A majority of the things that sponsor YouTube videos. As great as much of that stuff is, one must not forget the reason many people advertise products online is to serve as a loophole when something about it is too questionable for the stores. I previously mentioned MagicSpoon cereal for example, and as good as it might be in moderation, it’s a well-known FDA nightmare because things with artificial sweeteners are so antsy to get themselves on shelves. Probably my favorite example though is Established Titles, which I’m known to simultaneously make fun of often, point out how over-the-top it is with its scammy reputation, and admire its intentions since it’s technically trying to help in ways that surpass Ecosia (and to the next person who replies to this, that’s Lady Leni to you!)
My boomer uncle falls for all that crap. He means well, so I’m not trying to take a dig at him or others like him, they just don’t know better.
But holy fuck did these scumbags find the right avenue to pawn off Chinese junk.
He knows I fly my drones every now and then and he once recommended one of the ones he saw on a YouTube video to me. I know the one he’s talking about.
The commercial makes it out to be like “this is the same drone the US navy uses for their exercises, costing over $2.5 billion in R&D. But now can be yours for only $19.99!”
As a novice, how can I tell the difference between a decent drone and a crap one? My daughter asked for one for Christmas and, although I’m not getting one for her this year (she’s definitely too young to fly it responsibly) I need to start getting educated on the topic.
If your daughter is a smaller child, like under 13 years old, a cheap drone from Alibaba isn’t a horrible choice since kids just want to have some fun flying a thing around the house or in the backyard. And if it does crash and break, it’s not too much to get upset by because it was so cheap and your expectations are lower. You can get these for very cheap, as little as $5 from Chinese websites or $20 on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend spending anything over $60 for one of these types of toy drones, though. Some don’t have cameras, and others that do will have very poor quality and the camera will be static, meaning you can’t move it around to see other directions while flying.
My beef with the commercials that were tricking my uncle was that they make it out to be that it’s more than a toy, when it’s just a toy. If they advertised it more accurately, I wouldn’t have seen a problem with it. I bought one of those as my first drone but knew it was cheap and just a toy and then gradually bought more as time progressed.
As far as something more complex, it’s a bit more tricky to explain unless you spend some time doing some research and it can get a bit lengthy for me to explain here. I’d recommend checking out reviews and watching some YouTube videos on recommendations to get a familiarity with what may be most suitable here for something more complex than a toy.
But the gist of it is that if you want something a little more high quality, reliable, better camera, better range, etc., then you have a few options. But to summarize: for the typical drones with fancy features and easy to use for beginners, you’ll typically want to go with a name brand like DJI but these can be somewhat pricey, as little as $150 used and sky is the limit brand new, depending on what you want. For most consumers, average pricing will be around $400, more or less for one of these.
Then there is another category which is more classified as quadcopters than drones but still the same basic concept of 4 motors that allow the device to hover and move around and also use a camera. Most of these are very specialized, similar to RC cars and you’ll find these at hobby shops. Most people use these for racing or doing stunts. Used will run you as little as $100 and sky is the limit here depending on what you want, but average for most people is $400. You can buy kits or the quadcopter preassembled and then also buy the battery and remote separately, which is nice, kind of like building a computer where you can take your time and spend money on a longer period of time. Buy the board or even 3D print one, then buy the controller board, the motors, the blades, etc. and assemble it for flying. These don’t usually have the fancy features like flying back home on a single button press or when the battery gets low or tracking capabilities. The cameras are also usually static, in one place and don’t have gimbals which allow the camera to look one side or the other. The batteries also usually only last for under 10 minutes, which doesn’t seem like a lot but usually is enough for a single round and you’ll typically carry multiple batteries to switch out as needed when out and about. But the higher horsepower and camera quality is what is usually eating the battery time.
If your daughter is a smaller child, like under 13 years old, a cheap drone from Alibaba isn’t a horrible choice since kids just want to have some fun flying a thing around the house or in the backyard. And if it does crash and break, it’s not too much to get upset by because it was so cheap and your expectations are lower. You can get these for very cheap, as little as $5 from Chinese websites or $20 on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend spending anything over $60 for one of these types of toy drones, though. Some don’t have cameras, and others that do will have very poor quality and the camera will be static, meaning you can’t move it around to see other directions while flying.
Then there is another category which is more classified as quadcopters… Most people use these for racing or doing stunts.
She’s 5, LOL. Also, she seemed primarily interested in it as a camera platform rather than racing or stunts.
Any opinions on this? I nearly impulse-bought it for about $40 just before Black Friday, but (aside from coming to my senses about a drone for a 5-year-old) I was a bit leery of the “smartphone app” control scheme, especially since I’m pretty militant about avoiding proprietary Android apps in general (and that goes double for ones for controlling weird off-brand hardware). I guess what they describe as “manual adjustable camera” is the “static” camera thing you’re warning me about? I can see how it’d be inconvenient to not be able to look both ahead and at the ground without having to tilt the whole aircraft/fly forward.
You can buy kits or the quadcopter preassembled and then also buy the battery and remote separately, which is nice, kind of like building a computer where you can take your time and spend money on a longer period of time. Buy the board or even 3D print one, then buy the controller board, the motors, the blades, etc. and assemble it for flying.
I have to admit, being a big fan of Free Software and somebody who fancies myself a bit of a DIYer, the idea of building it myself appeals to me. Of course, I’m also cheap and I doubt I’d be able to compete with a preassembled Chinese toy drone on price (unless I disqualify all the app-controlled ones, maybe), so I’m not sure. Any advice re: controller boards and software, and other components? I ran across this article from 2019 just now, but for all I know it might be obsolete/incomplete/written by somebody with weird opinions.
The biggest other concern I have is crashes, since I can only assume a small child pilot will be bad at it. Do drones often, you know, survive, or should I expect to be replacing parts and/or the whole thing relatively often? Should I lean towards DIY and 3D-printing because of the repairability factor?
I think I might be coalescing on something like “a very cheap 1080p or better camera drone (as opposed to FPV racing quad) DIY kit, but controlled with a proper standalone transmitter, or at least a Free Software Android app.” Not sure such a thing exists, but I think it’s what I want. (Do they make open-source flight controller PCBs with extra channel(s) to support controlling a [(maybe) pan - tilt - (maybe) zoom] camera, or would that kick me into the start-from-scratch-with-an-Arduino realm? For that matter, can a movable drone camera even be had as an off-the-shelf part?)
So for context, a lot of foods have swerved their way around having true sugar in their ingredients once a substitute was realized. They call these artificial sweeteners, and they’re advertised as a replacement for sugar, but because they’re also not as natural compared to sugar (by far), there has been concern they’re carcinogens (which a lot of things we use are, such as air freshener spray, though this isn’t to say there is anything against them, just they cannot be taken for granted).
Along comes Magic Spoon, a cereal brand where the lack of added sugar is one of the pillars and which also advertises more vivid flavors. To the point that a lot of people will be arguing that you might as well just swear off cereal. I’ve seen a lot of people in stores sell Magic Spoon, but these are typically pre-bought in bulk and put in tiny family-run convenience stores, otherwise the main source is YouTube videos because they know the big sellers are more cautious.
I think Stevia is one of the less controversial natural sweeteners. I say natural because pure stevia extract or whatever the single ingredient variety is grows just like sugarcane and is refined into a table/product-ready in no worse a way than for regular sugar.
I think MagicSpoon is another product marketing itself almost exclusively online in the same way that Cards Against Humanity did and found much success with while slashing their costs to produce and market a novel product without the enormous overhead of having to negotiate deals with chain stores for an already saturated market of shelf space.
Grocery stores are incredibly complex and to appear on the shelf requires demanding contracts that put the pressure on the supplier as opposed to the store itself which ostensibly holds all the cards and can make many one-sided demands of the supplier that may not be practical for a smaller company like MagicSpoon (I’m assuming).
They’re certainly no Kellogs or Post or whatever large cereal brand in terms of market share since its a niche product (Most people are addicted to sugar so their audience is definitionally limited to those who have already quit sugar or those who want to replace their sugary breakfast cereals with something containing no sugar and maybe that has other desirable nutrient profiles consistent with the larger profile of their general diet.
A majority of the things that sponsor YouTube videos. As great as much of that stuff is, one must not forget the reason many people advertise products online is to serve as a loophole when something about it is too questionable for the stores. I previously mentioned MagicSpoon cereal for example, and as good as it might be in moderation, it’s a well-known FDA nightmare because things with artificial sweeteners are so antsy to get themselves on shelves. Probably my favorite example though is Established Titles, which I’m known to simultaneously make fun of often, point out how over-the-top it is with its scammy reputation, and admire its intentions since it’s technically trying to help in ways that surpass Ecosia (and to the next person who replies to this, that’s Lady Leni to you!)
My boomer uncle falls for all that crap. He means well, so I’m not trying to take a dig at him or others like him, they just don’t know better.
But holy fuck did these scumbags find the right avenue to pawn off Chinese junk.
He knows I fly my drones every now and then and he once recommended one of the ones he saw on a YouTube video to me. I know the one he’s talking about.
The commercial makes it out to be like “this is the same drone the US navy uses for their exercises, costing over $2.5 billion in R&D. But now can be yours for only $19.99!”
In reality, it’s a $5 toy from AliBaba…
As a novice, how can I tell the difference between a decent drone and a crap one? My daughter asked for one for Christmas and, although I’m not getting one for her this year (she’s definitely too young to fly it responsibly) I need to start getting educated on the topic.
Depends on what you want it for, honestly.
If your daughter is a smaller child, like under 13 years old, a cheap drone from Alibaba isn’t a horrible choice since kids just want to have some fun flying a thing around the house or in the backyard. And if it does crash and break, it’s not too much to get upset by because it was so cheap and your expectations are lower. You can get these for very cheap, as little as $5 from Chinese websites or $20 on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend spending anything over $60 for one of these types of toy drones, though. Some don’t have cameras, and others that do will have very poor quality and the camera will be static, meaning you can’t move it around to see other directions while flying.
My beef with the commercials that were tricking my uncle was that they make it out to be that it’s more than a toy, when it’s just a toy. If they advertised it more accurately, I wouldn’t have seen a problem with it. I bought one of those as my first drone but knew it was cheap and just a toy and then gradually bought more as time progressed.
As far as something more complex, it’s a bit more tricky to explain unless you spend some time doing some research and it can get a bit lengthy for me to explain here. I’d recommend checking out reviews and watching some YouTube videos on recommendations to get a familiarity with what may be most suitable here for something more complex than a toy.
But the gist of it is that if you want something a little more high quality, reliable, better camera, better range, etc., then you have a few options. But to summarize: for the typical drones with fancy features and easy to use for beginners, you’ll typically want to go with a name brand like DJI but these can be somewhat pricey, as little as $150 used and sky is the limit brand new, depending on what you want. For most consumers, average pricing will be around $400, more or less for one of these.
Then there is another category which is more classified as quadcopters than drones but still the same basic concept of 4 motors that allow the device to hover and move around and also use a camera. Most of these are very specialized, similar to RC cars and you’ll find these at hobby shops. Most people use these for racing or doing stunts. Used will run you as little as $100 and sky is the limit here depending on what you want, but average for most people is $400. You can buy kits or the quadcopter preassembled and then also buy the battery and remote separately, which is nice, kind of like building a computer where you can take your time and spend money on a longer period of time. Buy the board or even 3D print one, then buy the controller board, the motors, the blades, etc. and assemble it for flying. These don’t usually have the fancy features like flying back home on a single button press or when the battery gets low or tracking capabilities. The cameras are also usually static, in one place and don’t have gimbals which allow the camera to look one side or the other. The batteries also usually only last for under 10 minutes, which doesn’t seem like a lot but usually is enough for a single round and you’ll typically carry multiple batteries to switch out as needed when out and about. But the higher horsepower and camera quality is what is usually eating the battery time.
She’s 5, LOL. Also, she seemed primarily interested in it as a camera platform rather than racing or stunts.
Any opinions on this? I nearly impulse-bought it for about $40 just before Black Friday, but (aside from coming to my senses about a drone for a 5-year-old) I was a bit leery of the “smartphone app” control scheme, especially since I’m pretty militant about avoiding proprietary Android apps in general (and that goes double for ones for controlling weird off-brand hardware). I guess what they describe as “manual adjustable camera” is the “static” camera thing you’re warning me about? I can see how it’d be inconvenient to not be able to look both ahead and at the ground without having to tilt the whole aircraft/fly forward.
I have to admit, being a big fan of Free Software and somebody who fancies myself a bit of a DIYer, the idea of building it myself appeals to me. Of course, I’m also cheap and I doubt I’d be able to compete with a preassembled Chinese toy drone on price (unless I disqualify all the app-controlled ones, maybe), so I’m not sure. Any advice re: controller boards and software, and other components? I ran across this article from 2019 just now, but for all I know it might be obsolete/incomplete/written by somebody with weird opinions.
The biggest other concern I have is crashes, since I can only assume a small child pilot will be bad at it. Do drones often, you know, survive, or should I expect to be replacing parts and/or the whole thing relatively often? Should I lean towards DIY and 3D-printing because of the repairability factor?
I think I might be coalescing on something like “a very cheap 1080p or better camera drone (as opposed to FPV racing quad) DIY kit, but controlled with a proper standalone transmitter, or at least a Free Software Android app.” Not sure such a thing exists, but I think it’s what I want. (Do they make open-source flight controller PCBs with extra channel(s) to support controlling a [(maybe) pan - tilt - (maybe) zoom] camera, or would that kick me into the start-from-scratch-with-an-Arduino realm? For that matter, can a movable drone camera even be had as an off-the-shelf part?)
What’s the deal with MagicSpoon?
So for context, a lot of foods have swerved their way around having true sugar in their ingredients once a substitute was realized. They call these artificial sweeteners, and they’re advertised as a replacement for sugar, but because they’re also not as natural compared to sugar (by far), there has been concern they’re carcinogens (which a lot of things we use are, such as air freshener spray, though this isn’t to say there is anything against them, just they cannot be taken for granted).
Along comes Magic Spoon, a cereal brand where the lack of added sugar is one of the pillars and which also advertises more vivid flavors. To the point that a lot of people will be arguing that you might as well just swear off cereal. I’ve seen a lot of people in stores sell Magic Spoon, but these are typically pre-bought in bulk and put in tiny family-run convenience stores, otherwise the main source is YouTube videos because they know the big sellers are more cautious.
Its Stevia right?
I think Stevia is one of the less controversial natural sweeteners. I say natural because pure stevia extract or whatever the single ingredient variety is grows just like sugarcane and is refined into a table/product-ready in no worse a way than for regular sugar.
I think MagicSpoon is another product marketing itself almost exclusively online in the same way that Cards Against Humanity did and found much success with while slashing their costs to produce and market a novel product without the enormous overhead of having to negotiate deals with chain stores for an already saturated market of shelf space.
Grocery stores are incredibly complex and to appear on the shelf requires demanding contracts that put the pressure on the supplier as opposed to the store itself which ostensibly holds all the cards and can make many one-sided demands of the supplier that may not be practical for a smaller company like MagicSpoon (I’m assuming).
They’re certainly no Kellogs or Post or whatever large cereal brand in terms of market share since its a niche product (Most people are addicted to sugar so their audience is definitionally limited to those who have already quit sugar or those who want to replace their sugary breakfast cereals with something containing no sugar and maybe that has other desirable nutrient profiles consistent with the larger profile of their general diet.