HobbyKing is now selling much cheaper versions of some 3DR products:
(*This is an update of my old post which only referred to the two products available at that time.)
The latest addition to the list is especially well-timed because the 3DR Radio Telemetry Kit is currently out-of-stock, making HK the only place to get this item at any price right now. This could bring a welcome change to the tone of the DiyDrones Twitter feed as buyers stop venting their frustration with shortages and simply buy elsewhere.
HobbyKing changing strategies?
Even as HobbyKing is adding more ArduPilot accessories, the MultiWii and MegaPirate autopilots which they were selling are now being liquidated or have already been removed from the site entirely. It is easy to imagine that this pullback is the result of the rather infamous support nightmare they suffered when the entire run of MegaPirate boards shipped with an unworkable voltage regulator installed.
This shift in autopilot lineup could mean that HobbyKing has decided to get out of the autopilot business, sticking with accessories and staying away from complicated autopilots which have so many parts that can fail. A more likely explanation is that HobbyKing just wants an autopilot solution that works, and they're clearing the shelves to make room for something else, maybe ArduPilot, but probably DJI.
Personally, I like to imagine that somebody at HobbyKing is a rabid ArduPilot fan who clones a different 3DR part every time 3DR goes out of stock, just to make sure he can always get his fix.
Your ideas?
Last time I posted on this topic, I was expecting a rather dry discussion of the effect of clone manufacturing on the 3DR business model. That suggestion was rightly ignored, so this time I'll just ask: Do you plan to buy any clone hardware yourself?
For myself, I think my next purchase will be a 3DR PX4 with HobbyKing's telemetry and GPS. Frankly, buying the autopilot feels like enough of a donation to the developers without paying double for the accessories, as well.
Comments
I really don't like the tone of many of the things being said here. It's one thing to support a company, and it's another to label a product bad because it is "made in china". This has a racist tone to me. You can point out which products are of poor quality, and which companies they are made by, but I take offence to people labelling all "chinese" products as inherently bad. It has been very long ago that people labelled all products from Japan as being bad quality. Now what has changed? The same companies are still manufacturing the same products.
In fact, some tin toys made, at the time when Japanese products were labelled as "bad" are now classic collectibles. Do people not realize that it's just protectionists propaganda that's driving all this?
@R_Lefebvre, regarding HK support, it's not bad. There's a 7-day open return policy, and a 30 day (for lipo batteries) and one year (all other products). In North America, the customer is responsible for one-way shipping to the Washington State return address.
I've returned several things (receiver, 9x transmitter, servo, DSM module) and had the things replaced with zero fuss. Of course, the replacement items are shipped from HK, so the several week shipping lag needs to be taken into account.
Hi All,
To be able to fly my RC plane in Broward County, Florida, I have to be a member of the AMA and my flying club has to post a bond of $4 million for us to be able to fly in a strictly bounded area. Therefore the quality of the R/C and autopilot assemblies has to be reasonably good or we would really be in trouble if one of the R/C model aircraft went errant and became a liability when it crashed. I would not trust my R/C model to any Chinese clones given the issues that are appearing on many of the R/C hobby websites. In other words, just think about the liability issues before you buy and use an Ardupilot clone (of possible dubious quality) in your R/C model!
Just a thought.
Regards,
TCIII
No matter if you order a cheap product from HK or a complex autopilot, their customer service is the worst if you need to deal with faulty items....
This reminds me of the old RFC days, when the internet was essentially controlled by Cisco. They were so over represented on the committees. Now RFCs are mostly history, and Cisco still rules the internet.
The git depository is strictly controlled, and you have to be part of the dev team to submit code into it. In fact most developers don't automatically get submit privileges. This is not a bad thing, as we don't want the code to break, and cause potential injuries.
Exactly... but where are the changes HK has made? As stated by others, I think it would be great if they took APM2.5 and did something different to it... add something... change something... experiment.
I'd just like those to stand to profit from the work to be part of the process. Though one would argue that HK's prices open the door to the hobby to people who otherwise couldn't afford it. That is a service in itself.
Everyone here knows (I believe) that 3DR is the company that is associated with the community. Perhaps a word from Chris would be enough. Something like: 3DR is the company that makes our boards for us to our specifications... Then everyone knows there is a close relationship. To my knowledge HK isn't sending Chris samples asking for feedback.
Also addressing the "want to" part. I've been using open source since 1990, and from my experience, true open source like GNU is driven from the outside, and not by a single source. Basically you get a copy of the code, make changes that you think will benefit the community and submit it for inspection to the community, and it goes in. No one decides whether it goes in the code or not as long as it doesn't break anything or causes performance issues. That's true open source.
Robert, I'm not sure that the presenters are programmers or have a hardware design background. Although some of them may be Project Manager, and we all know how useless they are. [I'm a former PM, but of course I was not very good at it, so as a corollary, I'm probably not useless. ;-) ]
HK are certainly very good at mass producing, and sourcing cheap products, but I'm not sure they're as good at participating in any kind of open source project.
Ellison, HK is owned and operated by an Englishman. Well, maybe not Englishman, but a guy who speaks English very well, Anthony Hand. They also have no trouble getting English speaking people when they really want to, such as their product presenters. It's just a matter of having to want to do it.
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