I was pilfering through ebay for some good deals on camera gimbals and I stumbled upon a store called gadgetinfinite. They are selling several 3DR clones on their site. I also noticed another one called game-jmt that is selling 3DR radios. It seems there is an endless cycle of clones coming from China with no end in site. Even though 3DR hardware is open sourced they are intent on selling this hardware using the 3DR name, trying to pass it off as original, but I highly doubt it is.
I have read several debates about the pros and cons about Chinese companies cloning U.S. merchandise. Personally I don't see any pros. Most of these rogue companies are only cloning to profit and not innovate. Will there ever be any way to regulate this? Should it? It makes it awfully discouraging for anyone wanting to bring an innovative product to market knowing that there is little they can do to keep foreign companies from cloning their ideas.
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I agree, I just don't get the logic that you can create drones out of the cheapest components possible. Its an aircraft after all, it goes against all the logic of aircraft engineering, which requires multiple redundancy.
It worries me that someone will have to get hurt before people see the foolishness of making dirt cheap aircraft.
What incentive is there for the originator to develop or improve a product when you jump at saving $ 10 at sites that did not do the R&D, pay lower labour costs, provide no support whatsoever, and (probably) use lower quality parts?
@Hans: "... if the copy fails he'll go with the real product next time :p."
I hope there is a next time. What damage, collateral and airframe,etc., are you willing to risk?
Give your head a shake people, the ebay items save you, what, 10 bucks?
Personally, I'll stick with the originals!
You also have to accept that folks in China and Europe, where DIY drones gear is prohibitively expensive, may want to take a crack and making something for themselves. Some of the stuff they practically string together in china is very impressive. The real question is how long can DIY drones charge price before the competition kicks in. You get that golden period when you've developed something then its gone in a flash.
From what I heard the hobbking generic heli co-pilot device at about 70$ has its code directly ripped off from the german helicommand devices, which are in the 400$ range. As I understand the hobbyking knockoff doesn't have properly calibrated optical sensor and is harder to setup, but it's not half bad.
There is a certain "tipping point" though that if China can sell them at 1/2 to 1/4 the cost people are going to flock to them in droves. At least though the fact that it is a high ticket item 400$ it probably can't go below 100$.
Rockwell software with Allen Bradley many years ago developed a fieldbus protocol called DeviceNet.
It became open source for a great reason.
Many manufacturers could hook up a developed device to its connection protocol and share with other protocols through integration. Also the flexibility of using less wires and power distribution improves node portability.
Open sourcing has it's advantages being shared.
It also involves the survival of the fittest. If a device is buggy it is kicked out by consumers.
The comment above by Luke is interesting, suggesting that cheaper copies can benefit the community. Correct or not, I like this thought.
Maybe the only complaint should be that they have 3DR references printed on the modules; an attempt at attribution? And apart from the firmware these are Hope-RF modules on a carrier with a few extra bits, possibly very similar to an app note design. not exactly rocket science.
I am much more concerned at the efforts by other companies to own and control simple, obvious and common sense ideas.
yeah at least they could have make a small silk print error with the name and brand it 3RD Radios... hehe
on the other hand, I still dream of a day where someone will get these radio tested and approved for use in Canada with all the paperwork and expenses related to the certification process. That way we would have better alternative to the expensive xBee. A lot of people are calling me stupid to not carry these nice units and every day I get closer and more tempted to distribute them... But the rules are clear and I don't really want to be on the wrong side of "the law".
Anyhow... cloners (yes they are reading this for sure...) with all the money you make riding the 3DR wave please get these units certified!
hehe one can always wish and dream!
Dany
www.CanadaDrones.com
For the record, we've trademarked "ArduPilot", "APM", "3D Robotics" and "3DR", including the logo. People are free to clone our products, but not our names.
Well, for one thing 3DR didn't come up with the idea for the radio.
For another, all they did was slap a Chinese (HopeRF) module on a carrier board.
They did do a great job on the firmware. But, you can't expect that you're going to be the only people using a SiLabs Si1000 radio chip, let alone a generic module containing it.
What these clone makers are actually doing is keeping 3DR honest and prices reasonable for everyone. They shouldn't be using the 3DR name or their trademarks though. That bit is dishonest and I think they'd get a lot more respect if they didn't do that.
Clones are part of the open source hardware ecosystem and they're not going away. Despite the obvious cons there are also a lot of benefits if you look beyond the face value of the situation. Clones enable greater availability of hardware for other regions of the globe and also for a broader demographic. A brilliant kid in junior high school might be able to save up $300 to build a drone and eventually contribute back to the software development but at $700 or $800 it might not be as likely. Or another person who bought a clone could go on to help support other users with thousands of helpful forum posts. Depending on the manufacturer it might be a first generation thing and the next generation could bring some innovations and improvements to the design.
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