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(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLLIeKl4VwI , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjDuJsByE4o) at least two years before the Tiny Whoop craze took off.
I'm seriously failing to see the attraction with this. What are the pros over, say, my old Super-X (with a barometer, as demo'd in the first video) using MultiWii or a more recent KingKong 90GT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrWtOFontfw) using BetaFlight?
You can hack away at the firmware to your heart's content, and brushless motors means your payload capacity goes up massively.
At $200 USD I expect brushless motors, 2S, an 800TVL camera and a 200MW VTX. Not a brushed 1s that doesn't even have a 2.4Ghz receiver.
[1] https://forum.bitcraze.io/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=8295 [2] bitcraze.io [3] https://www.bitcraze.io/2016/01/the-deck-api-run-your-code-in-crazyflie-2-0/
Yeah, FPV isn't a focus here - I only really mentioned it to vaguely highlight what I was already doing on the cheap with a brushless micro before CrazyFlie 2.0 was released.
I had a look at links [2] and [3] - some interesting stuff being done, especially with swarms... but I've seen some crazy stuff being done on other platforms. Is the API super simple/easy to write for? MultiWii was a nightmare with a massive IDE cliff you needed to climb first which dissuaded a lot of people from even thinking about creative algos. A simple, hassle-free IDE/SDK alone would be worth a nice premium.
As for the expansion decks, I really really REALLY like the Loco Positioning System. THAT you could sell separately to plug in to existing drones - accurate indoor positioning on a small camera drone like the Mavic? Plug-in compatibility to a betaflight board? Instant seller.
I saw also that there's a prototype brushless version, which I assume will supersede this one. Good, but that brings me back to my main issue - the 2.5 years old CrazyFlie 2.0's MSRP of $180 (direct from bitcraze - cheaper, but the radio is more expensive?!) for what is in the drone world less than 'meh'.
As an all-in-one complete package with several expansion decks, yay!
As a base model? Not so yay. Especially now that I know there's a brushless CrazyFlie 3.0 coming soon. Ish.
I get that CrazyFlie is aimed at Western schools/universities and people with research grants, but I wouldn't be surprised that for every student who buys one there are five who skip it and choose the hard way.