T-Drone - Best Product Of The Year Award!

[mairo]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/596828870/t-drone-first-multifunction-drone-ever?ref=category

I think Pietro should first finish his engineer course and then rethink/revise the project..

[Kilrah]

 

And also look at how many similar ones are around and how none come up with something despite marketing that's 10'000 times bettter than his attempt at a campaign description...

[Frank_22]

I didn't get it - why should you put your phone inside the drone? What are other functions?

[dferyance]

Yeah, seems like a terrible idea. If you crash, now your phone is broken. Also, what if you need to call for help?
It sounds like the plan is to use the phone's camera to take pictures. I think that should be fine. But they also want to use the phone's sensors to do flight stabilization. This likely will have way too much latency to have an app output the sensor data to the external electronics.

I'd be funny if this was actually working, and someone had a phone call come in. The phone call caused the drone app to be terminated by the OS to free up resources and the hole thing drops out of the sky.

I thought about this more than it deserves.

[0xdeadbeef]

Even if this thing would make sense and I would trust the guy to deliver, 450€ is a pretty hefty price tag for this kind of gadget.
Besides, wasn't there once a rule for Kickstarter projects that there must be a working prototype?
He should move over to Indiegogo with flex funding to either cheat or disappoint some morons.

[edy]

I didn't get it - why should you put your phone inside the drone? What are other functions?

I agree... I think it's a stupid idea to stick your phone in there. I would use the phone as a BlueTooth remote for the drone, and maybe have a camera in the drone feed a signal to the phone for recording purposes or POV (Point of View) if needed.

Putting the phone in there limits the customer base to people who have that phone only, since it should properly fit the Quadcopter so it doesn't fall out. Otherwise, if the phone is just there to be used as a camera, that is a waste... just stick in a $30 cam that is lighter, cheaper, has it's own storage and doesn't risk your phone breaking in a crash.

The only thing I can see being useful having the phone in there is if you pre-configure a flight-path based on some GPS signal and the phone tells the drone where to go as it is flying, while filming video in the process. The phone's GPS would change as it flies and be able to tell the drone to turn so it stays on course.

However, it again would be easier to add a GPS module, plus a gyro, compass and accelerometer so it knows the orientation and how fast it is going and in what direction, and then does corrections based on the GPS as it flies according to what it is calculating should be it's position based on the data from the gyro/compass/accelerometer units.

Anyways, I am not excited about this drone idea. The "multi-function" stuff is gimmicky... you use the drone's case to charge your phone in several ways, either portable charger or induction wireless case. Honestly, I don't think that is the multi-function I was hoping to have from this thing.

I'm assuming the phone's sensors (gps, compass, accelerometer) apparently drive this drone and need to be within BlueTooth distance to communicate with the drone circuit. I'd rather break these out as a separate module than sacrifice my phone, make it a lot lighter. I don't get it.

Good luck to the creator, but I don't see this getting much traction so far... I don't believe it will be funded so Kickstarter is not even bothering with whether there is a functioning prototype. It has about 62 Euro out of 20,000 needed, so doesn't look like it's going to happen.

[Kalidor]

"Risks and challenges
My project is a work in progress but only with your help I'll be able to make a prototype"

He's not even comply with the KS "you must have a working prototype" policy. Waste of time.