Clearance Sale at 3DRobotics, IRIS+ just $399, NEW!

[Bartman]

The IRIS+ quad from 3DRobotics is a great flying little quadcopter with a fully functioning Pixhawk flight control system inside. With a 2D or pseudo-3D Tarot gimbal it'll give you a great entrance point into aerial media either as a hobby or lower end professional activities.

3DR is having a fire sale and a lot of stuff is sold out but it looks like IRIS+ and the Tarot gimbals are still in stock.

I've got an IRIS+ here in the shop and it's been fun and I wouldn't hesitate to take it out and fly it if my GoPro 3+ were right for the job.

https://store.3drobotics.com/products/iris
https://store.3drobotics.com/products/tarot-t-2d-brushless-gimbal-kit

 

[cootertwo]

Ya know, that's a great deal even if only for spare props. I've already got 2 flying, and another still sealed in it's box. Bought it for $599 on Amazon, and thought it was a deal (at the time). Now the sad part. It looks like 3DR is going SOLO only. Maybe that's why it got named that.

 

[Old Man]

The Iris uses the same general flight system, but with a better controller, as the early 3DR quad. Meaning it will carry a lot more weight than a Go Pro and Tarot gimbal and still have fairly good flight time.

 

[Bartman]

i'd have to disagree with you on that one Old Man, i found the Iris+ does great with a Tarot goPro gimbal but it doesn't feel when flying like it had gobs of power for additional payload.

batteries are standard LiPo's so replacements are cheap and can be charged on any LiPo charger, fwiw.

 

[Av8Chuck]

Ya know, that's a great deal even if only for spare props. I've already got 2 flying, and another still sealed in it's box. Bought it for $599 on Amazon, and thought it was a deal (at the time). Now the sad part. It looks like 3DR is going SOLO only. Maybe that's why it got named that.

3DR shut down their manufacturing in Mexico, they will no longer sell anything other than SOLO after the end of the month so they'll probably shut down their facility in San Diego and all fulfillment will be out of China. They have openly acknowledged that they are out of the DIY and commercial markets, they are strictly SOLO.

Its kind of like watching PanAm go out of business..

 

[Bartman]

pretty sad seeing that they owe everything to their corps of DIY'ers and developers.

maybe a sign of what will become of the other open source projects.

it should be mentioned that parts availability might become an issue once 3DR sells all remaining stock.

 

[ProfEngr]

So, I guess the pixhawk controller will still be around. Haven't seen that hit sale status. Should I reconsider this as an option for my future build?

 

[Old Man]

The sale price of the Iris pretty much means you get a new Pixhawk with a copter tossed in for free.

 

[Old Man]

Looks like they're dumping everything. The monitor they supplied in the Live View kit used to be a Black Pearl that was re-labeled. $99.00 for the whole kit is crazy cheap. Perhaps indicative of the profit margins in this game.

https://store.3drobotics.com/products/3dr-iris-plus-fpv-kit-for-gopro-hero

 

[violetwolf]

So, I guess the pixhawk controller will still be around. Haven't seen that hit sale status. Should I reconsider this as an option for my future build?

Arducopter (Pixhawk) will be around for a long time IMO. Arducopter is open source and not owned by 3DR although they'd like you to believe it is.

There are many vendors making Pix boards. My favorite of the bunch is RcTimer believe it or not. Highest quality at good prices. I recommend them.

 

[Ccard]

Strangely the prices of some of the clearance items has been changed back to the un-discounted prices.
I noticed this yesterday but thought there was just a temporary glitch, but it is the same today.

 

[Av8Chuck]

The thing to keep in mind is that this is a going out of business sale. 3DR isn't going out of business but they will no longer be conducting business in the DIY market so no matter what price you get the parts for they will no longer be supported or available.

I'm guessing if they raised their prices they're reaching the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Bartman]

Arducopter (Pixhawk) will be around for a long time IMO. Arducopter is open source and not owned by 3DR although they'd like you to believe it is.

There are many vendors making Pix boards. My favorite of the bunch is RcTimer believe it or not. Highest quality at good prices. I recommend them.

@R_Lefebvre is a developer involved with Arducopter, I wonder who's is going to take responsibility for keeping development on track or if we'll see splinter projects start to develop offline from the main project. NAZE32 is a great little board but it's getting crazy how many NAZE32-based projects are now floating around. I'd hate to see the same thing happen to APM/Arducopter.

 

[Old Man]

One of the problems with Ardu/Pixhawk is what made it what it is. Open source. People doing custom programs for commercial stuff can't deal with having to comply with the licensing agreement. It's like setting up your competitor at no cost to him. Some are moving to PX4 for this reason and abandoning Pixhawk to do so.

 

[Bartman]

wasn't PX4 the 3DR bridge between APM and Pixhawk? or was it a completely different project?

 

[violetwolf]

Just because 3DR is manufacturering *hardware in China does not preclude them from being involved in the software development. My guess is they will continue to take credit for the system that had been developed before they opened their doors...

 

[Old Man]

wasn't PX4 the 3DR bridge between APM and Pixhawk? or was it a completely different project?

I think Robert could answer that accurately. I thought it was a separate project but I'm not sure.

Violetwolf,

3DR has always been manufacturing hardware in China, or buying from Chinese vendors. Only the product assemblies were being done on our side of the water. I have not heard of them closing their Berkeley facility, and software development can be done anywhere. Just ask those software people that barely make the trip from the bedroom to the desktop 15' away. Wait a minute, those are more likely "gamers".

 

[violetwolf]

It was my understanding that they had manufacturing in Mexico which is now closing to move it overseas. And the engineering dept. & head office was in CA also now closing. Is this not correct?

I Recall Colin was involved with DJI who cut him loose, and is now in 3DR so I'm not surprised he is moving it back to china. Slippery character imo.

We had a massive blow-up over on RcGroups about all the political nonsense surrounding this, and I never want to re-live that, so I'll drop it right now. Suffice to say nothing is ever as it appears.

 

[Av8Chuck]

@R_Lefebvre is a developer involved with Arducopter, I wonder who's is going to take responsibility for keeping development on track or if we'll see splinter projects start to develop offline from the main project. NAZE32 is a great little board but it's getting crazy how many NAZE32-based projects are now floating around. I'd hate to see the same thing happen to APM/Arducopter.

3DR was never in charge of the development of the Pixhawk. The Pixhawk is a PX4 board that also runs ArduPilot. DroneCode has always and will continue to manage the PX4 software and hardware development.

There are important differences between ArduPilot and PX4, who works on what code and how things are prioritized are determined by DroneCode and the Dev Committee. But as far as developing commercial products based on this open source effort one significant difference is in the license agreement for PX4 which allows for this to happen.

Only time will tell what effect 3DR focussing on the SOLO will have on the open source community. DroneCode is working to develop a strategy for going forward, the entire open source effort has done an outstanding job up until now and there's no reason to think that they won't be able to figure out life after 3DR.

The next phase of the emergence of the sUAS industry has very little to do with the flight controller, other than for DIY'ers, consumer projects like the NAZE32 and other derivative projects don't really matter. For commercial operations to take hold, at least here in the US the next phase of development will need a much better understanding of the applications needed to provide a more direct linkage between analytical technologies and real world problems. This will require sensors that can provide much better quality data that are much bigger, more expensive, heavier than a GoPro. No one will fly a $50K SWIR on a quad!

3DR has lost their minds, the SOLO wont cut it. So this might be one of those rare cases where the open source community is in a better position than the consumer and DoD vendors.

 

[Old Man]

I'm with you on the blow up thing, but it was my understanding 3DR was having all the parts shipped to their Mexico and San Diego locations where final assembly of their RTF aircraft was performed. All of their motors and ESC's have been of Chinese manufacture. I can't begin to prove it but my guess their FC's were produced in China as well. IMO, in that regard their move to China hasn't changed where the parts are made. Just for giggles, Go Pro is an American company with an American brand in Go Pro but where are their cameras actually manufactured? I believe they are done by Woodman Labs out of Hong Kong China.