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I think this is such a fun/playful idea, kudos to Snap! Their first hardware product pretty much bombed but this is oddly one of the first consumer tech toys i

I think this is such a fun/playful idea, kudos to Snap! Their first hardware product pretty much bombed but this is oddly one of the first consumer tech toys in a while that I've felt I wanted. I can definitely see this being a fun thing to bring out in the backyard or to cookouts/parties, especially as a dad with young kids too. A couple things I'd be a bit worried about: * Battery life would need to last long enough to use this on and off for a few hours. If it's like 15 mins then no way. * Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers?

RC_ITR 4y ago
>Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? 100% yes and this is why every drone video ever has music over it.
- lacraig2 4y ago
  They might be able to pair the video from the drone with the microphone on your phone and get something reasonable (if the drone is far enough away).
- firmnoodle 4y ago
  If they can put a dog nose and tongue on a video with AI, I would guess maybe removing the sound of the drone is possible.
  - powcontech 4y ago
    AI is not even required, it would be quite easy to filter out the frequency of the noise from the rotors using technology that has existed for decades if not almost 100 years, indeed Butterworth was designing his filters in the 1930’s
    - jjkaczor 4y ago
      If I were a drone manufacturer of this type of camera drone, I would release free/downloadable audio profiles/captures of my drone operating at different speeds, to allow filtering to remove them based on the flight profile... (Maybe keep a log of propeller speeds, sync'd to the video)
    - pavlus 4y ago
      Simple FIR filter won't do the job, noise from the rotors and moving air is wideband and overlaps with signal. But adaptive filters used in noise-cancelling headphones with separate mics may work. One directional microphone records sound from the scene, the other undirected one records sound of the drone, then filter tries to minimize drone sound component in the signal from the mic by adjusting coefficients of the filter.
- devmunchies 4y ago
  not just drone vids, pro video (e.g. hollywood) all add sound in post. Foley Artist is a fun job. A solution would be to have Snap™ mics that i clip on to my shirt and it syncs with the video while recording.
  - chaps 4y ago
    Why would they clip? Surely they should snap onto your shirt.
    - devmunchies 4y ago
      at first i thought you were being pedantic somehow and then I got the joke.
  - sahila 4y ago
    No need for an external mic if they can just use your phone app + mic.
- mikeryan 4y ago
  100% yes and this is why every drone video ever has music over it. That and even without the buzz anything most drones picked up would not be meaningful sound. Most are too far away and moving too much to pick up voices, better to just record off your phone to get conversation and/or ambient noise. I'm almost surprised they even put a mic on this thing, though I'm sure from a product marketing perspective people would ding them for not having one.
micromacrofoot 4y ago
Drones are little noisy battery hogs, there's no way around it. Both your worries will absolutely be true.
bduerst 4y ago
>Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? In the post-tiktok era, it's not that big of an issue. Most videos will have easily added audio overlays.
malauxyeux 4y ago
> Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? And for those who are at the beach just trying to enjoy a little time away from the city. The folks at the beach near me are already fed up with ubiquitous Bluetooth speakers.
- wyager 4y ago
  Destruction of light/sound pollution sources in places otherwise free of such pollution is totally morally justified IMO. I was in Vegas a few weeks ago at a pool club. The bouncer was checking everyone's bags; not for guns, drugs, or alcohol, but for bluetooth speakers.
  - BrandonWatson 4y ago
    This will be a very underappreciated observation.
  - ryan_j_naughton 4y ago
    > Destruction of light/sound pollution sources in places otherwise free of such pollution is totally morally justified IMO. What do you mean by "destruction"? If you mean actually breaking someone's speaker, then you're wrong and fundamentally don't understand externalities. If you read the original Pigouvian and Coasian theory behind externalities, you'll realize that inherent to the nature of an externality is each side, by getting their way, is externalizing on the other. If you mandate silence, you're forcing that silence on others just as much as them playing music is forcing that sound on you. It's morally equivalent. You just have a belief that the absence of sound is the preferred state but that's not inherent. If birds are making tons of concurrent bird songs, that might sound like a cacophony to you, but you have no right to just go and destroy the birds. You are right and where I sympathize with you is that those with speakers basically thrust their noise on others with no system to push back and find a socially optimal equilibrium. And that is unfair. But what we could/should do is either: (A) create beach decibel maximums such that a person's music cannot be heard beyond X feet from them. That way they would have to find a place where they aren't externalizing on others. I always try to do this when I go to the beach anyway. (B) create beach areas where noise is allowed and areas where it isn't. But this shouldn't be limited to just music. Boisterous people can disrupt a serene beach environment too. Both of these solutions attempt to create win-win solutions with some compromise, which is the whole point of how an externality is internalized. Just blanket letting one side win or the other side win is not solving the problem.
stavros 4y ago
Oh don't worry, there's no way this will fly for 15 minutes.
inasio 4y ago
I'd be surprised if they get 15 minutes, I've played with the DJI mini and barely get that (per battery), and this one looks bulkier and with worse aerodynamics. That said, you probably don't want a noisy drone just hovering next/over your party all the time, and they do include a couple of batteries, swap is super easy.
- nanidin 4y ago
  Interesting because I have a Mavic Mini and it flies consistently for 20-25 minutes and I’ve had it for more than a year.
  - ehnto 4y ago
    It's really dependent on what both of you are doing with the drones. If you are boosting around fast and high, it's going to be less. If you are just hovering around the house then it's going to be longer. Battery health and actual charge capacity could be different too, depending on how the batteries are stored and how they have been treated etc.
- andrewgioia 4y ago
  Gotcha, I have no experience with drones so that's a bit of a bummer but you're right—this would not be hovering continuously so if the "total play time" could be over an hour with a fast battery switch that could be enough.
  - danenania 4y ago
    Yeah, I was thinking something like this would be useful for filming myself surfing (to get a better idea of all the things I'm doing wrong), but I have no drone experience either and didn't realize that such short flight times are the norm. Sounds like that kind of use case won't be realistic for quite some time.
- azinman2 4y ago
  Can the mini follow me around and just take the video I’d want to capture the moment? The pixy seems very easy to operate. I don’t want to have to be thinking about controlling the thing.
OutsmartDan 4y ago
Tech specs buried here: https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039928089236-Pixy-Tech-Specs https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039928089236-Pix... No info about battery life anywhere to be found.
- isp 4y ago
  "Each rechargeable battery holds 5-8 flights using the default flight modes." [1] [1] https://pixy.com/shop https://pixy.com/shop I believe each default flight time would be measured in seconds, so it's understandable that they are recommending their "Dual Battery Charger" (Two Pixy rechargeable batteries with USB-C charging station). They appear to have deliberately made the batteries as easy as possible to swap out, for this reason (based on the second half of the Learn - "How to Charge your Pixy" video: https://videos.ctfassets.net/svn43w404u4n/6RMiSJPQrtPdQdCoO55eIs/94b84c03fb3a266219738ea6146069fe/04_Charging_Vid_10_ARS_NON_ASMR_V8_1080p_RF_23.mp4 https://videos.ctfassets.net/svn43w404u4n/6RMiSJPQrtPdQdCoO5... ) EDIT: See also - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31195565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31195565
- mikeyouse 4y ago
  From their FCC application: Battery: 3.85V DC, 860mAh, 3.311Wh https://fccid.io/2AIRN-006/RF-Exposure-Info/220100298SHA-004-Report-FCC-MPE-Rev1-5850948.pdf https://fccid.io/2AIRN-006/RF-Exposure-Info/220100298SHA-004...
  - mNovak 4y ago
    Cool site by the way; FCC listings are always so hard to search
whartung 4y ago
At a glance, I like it. They look like the "110 pocket camera" of the drone world. Little more than snapshots, handy, super trivial operation, I guess "5-10 shots per battery".
nickff 4y ago
No quad-rotor drone battery this size can last for hours; it's just not possible with the specific energy available in batteries. If the entire drone were a battery (i.e. the rotors and housing were mass-less), it could last 45 mins. I expect battery life to be around 20 mins.
scoopertrooper 4y ago
The Pixy is good for "5-8 flights using the default flight modes" and the default flight duration seems to be 30 seconds. Therefore, the battery will likely last you at most 4 minutes. https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039935499924-About-Pixy https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039935499924-Abo... https://youtu.be/2HVty_tuiVQ?t=44 https://youtu.be/2HVty_tuiVQ?t=44
adriand 4y ago
I have to agree that this seems like a lot of fun. A lot of people in this thread are focusing on quality and comparing to other, more capable and more expensive drones. However, something small and relatively cheap that you can carry on a strap around your neck seems like a unique value prop. So long as it passes the bar of reasonable durability and quality I could see a lot of people wanting one.
trompetenaccoun 4y ago
You've gotten a lot of speculation in the answers from people who obviously haven't looked at the specs. The simple answer is there not going to be an audible hum in the video because there is no microphone ;)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Brusco_RF 4y ago
The device itself does not have a microphone. I imagine that you would use your phone's microphone if you wanted audio. Most drone-chasing shots use this method, a microphone on the subject is much better at capturing the sounds you actually want to hear.
robbiemitchell 4y ago
Audible hum won’t matter, the video will be covered with an audio track.
slkdk32 4y ago

RC_ITR 4y ago

>Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? 100% yes and this is why every drone video ever has music over it.

lacraig2 4y ago
They might be able to pair the video from the drone with the microphone on your phone and get something reasonable (if the drone is far enough away).
firmnoodle 4y ago
If they can put a dog nose and tongue on a video with AI, I would guess maybe removing the sound of the drone is possible.
- powcontech 4y ago
  AI is not even required, it would be quite easy to filter out the frequency of the noise from the rotors using technology that has existed for decades if not almost 100 years, indeed Butterworth was designing his filters in the 1930’s
  - jjkaczor 4y ago
    If I were a drone manufacturer of this type of camera drone, I would release free/downloadable audio profiles/captures of my drone operating at different speeds, to allow filtering to remove them based on the flight profile... (Maybe keep a log of propeller speeds, sync'd to the video)
  - pavlus 4y ago
    Simple FIR filter won't do the job, noise from the rotors and moving air is wideband and overlaps with signal. But adaptive filters used in noise-cancelling headphones with separate mics may work. One directional microphone records sound from the scene, the other undirected one records sound of the drone, then filter tries to minimize drone sound component in the signal from the mic by adjusting coefficients of the filter.
devmunchies 4y ago
not just drone vids, pro video (e.g. hollywood) all add sound in post. Foley Artist is a fun job. A solution would be to have Snap™ mics that i clip on to my shirt and it syncs with the video while recording.
- chaps 4y ago
  Why would they clip? Surely they should snap onto your shirt.
  - devmunchies 4y ago
    at first i thought you were being pedantic somehow and then I got the joke.
- sahila 4y ago
  No need for an external mic if they can just use your phone app + mic.
mikeryan 4y ago
100% yes and this is why every drone video ever has music over it. That and even without the buzz anything most drones picked up would not be meaningful sound. Most are too far away and moving too much to pick up voices, better to just record off your phone to get conversation and/or ambient noise. I'm almost surprised they even put a mic on this thing, though I'm sure from a product marketing perspective people would ding them for not having one.

micromacrofoot 4y ago

Drones are little noisy battery hogs, there's no way around it. Both your worries will absolutely be true.

bduerst 4y ago

>Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? In the post-tiktok era, it's not that big of an issue. Most videos will have easily added audio overlays.

malauxyeux 4y ago

> Would there be an audible hum in the video it records from the 4x propellers? And for those who are at the beach just trying to enjoy a little time away from the city. The folks at the beach near me are already fed up with ubiquitous Bluetooth speakers.

wyager 4y ago
Destruction of light/sound pollution sources in places otherwise free of such pollution is totally morally justified IMO. I was in Vegas a few weeks ago at a pool club. The bouncer was checking everyone's bags; not for guns, drugs, or alcohol, but for bluetooth speakers.
- BrandonWatson 4y ago
  This will be a very underappreciated observation.
- ryan_j_naughton 4y ago
  > Destruction of light/sound pollution sources in places otherwise free of such pollution is totally morally justified IMO. What do you mean by "destruction"? If you mean actually breaking someone's speaker, then you're wrong and fundamentally don't understand externalities. If you read the original Pigouvian and Coasian theory behind externalities, you'll realize that inherent to the nature of an externality is each side, by getting their way, is externalizing on the other. If you mandate silence, you're forcing that silence on others just as much as them playing music is forcing that sound on you. It's morally equivalent. You just have a belief that the absence of sound is the preferred state but that's not inherent. If birds are making tons of concurrent bird songs, that might sound like a cacophony to you, but you have no right to just go and destroy the birds. You are right and where I sympathize with you is that those with speakers basically thrust their noise on others with no system to push back and find a socially optimal equilibrium. And that is unfair. But what we could/should do is either: (A) create beach decibel maximums such that a person's music cannot be heard beyond X feet from them. That way they would have to find a place where they aren't externalizing on others. I always try to do this when I go to the beach anyway. (B) create beach areas where noise is allowed and areas where it isn't. But this shouldn't be limited to just music. Boisterous people can disrupt a serene beach environment too. Both of these solutions attempt to create win-win solutions with some compromise, which is the whole point of how an externality is internalized. Just blanket letting one side win or the other side win is not solving the problem.

stavros 4y ago

Oh don't worry, there's no way this will fly for 15 minutes.

inasio 4y ago

I'd be surprised if they get 15 minutes, I've played with the DJI mini and barely get that (per battery), and this one looks bulkier and with worse aerodynamics. That said, you probably don't want a noisy drone just hovering next/over your party all the time, and they do include a couple of batteries, swap is super easy.

nanidin 4y ago
Interesting because I have a Mavic Mini and it flies consistently for 20-25 minutes and I’ve had it for more than a year.
- ehnto 4y ago
  It's really dependent on what both of you are doing with the drones. If you are boosting around fast and high, it's going to be less. If you are just hovering around the house then it's going to be longer. Battery health and actual charge capacity could be different too, depending on how the batteries are stored and how they have been treated etc.
andrewgioia 4y ago
Gotcha, I have no experience with drones so that's a bit of a bummer but you're right—this would not be hovering continuously so if the "total play time" could be over an hour with a fast battery switch that could be enough.
- danenania 4y ago
  Yeah, I was thinking something like this would be useful for filming myself surfing (to get a better idea of all the things I'm doing wrong), but I have no drone experience either and didn't realize that such short flight times are the norm. Sounds like that kind of use case won't be realistic for quite some time.
azinman2 4y ago
Can the mini follow me around and just take the video I’d want to capture the moment? The pixy seems very easy to operate. I don’t want to have to be thinking about controlling the thing.

OutsmartDan 4y ago

Tech specs buried here: https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039928089236-Pixy-Tech-Specs https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039928089236-Pix... No info about battery life anywhere to be found.

isp 4y ago
"Each rechargeable battery holds 5-8 flights using the default flight modes." [1] [1] https://pixy.com/shop https://pixy.com/shop I believe each default flight time would be measured in seconds, so it's understandable that they are recommending their "Dual Battery Charger" (Two Pixy rechargeable batteries with USB-C charging station). They appear to have deliberately made the batteries as easy as possible to swap out, for this reason (based on the second half of the Learn - "How to Charge your Pixy" video: https://videos.ctfassets.net/svn43w404u4n/6RMiSJPQrtPdQdCoO55eIs/94b84c03fb3a266219738ea6146069fe/04_Charging_Vid_10_ARS_NON_ASMR_V8_1080p_RF_23.mp4 https://videos.ctfassets.net/svn43w404u4n/6RMiSJPQrtPdQdCoO5... ) EDIT: See also - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31195565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31195565
mikeyouse 4y ago
From their FCC application: Battery: 3.85V DC, 860mAh, 3.311Wh https://fccid.io/2AIRN-006/RF-Exposure-Info/220100298SHA-004-Report-FCC-MPE-Rev1-5850948.pdf https://fccid.io/2AIRN-006/RF-Exposure-Info/220100298SHA-004...
- mNovak 4y ago
  Cool site by the way; FCC listings are always so hard to search

whartung 4y ago

At a glance, I like it. They look like the "110 pocket camera" of the drone world. Little more than snapshots, handy, super trivial operation, I guess "5-10 shots per battery".

nickff 4y ago

No quad-rotor drone battery this size can last for hours; it's just not possible with the specific energy available in batteries. If the entire drone were a battery (i.e. the rotors and housing were mass-less), it could last 45 mins. I expect battery life to be around 20 mins.

scoopertrooper 4y ago

The Pixy is good for "5-8 flights using the default flight modes" and the default flight duration seems to be 30 seconds. Therefore, the battery will likely last you at most 4 minutes. https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039935499924-About-Pixy https://support.pixy.com/hc/en-us/articles/5039935499924-Abo... https://youtu.be/2HVty_tuiVQ?t=44 https://youtu.be/2HVty_tuiVQ?t=44

adriand 4y ago

I have to agree that this seems like a lot of fun. A lot of people in this thread are focusing on quality and comparing to other, more capable and more expensive drones. However, something small and relatively cheap that you can carry on a strap around your neck seems like a unique value prop. So long as it passes the bar of reasonable durability and quality I could see a lot of people wanting one.

trompetenaccoun 4y ago

You've gotten a lot of speculation in the answers from people who obviously haven't looked at the specs. The simple answer is there not going to be an audible hum in the video because there is no microphone ;)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Brusco_RF 4y ago

The device itself does not have a microphone. I imagine that you would use your phone's microphone if you wanted audio. Most drone-chasing shots use this method, a microphone on the subject is much better at capturing the sounds you actually want to hear.

robbiemitchell 4y ago

Audible hum won’t matter, the video will be covered with an audio track.

slkdk32 4y ago