Drones... Why the obsession?

[ibex333]

So I don't get why so many people go crazy over drones...

1) First of all, the technology just isn't there yet, and the limiting factor is, as always, power.
The crappy drones, go for about 7 min or so, and the good ones, can push 20 min + which is still terrible IMO. There are many things which sound really cool in theory, but with power as a limiting factor, they become completely useless or only somewhat useful.

For example, the exo-suit has already been developed, and we could potentially have terminators, super-soldiers, and super strong construction workers, but what use is any of it, when there is no efficient technology available to power these things for any sort of prolonged period of time?! On top of this, the FAA now feels drones have to be registered, so it becomes another limiting factor.

2)Yes, people make some amazing pictures with drones, and some are used for search and rescue... This is all good and well, but again, seems to me like its kind of limited.

3)Finally, I wonder why is it that these drones weren't so commonplace 10 years ago or so. The technology was certainly there already, except maybe batteries were somewhat worse, but we had RC choppers so we could have had drones...

 

[GRIFFIN1]

I'm with you. They are cool, but I could see myself losing interest in it pretty fast.

One of my neighbors started with a DJI phantom. It was pretty cool. A couple of weeks later, I saw him flying around one he build from a kit. Another few weeks and he had a bigger one. Now I don't ever see him messing around with them.

Reloading ammo was my biggest waste of money hobby. I spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours getting everything ready to reload ammo. After a few thousand rounds of 5.56 I decided that it wasn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be. I finally gave it all to an uncle that mentioned he wanted to start reloading. The ammo I loaded was the most expensive ammo I have ever bought.

Fishing is by far the most expensive hobby, but I've been into it for 10 years so I guess I will keep doing it. I have decided to limit my fishing to freshwater because saltwater required too much driving and cleanup.

 

[Nashemon]

I'm going to disagree. First, I'm not sure what you mean by "kind of limited." Things have purposes. A blender blends things. Do you not see the point of having one, since it can only blend things? What do you want a drone to be able to do that it cannot? Carry you around?

In my view, getting cameras to places one wouldn't normally be able to is the main purpose of a drone. That's the only selling point to me. But that's all I consider them for, and they are mighty attractive for that alone. There are no other products available that can replace a drone for that job. Maybe it's fun to fly for a bit, too. I bought two helicopters when they were popular. Flew them around my house for a few days and haven't touched them in many years, but I can't fix a camera to them. Plus they are much more difficult to fly than a drone so I don't take them outside in the wind. No stabilizers.

Again, not sure what more you want them to do. What features would make it appealing to you? Weaponry? Bullhorn? Some kind of sport that uses them? Built-in blender?

 

[purbeast0]

i don't get the obsession either ... BUT ...

have you ever flown one? i had never flown one and my neighbor got a real cheap $100 one made out of foam, and he let me fly it a month ago. and i gotta say, it was fun as shit and i had no clue how to control the thing.

and now that i got a gopro for xmas it kind of makes me want to get one. although now with this no fly rule within like 30 miles of DC it would be pointless because i'd have to drive far just to use it, so that ain't happening.

but i can definitely see why people find it so much fun. i mean i used to love remote control cars when i was a kid, and they are basically remote controlled airplanes with much more control, AND you can video tape it all. i remember the tyco remote control cars back in the day only lasted 15 minutes as well and that didn't stop me from enjoying them a shitload. and those battery packs took 4 hours to charge.

 

[Eug]

My friend bought a nice one. He let me test it, and then I had him do a flyover (with video recording) of my house and yard, along with the rest of the neighbourhood.

Now that I have that video of my yard and neighbourhood, I have no more interest in drones.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I am still waiting for this model to become commercialized instead of the 4 to 6 rotor drones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA

 

[NuclearNed]

because GoPro

 

[Humpy]

The inexpensive method of aerial photography, in conjunction with photo comparison software, has lead to some interesting engineering uses. Bridges, roads, and railways can be easily inspected for normal wear or damage from natural disasters. Erosion and erosion control methods can be mapped and analyzed. Plant and animal habitats can be observed. Nearly anything where an overhead view is useful will benefit from cheap drones.

An inexpensive camera that will auto-follow an action event will be pretty cool, i.e. stick a beacon on your helmet and the camera-drone will autonomously film your ski run.

 

[Crono]

Because James Cameron.

 

[gorcorps]

Reloading ammo was my biggest waste of money hobby. I spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours getting everything ready to reload ammo. After a few thousand rounds of 5.56 I decided that it wasn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be. I finally gave it all to an uncle that mentioned he wanted to start reloading. The ammo I loaded was the most expensive ammo I have ever bought.

Hah, I just waited till one of my buddies got a nice setup and I reload there. I have a lot of cheap 9mm now. :thumbsup:

He gets good use out of it though because he shoots competitions. So he's able to custom make his rounds to match his gun, and minimize recoil for quicker follow-up shots. Somebody who's just punching holes in paper won't get that much use out of reloading.

 

[slag]

Friend of mine at work owns around 10, has a youtube channel dedicated to drones and drone racing, and makes money doing it on the side as a hobby. He also has battery, frame, and propeller sponsors who give him stuff to test out and to give away at the meets, special gates, flags, etc..

Like any hobby, it can be fun if its fun to you. I don't think its all that, but then again, I metal detect and he doesn't have any interest in any of that. To each his own.

 

[Imp]

Cool tech, it does work to some degree, but I can't get over the fact that I could crash it and be out $1000.

 

[ibex333]

I'm going to disagree. First, I'm not sure what you mean by "kind of limited." Things have purposes. A blender blends things. Do you not see the point of having one, since it can only blend things? What do you want a drone to be able to do that it cannot? Carry you around?

In my view, getting cameras to places one wouldn't normally be able to is the main purpose of a drone. That's the only selling point to me. But that's all I consider them for, and they are mighty attractive for that alone. There are no other products available that can replace a drone for that job. Maybe it's fun to fly for a bit, too. I bought two helicopters when they were popular. Flew them around my house for a few days and haven't touched them in many years, but I can't fix a camera to them. Plus they are much more difficult to fly than a drone so I don't take them outside in the wind. No stabilizers.

Again, not sure what more you want them to do. What features would make it appealing to you? Weaponry? Bullhorn? Some kind of sport that uses them? Built-in blender?

No, that's not how I mean. You make a very good point, but to me, they would be something truly "useful" if they could stay powered for hours for deep search and rescue, animal observation/filming, spying(never mind the ethics), and delivery of various objects.
But again, it comes down to the power issue...

Like any hobby, it can be fun if its fun to you. I don't think its all that, but then again, I metal detect and he doesn't have any interest in any of that. To each his own.

I think you sir, hit the nail on the head. To each, his own. I guess, I just want to see more out of these things than a hobby, and something that is easily and cheaply available to general public. Then again, maybe its a good thing that it isn't.

 

[Jeff7]

So I don't get why so many people go crazy over drones...

1) First of all, the technology just isn't there yet, and the limiting factor is, as always, power.
The crappy drones, go for about 7 min or so, and the good ones, can push 20 min + which is still terrible IMO. There are many things which sound really cool in theory, but with power as a limiting factor, they become completely useless or only somewhat useful.

People still bought flashlights back when battery tech was awful and they could only perform roughly like a slow flash. People smoke even though a single cigarette doesn't last very long.
So it doesn't fly very long. Bring a few batteries and swap them out.

Some of the larger ones have the cargo carrying capacity to permit them to lug along more batteries, for >40 minutes runtime. No acrobatics, but it'll hover and move around slowly to act as a good camera platform.

For example, the exo-suit has already been developed, and we could potentially have terminators, super-soldiers, and super strong construction workers, but what use is any of it, when there is no efficient technology available to power these things for any sort of prolonged period of time?! On top of this, the FAA now feels drones have to be registered, so it becomes another limiting factor.

Exo-suits and such aren't really something that I'd want to have fun with.
Jetpack-equipped.....maybe.

Registering: I think I can see why. The racers are powerful and can be dangerous. "Ready-to-fly" kits make it so that anyone can buy one and have something in the air right away. I bought an almost-ready-to-fly kit partly so I could try building something myself, and also to slow myself down so I wouldn't do something stupid. (I've still done some stupid things, but nothing that endangered any other people or property.) A $50 quad can still do some damage if you're determined to be stupid with it.

2)Yes, people make some amazing pictures with drones, and some are used for search and rescue... This is all good and well, but again, seems to me like its kind of limited.

Or take them out racing. Racing games are fairly popular. This one's got a handheld controller and realtime 3D feedback.

3)Finally, I wonder why is it that these drones weren't so commonplace 10 years ago or so. The technology was certainly there already, except maybe batteries were somewhat worse, but we had RC choppers so we could have had drones...

Maybe it was recently that we could finally marry some of the ingredients properly:
- Lightweight body construction.
- Powerful, compact, and lightweight motors.
- Accurate and very responsive solid state accelerometers and gyroscopes.
- Adequate li-po batteries.
- Low enough power consumption to permit that 7 minute battery life. At some point, the market decides "....yeah, I guess that's good enough," and a product family suddenly jumps to life.
- Social media saturation. I think that's a lot of what drives it: Video and the ability to get widespread viewership on Youtube and elsewhere.


Maybe quads are easier to fly than helicopters. I've never flown one myself though.

 

[Subyman]

Just like any hobby, people like random things. I think the surge of buying will taper off like most fast growing fad hobbies.

 

[Kaido]

I am still waiting for this model to become commercialized instead of the 4 to 6 rotor drones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA

$25 KIRF, brought you by the fine folks at Amazon :biggrin:

http://www.amazon.com/Vectosphere-RC-Drone-Random-Color/dp/B00FOSP5S0/

 

[Kaido]

So I don't get why so many people go crazy over drones...

1) First of all, the technology just isn't there yet, and the limiting factor is, as always, power.
The crappy drones, go for about 7 min or so, and the good ones, can push 20 min + which is still terrible IMO. There are many things which sound really cool in theory, but with power as a limiting factor, they become completely useless or only somewhat useful.

For example, the exo-suit has already been developed, and we could potentially have terminators, super-soldiers, and super strong construction workers, but what use is any of it, when there is no efficient technology available to power these things for any sort of prolonged period of time?! On top of this, the FAA now feels drones have to be registered, so it becomes another limiting factor.

2)Yes, people make some amazing pictures with drones, and some are used for search and rescue... This is all good and well, but again, seems to me like its kind of limited.

3)Finally, I wonder why is it that these drones weren't so commonplace 10 years ago or so. The technology was certainly there already, except maybe batteries were somewhat worse, but we had RC choppers so we could have had drones...

1) Yes, but it's the same for any R/C toy. They all only last a few minutes. In addition, that's the tradeoff for being cheap & small. My quarter-sized drone was like $17 shipped on Amazon. It only flies for like, five minutes max, but it was cheap, small, and a lot of fun.

2) At the heart of it, consumer drones are meant as flying toys like R/C choppers or planes. The more expensive ones do photography & aerial video, the really price ones do crazy stuff like search & rescue, and some of the military versions can stay up for days. It all depends on the application.

3) They weren't commonplace because (1) battery technology has been crap for a long time, and very expensive at that, (2) they didn't crack the micro-heli code until I dunno, a decade ago?, and (3) the digital technology had to shrink. A big reason for all of this is cell phones...tiny vibration motors equals tons of tiny motors for R/C flying toys. Plus tilt sensors, gyros on chips, etc. I remember the first dude to crack the pico helicopter trick was writing about it for what seemed like ages in the AMA magazine, and once he got it, it was attack of the clones. I was at CVS the other day and they had a metal-bodied heli for literally twelve bucks at checkout, next to the candybars. Amazing!

You have to remember, first & foremost these are toys. It's like having an R/C car to play with. Have you ever had the chance to fly an R/C drone? If not, do yourself a favor & pick one up off Amazon to play with. This one for $40 is REALLY good - very agile, but has bumpers so you don't wreck it as easily:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0157IHJMQ

The novelty will always wear off, because it's a toy. Personally, I still like airplanes the best, because you have the forward motion going on the full time you're flying, and beyond that, anything but baby choppers are a bit too complex for my brain to handle haha. Drones are cool because they are fairly stable now, so you can get pretty good at them in like 10 or 15 minutes of playing around with them. And some people do make a living using them...real estate photography, aerial filmmaking, etc. I think racing drones are pretty cool too, but too pricey right now.

 

[Kaido]

That reminds me, I got my dad a UFO drone recently and it is AWESOME! $33 shipped off Amazon: (I recommend eBay tho because they ship in a week instead of a month)

http://www.amazon.com/Cheerson-6-Axis-Eversion-Headless-Quadcopter/dp/B014W4F3TC/

I have a handful of tiny drones, but this on is waaaaaaaaaay cool because it's literally a tiny UFO flying around your room. To top it off, it has headless mode, where it spins around in a circle & blinks the LED lights. SO COOL! It's not nearly as responsive as the other ones (heavier = bobbier), but it's way easier to fly & great for a beginner because the whole thing is basically a bumper (including the top, you can stick it on the ceiling if you want). Plus there's nothing like having a tiny alien UFO flying & spinning around haha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V1iEnPLMIE

 

[yottabit]

The biggest reason they weren't popular sooner was because the sensors required to stabilize a quad were too expensive before smartphones proliferated and economy of scale caused accelerometers and gyros to crash in price down to pennies, GPS sensors and microprocessors powerful enough for cheap

Quads require stabilization that requires all of the above. Before this fixed wing RC airplanes (I refuse to call them drones) were probably the most popular and those didnt require much in the way of electronics by comparison

Also the required stabilization makes them much easier to fly than a RC plane or helicopter without a stabilization system

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think it's kinda a craze/fad, but I do admit they are neat and I want one. I think what made them popular suddenly is the easy availability. There are quite a lot of models available and they arn't all that expensive especially for someone that might already be in the RC hobby.

Even before they became a thing I always thought it would be neat to build one, though my idea was more of a plane UAV with FPV that can go super long distances. Not quite feasible power/law wise. I also don't really have the knowledge or resources so never really pursued such a project.

 

[Eug]

That reminds me, I got my dad a UFO drone recently and it is AWESOME! $33 shipped off Amazon: (I recommend eBay tho because they ship in a week instead of a month)

http://www.amazon.com/Cheerson-6-Axis-Eversion-Headless-Quadcopter/dp/B014W4F3TC/

I have a handful of tiny drones, but this on is waaaaaaaaaay cool because it's literally a tiny UFO flying around your room. To top it off, it has headless mode, where it spins around in a circle & blinks the LED lights. SO COOL! It's not nearly as responsive as the other ones (heavier = bobbier), but it's way easier to fly & great for a beginner because the whole thing is basically a bumper (including the top, you can stick it on the ceiling if you want). Plus there's nothing like having a tiny alien UFO flying & spinning around haha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V1iEnPLMIE

The only thing I found interesting about the drone I tried was the attached camera and the video footage it could take.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I got a decently sized one for Christmas from my sister. I think she spent about $75-100 on it. Oddly enough, it is extremely fast and powerful. A lot of fun to fly, but cheap enough that I don't think it would do well at extremely high altitudes...

I was flying it in my yard on day 2 and following it with my eyes....not really paying attention and I flew it into the one pine tree in my yard....it got stuck about 20 feet up. I had to drive a nail through a 10 ft piece of wood and slide that into a 10 ft piece of PVC I had to get it down....lucky for me I'm 6'+ tall because without my height and arm reach, I never would have gotten that thing down.

 

[Geekbabe]

Half the tech stuff we buy we don't need. Why drones? Because they are fun & we can!

 

[gorcorps]

Half the tech stuff we buy we don't need. Why drones? Because they are fun & we can!

So true

I don't NEED the vast majority of stuff I get. It's just an entertaining distraction for however long it remains fun.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

The inexpensive method of aerial photography, in conjunction with photo comparison software, has lead to some interesting engineering uses. Bridges, roads, and railways can be easily inspected for normal wear or damage from natural disasters. Erosion and erosion control methods can be mapped and analyzed. Plant and animal habitats can be observed. Nearly anything where an overhead view is useful will benefit from cheap drones.

An inexpensive camera that will auto-follow an action event will be pretty cool, i.e. stick a beacon on your helmet and the camera-drone will autonomously film your ski run.

Not exactly inexpensive, but still far less then mine, and a lot of others.
Been on the market for maybe over a year now, meet LILY.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2484131,00.asp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMfTHHLbj5g