4 ms·

Years ago I learned my lesson about preordering technology products. It's a lot easier to create a nifty demo of something than it is to build something at scal

Years ago I learned my lesson about preordering technology products. It's a lot easier to create a nifty demo of something than it is to build something at scale. I got suckered by the Lilly drone and managed to get a refund before things started to go south and that was my last "Ooops". The biggest problem with this (and many tech preorders/ Kickstarters) is that by the time they iron out all the production bugs and software issues, the product is obsolete. Even if the product ships in a timely fashion and isn't obsolete at launch, often you can just order it or a competing product for the same as the pre-order cost or often less. For board games and some other non-tech products, pre-ordering makes sense because the product is often unique and not available outside pre-order. For tech stuff, stay well clear.

spijdar 6y ago
Oh man, the Lilly! Waaaay back, I preordered a UAV around the same time, the "Sprite" drone [0]. I was still in my mid teens at the time, and very ... well, stupid. I wanted something to help take ortho images to stitch together for maps and use machine learning to identify objects from aerial imagery and other ambitious crap. Of course, it took years and years for the project to deliver. The guys behind it kept laboring though, and sent monthly updates, which I'd usually glance over at least. Years and years of those (detailed!) monthly updates. I remember they had joked early on they'd "beat" the Lilly to production. Well, they did ;) Many years later, I'd all but forgotten about it, and was about to graduate college when it finally arrived. I got it set up, took it out for a test flight. Then a second flight -- and on the second flight, it ignored RC input and flew away, (thankfully!!) crashing into a tree trunk at probably between 30-40 MPH. Despite being "ruggedized", there was a single large plastic gear somewhere between the main motor and the rotor assembly which would essentially take the blunt of any lateral impact, and shattered to bits. Was a custom part, so no trivial repair job. The cost to ship + repair it would have been significantly more than a brand new DJI something or another. I can't remember. Much better quadrocopter, better camera, better control system. I learned then that even if an idea makes it to market, not only will it probably be obsolete, but even if the creators got the idea to market, not all ideas are great ideas in the first place. In this case, despite being "ruggedized", no amount of polymer shielding will really prevent a high drop or impact from destroying the drive train and sensitive electronics. Most of the public accounts I can find about it mention something breaking on impact or it flying away. There was a google plus group (hah!) of "fans" that withered out a month or two after release. A year or so afterwards, the company silently erased the product from their homepage, and shifted gears to selling to military/government contracts. [0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ascentaerosystems/sprite-the-portable-rugged-totally-different-small https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ascentaerosystems/sprit...
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  Looks like many of the same ideas which made the Lilly so popular. For me it was the ability to follow a person. The friend who recommended the Lilly wound up getting screwed along with thousands of other people. I still haven't bought a drone, haven't found one which does the things I care about well enough at a reasonable price.
  - spijdar 6y ago
    Yeah that really sucks for everyone involved. This was the drone I remember finding (well, the older version back then): https://www.dji.com/mavic-air-2 https://www.dji.com/mavic-air-2 I'm absolutely not endorsing it especially since I never actually bought it (or anything else), but on paper it looks so, soooo much better than the various kickstarter drones, both failed and delivered. It's also a very real product and very quick searching showed people actually using the thing, and it appears to hold up to its marketing claims. If I was still as interested in getting that aerial photography, this seems like an obvious choice. Ah well.

spijdar 6y ago

Oh man, the Lilly! Waaaay back, I preordered a UAV around the same time, the "Sprite" drone [0]. I was still in my mid teens at the time, and very ... well, stupid. I wanted something to help take ortho images to stitch together for maps and use machine learning to identify objects from aerial imagery and other ambitious crap. Of course, it took years and years for the project to deliver. The guys behind it kept laboring though, and sent monthly updates, which I'd usually glance over at least. Years and years of those (detailed!) monthly updates. I remember they had joked early on they'd "beat" the Lilly to production. Well, they did ;) Many years later, I'd all but forgotten about it, and was about to graduate college when it finally arrived. I got it set up, took it out for a test flight. Then a second flight -- and on the second flight, it ignored RC input and flew away, (thankfully!!) crashing into a tree trunk at probably between 30-40 MPH. Despite being "ruggedized", there was a single large plastic gear somewhere between the main motor and the rotor assembly which would essentially take the blunt of any lateral impact, and shattered to bits. Was a custom part, so no trivial repair job. The cost to ship + repair it would have been significantly more than a brand new DJI something or another. I can't remember. Much better quadrocopter, better camera, better control system. I learned then that even if an idea makes it to market, not only will it probably be obsolete, but even if the creators got the idea to market, not all ideas are great ideas in the first place. In this case, despite being "ruggedized", no amount of polymer shielding will really prevent a high drop or impact from destroying the drive train and sensitive electronics. Most of the public accounts I can find about it mention something breaking on impact or it flying away. There was a google plus group (hah!) of "fans" that withered out a month or two after release. A year or so afterwards, the company silently erased the product from their homepage, and shifted gears to selling to military/government contracts. [0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ascentaerosystems/sprite-the-portable-rugged-totally-different-small https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ascentaerosystems/sprit...

ogre_codes 6y ago
Looks like many of the same ideas which made the Lilly so popular. For me it was the ability to follow a person. The friend who recommended the Lilly wound up getting screwed along with thousands of other people. I still haven't bought a drone, haven't found one which does the things I care about well enough at a reasonable price.
- spijdar 6y ago
  Yeah that really sucks for everyone involved. This was the drone I remember finding (well, the older version back then): https://www.dji.com/mavic-air-2 https://www.dji.com/mavic-air-2 I'm absolutely not endorsing it especially since I never actually bought it (or anything else), but on paper it looks so, soooo much better than the various kickstarter drones, both failed and delivered. It's also a very real product and very quick searching showed people actually using the thing, and it appears to hold up to its marketing claims. If I was still as interested in getting that aerial photography, this seems like an obvious choice. Ah well.