DJI Neo (a new 149 gram drone)

[mavic3usa]

It's time to get innovative and for DJI they have the advantage to set the stage because X1 has no penetration and there are no other competitors to deal with. Hand-launching a drone should be a different activity than launching from the ground both technically and from a marketing perspective. In the past, DJI hasn't been able to promote hand-launching because it's basically unsafe. With Neo, you should be perfectly fine but let's make it a thing. Obviously a drone can detect when it's hand-launched so you could have a default activity. For example, the Skydio knew when you hand-launched and if you held it with the camera pointing away from you, the drone could launch up and out, come to a hover, spin around 180 degrees and detect and lock onto the subject that launched it and initiate tracking....automatically. Wouldn't it be nice if Neo could do that without having to touch a remote controller. Again for the Skydio, you could launch the drone by holding your hand and pressing the power button on the drone three times and there would be a launch sequences so as mentioned, this can become a thing especially if you match it with pre-programmed routines. I think Skydio could do this because their drone was safe and isn't support to crash into nearby things or the pilot in case you screwed up; hopefully Neo is the same.

No more gimmicky hand-landing where you are struggling to get the drone to come down or having to flip it to get the blades to stop spinning and hold down the remote to make it stop. As mentioned, those cages will help make it safer and easier to bring the drone home to your hand, quickly and smoothly. I can imagine dynamic homepoint being a thing because the battery is not very long and this drone may need to operate without additional accessories like remotes and goggles. Wouldnt it be nice if they created the DJI beacon.....

 

[mavic3usa]

No goggles, MC, or Acro mode support at release... DJI is rushing this out the door, as well as the A3S and Mavic 4 to beat the US drone ban and election. So expect lots of bugs, missing but expected features, etc. All engineering is focused on the Hover X1 features to make it competitive. It will be made superior by adding features in firmware updates later.

I expect we'll be flying FPV with the Goggles 3 / MC3 hardware some time Q1/Q2 2025. Crossing my fingers the FPV 2 RC will be supported too with acro (manual) mode.

I thought about being the first one to buy Neo but I think you might be right this new drone could have many issues and a lot of incompleteness with future enhancements to come. So unless it's super cheap or there's some day one promo incentive, I guess I would wait to see how it goes. I'm sure our standard youtubers are busy playing with their test drones so we should have a good feel for how it goes on day one. But yes, traditional DJI is to provide upgraded and additional support and modes and features later instead of at launch. I can wait I guess.

 

[Droning on and on...]

As soon as pre-order opens, I'm in.

 

[Torque]

Hover X1 doesn't even refer to their product as a drone, but as a "flying camera" which is exactly what it is.
Palm take off and Landing may be the only thing they truly have in common.

The only way the X1 will launch is from your palm, and the same for landing. You choose one of the preset patterns, the distance or altitude (50 ft is the furthest it will fly), hold it in your palm with the camera facing you. Once the camera focuses on your face, it will launch. When the flight is over it will return and hover in front of you until you stick your palm out for it to land. The patterns are Hover, Zoom out, Follow, Orbit, Birds Eye, Dolly Track and a manual mode that uses the phone app as the controller. Using the manual mode you can launch and land from any surface, but you are still limited to 50 ft distance and 50 ft altitude. A flying camera.
I rarely use the manual mode, as the presets are much smoother. I don't consider it a "drone" but the FAA does.

It folds in half and is small enough to stick in your pocket. It is slow flying and perfect for people who just want to take selfies for social media, vacation photos, etc. And over priced at $429 IMO.

 

[3rdof5]

IF it's compatible with either my RC-N2 or my Goggles2/MC2 (the same as my mini4 pro is) AND has comparable functionality for a decent drone only price I will seriously consider it....

 

[AnzacJack]

 

[Droning on and on...]

That's the MC2 pictured there, an O3 controller that does not work with Goggles 3.

It does work with Goggles 2 and Integra, but from an engineering perspective, this would be quite a step backwards.

The Goggles 3 move the system design forward to the far more logical operation of having the MC3 connect to the goggles, and the the goggles handle all the O4 communication with the drone (Mini 4, Air 3, Avata 2).

The older system requires a connection directly from the MC2 to the drone, and Goggles to the drone.

This would increase the cost of software development and support for the aircraft, and possibly additional hardware (although not likely).

Doesn't seem like the right decision when you're trying to keep it as low cost as possible.

 

[Kilrah]

People slapping stuff together in 2 minutes in photoshop is getting tiring...

 

[mavic3usa]

We don't know the timing of any of these devices so it's not possible to determine when they were first developed and if there were delays. Also we don't know the limitations so it's not always linear and especially when there was covid which interrupted a lot of development. We just don't know the impacts. Plus we still don't know what is fake and what is real. If Neo works with existing O3 equipment only, I wouldn't hate it.

 

[anotherlab]

View attachment 176818

You probably don't want to make any assumptions from a badly photoshopped image...

 

[AnzacJack]

im not making any assumptions, just passing on info Ive come across
The date is highly unlikely as DJI have not yet released any of their usual "teaser" promotions yet.

 

[msinger]

If this is not photoshopped too, then it appears it's going to work with DJI's goggles.

 

[Droning on and on...]

If this is not photoshopped too, then it appears it's going to work with DJI's goggles.

View attachment 176868

It's a very good pshop if it is... Got the distortions taking a picture through the goggles display down pretty well

 

[Kilrah]

Yep for once that's more believable...

 

[scubaddictions]

If this is not photoshopped too, then it appears it's going to work with DJI's goggles.

View attachment 176868

First time I saw this portion of the leak it was a video, captured with a camera up against the goggles (lots of distortion) and it was in Italian, so it all adds up a legitimate (at least in this beta release of the software). Unlikely someone would gin up two fakes in two different languages, in two different mediums.

.

 

[LoudThunder]

Folks do not need the DJI Neo to violate the OOP rules and regulations…

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And this is the drone that he did it with…

Mobula6 2024 1S 65mm ultra light micro FPV Whoop BNF

 

[3rdof5]

That's the MC2 pictured there, an O3 controller that does not work with Goggles 3.

It does work with Goggles 2 and Integra, but from an engineering perspective, this would be quite a step backwards.

The Goggles 3 move the system design forward to the far more logical operation of having the MC3 connect to the goggles, and the the goggles handle all the O4 communication with the drone (Mini 4, Air 3, Avata 2).

The older system requires a connection directly from the MC2 to the drone, and Goggles to the drone.

This would increase the cost of software development and support for the aircraft, and possibly additional hardware (although not likely).

Doesn't seem like the right decision when you're trying to keep it as low cost as possible.

I don't see any reason for it not to be compatible with both Goggles2/MC2 and Goggles3/MC3 same as both the Air3/mini 4 pro are. Simply a FW update. Having multiple compatibility would definitely improve sales.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I don't see any reason for it not to be compatible with both Goggles2/MC2 and Goggles3/MC3 same as both the Air3/mini 4 pro are. Simply a FW update. Having multiple compatibility would definitely improve sales.

"Simply a firmware update" is how we, the customer sees it.

Very different view from R&D and Customer support.

Keeping it at a high level, there's additional cost to the company to support more software features and a larger set of devices. These costs are not insignificant, especially with a product targeted at such a low price point.

Further, given the target market, RC/MC/Goggles users wouldn't be expected to be a large portion of sales, further straining returns on the investment in supporting multiple protocols on the drone.

I'm retired now, but I spent much of my career in software development, working my career starting as an engineer, becoming an R&D Manager after 20 years, then moving to a position as COO of a small tech company.

I've been directly involved in decisions exactly like this, countless times. Unless there's some non-obvious market data that DJI has that I'm unaware of, or some other unknown factor, I feel pretty comfortable I understand enough about this product and it's market to take a stab at it.

I just can't see the ROI justifying the up front engineering costs, and years of support to make O3 and older generation hardware work.

 

[AnzacJack]

im predicting that within the first 2 weeks of September ill be flying this.

 

[mavic3usa]

Cheap FPV goggles rumors:

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