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Did they copy the Inspire?

I don't know about knock offs here -- a quad is going to dominate the lower price segment so that means four rotors. You are going to want the camera towards the front and hanging from the bottom. To balance the weight og the camera and gimbal at the front you need to put weight at the back making that a good place for the battery. It's better to arrange the center portion in a way that minimizes aerodynamic drag where traveling in the preferred direction.

When you take the above factors into account that form pretty much follows from there and you get something that looks a bit like an Inspire 1. you know, cars have four wheels placed at the corners and the long axis points in the direction of travel. They tend to be about the same height and length and width and many look very much alike. Hey, and airplanes have wings.


Brian
 
I don't know about knock offs here -- a quad is going to dominate the lower price segment so that means four rotors. You are going to want the camera towards the front and hanging from the bottom. To balance the weight og the camera and gimbal at the front you need to put weight at the back making that a good place for the battery. It's better to arrange the center portion in a way that minimizes aerodynamic drag where traveling in the preferred direction.

When you take the above factors into account that form pretty much follows from there and you get something that looks a bit like an Inspire 1. you know, cars have four wheels placed at the corners and the long axis points in the direction of travel. They tend to be about the same height and length and width and many look very much alike. Hey, and airplanes have wings.


Brian
Ok if you can deny that the Walkera isn't a shameful ripoff you definitely should be selling bridges!
 
Ok if you can deny that the Walkera isn't a shameful ripoff you definitely should be selling bridges!

This is a less shameful ripoff than most cars on the road are shameful ripoffs of other companies innovation and styling. The are certainly lines that a very similar to the Inspire 1 and notably different than, say, the Phantom series, but the singular feature of the Inspire 1, the transformation between flight and landing, is simply not the same at all.

This drone transforms all right. but it articulates the landing gear and camera mount so that on the ground the landing gear are down and the camera mount is retracted higher into the bird giving the needed ground clearance. I'm not wild about the way the landing gear works and particularly how narrow the stance is, but the arms don't articulate like the Inspire 1.

Was the design influenced by the Inspire 1 -- maybe, maybe not. The Inspire 1 has been out for a bit over a year and a competitor would be hard pressed to design a knock off and bring to market this quickly.

Shame not found!


Brian
 
This is a less shameful ripoff than most cars on the road are shameful ripoffs of other companies innovation and styling. The are certainly lines that a very similar to the Inspire 1 and notably different than, say, the Phantom series, but the singular feature of the Inspire 1, the transformation between flight and landing, is simply not the same at all.

This drone transforms all right. but it articulates the landing gear and camera mount so that on the ground the landing gear are down and the camera mount is retracted higher into the bird giving the needed ground clearance. I'm not wild about the way the landing gear works and particularly how narrow the stance is, but the arms don't articulate like the Inspire 1.

Was the design influenced by the Inspire 1 -- maybe, maybe not. The Inspire 1 has been out for a bit over a year and a competitor would be hard pressed to design a knock off and bring to market this quickly.

Shame not found!


Brian
I totally respect your opinions and your rights to fly whatever you wish. I'm quite satisfied with the I1 and since the Chinese market knocks off American products regularly it wouldn't hurt my feelings if hundreds of knockoffs came out. I love Karma! Soon we'll have in the UAS market the same competition as the new hover board market. Quads that take off and catch fire midair and everyone will think terrorism is behind it instead of just plain poor engineering.
 
I love the irony of the Chinese knocking off their own products!
Yup, its a knock-off/copy.
This is an old thread now but before the Inspire nothing had been seen even vaguely similar in design for a four rotor aircraft. The T-Arms were new and so to was the transforming design.
Then shortly afterwards the Voyager came along with obvious copy cat features. Even down to the circular locking mechanism to secure the gimbal.
Maybe someone who worked at DJI had a grudge and sold them the plans. :p
Walkera 'altered' the design sufficiently so as DJI didn't cry 'Copyright' but the cloning is clear to see.
 
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Yup, its a knock-off/copy.
This is an old thread now but before the Inspire nothing had been seen even vaguely similar in design for a four rotor aircraft. The T-Arms were new and so to was the transforming design.
Then shortly afterwards the Voyager came along with obvious copy cat features. Even down to the circular locking mechanism to secure the gimbal.
Maybe someone who worked at DJI had a grudge and sold them the plans. :p
Walkera 'altered' the design sufficiently so as DJI didn't cry 'Copyright' but the cloning is clear to see.

How ere they supposed to attach the gimbal -- with staples? The gimbal mounting arrangement DJI uses is not the first time in history a twist locking mechanism has been used. The original SLR cameras had screw on lenses but before long all the makers started using more-or-less the same kind of twist on/off mounts. I suppose Walkera could have used a mount where the whole gimbal twists on instead of a ring, but with as many electrical contacts as there are it makes more sense to use a ring to lock/unlock.

As I said there are obvious design lines that resemble the Inspire 1 and they may have borrowed from that design language but what product sold today isn't the result of borrowed design language.

I've not heard good things about the handling and performance of the Voyager 3 and there's some weirdness in the way one has to buy and pay for on so time will tell if they survive or not.

I wonder what the underlying technology is for it -- that is, what are they using for A2 or Lightbridge function? Is it possible they have DJI technology under the hood? If so then this would be a bit like the Apple Samsung deal only in reverse.


Brian
 
How ere they supposed to attach the gimbal -- with staples? The gimbal mounting arrangement DJI uses is not the first time in history a twist locking mechanism has been used. The original SLR cameras had screw on lenses but before long all the makers started using more-or-less the same kind of twist on/off mounts. I suppose Walkera could have used a mount where the whole gimbal twists on instead of a ring, but with as many electrical contacts as there are it makes more sense to use a ring to lock/unlock.

As I said there are obvious design lines that resemble the Inspire 1 and they may have borrowed from that design language but what product sold today isn't the result of borrowed design language.

I've not heard good things about the handling and performance of the Voyager 3 and there's some weirdness in the way one has to buy and pay for on so time will tell if they survive or not.

I wonder what the underlying technology is for it -- that is, what are they using for A2 or Lightbridge function? Is it possible they have DJI technology under the hood? If so then this would be a bit like the Apple Samsung deal only in reverse.


Brian
Like I said - this is an old thread.... all old news.

Yes - staples would be best (very secure)
 

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