Starter Drone for GS?W

[karrarararararar]

https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_flyers

 

[ebb]

I live in a semi-rural neighborhood that was recently hit with a tornado. Our only ingress and egress was blocked for hours with down trees. Even I can see that a drone may be useful in such emergencies. I can stand on the front or back porch and see most of the neighborhood, and a good idea about bad actors, but behind the neighbor's house could be 25-30 of them that i can't see. Drone seems like a good idea but not $1500 worth knowing I could crash it the first day.

 

[kojaone]

I'm not a drone guy, but I am a tech guy. I tend to not believe the hype of a lot of these Chinese sourced products, but the advances in technology make this one at least sort of credible. Newer chip-based radars, solid state gyros, cheap GPS chips; it is very possible that those cheapies can now rival the big thousand-plus dollar boys that have ruled the roost.

Just my opinion; I don't know anyone who has one.

As a tech guy,what do you think?
I do think China and Russia will always be the bogeyman,but after watching a few videos on the smart meters hanging on side of your house,that have Windows processors in them,I do wonder if a $99 drone could use your electric meter to pass info on.I have a remote pasture with a meter/well for livestock,snowed in now,still meter gets read.BTW, I do know from exprience, Apple products mesh with each other.

 

[divingin]

If you're asking about the meter being hacked, it's technologically possible, but pretty unlikely. The reason I say that is that there are likely a bunch of different smart meters in use, and writing code that would get from a drone into all or even most of them is a pretty remote likelihood. In addition; how much would you use your drone? An hour a day on half the days of the week? Rather than a drone, I'd be more worried about your smart refrigerator, smart TV, or smart speaker, all of which are always on, and directly connected to high bandwidth pipeline to the net.

 

[Scott haywood]

Look at the new DJI Flip. Same camera as the Mini 4 Pro, has prop guards, packs up small, and you don't need the controller, use you phone. But the controller will have more range and options. Good bit cheaper than the 4 Pro.

 

[Dave M.]

I'm not a drone guy, but I am a tech guy. I tend to not believe the hype of a lot of these Chinese sourced products, but the advances in technology make this one at least sort of credible. Newer chip-based radars, solid state gyros, cheap GPS chips; it is very possible that those cheapies can now rival the big thousand-plus dollar boys that have ruled the roost.

Just my opinion; I don't know anyone who has one.

Not as of Oct 2024 when I was reviewing them with my brother. The DJI’s aren’t cheap but they are basically in a league of their own.