Flotation for your P3

[Chuck Young]

Huh??? Who in their right mind would buy those stupid yokes???
Are people for real???
I dont know where to begin slating these!
There isn't 1 single positive comment I can make about them. Probably the worst accessory ever made for a drone...

That is great @Mal_PV2_Ireland! I actually Totally Agree. The design is crap. I worry about dropping my P3 in the lake that is like 200 feet out in my backyard so I am inclined to keep it from going 200 feet down under water in the loch. I can see some people buying this but to me it is simply a seed to grow an idea from. I love to print things on my 3D printer so my floaty thing will cost me NOTHING, so the price is exactly right. I have worked with enough aircraft and aerospace **** I can use a little rocket science to make the thing much less obtuse. As it is now there is a bit of a platform of ice I can still land on on the lake. LOL!

 

[Adam Morrison]

Thanks for the good discussion on our Kickstarter campaign and the WaterStrider!

In our testing of the WaterStrider, we've found it to be really freeing and has helped us get footage we never would have considered before. It is also just tons of fun on and around water. We've done hundreds of water landings and never had any issues and have never gotten a camera or drone wet.

Regarding flight times, we see a roughly 30% reduction in a lab environment (side-by-side indoor hovering). In actual flight environments on-location, WaterStrider can actually make up for some of that reduction through improved operations. In side-by-side testing we're finding that the total flight time usable for filming ends up being very comparable. You can simply land almost anywhere without having to spend time returning to a perfect landing spot. This helps save some (or in some cases all) of that flight time reduction because you don’t spend time searching for someplace safe to land. And it’s quick and easy to install and remove so you don't have to leave it on all the time (although we now find ourselves leaving it on almost always). This combined with the peace of mind of the extra safety makes it a good choice in almost any scenario.

Regarding wind and handling, if you watch the Kickstarter video you can see that it remains quite nimble and fast. It's a tiny bit slower to accelerate, but it actually reaches nearly the same top speed. Rotations are virtually unaffected. We've flown in quite windy and gusty conditions as well and it doesn't result in instability. At worst it just slows down a small amount when penetrating directly into the wind.

Regarding price, please note that the $239 is just an *anticipated* MSRP, and may be reduced. As you might image, starting a small US-based manufacturing company is quite costly. Patents, tooling, many months of prototypes and testing, and equipment all add up. 3D printing of course makes sense for very small quantities, but it is not cost effective for volume production. In addition, it is nowhere near durable enough to remain lightweight and permit freedom to land anywhere without worry.

We’re proud of all the engineering and testing that went into this product, and we believe it is a great solution for many DJI Phantom owners. And from a relative pricing standpoint, we’re currently selling on Kickstarter at $179. This is a little bit over the price of an extra battery ($159-$169) and a little bit under the Microraptor case ($199) and both of those are mass produced.

Thanks again for the interest and discussion on our product. Cheers!

 

[AerialZ]

I applaud your innovation Adam. This is one of the best Water Landing Solutions I've seen to date. Good luck with the process.

 

[Reed L]

Honestly, what's the point of landing on water anyway? If I was going to do anything that close to the water, I would have a submersible that could go under water for those shots. Having a Phantom 3 that close to the water serves no purpose as far as I'm concerned because it's bought for "aerial footage and I can get better ground footage with a dslr. So why spend that much money on a landing gear that takes so much away from the stability in the air when I can just go buy a nice QuadH2O... that will just dive under water itself for those great shots that you really are looking for when it comes to above and underwater photography...
QuadH2O™ Kit - QuadH2O™
Best Waterproof Drones In The Market

 

[Shadow 81]

Think this is a little more than 850 USD


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[AerialZ]

Honestly, what's the point of landing on water anyway?

It's a great Gimbal Guard, if nothing else

 

[Reed L]

Think this is a little more than 850 USD


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Yup, my bad - only $850 for the basic kit, I've thought about one on and off then looked at others and then said no..., Basically because for my Sony A6000 DSLR, they have a simple Meikon underwater housing that will give me what I want for close to water and under water photos or movies. I still have a couple of weeks before getting in the water for the first time this year. I can fly the P3 within 4 feet of the surface and that's close enough for me for what I do and how I use the P3 for flying only. I'm not wanting to take this off topic, I just make a lot of movies for different things and for $179.00, I just don't see the need for a set of bulky floats for a camera that's designed perfectly as is for aerial photography.

At first glance it looks like a good idea for water and snow landings but then I asked myself, why would I need to land in water or snow in the first place when I hand catch most of the time? And decided that it's just not an accessory that I will use.

Amazon.com : Meikon 40m/130ft Waterproof Underwater Camera Housing Case for Sony A6000 Can Be Used With 16-50mm Lens : Camera & Photo

 

[Reed L]

It's a great Gimbal Guard, if nothing else

Yep... but is it worth it?
Amazon.com: Carbon Fiber Camera Guard for Phantom 3: Camera & Photo

 

[Adam Morrison]

Keep in mind that the WaterStrider is also absolutely rock-solid stable when landing on uneven terrain, rocks, deep grass etc. You just land it...that's it...no tipovers. It elevates the camera and gives much better protection. You can even land on angled surfaces with rocks, mud, deep grass, etc. A stock Phantom or one of those gimbal guards won't do any of that and just tips over immediately if you try to land on the side of a hill or something.

 

[Jtrjr]

Keep in mind that the WaterStrider is also absolutely rock-solid stable when landing on uneven terrain, rocks, deep grass etc. You just land it...that's it...no tipovers.

Adam,

I think the idea is really cool. The weight and additional strain on the motors concerns me a bit. Having been a businessman all my life. (Started, grew and sold 3 successful businesses in my career. Fully retired at 54. 57 now.) in my very humble opinion, your price point is going to substantially limit your prospects.

Jerry

 

[Chuck Young]

I am with you Jerry. For the price I would not even consider it, even though I fly over water all the time. Where I live i just take off my porch and within 5 seconds I am over water a hundred feet deep, no chance of recovery if my Phantom sinks. The idea that Adam has is sound but pretty pricey. I am currently printing a device for gold dredging so printing waterproof durable items is totally possible. I am actually thinking of something that is retractable and can work more like emergency floatation instead of something out in the airstream all the time. I like Adam's concept but it would be something I would like to be able to deploy at will. As it is, with a small amount of modification, I am able to toggle a relay using the navigation light control on my remote. Thinking it can be used with a floatation package I will print out to attach to my P3 when I know I will be over water for most my flight. If it looks like or I want to set down on the water I will turn on the "Nav lights" and wham pontoons will deploy.

 

[alokbhargava]

I don't know if the idea is good or bad, Adam sell one piece to me for $19.99, let me see if I get fun at some corner.

You can say sorry, I will understand your stand.

 

[Reed L]

I am currently printing a device for gold dredging...

I wish dredging was still legal here in California... So you're printing a float for your P3 to find dredging spots or what? I originally made this video back in 2006, when it was legal here...

 

[Scratch]

I can totally see the benefit of this. My brother does a lot of sailboat racing and wanted a quadcopter for filming his and his friends boats so he bought a splash drone. Great idea... but they're still too new and buggy. It ended up having problems and instead of paying to fix and replace it, he now bought a P3P and is in the process of making floats for it, similar to the Waterstrider, although the Waterstrider looks much nicer than 20 oz waterbottles on sticks.... I'll send him your kick starter link. He might be interested.

 

[Providian623]

Well, someone WILL purchase these and then we'll have a test report. If they come back as being "good", then people will buy them. If not, they won't. We'll just have to wait and see. Never condemn a project or product till all the data is in. How many products do we use in our daily life that were said to have no purpose. (I'm thinking of an ex-wife for that one) but seriously, they laughed at Henry Ford, the Write Brothers, Glenn Curtis, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie (well she did kill herself with her work), and others. So we shall wait and see. I like the concept of the wider gear and I'm sure you'd not want to place a small quarter on the pods as they'd probably dent (that kind of light weight material) but the actual concept is pretty neat. Time will tell !

 

[Adam Morrison]

@Scratch Thanks for the good word and passing it along! This sounds like a perfect application.

@Providian623 Agreed. We'll soon be posting more video on the YouTube channel (beyond our Kickstarter video) to show that it really does work. We're also debuting the WaterStrider at AUVSI EXPONENTIAL 2016 in New Orleans next week. There will be lots of opportunity for people to touch and feel the product and see it in action in the indoor flight area.

As far as denting the pods and everyday handling concerns, check out the video on the Kickstarter page (about half way down the page) that shows dropping it with the full weight of a Phantom on top at full descent velocity onto a concrete floor with zero damage. The landing pods are designed to be really tough!

 

[alokbhargava]

Well, someone WILL purchase these and then we'll have a test report. If they come back as being "good", then people will buy them. If not, they won't. We'll just have to wait and see. Never condemn a project or product till all the data is in. How many products do we use in our daily life that were said to have no purpose. (I'm thinking of an ex-wife for that one) but seriously, they laughed at Henry Ford, the Write Brothers, Glenn Curtis, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie (well she did kill herself with her work), and others. So we shall wait and see. I like the concept of the wider gear and I'm sure you'd not want to place a small quarter on the pods as they'd probably dent (that kind of light weight material) but the actual concept is pretty neat. Time will tell !

I offered to test it but don't feel like spending that much money unless proved worth.

 

[syotr]

Thanks for the good discussion on our Kickstarter campaign and the WaterStrider!

In our testing of the WaterStrider, we've found it to be really freeing and has helped us get footage we never would have considered before. It is also just tons of fun on and around water. We've done hundreds of water landings and never had any issues and have never gotten a camera or drone wet.

Regarding flight times, we see a roughly 30% reduction in a lab environment (side-by-side indoor hovering). In actual flight environments on-location, WaterStrider can actually make up for some of that reduction through improved operations. In side-by-side testing we're finding that the total flight time usable for filming ends up being very comparable. You can simply land almost anywhere without having to spend time returning to a perfect landing spot. This helps save some (or in some cases all) of that flight time reduction because you don’t spend time searching for someplace safe to land. And it’s quick and easy to install and remove so you don't have to leave it on all the time (although we now find ourselves leaving it on almost always). This combined with the peace of mind of the extra safety makes it a good choice in almost any scenario.

Regarding wind and handling, if you watch the Kickstarter video you can see that it remains quite nimble and fast. It's a tiny bit slower to accelerate, but it actually reaches nearly the same top speed. Rotations are virtually unaffected. We've flown in quite windy and gusty conditions as well and it doesn't result in instability. At worst it just slows down a small amount when penetrating directly into the wind.

Regarding price, please note that the $239 is just an *anticipated* MSRP, and may be reduced. As you might image, starting a small US-based manufacturing company is quite costly. Patents, tooling, many months of prototypes and testing, and equipment all add up. 3D printing of course makes sense for very small quantities, but it is not cost effective for volume production. In addition, it is nowhere near durable enough to remain lightweight and permit freedom to land anywhere without worry.

We’re proud of all the engineering and testing that went into this product, and we believe it is a great solution for many DJI Phantom owners. And from a relative pricing standpoint, we’re currently selling on Kickstarter at $179. This is a little bit over the price of an extra battery ($159-$169) and a little bit under the Microraptor case ($199) and both of those are mass produced.

Thanks again for the interest and discussion on our product. Cheers!

Please show some video of this setup flying in the wind, both from the Phantom camera and from the pilot's view. Send a sample to someone here for testing and review. If you want anyone to take this seriously, that is a minimum.

 

[Adam Morrison]

@syotr We finally managed to get some windy conditions here and we did some flying with WaterStrider attached. We were in an open field and the winds were gusty (and blustery cold). The wind readings from the nearby National Weather Service station (about 7 miles away) were 17 mph gusting 31 mph. The drone handled acceptably both with and without WaterStrider attached. The heavy gusts were a bit challenging both with and without the WaterStrider. Landings were much easier with WaterStrider installed--especially when the drone is drifting a bit with the wind and has some relative motion to the ground at touchdown.

We filmed both externally and from the drone. We will be posting a short video of some of these flights on our YouTube page soon. Stay tuned!

 

[Adam Morrison]

Here is the promised video in windy conditions with the WaterStrider.

We've settled on the following wind limitations for the product:
Phantom 3: 17-23 mph
Phantom 4: 23-28 mph

Enjoy!