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

  • Grandpa Jake March 10, 2015 at 12:25pm

    I have been flying my Iris+ for a few months now and thought it was time to just do a short review.  Owning many different Multi-Rotors  I feel that the Iris+ is built with quality and most of all backed by an Amazing support center.   Like most things,  you are going to have people that like it and some that don't.  But now having over 100 flights I can tell you that it works great.   The most important thing anyone can do before flying something new is to learn as much as possible before that first flight.  Watch Videos, Read the instructions and just take a little time before  you power it up.   An extra day can save you a lot of money.     The Iris+ is very flexible on what it can do and with the addition of Mission Planner and the Android Tower app the possibilities are nearly endless.    Please feel free to write if you have any questions.        

    Wishing you wonderful  Flights            Grandpa Jake  http://youtu.be/5sVatAlYpL0

    • J Eric Mutter > Grandpa Jake March 10, 2015 at 1:07pm

      Most excellent review, well written, and for whatever it's worth could not agree more. I might add however, extensive reading and making  youtube your friend is a wise investment in time that will net a very favorable outcome as opposed to truly taking it out of the box and flying.

  • 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...
    • Mark Prince > Erik Graham March 8, 2015 at 11:50am

      My props where is shot from sun reflection. Tilting the gimbal down a few extra degrees solves this like Erik said. I'm just lazy when it comes to editing videos. Once you get the hang of it you won't have props in shot dilemma with the Iris.

    • Erik Graham > Mark Prince 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.
    • Mark Prince > Erik Graham March 8, 2015 at 11:56am

      Yes, it was prop flicker when the sun is hitting you from the right or left.

    • Nigel Coxon > Mark Prince 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.
    • Mark Prince > Erik Graham March 8, 2015 at 1:47pm

      thanx for the compliments:)

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