I have been getting qoutes for a drone to add to our inspection business. So far I have quotes from Aibotix, Ascending Technologies, Aeryon and Altus. We currently use a Draganflyer X4. These professional drones have a massive price tag attached to them and I am wondering how they can be so expensive compared to a cinematoghraphy drone thats carrying a red epic camera around a movie set. What makes them so expensive? Whats in there that can add up to 65K. If you ask the manufacturers you get the same answer. There industrial grade, there not mass produced in china, there safer more reliable. yada yada what separates a 65k dollar drone from a drone that can be built with the best motors and best ESC's on a solid platform. Is it the flight controller? Is the flight controller in a falcon x8 or an Altus what separates these drones from the rest? I was wondering if someone could shed some light on this for me.
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If the motor harness and connector is in the arm, that could be an elegant design solution for shielding without adding more weight. That assume that this was the original intent and not purely for aesthetics of course.
We have tested both and KDE specs are way far from reality (not to say that they are false).
KDE motors are good quality ones and really love how they work but the thrust / Efficiency charts in the web are just not true. Hope none base their calculation on them.
again, saying this xxx is best is pointless. How do you know KDE is not over design for his requirement. Over design means cost overrun, cost overrun is a sin in any commercial/industrial design.Would you use a $65K drone for taking picture of a porthouse
To me, "industrial" or "commercial" grade UAV serves a specified purpose, a $10 toy quad is also an "industrial" UAV if it is for use-once-&-dispose design.
Hence, without knowing spec, we can't said brand x or brand y is better or worsier than brand z.To me comparing this engine to that engine is pointless.
With all my respect. This is what I call a logistic problem.
Yep. The bigger the multirotor gets, the more difficult they are to manage. Transportation, battery charging, etc.
The drone pictured would require about 3000 watts of electrical power to charge those batteries in one hour. In the field, that would be a fairly large generator (ie: more than 40lbs, on a wheeled cart), going full-chat, for our hour.
You could use multiple batteries and charge them before hand, but each set will cost $2400 and weighs 24lbs.
You would need 4 $300 battery chargers to charge all 4 simultaneously, plus 4 $350 power supplies. All told, another $2600, per set of batteries that you want to charge. Then you need 4 separate 110V 15A circuits.
Logistic problem is right.
Ummm, whats wrong with a couple of Deep cycle lead acid batteries (couple of 2 or 3 x 100A/H batteries) in the truck with on board charger from the alternator. Drop the cost of the generator, no power supplies either so just saved the generator cost plus the power supplies and it's portable in that most utilities have service tracks that are close by.
Cant reduce the charge time though, so for continuous ops a few sets of batteries would be required.
¸My first suggestion was phantom 4 ;-)
If he wants to learn the in & out of drone building, P4 is not the answer. First, it is a close system, second, P4 is too easy to fly not much chance for learning. third, p4 cost too much as crash dummy.
I learned the rope using cx20 which is about $300 per crash. cx20 is APM open source version, it has its DIY followers. it has quality issue, a lot of learning experience. Now iris is about the same cost as cx20, better quality but still plently modification opportunities, a great learning platform.
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