The campaign is off to a good start on Kickstarter. I totally need one of these. APM-powered and appears well designed. Backed!
The Splash Drone is a fully waterproof quad copter, packed with useful features and capable of landing and floating on water. This drone is designed for the outdoor type who uses a GoPro camera to capture their adventure on water or land.
The Splash Drone comes in two flavors, traditional remote control or app based control to unlock its autonomous features.
Standard Remote Control Version: Allows you to fly in GPS assisted mode, attitude mode, or hover over one position to capture your action. It also has return to launch location and automatically lands at the flip of a switch.
App based Control: Your Android device allows you to use the Splash Drone's autonomous features with an app that lets your fly a mission on a set path of activate the Follow Me mode.
The Splash Drone's payload release mechanism is a blast! Drop water balloons or a bottle of water to your thirsty friends across the lake. It comes equipped with an emergency flare carrying system that can be used in real life situations.
I have been working on drones since 2007, way before most people knew what they were. Back then I was a video producer at a TV station, but my obsession with drones lead me to a career change. Along the way I've met some incredible people. After forming a team of like-minded drone geeks, we've successfully made and brought to market our own On Screen Display (OSD), a Long Range System (LRS) and other drone accessories.
We always knew that we wanted to make a waterproof drone, but it needed to be practical and easy to fly for first time users. So with our combination of experience in both manufacturing and drone design, we started working on a concept. After tons of feedback and several iterations, the Splash Drone was born. Above all, the most difficult challenge was developing the waterproof gimbal. We started with a clear dome, but quickly realized that we needed a gimbal that could touch the water, uncovered.
After many iterations, tests and sleepless nights, we have completed the tooling, injection mold and design of all the major components.
The Splash Drone is designed for filming your aquatic adventures, without the fear of loosing your drone.
- Fully integrated design
- Internal 5.8ghz 600mw video transmitter
- Self Tightening Carbon Fiber Props
- Payload Release Mechanism
- Emergency Flare Carrying System
- Autonomous Flight Controller
- Waterproof Gimbal
We have done the necessary work to make the Splash Drone reliable, easy and fun to film with. We have completed the injection mold, identified manufacturers that can supply the necessary part and built several prototypes that meet our quality standards.
At this point, all we need is your pledge to start manufacturing the Splash Drone. When we meet our goal, we will be able to make it available to everyone.
Comments
Chris Anderson, thank you for backing our campaign.
Hey no sweat Marc. I think you'll like it a lot.
Sorry for being an initial cynic. A good waterproof 2 axis gimbal would be (I think) pretty innovative. Look forward to seeing it in action.
I agree Robert. I think that we will have this before the end of the summer.
Thanks for the additional info. I would urge you guys to put the extra effort into making the 3 axis work. for anyone serious about aerial video, 3 axis is an absolute must. This would be critical for me and pretty much every other aerial photographer know. Hope you all can pull it off.
Hi Robert. The 3 Axis gimbal gets a bit more complicated. Making things waterproof is AND light is a bit challenging that's why, as of now, every version comes with a 2 axis gimbal. It is not a 2 man operation system, but you can easily make it one by adding another receiver so that the camera operator can tilt the gimbal.
We will have several videos showing the gimbal very soon.
Hey Marc Dorman - We will be posting a video of the prototype waterproof gimbal. The project is a mutual collaboration with our Chinese partner. We figured everything out and have working prototypes, injection molds and parts have already been sourced. We wanted to do this before we put it on kickstarter, to not run into problems. That's why we're confident of the June delivery. We will be posting a video update on the kickster soon showing the gimbal and the Emergency Flare.
I see. sounds good. are there plans for a 3 axis gimbal or only 2? If there are plans for a 3 axis, will it have 360 degree rotation with a slipring in the pan motor for 2 man operation? will you be using basecam 32bit controller or something else? And most importantly, when can we see a demo of the gimbal being submerged in salt water? ;)
Robert Mcintosh: We discontinued the mariner, took feedback from the customers and came out with the Splash Drone which is a much better drone than the mariner was for several reasons. We have the waterproof camera gimbal, payload release mechanism, integrated 5.8ghz 600mw video transmitter and Emergency Flare system. We also added RTH, Point of Interest, GPS assisted navigation and OSD right on the remote. This is the standard version. Then the Autonomous version, which comes with the Pixhawk, has full autonomy, as well as remote control of course.
But most of their campaign is devoted to APM features.
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