Draganfly Rant

I don't rant very often, if ever, but I have been following the Draganfly commercial FPV tricopter for some time now. I hate that thing. Here is a official video from the Sheriff's office in Colorado. They have a drone program (OK I can already hear groans about tax dollars and privacy, but that is not any of my reasons for this post, I support drone use 100%). My issue is with the "product" it costs around $45,000 to start, and enters the relm of $50,000.00 once equipped with all the bells and whistles.

Well watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqnjxYjaLxs&hd=1

What do you get for $50K? First thing I see is JELLO EFFECT on both FLIR and color camera, Then I see bouncing and auto level hunting (oscillations like my 450 does when gains are not set right), but then look at 1:48 in the video, what is the monitor? THE SAME EXACT HAIER TV THAT I USE FOR MY FPV!!!!

WTF???? for $50,000.00 you get a $20.00 TV that someones grandma would buy a 12 year old for Christmas? The aircraft is nothing more than a Y6 copter with auto level and altitude hold (Uh, NAZA, $230?) It only fly's for 15-20 minutes, sometimes 30 mins with a big battery and reduced payload, and of course just like any other official platform it is sub 400' and LOS only. I don't know if it has RTH or not, never cared to read the full specs.

But this is the official, ready to go, endorsed by the FAA, guranteed to get a COA FPV platform, what a POS.............

End rant.........

Oh, yeah, then look at 2:40 in the video, IT DROPS OUT!

$50K and it does not work any better than my $49.00 VTx while using a BAD antenna, when I had a GOOD repaired antenna then it was better than this other pile of crap...............

The Draganfly has always been a over priced product.  They took advantage of getting into the multirotor market early and it seems they concentrated on squeezing taxpayer dollars from government agencies.

Now most hobby grade products are better than their's.  How much can a FLIR camera cost anyway?  Do any of you have links?

FLIR is made right here in Oregon, Portland. The TAU core can be purchased for a few thousand dollars and has RCA output.

http://www.flir.com/cvs/cores/view/?id=51374

What do they mean with cooled and uncooled cores?

Cooled is high end, long range military stuff. Uncooled is security, fire fighting, SAR stuff. Big cost difference when you add a Cryogenic Thermal control system to a camera.

http://www.sourcesecurity.com/news/articles/co-2752-ga.2246.html

Yup the 'market' being sold to says it ALL or makes ALL the difference, DEEP pockets

Do you know which FLIR camera the Draganfly is using?

I don't think it automatically comes with a FLIR, I think you just say you want it and they buy whatever that years sure thing is. I know thw 320 was popular but now things have moved on to the new thing, whatever that is. But from what I have read the TAU would do most anything we are interested in.

When it is LEGAL to do so I am interested in what this guy does with thermal imaging and finding septic tanks and drain fields:

http://www.rc-aerial.com/thermal.html

Is this the TAU unit you are referring to?:

http://www.flir.com/cvs/cores/view/?id=51374

Is the unit on that page ready to use and connect to the same type of video transmitter one would typically use for a FPV setup? 

What do you think the cost of that unit is?

The link you posted is actually for the family of TAU units. The three common ones would be the 160 or 320 or 640. These are kind of ready to go, but the intent is for a company to put them in thier own product such as a case or maybe in a car dashboard. People like us would just solder wires on and put them in Snapware boxes. I have a price list to link to when i can get to it, but the 640 is a really nice camera at $8-$10 thousand bucks. The 320 can be found for about $3k and not sure about the availability of the 160 anymore.

Yikes!  $8K ?!?

Here is the price list:

http://www.multirotor.co.kr/board/data/1202271454FLIR%20price%20list%20retail.pdf

The 320 is they way to go.

That's a Korean price list.  Is it possible that it is extremely high?  I mean a export restricted item exported to Korea and then purchased and shipped back to the USA?  Are there American price lists available, and if so are they close to the same prices?

I guess that is possible, but if that was the case with $8K conversion being way high, then buying a 320 would convert to being waaay cheap 

This one in the Euro dollar converts to $15,000.00 USD

http://www.dronefilmer.com/index.php?option=com_opencart&Itemid=55&route=product/product&product_id=172

And it takes 16 weeks to get one.

I don't know what this costs, but some people at DIYDrones are using it:

http://www.imaging1.com/razir.html

This one looks like it is more similar to the FLIR brand TAU:

http://www.imaging1.com/thermal/Thermal_Camera.html

However I did not find any cost information on it either.

That looks like a good one, I think no matter what if you are purchasing a true Micro Bolometer type of thermal image sensor it will be thousands of dollars. But they are very impressive, I have used one before and it will blow your mind at what you can see with these things. I was able to follow footsteps in a dark room 2 minutes after the guy walked around, and that is with boots on and sitting inside with the AC on all morning (cool shoes, just body heat making the soles warm).

So are these the camera type that can see through walls?