The first true rival to DJI...... Parrot Bebop?

[freefall101]

I am genuinely considering selling all my DJI setup after their rubbish customer service and numerous quality issues I have had since July this year when I first bought and set up my P2. The alternative? Possibly the upcoming release of the Parrot Bebop might actually sway me to move from the DJI brand altogether. For those of you who don't know check out this http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/bebop-drone/

And I appreciate we are on a DJI forum but for those also fed up of DJI's crappy service I am sure Parrot's can't be any worse..... (Or maybe it is?)......

 

[un hombre]

Nope, not real competition if you ask me and for one simple reason - BATTERY LIFE.
Phantom 2 has 2 x the battery life standard. Sure, you get 2 batteries in the set with Bebop but still, one will last you for 10 minutes?

This makes the extra controller redundant, because you will not be able to reach those 2 km one way and 2 km back of range

Oh, and Bebop + controller is 900 dollars/Euro? For this price I would buy Vision again and although I don't have digital stabilisation like Bebop, I have superior battery life, better stability outside (Vision is 3 times more heavy and for sure handles wind much better), Vision has micro sd card slot.

Bebop, after knowing now all the details, is a toy if you ask me, the only plus I can see is put it in a whatever back back when going for a short walk, you find something interesting to film quickly and voilla, you are up and flying in no time thanks to minimum assembly and phone control.

I say those are Two different beasts, be it in comparison to P2, P2V or P2V+!

 

[freefall101]

Good points, I agree with you entirely...... And it is exactly why I am considering moving from DJI to Parrot - I only really get 12-13 minutes tops at the moment with my P2/GoPro Setup anyway! Terrible if you ask me considering they advertise it at 25 minutes - I only get 18 minutes tops without everything added on, i.e. the drone on its own. I would quite happy however to fork out £300+ less for the top Parrot package which includes the extended remote and 3 batteries. 3 batteries from DJI would give me say 39 minutes altogether but would cost an extra £180 (Maybe the equivalent of $300 for those in the USA)..... 3 batteries with the Parrot are all included at the $800-900 mark for the sop Skycontroller package.

OK some might argue it is more toy-like compared to the Phantom 2..... I agree actually...... But there again those not in the know (including my brother) have all said my P2 setup looked like a toy, and appeared over-priced for what it looks like cosmetically. It's just a piece of white plastic, nothing spectacular. The P2 wins probably in battery life, probably also in windier conditions, and also its ability to hold the GoPro Hero 3+ or whatever. But if you compare the footage and read the specs and initial reviews/previews..... The Parrot Bebop could actually present better bang for buck for many people. It can bang into a wall at fairly low speeds and still carry on flying as opposed to crashing miserably as a P2 would. As for battery life concerns, I don't fly out of sight anyway, or at least most of the time, but I am more concern about total flight time, as in how long can I spend flying with the thing with all the batteries. I am going to get a minimum of say 27 minutes with the three batteries, which beats or matches what I am getting anyway now with my two heavily overpriced (and unreliable) DJI batteries. The Sky Controller looks more premium than the white DJI controller in my opinion. The fact the Parrot controller holds a full sized tablet included an iPad (which I already own), is much more preferable for me over a comparibly tiny Black Pearl display or an iPhone for example. Check out some of the YouTube videos on the Parrot if you haven't already and it does look pretty good. The camera they use certainly looks to be of a higher quality compared to say a Vision camera, plus there is no gimbal that can cause problems! The image stabilisation appears to do a very effective job.

 

[jaykay2PT]

Why not take a look at this

http://store.3drobotics.com/products/IRIS

as a viable alternative! the video is impressive,
but then again Colin was impressive when he was with DJI

 

[un hombre]

Well, you may get three batteries in the bebop + controller bundle but remember, that the controller uses the same battery as bebop... So you still end up having only two batteries for use for bebop.

Believe me, I was considering bebop, iris+, Vision, Vision+ and others and discarded Bebop for exactly the reasons I mentioned.

I get at leas solid 20 minutes from one battery on Vision, having 4 batteries gives me a huge potential to play and shoot nice footage.

Another thing is that bebop relies on the free flight 3.0 software, you use it to control from mobile or the sky controller, which has it preinstalled and uses 4.1 android I think... This soft is buggy, just read reviews... This is another weak spot!

If you only get 13 minutes with your current setup than I understand your POV but from mine, it would be a waste. Even if I was getting 13 minutes of battery, I still would not invest in Bebop now, users will be beta testers of hardware and software while Vision is a mature platform at this point.

 

[Kman]

A good thread regarding the Bebop in Off-Topic:
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=29088

 

[freefall101]

Thanks Jaykay for linking me to the Iris+......... Never heard of it before reading your message.... I remember Colin from the older DJI videos, how does the company and the Iris+ compare to say DJI?

 

[UrAwFuL]

You're serious, right? ;

I think it's a slightly step backwards IMO. If DJI doesn't work then I guess Walkera, 3DR, or Blade is another alternative for a little more from the price point of the Parrot.

 

[Gotcher6]

WiFi controlled? No thanks. Been there, done that with Parrot's ARDrone. Short range and frequent flyaways due to other wifi signals cross interference.

 

[knuckles]

WiFi controlled? No thanks. Been there, done that with Parrot's ARDrone. Short range and frequent flyaways due to other wifi signals cross interference.

Been there as well. I even installed the custom wheel antenna mod on the AR Drone. It did help but I never could get the range I wanted. I didn't want to mess with extenders either so I sold it, saved some money and got a Phantom 2. I wish I would have started with a Phantom but the AR drone got my feet wet with quads anyway.

 

[garrock]

Been there as well. I even installed the custom wheel antenna mod on the AR Drone. It did help but I never could get the range I wanted. I didn't want to mess with extenders either so I sold it, saved some money and got a Phantom 2.

ABOUT THE AR DRONE:

• 
  I probably sold you that AR Drone Wheel Antenna (or my distributor Kyle Tarpley).
  
  The AR Drone Wheel Antenna Kit is still a popular item; one percent of that market is 10,000 units.
  The AR Drone is STILL, by far, the lowest cost machine for the masses to experience FPV flight. (yeah... it's a low wind device and is underpowered. So what.. they sold hundreds of thousands of them. A machine that fulfilled the fantasy of flight for many people world wide.)
  
  When I was flying it, I regularly flew out to 1KM (3280 feet) and back.
  For me, empowering so many AR Drone flyers to do nearly the same was very self rewarding.
  
  And you have forum member DBS still holding the AR Drone distance record of 1.4 miles downrange and safely back.

ABOUT THE BEBOP:

• 
  The BeBop is a different animal. Its Return To Home function is an important feature. Equally Important; it has a Dual Band WIFI radio. The 5.8ghz band will be mostly quiet for people flying it thus good downrange control.
  
  Regardless of what people think about it, the BeBop and other new drones will erode DJI's market share to some extent.
  By how much is yet to be seen.

 

[phantomi]

One advantage of this quad I think is its weight. Although more prone to wind forces, lighter quads will be more popular in the days to come due in part to FAA rules.

 

[knuckles]

I never had regrets about getting the wheel mod for sure it extended range as advertised and I did some measurement tests with it. Part of my problem could have been the tablet I was using. Other problems for me was the touch vs stick control. I was also having issues with orientation in flight but the ar drone cost about the same as my fpv monitor. It was the stepping stone for me into quads.

One thing about the bebop in the early demos they showed it shaking like crazy like wind turbulence but the video was stable.

 

[varmint]

I've been following the Bebop for months now, but unfortunately there's still quite a lack of real information. My primary concern, and one which seems to be a major show-stopper, is the battery capacity. Fight times are listed officially as 11 minutes, and since that's the figure given officially, you can be sure actual times are less, at perhaps 9 or 10. So how far can you really FLY in half that time? Can you even make the stated 2KM max distance in 5 minutes? What would be the options for larger capacity batteries? It REALLY needs more capacity before I'd consider it. 15 minutes minimum.

Second is latency. How good is the FPV? I don't care how good the resolution is if there's so much lag you can't enjoy the ride.

I've also heard the actual FPV resolution is like 960x540 and then scaled up to 1080 for marketing purposes. If this is true, then it's only marginally better than the P2V in terms of quality, and God knows how laggy.

Lots of innovation to be sure, but there's also a lot of over the top marketing involved here. Does it come together or does it fall flat due to incompetence where it really matters? This is one I just cant't take a chance on without some smart reviews first. If there's minimal lag and enough endurance (aftermarket batteries) to actually go anywhere, then I'm probably in.

 

[locoworks]

my gripe with the parrot offering is not only battery life but also the camera. it is in a fixed housing. i think i have seen something that suggests it can show things not straight infront using software, but i can't see it ever giving a plan view of somewhere like the V+ can. also i hate the name. it reminds of a 'bop it', another infuriating piece of plastic :mrgreen:

 

[varmint]

my gripe with the parrot offering is not only battery life but also the camera. it is in a fixed housing. i think i have seen something that suggests it can show things not straight infront using software, but i can't see it ever giving a plan view of somewhere like the V+ can. also i hate the name. it reminds of a 'bop it', another infuriating piece of plastic :mrgreen:

What they do is use an extremely wide 180 degree FOV and then digitally pan and rotate a small section of it. So this accomplishes 2 things: 1) stabilizes the image like a gimbal, but electronically. 2) allows you to pan/tilt the image electronically. The camera is angled slightly down and the FOV is 180 degrees, so yes, you should technically be able to get a shot straight down.

It's all very clever really, but I believe the resolution you're going to end up with for stills (yes STILLS) is probably 1920x1080. This will never replace a Phantom for video or photo quality. What I think it may offer is a really nice toy in a small package that can go pretty damned far if you use the sky controller. In other words it's good for FPV, but that's about it, and you better move fast because you've got about 5 minutes before you need to turn around.

 

[un hombre]

Re: Odp: The first true rival to DJI...... Parrot Bebop?

my gripe with the parrot offering is not only battery life but also the camera. it is in a fixed housing. i think i have seen something that suggests it can show things not straight infront using software, but i can't see it ever giving a plan view of somewhere like the V+ can. also i hate the name. it reminds of a 'bop it', another infuriating piece of plastic :mrgreen:

What they do is use an extremely wide 180 degree FOV and then digitally pan and rotate a small section of it. So this accomplishes 2 things: 1) stabilizes the image like a gimbal, but electronically. 2) allows you to pan/tilt the image electronically. The camera is angled slightly down and the FOV is 180 degrees, so yes, you should technically be able to get a shot straight down.

It's all very clever really, but I believe the resolution you're going to end up with for stills (yes STILLS) is probably 1920x1080. This will never replace a Phantom for video or photo quality. What I think it may offer is a really nice toy in a small package that can go pretty damned far if you use the sky controller. In other words it's good for FPV, but that's about it, and you better move fast because you've got about 5 minutes before you need to turn around.

You get stills but 14 megapixel 180 fov stills, so it looks funny and not necessarily practical.

 

[TheloniousMac]

I'm planning to get one to compliment my Phantom. It weighs practically nothing so I wouldn't have any problem strapping it to a bag or something. I've always got my iPhone on me so the BeBop is all I need to bring with me.
Yeah it's definitely a toy and incredibly overpriced but I think people will be a lot less intimidated by this than the Phantom (which I carry in a big backpack)
It's very quiet too so you could easily let this fly in a park without drawing too much attention and from the way it's designed I would have no problem flying this indoors or tight spaces, if it hits something then it will drop then keep working where the phantom would hit with more force and damage something or itself.
I'm probably see what happens when it drops from height but I doubt it would break parts off like the Phantom does, It may drop gently and maybe even float on water?
From what I've seen of the footage the camera isn't as good as the Vision+ but it's close enough for me.
The rolling spider was a big disappointment from Parrot with the claimed 8 minute battery life ending up being only 3-4 minutes so we'll all find out when they start shipping and people start using them if they're any good.
I think it will actually shake up the CASA/FAA rules since it it clearly designed to be a toy and only weighs 400 grams. This is the harmless face of drones.

 

[Gotcher6]

I agree, the ARDrone is a great way to get your feet wet and gain some valuable drone flying experience, before moving on to something a little more sofisticated. I still have a soft spot in my heart for my ARDrone, even tho it's in the basement gathering dust.

 

[un hombre]

Ok, I have to admit one advantage of bebop over vision and vision plus... If you want to fly fast with a camera showing view straight ahead, it will do it just fine. If you fly fast with vision, you will see ground and with vision plus horizon but with propellers in the picture.