March 25, 2011 at 3:43pm

To clarify, this was the BlinkRC post

 

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/new-smartphonetorc-board

Comment by Ramon L on March 25, 2011 at 3:50pm

Nice Job Ari !!

Comment by I.S. on March 25, 2011 at 4:00pm

@Ari

you should enable aux channels for at least height hold or something.

Throttling a plane with your thumb might be ok, but not so friendly for a rotatory wing.

Comment by Ari Krupnik on March 25, 2011 at 4:18pm

@Jack: iPhly case accommodates a modular RF section and batteries. Their size determines the size of the case. If you want to build a vendor-specific iPhone plugin, you can make it the size of the Spektrum telemetry device in Gary's post.

If you build your own touchscren+accelerometers+storage+UI library, you end up with an expensive product that you cannot easily upgrade in the field. The iPhone is something many customers have already paid for. All of this goodness costs them nothing, and they can upgrade it literally at the flying field over the cellular network.

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