I love my Walkera Ladybird nanocopter, which costs $129 and is incredibly fun to fly. But now you can get a clone for just $49, complete with RC unit. This one does flips, too!
BTW, you should check out all the other crazy microcopters in Walkera's UFO line. This is just a sampling:
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Looking at the ladybirds I have on my desk and at this product, mechanically it's a clear clone. Not "inspired by", but rather an exact copy: see the motor holders/mounts, the center frame design, even the useless little rubber ball thingies at the bottom of the motors are exactly the same (well, they're black instead of white).
I'm guessing they made a cheaper controller (I wonder if it still uses the CYRF radio?) and simplified the electronics a bit (ex. get rid of the full duplex radio/voltage feedback) that the ladybird supports.
The ladybird is really amazing: replaceable motors, commanded at what seems like 400hz with what appears to be a custom-ish FHSS scheme, the PCB has vibration dampeners, full duplex radio.. it's just a very elegant, simple, but functional design, at least from my perspective.
I should never post until I read all the pages in a thread. I had only read the first page and didn't see the other 2 pages. It appeared at first you were promoting people cloning other products but not the APM products. Actually, you didn't say this. It was implied. After reading further, it appears you have a sensible stance on cloning which seems to basically be, if you can build it legally and cheaper, go for it. To promote the purchase of illegal clones of other products, while complaining about people cloning your own products is a double standard. That is not what is happening in this thread. I apologize for my blunder.
Greg: please explain more.
Crasher makes a good point. Double standards are never good.
Johnny: Both "ArduPilot" and "APM" are trademarked. Actually, most of the cloners do the right thing and don't use our name or graphics on the boards themselves (see below). But many do use it as the product name, which is not allowed. Instead, they should be using terms such as "APM-compatible".
oic, but it seems that some sellers on that site just call it "APM" or "APM 2". Is that ok?
Johnny: Yes, anybody can use 3DR's hardware designs and sell them. But they can't use our trademarked names. The right way to do it is the way this Makerbot clone did it, with a different name.
Yes, APM hardware is open-source, but not the trademarked name and logo, which many of the overseas sites seem to forget!
Same goes for calling it the 3dr radio.
@Rana
www.taobao.com (currency in RMB)
Actually all RC part are very cheap selling on this site. I guess it is most probably the cheapest in the world. Actually you can find 3dr Radio, ESCs, Sonars, uBlox GPS etc.... in very very good price.
For the APM thing.. I don't know if it really should called a "clone", but I guess APM's hardware are open sourced, that everybody could make and sell...
Ok now im a bit nervous, I ordered 8 from my wholesaler I'm hoping John just had a defective unit.
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