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AttoPilot 3.3 price increases from $3,000 to $4,200

Posted by Chris Anderson on February 27, 2010 at 8:30am


When the IMU version of AttoPilot (version 3.3) was first announced, the price was given as $3,000. Now I see it's $4,200. The IMU by itself is $1,500. I was kinda hoping the price movement would go the other way, but I know it's a quality product and Dean has to make a living...


The site is here, but because it's Flash I can't link to any pages. Just navigate to the store/shopping cart.

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Comments

  • CheBuzz March 2, 2010 at 7:44am
    "You speak like you expect someone to serve up the perfect product and then deliver it to you for free."

    We all know that only happens in the Paparazzi world.
  • Kevin Hashawan March 1, 2010 at 1:24am
    Well I thought Dean was all about bringing an autopilot to the masses of hobbyists, which I will acknowledge he has done wonderfully with Attopilot. I was just a little confused from reading the large number of his posts on this site and other forums such as rcgroups where he seemed to be wanting the IMU to achieve the perfect price point the Attopilot has. I guess I am just a little dissapointed that I will probably never be able to own one of these units, although I can see the argument behind the costs due to the fact that even if Dean has put half the effort he has posted about on the forums, it would be worth double.
  • Curt Olson February 28, 2010 at 1:21pm
    Here's another way to think about cost. How much is your time worth. My time is of course worth several hundred $$$ per hour (HAH!) but you might cost yourself at something lower. Let's say $20 just to have a number to work with. $4200 / 20 == 210 hours. So figure 200 hours of work + 10 hours of solitaire just to make the number even. Ok, so 200 hours ... could you build an IMU based autopilot that is tuned and tweaked and ready to roll? Who works 40 hours a week? Let's say we are really ambitious and put in 60 hours a week on this. That's about 3 and a 1/2 weeks.

    So could you build an IMU based autopilot in 3 1/2 weeks of concentrated effort? If the answer is yes, then maybe Dean's price is a little high. If the answer is no (or maybe you value your time higher than $20/hr) then perhaps Deans price isn't all that unreasonable after all. Or maybe after all this talk work and time, you decide you don't need an IMU based autopilot all that desperately.

    I know this is an over simplification of life, but think about how much time and money it's going to require to build an IMU based autopiliot *yourself* from scratch or available components, and then weigh that against the cost of the available commercial options and your own desire to learn and DIY.

    This is DIYdrones so I really hope the answer for a lot of people is to continue forging ahead with your own projects.

    Pain happens when reality encroaches on your perception of reality. :-)
  • Developer
    Mark Colwell February 28, 2010 at 12:07pm
    I think $4200 for a user friendly, off the shelf RTF civilian vehicle with some training is appropriate for todays market and may cause other commercial systems to compete by lowering their prices or including more services or options. Dean let us know when the 100th unit is ordered. I wish you great success.
  • jonny February 28, 2010 at 11:41am
    Kevin
    $4k only sounds expensive if you say it too slowly, its pin money believe me, suggestion, buy a 3500 from U-nav for similar money and then you can begin to understand just how cheap even a Picolo 2 @ $5000 is!

    I wish Dean+co every success with their new autopilot, I think it goes without saying that all involved have ploughed thousands of man hours into this and deserve to make s***t loads of money and I bet it is a first class product to boot
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson February 28, 2010 at 8:52am
    Kevin, I appreciate your passion, but please tone down the comments. We will delete any further personal attacks .
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson February 28, 2010 at 8:45am
    Here's my $0.02. Dean is something of a hero to me, and the difference between $3k and $4.2k is no big deal. He set a gold standard for low-cost autopilot performance with AttoPilot 1.8, and we're only just now approaching that with ArduPilot by following in his footsteps. By all accounts, AttoPilot 3.3 represents a quantum leap in performance and reliability, and is really designed for the pro market, where $4.2k counts as cheap.

    Dean and Chris McNair are running a business here, and I want them to succeed. If they don't make enough profit to stay in business they won't continue development, and we'll all be the losers. Remember that they still sell AttoPilot 1.8 for $800, and presumably it will continue to benefit from GCS software improvements and other development, so they haven't left us little guys behind.

    There will be plenty of high-performance IMU-based APs in the <$500 range in the months to come (ArduPilot Mega, UAVDevBoard, OpenPilot, next gen Paparazzi), so those who want a low-cost AP will have loads of choice. We all owe Dean a debt of gratitude for what he's taught us in his generous sharing of data, technology and advice on RC Groups, and I don't think it's going too far to say that all of these cheaper autopilots have a little bit of Dean in them, if only in that he drove us to aim higher in terms of performance.

    So, bottom line: I think a fair-minded assessment of Atto's development and graduation into the pro leagues shows that Dean and Co have given the amateur community far more than they have received. I applaud their move to the pro world, which needs such competition far more than the amateur world, and wish them the greatest success.
  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer February 28, 2010 at 8:13am
    Cover blown, blast
  • Bryan Cuervo February 28, 2010 at 7:13am
    Wow! Now Gary is a British Agent. I always knew there was something sneaky about him.
    The proof is in the results. Do a quick search and you will find many, MANY success stories with Dean's AttoPilot. Not just success stories but the log files, Google Earth tracks, etc. to back them up. Then look up the functionality AttoPilot provides including the massive amounts of logging data generated. Do the same search for success stories on the "cheap" APs and see what you can find.
    I think the old adage holds true: "You get what you pay for."
  • Kevin Hashawan February 28, 2010 at 5:55am
    Gary you are just Dean's British Agent, what other response could be expected from one in a position such as yours. Know that I don't hold you responsible for anything you say whilst under Dean's command.
This reply was deleted.