This thread is to discuss Indiegogo and Kickstart Projects linked to this post.
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/crowd-funding-tracker-update
After reading the post “Yet Another follow-me copter on Kickstarter” I thought is would be interesting to list the campaigns crowd sourced and get an update of the current status. We have a lot of Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other crowd sourced campaigns disseminate information on DIYD, and it’s a good thing. BUT, I think what would be great to follow up on which delivered and which did not, or quite not yet! and why.The ones I can think of are (no particular order)‘B’ The [R/C] Flying CarPocket DroneFighting Walrus (Radio Hardware)Game of DronesHexEasy DroneR10 QuadrotorIncredible HLQRobot FourbotAshimaCoreMavBoard (delivered thank you)The latest being Airdog and Hexo+ who still need to complete their campaignsHexo+AirdogAlso (randomly)Search and Rescue botI think it would be great to have this discussion as it hard to keep track of all these drones options. And if crowd sourcing is really helping connect customers with products that want and work as expected when the get them.
Replies
The disappointment you feel from a kickstarter project is proportional to the amount of money you pledge.
My gut tells me stay far far away. If you want to go RTF Stick to 3D-Robotics, otherwise learn how to build your own. Been reading some DJI horror stories and I am not too sure about Walkera products.
So what's the pass/fail ratio on these things? Seems to not be very good.
It is interesting to compare what makes a successful or even viral kickstarter as compared to a failure or 'just funded' kickstarter.
It seems most of these campaigns are based on the Ardupilot or Pixhawk platforms...
Another question to ask is who actually makes money on their kickstarter campaign, after fulfilling all rewards, paying for all their advertizing. The prices backers are willing to pay for a "pledge" are no more than what they would pay for a retail product & they have no equity like traditional investors.
It will be interesting to see how crowd funding matures. The only carrot for funders is something cool, before others get it is not much. I did hear that in Canada that they are looking at how laws can be changed to allow for a more 'investment' type crowd funding, where you may not only get the product, but reap some equity rewards. Occulus is one of those projects that did so well, those early backers that made it a success, must find that a bit frustrating.
I also think crowd funding campaigns can be more successful if they can raise money through equity/investment, as they are more likely to get enough money to succeed. I suspect that the ones that do succeed use the success of the crowd funding to get extra investment as well.
R10 Quadrotor = Total disaster. They delivered, but it was a terrible, buggy system (not APM-based, which should have set off alarm bells). Worst Kickstarter project I've backed.
Yes, technically R10 did deliver something - shame it didn't actually fly anywhere near like what they showed in their videos. I spun mine up only to have it flip violently - the forums indicated this was normal so I binned it. They took on a an enormous amount of work and when the going got tough, they shut up tight and faded away. It's a real shame when people don't realise that honest communication - however bad the message - is better than ignoring your customers.
The one huge positive is that it got me into the hobby - I had built a quad and a tri by the time their kit arrived.
The frame is unique solution to the problem. I never seem the frame in the metal ;) to comment. I'm not sure if there is a link to the source code for the project. Though from reading the forum, I would make the opinion that it seems easier to crowd source the money, then it does to crowd source the code. I think it's easy to get something flying. prototyping software is easier, than creating something with reliability and polish.
I would say, congrats to the R10 Team on actually delivering a product. I still think its an interesting exercise to see which projects where funded and delivery did not happen. Or which projects where funded and delivered, but not as expected, or projects that delivered and exceeded expectations.
I've backed 2 projects to date. RFDuino (Kickstarter) and MAVBoard (Indiegogo). Both have delivered, though I'm yet to setup either. The RFDuino is good quality (though they delayed delivery to get it right... 6 months vs 3month promise). MAVBoard came in on time and just requires me to have enough time to put it on my new plane. (It was a simple project)
My R-10 experience was disappointing. They did deliver, but with a troublesome product, then pulled down their web site and faded away. In October 2012, I got a response to my email question about it from a helpful person on this site saying, " I'm afraid I don't know anything about that one. It's not a well-know team, and it's very hard to evaluate technologies until they're in the hands of users. Great claims require great evidence. We'll see if they can actually deliver." I wish I'd paid more attention.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next