Sunday, June 26, 2016

Initial Hardware Research

As I prepared to undertake this, the first step was to look into hardware and whether a good balance could be struck between cost and quality -- this was the step that discouraged me completely from this endeavour two years ago.

My initial look was at the DJI drones.  These seemed to be the most popular, and usually that comes with a good reason.  I started by looking at the Phantom 3 Standard, retailing around CA$700, it seemed reasonable.  That said, with a 2.7K HD camera, there was definitely less wiggle room for image cropping and digital panning that are available with a 4K videodrone, but  stream.  Not to mention, this price doesn't include a full ready-to-fly system -- you need to "BYOD" (bring your own device), whether it be an iPad or iPhone in order to fully control the UAV and its camera.  Seemed to be a decent option, but I wasn't fully sold.

Of course, in the DJI Phantom 3 line, there are also options of the Advanced and Professional - but you're adding about CA$250 per step to step up to those models.  The Advanced improves the range of the drone, but is still only 2.7K video.  It's not until the CA$1350 Professional that you get 4K imaging.  And you still need to BYOD.  I still wasn't feeling good about that approach.

Then I wandered in to Hobby Wholesale here in Edmonton for some model paint, where another customer was set on getting a drone.  He hadn't done his research, so was getting the full run-down of the different models and I heard another brand come highly recommended: Yuneec.

After looking into Yuneec's offerings, I was very impressed, particularly with the full integration of the touchscreen device with the rest of the controller.  Initially, I was looking at the Typhoon Q500+, when the Typhoon H caught my eye.

As Yuneec's customer support is very highly regarded, the brand seemed like a no-brainer sort of decision -- especially given the concerns expressed about DJI's support.

As for the model... the "H" appeared to be the best of all worlds.  With the extra two rotors, there's some fault-tolerance built in, and the new controller offered some features that the older one didn't.  Couple that with the GPS-based "smart" navigation functionality to allow for more consistent shots, and I was pretty much sold.

Only thing left was to get my hands on one, as they weren't shipping to Canada yet!

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