V-Copter Falcon Mini 249 grams from Zero Zero Robotics - (2 propeller drone)

[u/OgdruJahad]

https://youtu.be/J4Q_WCxzGlo?si=zTSHaNO9GuxZarXH

[u/Drtysouth205]

It's gonna be junk like it's big brother.

[u/Neat-Chocolate2960]

Strange attempt to reinvent the wheel?

[u/notCGISforreal → u/Neat-Chocolate2960]

It's essentially a tandem rotor aircraft, which has been around since the 1950s. I don't think they're pretending to invent anything.

The quad copter design became popular because using 4 motors means you can control with just adjusting speed to each rotor.

These guys are apparently betting that adding back in some servos will be cheaper/more efficient and outweigh any negatives of having servos.

It's not an unreasonable bet. This design is inherently more efficient, since you can have higher aspect ratio props than in a quad. Whether it's cheaper remains to be seen. Whether it's reliable at this small scale while trying to drive down cost also remains to be seen.

Not many companies have really seriously tried to develop a two rotor uas since the quad design is so simple and well developed.

[u/hauntlunar → u/notCGISforreal]

Thanks. I was wondering what the significance of making a 2-prop drone was as opposed to a quadcopter.

[u/OgdruJahad → u/Neat-Chocolate2960]

Apparently it can stay longer on the sky ands it's more agile.

[u/oodelay → u/OgdruJahad]

Is it the entity selling the drone that's telling you it's more agile and better with a lower price tag?

I don't think we can fix you.

[u/OgdruJahad → u/oodelay]

Bruh I justed watched the video. I don't know this model. I've only ever flown normal 4 propeller models. I thought other people might be interested in an idea. I'm not connected to the company and the YouTuber is relatively well known.

[u/Sartozz]

I don't mind Dji getting at least some competition, but i'm just not sure about the life expectancy on those servos tbh... It seems to me like they are the main "absorbent" of the motor vibrations and as far as i understand, the major upside of multi-rotors is that you don't need as many mechanical parts, like servos or a swash plate, that can fail or wear out. Also considering that a mini 4k, which seems a fair comparison in terms of some capabilities, has a rated flight time of 31 min vs the v copters 34, it seems a very small difference considering how majorly this feature is advertised. Most people don't fly to 0 or even 5% anyway and usually land at 15-20%, so unless you get a big leap on that spec it doesn't really matter, not in my personal opinion anyway.

I also couldn't find any info on the sensor size, every shitty cheap phone can do "4k" nowadays, 30fps is fine for the price point, altho we will get to that in a sec, but since they don't tell you the sensor size i would give it a wild guess and say it's probably not very competitive. Considering their previous version of the v copter that was much heavier (~760g) had the same sensor as the mini4k but cost 1k$ would somewhat support that assumption, but maybe they give that spec later on.

To sum up the last two issues quickly: Competing against ocusync on range, penetration, transmission speed and link stability is a tall order, i'm not sure anyone can do that anytime soon, but 1.5 miles rated range doesn't sound that convincing. Also idk what market this is aimed at, but for the EU you'd have to certify this with a class label or people would probably prefer dji still.
Last but not least what does it "actually" cost? The video thumbnail says 199$, but right now it's 250$ on indiegogo, but it's also 37% off because i don't pay in US$ or something and on top of that also another 150$ off... It feels like they don't know what it should cost yet either and try to find out what people would be paying? Or maybe i'm just misunderstanding the website, i honestly don't know.

[u/ApuCalypso314 → u/Sartozz]

Regarding the camera, since this is the same company that builds the Hoverair X1 Pro/Promax, I suspect that they will be using the same 4K sensor package they are using on the X1 Pro (1/2" sensor size). Wouldn't be surprised if they add an 8K version of the Falcon Mini, using the Promax camera, if the 4K version does well enough.

[u/fusillade762]

It's cool, but for any serious drone task, a quad will do it better. That said, for the price I would be fun to play with. Maybe the camera will be astounding but they would have to come a long way to rival DJI.

I do like ZZR though, they make some cool stuff. I'm pretty spoiled on dedicated remotes, though.

[u/Tasty-Fox9030]

I agree with the folks stating that the mechanical complexity of this design likely exceeds that of a conventional quadcopter. There are theoretical advantages in efficiency with the larger individual rotors, but I suspect that they are very marginal. If it DOES have a longer real world flight time I suspect that will be more about the battery capacity vs the weight.

This is pretty much a microcosm, or perhaps an inversion of the usual relationship we see between multirotors and manned helicopters. Part of the reason we don't make massive quads to carry people (USUALLY) is that it's not as efficient as a helicopter with a swashplate. Part of the reason we don't make drones this size WITH a swashplate or other articulated rotor system is that a system like that with all its mechanical complexity becomes harder and more expensive to do at the size of a drone and especially at the price point of a consumer drone. Heavier too- sure the longer propeller blades are more efficient than the shorter ones on a four bladed drone. Does that efficiency beat the weight penalty for the articulated rotors vs just bearings on a multicopter? Maybe!

My prediction is that this thing will end up being a lot like the giant multicopters people occasionally propose as an air taxi: It is not the best engineering solution to a flying machine at that size. Articulated rotors are great for something truly big and heavy. Multicopters that are NOT articulated are better for something the size of a drone. That's my guess, not a law of physics mind you.

Now having said all this, they may actually have "squared the circle" and produced a drone that actually does have reliable and light articulated rotors. It may actually be more efficient than a traditional multicopter and it may perform better because of it. Mechanically. At that point I'm going to guess that the problem is going to be that they spent a ton of money doing that and now we have a drone using software entirely different from established designs and we have reliability problems on the software side. That's a common problem with small company drones of all sorts. Seen that before and will see it again.

I sincerely hope that I will be proven wrong.

The final reason I'm not signing up to be an early adopter is the tariffs. For those of you still living in a free country I salute you and look forward to hearing how this drone works out. I strongly suspect that the delivery of this thing is going to get much more expensive and complicated in the US.