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[–] tame 0 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago 

I'll believe that they can decrease cost by integrating components, but their claim that this will also increase battery life from 20 to "45 to 60" minutes is sheer bullshittery. The power required to keep a multirotor airborne is an order of magnitude more than the power required to run its electronics.

Still, cheap drones woohoo!

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[–] rob_white 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago  (edited ago)

The thing is they can't decrease costs this way, that is also sheer bullshittery, they are adding costs and complexity. Many of the drones out there use much cheaper and simpler processors than Qualcomm SoCs, the STM32F4 is common and many factors cheaper and many factors less power draw, they are also good enough for 99% of people both hobbiests and professionals.

This will use more battery not less, and yeah, 45 to 60 minutes, typical lies everyone has seen before, even 20 mins is not realistic, more like 12-15 for your average drone depending on how it is flown.

If they marketed this as the next generation of features, sure, maybe but then they would need the software to go along with it which they do not have, they seem to be using some open source stuff that is a long way behind the commercial platforms that are closed source.

Drones are fun and a big hobby of mine but the marketing and flat out lies are very frustrating. Many new industries are like this, it's the tail end of the dotcom for Drones right now, the peak has passed and the market is consolidating already. Companies mentioned here like 3DR are laying people off already.

There are already many cheap drones around, but throwing complex and stupidly large hardware at them is a step in the wrong direction, like their claims of increased battery life is the inverse of reality, the claims of making them simple is also the reverse of reality as well.

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[–] cat-facts 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Drones are doing a lot of things currently though, you have RF to the controller, GPS, cameras, often times a live feed for a first person view, various controllers to control motor speeds for direction etc. Then you have drones that support automated paths/flight and safety "return home" features if communications are lost. The article mentions gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, and software-driven image stabilization on tops of those.

There really are a lot of different chips and hardware performing different functions that could be consolidated down. I agree that the actual motors eat the lions share of power but all the different hardware/features does a lot to drive up costs especially when you start talking about video, FPV, and automated flight paths.

Take a look at a Fat Shark kit just for FPV and it's more than some tablets. There is definitely a possibility of integrating some of these things down to a smaller SoC and shaving costs and Qualcomm i about as well positioned as anyone to tie in all these things. The last gen snapdragon chips cost about $20/each.

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[–] rob_white 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Drones are already very cheap, they already cost less than some flagship smart phones, I've been flying them for a while now and have quite a collection, this stinks of over engineering and shoehorning your product in a space where it is not a good fit. Marketing in drones is a huge huge problem, so many claims that are lies to part the newbies from their hard earned money.

A Linux SoC is really not an advantage compared to what is out there now, it uses a lot of power and the PCBs are much larger. I love Linux on the desktop and I know there is a bunch of marketing around it on drones, but that's just typical 3DR excessive bullshit marketing and they don't use Linux for much anyway, most is still done by other chips that are real time. Plus their Solo is well known as failed product now with many issues, loads of returns and so overpriced for what it is.

DJI are the leaders and use smaller processors from ST, my Inspire is amazing in what it can do, it's expensive but the Phantom 3 does 90% the same stuff for half the price including a 4K camera and a brilliant gimbal system. All the professional guys are using DJI for good reason.

The problem Qualcomm have is the software, adding overly complex hardware is the last thing to do there. DJI use the same ST processors others use and the same sensors but their software and years of research sets them apart, Sadly Qualcomm will likely use some open source code called Ardupilot for 8 bit Ardunios originally, 3DR use it and so do many other cheap Chinese ones as well, it's not very good.

You can already get that experience for less than $400, for example the CX-20 runs the open source software ardupilot stuff.

Lets not even count the kickstarter drones all using the same freeware.

Where a SoC could be cool is real time imaging where that power is required but the current open source stuff they will likely use can't even control a gimbal right or perform 50% as well as DJI stuff, they need to catch up with the basics before doing advanced stuff.