This is pretty cool. NXP is giving away 100 of its new Dronecode/PX4-based ready-to-fly drone development platform to people entering its "help fight fires with drones" competition with Hackster.io.
Thomas, you bring up a lot of good points. I work for Hackster and I think that this kind of feedback is very good for us. Some of our team members did get to test out the the drone kit and they found it to be very high quality and hackable. I'll definitely bring up the concerns regarding the partial refund because I can definitely see how that would prevent participation.
Uh! Not quite. READ THE very tiny FINE PRINT! What you get is a $300 discount coupon. It costs $350 plus sales taxes on $650 price plus shipping (+-$20). Read the fine print on their web site. The real cost is about $400. Oh, and there is no battery. SOME DEAL to come up with ideas to help sell THEIR product.
Interesting in that the FC used is a microcontroller manufacturer's reference design (not really acceptable as a product[it's a reference design for how to use the MCU]) for it's variant of an ARM M4 core microcontroller, AND it is a port of the PX4 firmware that is NOT an STM32 microcontroller derivative.
Got to laugh! Also, never could understand why folks STILL (this is 2019) create a quad-copter and put the FC, wires, antennas, GPS on a stick, onto the top of the copter with NO protection whatsoever. We all KNOW it is going to crash and probably smash it all to smithereens! One flip over and onto pavement upside down and this copter is junk. But hey, it was built by the company (NXP) that is trying to sell it's doomed ARM M4 core variant microcontroller (FYI to NXP, hey folks, wake up, ST has already cornered the market on ARM M4 core microcontrollers); not drones. Take a look at some of the racing drones today. See how everything is protected from the inevitable crash!
Oh, and those motor wires sticking out the end of the arms; BAD IDEA! As soon as a crash occurs, those arms grind into the pavement and destroy the wires. Quick fix; add some sort of expendable bumper to take the grind.
Comments
Thomas, you bring up a lot of good points. I work for Hackster and I think that this kind of feedback is very good for us. Some of our team members did get to test out the the drone kit and they found it to be very high quality and hackable. I'll definitely bring up the concerns regarding the partial refund because I can definitely see how that would prevent participation.
Good catch, Thomas. I hadn't seen that
Uh! Not quite. READ THE very tiny FINE PRINT!
What you get is a $300 discount coupon. It costs $350 plus sales taxes on $650 price plus shipping (+-$20). Read the fine print on their web site. The real cost is about $400. Oh, and there is no battery. SOME DEAL to come up with ideas to help sell THEIR product.
Interesting in that the FC used is a microcontroller manufacturer's reference design (not really acceptable as a product[it's a reference design for how to use the MCU]) for it's variant of an ARM M4 core microcontroller, AND it is a port of the PX4 firmware that is NOT an STM32 microcontroller derivative.
Got to laugh! Also, never could understand why folks STILL (this is 2019) create a quad-copter and put the FC, wires, antennas, GPS on a stick, onto the top of the copter with NO protection whatsoever. We all KNOW it is going to crash and probably smash it all to smithereens! One flip over and onto pavement upside down and this copter is junk. But hey, it was built by the company (NXP) that is trying to sell it's doomed ARM M4 core variant microcontroller (FYI to NXP, hey folks, wake up, ST has already cornered the market on ARM M4 core microcontrollers); not drones. Take a look at some of the racing drones today. See how everything is protected from the inevitable crash!
Oh, and those motor wires sticking out the end of the arms; BAD IDEA! As soon as a crash occurs, those arms grind into the pavement and destroy the wires. Quick fix; add some sort of expendable bumper to take the grind.
from
https://www.hackster.io/contests/hovergames
It's not clear what's in the kit for sure.
"
The kit contains: