The Pocket Drone have now opened their online shop and are taking orders for two different versions. Ready to Fly Pocket Drone Your personal flying robot. It goes wherever you do. This is the “Ready to Fly” Package. This is a pre-order and will ship late summer 2014. BNF Pocket Drone (Bind and Fly) version. This is the “Bind and Fly” Package for advanced users who want to utilize their own DSM2 transmitter. Requires a DSM2 compatible transmitter (DSM2 receiver included) This is a pre-order and will ship late summer 2014 They are looking  short on spare parts with propellers and extra batteries available. They will need to up their game if they are going to become serious players in this space. Their Tricopter may have great functionality but buyers will want a comprehensive back up service. If you have ever flown UAV’s you will know exactly what I mean. The last thing you want is to have your craft laying on a shelf waiting for spare parts to arrive.

The Maker movement goes all commercial with The Pocket Drone and 2014 will see a proliferation of medium sized quality aerial photography platforms. Dubbed as the first micro copter to be able to lift a high quality camera the Pocket Drone was recently launched on Kickstarter. The campaign was launched to coincide with the CES fair and almost immediately surpassed their $35,000 goal. The Pocket Drone is competing against the likes of DJI Innovations producers of the outstanding Phantom range of aerial photography platforms. The founders of AirDroids the company behind the Pocket Drone lead the Drone Users Group Network and Chris Anderson of 3DRobotics the former editor of Wired heads the DIY Drone Community Network. What I find encouraging is that these guys really put in time an effort to find out exactly what features the public want from their offerings. The hobbyists and remote control enthusiast all play a part in rapidly developing prototypes , tinkering with UAV’s and constantly updating open source software.

I’ve seen the Hubsan guy actively engaged on the RCGroups forum quizzing the users as to what features should they include in their next product. parrot ar drone raggio d'azioneThese Drones do have serious commercial applications but for many of the buyers they represent a highly enjoyable way of expressing themselves by their Maker skills, Flying skills or Photographic skills. parrot ar drone sapkaWhether this will become a serious competitor to  Phantom range remains to be seen as DJI have recently released the Phantom FC40 an excellent RTF (Ready to Fly) out of the box Quadcopter. parrot ar drone arduinoLeaders in the micro Drone market Hubsan are working hard to bring out their 109S X4  model that will be also be capable of supporting a GoPro sized camera and 3DRobotics are due to start shipping the IRIS Quadcopter.parrot ar drone yorum

What a lot of the reviews fail to mention about this Tricopter is the rear motor is on a servo so it can tilt and counter the adverse Yaw effect. ar drone 2 box sizeThis make the Drone most suitable for Aerial Videography and photography.ar drone 2 zuladung These are the key features of the Pocket Drone a project by AirDroids of San Diego California. The naming of the copter is somewhat misleading as it is not as small as the traditional micro Drones but it is unique in the way it folds and fits neatly into a carry bag. I would have preferred to see a backpack but you can see by the image how neatly it folds. A presentation the founders gave at The Hardwear Battlefield from TechCrunch 1. Unique cutting-edge collapsible compact design 2. Easy to fly and simple to maintain 3. Lightweight with maximum payload 4. Ready to fly (RTF) with everything you need out of the box and quick to deploy

5. Advanced software and systems with autopilot and “follow me” mode 6. Longest flight time of any multicopter under $500 7. High quality materials and components 8. Upgradeable, expandable and hackable 9. Designed with multiple safety features Quadcopters with Cameras | Quadcopters Ready To Fly| A flying robot is on its way to becoming one of the most successful projects in Kickstarter history. The tiny, GoPro-mountable Pocket Drone was unveiled at this year’s CES trade show, and has since made the rounds as one of the most exciting products in the market thanks to its user-friendly design and functionality. It’s also on its way to becoming one of the most profitable Kickstarter projects of all time. At press time, the Pocket Drone had $410,214 pledged on a $35,000 goal... with 43 days left on its pledge drive. That’s a funding rate of 11,720 percent—well above Kickstarter’s current most-funded project, the Pebble smartwatch, which concluded its campaign with some 10,266 percent funding.

Of course, Pebble raised more than $10,000,000 on a $100,000 goal—so take the hype with a grain of salt. We’ve covered consumer drones and UAVs in the past, and at this year’s CES they were a hot-ticket item. But the Pocket Drone, from AirDroids, may be a game-changer. That's because it offers the functionality of a full-sized consumer drone in a collapsible design small enough to fit in a toiletry bag. With a promised retail price of less than $500, the Pocket Drone is targeted at action cam enthusiasts—mostly sports and aerial photography hobbyists, or casual filmmakers and videographers looking to add more variety to their shoots. Right out of the bag, the Pocket Drone promises up to 20 minutes of flight time, a half-pound payload (ideal for GoPro cameras), flight planning and auto-pilot synced through Google Maps, GPS tracking, a “follow me” mode that tails the owner’s mobile device, and Android compatibility (iOS is in the works). A Pocket Drone with its propellers retracted

The flying mechanism consists of 6-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and a barometric sensor for altitude. Users can also direct the drone to “return home,” or monitor real-time flight data on their smartphone or tablet. That's pretty impressive for a tricopter the size of a shoebox. But what’s really intriguing about the Pocket Drone is its enormous, ongoing success on Kickstarter. In terms of its total funding-to-goal ratio, it’s already one of the most successful in history, and it shows no signs of slowing with more than a month left in its campaign. Of course, many critical details about the Pocket Drone are currently unavailable—such as battery life, flight distance, and maximum altitude. But for a compact $500 drone designed specifically for action cams, it looks like a pretty sweet deal. With the commercial UAV market set to take off this year, products like the Pocket Drone are stirring excitement in a space that’s riddled with controversy.