Iris+; to buy or not to buy?

Posted by Nigel Coxon on March 8, 2015 at 4:05am

Had previously drone on APM 2.5, performance terrible. Wouldn't hover, very squirrelly in GPS, yaw all over the place and (apparently commonplace) blowing of components on the board. Since bought fc40 and it's what I want in terms of reliability and performance, but poor fpv, no gimbal, no autonomy.

All I want is a stable, controllable platform for my gopro; the things I film don't move so no high performance required. I want to fly the thing, not spend hours at a workbench.

Would you recommend the iris+ and Tarot 2,  yes or no?

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Replies

  • hotelzululima March 8, 2015 at 1:18pm

    hi Nigel,

    lets see if I can be succinct:

    Support:

    DJI support:  laughing! what support?

    3DR: hi how may I help you..(and the IRIS IS very supported for now YMMV on other 3DR products)

    Code features and stability:

    DJI :straight flying mode with limited FPV to wifi.. RTL functionality,  code stability unknown, but flyaways happening(closed source)

    3DR: unlimited functionality opensource, Followme, waypoint, RTL, rally points etc all currently supported best feature set currently.. APM does have some bugs(LOTS  but no more than DJI and the issue list is entirely in the open at github) however that HAVE caused crashes in the released code(my last on friday ouch!)

     and easy to address bugs/undesirable behavior because the sources are open and kept up to date , code management is based on github accounts and allows anyone to create their own fork of the code..(YAY!)

    I would list other others but most RTF drones in this price range run either APM based controllers or are proprietary like DJI on the code base.

    Once you swap out the FC then a WHOLE range of other Flight controllers are out there proprietary and opensource

    paparazzi(the distant grandmother of APM)

    OpenPilot(development is run according to a software development lifecycle)

    mikrocopter(the oldest copter control code I know of with source available)

    wookong

    naza

    etc..

         good luck

         hzl

    ps.. APM is a LOT more complex however... and there ARE gotchas

  • Erik Graham March 8, 2015 at 11:47am
    If you tilt your gimbal down about 2 degrees you won't get props in your shot on wide mode with a GoPro Hero 3 or 4.

    You can limit the gimbal's range of motion so that it can't tilt up all the way, but I don't do that (anymore). Most of my video is delivered in widescreen (23.5:1) so if the props are visible they get cropped out in post anyway.

    Maybe you should check out this guide. It might answer some of your questions:
    http://3drobotics.com/2015/02/gopro-drone-aerial-photography-beginn...
    • Erik Graham March 8, 2015 at 11:55am
      Oh. If he's refering to prop flicker as opposed to actual props, then that's a different matter (I didn't click the video link). For that you want a little sun shield (a little visor taped on to your lens. A polarizing filter can help too. Anyway it's all discussed in the beginners guide I linked to above.
    • Nigel Coxon March 8, 2015 at 12:35pm

      Flicker in your vid, but I don't mind flicker...in the video on the link I posted it's full frontal proppity...

    • Erik Graham > Nigel Coxon March 8, 2015 at 12:43pm
      Watched the video. That is terrible but it looks like they don't even have the camera pointed straight forward. It's actually tilted up a few degrees. If you look closely at about the 1:30 minute mark in that video, you can see the GoPro is tilted up.
    • Erik Graham March 8, 2015 at 2:05pm

      My bad.  I should have been more diplomatic.  That was a "terrible view" of the arms and the props.

      But wait.  We are talking about the gigaom video right?  Thats what this string of replies falls under... Did you shoot that?  Now I'm confused.  

      None-the-less its not cool of me to say something was terrible.

    • Nigel Coxon > Erik Graham March 10, 2015 at 12:00pm

      Erik...don't feel bad...I think "terrible" for the gigaom vid is an understatement...

    • Erik Graham > Erik Graham March 8, 2015 at 2:13pm

      Still feel bad, but I re-read the thread.


      Here is your video:
       http://youtu.be/z2TZQRb1tLo


      This is the one with the "terrible prop view":
      GigaOm blog post:  Blog Post
      Direct link to gigaom video:  http://youtu.be/0ih4Z-E6kd8


      Its the gigaom video I was referring to.  See 1:30 in you can kind of tell the camera is tilted up - which is why its so  terrible , uh... why props are so visible.

  • Nigel Coxon March 8, 2015 at 11:37am

    More Q's...

    The thing that attracted me to my first qu4d was that due to the setup you'd never get props in shot even with a GoPro in wide mode. I've seen a couple of vids (Grandpa Jake) with no props in shot...but just seen a promo one that does.

    https://gigaom.com/2014/12/25/iris-review-a-feature-rich-drone-that...

    I HATE props in shot...so, as a rule, are they or aren't they?

    Iris+ review: A feature-rich drone that’s still simple to fly
    I’m an anxious drone flyer. Even in San Francisco’s biggest fields, there are always other people and buildings that make me constantly evaluate…
  • Nigel Coxon March 8, 2015 at 11:10am

    OK..and how good is the radio and receiver? I ask because I have a Taranis and X8R - how much of a job would it be to swap over (and would it be worth it?)...

    ...I don't mind SOME tinkering...!

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