If there was a viable, affordable alternative to DJI drones, especially if entirely made in your country, inc chips, & boards etc. would you ...

[brett8883]

Skydio Charging $1499 per year for “Advanced Enterprise Features” is unacceptable, I will not participate in paywalled type features.

Skydio Advanced Enterprise Features • 360 Super Zoom • Point of Interest Orbit • Track in place • Close Proximity Obstacle Avoidance • Vertical View • Visual Return to home I was shocked to find out that some features are only available to enterprise users, which means you need an enterprise...

mavicpilots.com

That’s for their Enterprise drones which are akin to DJI’s Matrice line. It’s somewhat similar to DJI’s Ground Station Pro ($500 per year) and Terra ($3000 per year) subscriptions.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

If it’s not DJI I have built it myself out of scratch. DJI and DJI alone. This is for drones, now for cameras I would consider other brands especially Insta

 

[AZDave]

That's the issue, it's unlikely the World will see a reversal of manufacturing (and more and more technical product too) from China (in particular) to Westerns nations.

Consumers drive demand.
Most consumers want to pay as little as possible.

Western countries have, on the whole, priced themselves out of contention for many consumer products, be it electric kettles or vehicles.
Another factor is greedy corporations have also been seduced by lower costs, higher margins in the past decades.

Other factors inhibiting western manufacturing include overhead and bureaucracy. I was an operations manager for a large semiconductor company in Phoenix, and when we wanted to expand a wafer fab locally we were told by the city council that the approval paperwork would take 18 months. That's in spite of the fact that we agreed to all the various regulations (including environmental) up front. No way any company in a competitive environment can tolerate that, and we ended up putting the fab in Mexico where they actually wanted us.

Other reasons some of our manufacturing went offshore included better access to local foreign markets (just in time delivery, local sales relationships, etc), better access to raw materials (shipping costs), defense against currency fluctuations, as well as having to meet requirements for local content in order to sell there at all.

It's a complex world and "greedy corporations" is only part of the picture.

 

[SoCal2S]

That’s for their Enterprise drones which are akin to DJI’s Matrice line. It’s somewhat similar to DJI’s Ground Station Pro ($500 per year) and Terra ($3000 per year) subscriptions.

From what I gather, it's for their S2+, which is around the $1k mark, meaning it competes directly with DJI A2/S, and these are the features locked behind a pay wall:
• 360 Super Zoom
• Point of Interest Orbit
• Track in place
• Close Proximity Obstacle Avoidance
• Vertical View
• Visual Return to home

If that info is correct, then no, it's not competitive.

 

[thispilothere]

I'm not loyal to DJI at all. With a few basic tweaks to the concept of a light drone, I would buy today. I would even pay a premium for certain features.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

FPV drone are getting smart now, GPS, decent hovering if you want, RTH etc.
In short term, proper FPV and DJI type drones will be very much similar.
Right now, if you like actually flying, and not all the automation, a bit of practice and you can get the video side now.
About the only loss is photography, but the action cams fitted allow for some awesome cinematic video.
Check out some of the youtube vids out there, eg searching > FPV cinematic <
Quite a lot of these drone pilots skills are simply out of this world.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Other factors inhibiting western manufacturing include overhead and bureaucracy. I was an operations manager for a large semiconductor company in Phoenix, and when we wanted to expand a wafer fab locally we were told by the city council that the approval paperwork would take 18 months. That's in spite of the fact that we agreed to all the various regulations (including environmental) up front. No way any company in a competitive environment can tolerate that, and we ended up putting the fab in Mexico where they actually wanted us.

Other reasons some of our manufacturing went offshore included better access to local foreign markets (just in time delivery, local sales relationships, etc), better access to raw materials (shipping costs), defense against currency fluctuations, as well as having to meet requirements for local content in order to sell there at all.

It's a complex world and "greedy corporations" is only part of the picture.

Yes, many things, inc western nations agreeing with UN wishes and signing away their manufacturing to developing countries.
The Lima Agreement has cost many countries an awful lot of capability.

 

[bmcelya]

> FPV cinematic <
Quite a lot of these drone pilots skills are simply out of this world.

I agree, unreal skills and video. I have a few drone internet channels on the TV at home, but I get bored with the FPV stuff, as it kind of all looks the same to me after awhile. If I had one of those drones and sought to fly like that it would be different of course.

I hesitate to call FPV flights “cinematic,” though I’m not sure what else to call it. I think of cinematic as slow-ish thoughtful video of interesting places. The Euro channels I watch show me really creative flights over fantastic landscapes that I will never see on my own. They bust through altitude limits to do it however and I wonder about that. So would I buy a USA made FPV? Sure, sounds like fun.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

but I get bored with the FPV stuff, as it kind of all looks the same to me after awhile.

I hesitate to call FPV flights “cinematic,” though I’m not sure what else to call it. I think of cinematic as slow-ish thoughtful video of interesting places.

I think the key there is interesting places, as with any drone flight, we seek those for our type drones, or the trad FPV builds.

Some of the FPV cinematic does fly very fast, low, dives down waterfalls / cliffs, building etc, and yeah bordering on acro type flying at times.
But there are channels that simply fly beautifully and so smoothly to look like it's taken from a small aircraft etc.

Some of the tutorial channels show builds on these drones, they are very different to what most FPV is on YouTube.
I hesitate to put links here to specific videos, as it's taking things off tangent, but probably the top of the list names on YT for pioneering such footage is Ellis van Jason, and yeah the places he goes !

He still dives 'things', but so smooth.

What would be cool to see if people that have 'grown up' on DJI style drones moving into FPV, though some of the DJI FPV (the actual drone, yeah confusing) owners on here posting footage the vision just doesn't seem to be what it is with the action cams on trad FPV.

 

[JimSteadman]

It would make sense for DJI to acquire or build manufacturing facilities outside China and hang on to their customers.

 

[bmcelya]

DJI FPV (the actual drone, yeah confusing) owners on here posting footage the vision just doesn't seem to be what it is with the action cams on trad FPV.

I’m sorry Oz, but I don’t know what “trad FPV” means. Help me out.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I’m sorry Oz, but I don’t know what “trad FPV” means. Help me out.

Apologies.
Traditional FPV, the self built type, but they can be bought RTF (ready to fly) with a controller and goggles (or combinations) . . . or RTB (ready to bind) to your existing suitable controller.

 

[tlyons]

That's the issue, it's unlikely the World will see a reversal of manufacturing (and more and more technical product too) from China (in particular) to Westerns nations.

Consumers drive demand.
Most consumers want to pay as little as possible.

Western countries have, on the whole, priced themselves out of contention for many consumer products, be it electric kettles or vehicles.
Another factor is greedy corporations have also been seduced by lower costs, higher margins in the past decades.

Did you know that the USA is the 2nd largest vehicle manufacturing country in the world? and that Western countries account for 4 of the top 5 auto exporting countries? ( List of countries by car exports - Wikipedia ) (Note which country is not on that list.)
Did you also know China is *not* the leader semi design or fabrication? ( Infographic: Chip Production Shifts Away From Traditional Strongholds ) In manufacturing overall, China is #1 and USA #2: Manufacturing by Country: China vs Top 50 Countries (2022)

To quote Mark Twain, "The rumors of (USA manufacturing) death have been greatly exaggerated." The Chinese people have a lot to be proud of; I wish them all the best. But America is still a very, very formidable competitor and so is Europe.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Did you know that the USA is the 2nd largest vehicle manufacturing country in the world? and that Western countries account for 4 of the top 5 auto exporting countries? ( List of countries by car exports - Wikipedia ) (Note which country is not on that list.)
Did you also know China is *not* the leader semi design or fabrication? ( Infographic: Chip Production Shifts Away From Traditional Strongholds ) In manufacturing overall, China is #1 and USA #2: Manufacturing by Country: China vs Top 50 Countries (2022)

To quote Mark Twain, "The rumors of (USA manufacturing) death have been greatly exaggerated." The Chinese people have a lot to be proud of; I wish them all the best. But America is still a very, very formidable competitor and so is Europe.

It starts with the small stuff (Walmart anyone ?) but maybe the all countries need to regain some of its own sustainability in all facets of consumer needs.
China is in a lot of trouble in numerous ways at the moment, and it’s dangerous far beyond mere economic levels.

 

[tlyons]

It starts with the small stuff (Walmart anyone ?) but maybe the all countries need to regain some of its own sustainability in all facets of consumer needs.
China is in a lot of trouble in numerous ways at the moment, and it’s dangerous far beyond mere economic levels.

An economist would disagree; they would say where things can be done more efficiently is where things should be done. My only point was that we should all start from facts we can measure and form our opinions and solutions around those facts. Case in point: the USA is the second largest manufacturing power in the world and tends to concentrate on high value add manufacturing that can support good wages and benefits. A lot of manufacturing has gone away due to automation; more but a smaller fraction has been offshored. Those are measurable facts.

New fact: manufacturers of medical supplies will use them locally before exporting them. Regardless of efficiency, the US should make them for themselves or make some kind of arrangement in case of emergency.

If it were perceived that there was money in it, drones would be made in the US. Case in point: the most and the most capable military drones are made in the US. Those clearly have the highest margins.

Good luck! After looking hard for alternatives, I own my first DJI drone and will go fly it now.

 

[Pallidin]

I started with various "toy drones" from Target years ago. Glad I did... crashed many times and learned basic flying skills.
With DJI I cut my teeth with that entry-level drone, and learned even more.
From there I was fortunate enough to get a Mavic Air 2 a year ago.
An amazing drone.
Of course the Aires is better, as well as the Mavic 3 series, but that will come in due time.
Love drones!!!

 

[lookout]

@Ben_McPhee , DJI have never been really interested in cross device integration ,just look at batteries as an example ,they like to produce a specific product with its own set of addons and
operating systems ,and i dont think that is going to change any time soon
but maybe in the current world financial climate ,they will start to give more scope to individual components, to work on several different models

Did you see the video where the DJI mini batteries were almost interchangeable with one of their competitors quads?