9 ms·

Less drones for you, more for the military. There is no real downsides for the current gov’t here.

by lazide 10mo ago

showerst 10mo ago
I build hobby scale drones for fun, mostly sub250g micros with no military value. I’d pay more for domestic parts, because I think the capability is strategically valuable, and the quality of Chinese stuff is super variable. There’s basically no industry here because the aliexpress parts are so cheap, so I support some protectionism, understanding that it will make the hobby more expensive. I think you’re probably right, but I think going for million dollar drones from anduril while wiping the rest of the market is a miscalculation.
- bethekidyouwant 10mo ago
  Where is the ban of cheap motors, escs, cameras, radios from aliexpress? How does this affect hobby drone market at all?
  - lazide 10mo ago
    Based on the article, it says it also bans motors, controllers, etc. pretty much all major parts.
    - bethekidyouwant 10mo ago
      Wow, the title of the article really buries the lead as this is a much bigger deal than banning new versions of fully assembled drones made by a Chinese company. I can’t even think of another country that makes 4S Lipo batteries or the motors or the ESC’s or the VTX or the GPS module..
      - lazide 10mo ago
        Yup, it essentially defacto bans civilian drones - unless something pretty major changes with domestic manufacturing anyway.
        bethekidyouwant 10mo ago
        No, I imagine that they will start assembling the pcbs in Vietnam from Chinese chips
        lazide 10mo ago
        Won’t help them since the Vietnamese chips will likely be similarly banned.
- tucnak 10mo ago
  What makes you think U.S.-manufactured parts would be less "variable" than Chinese stuff? I would guess the opposite to be the case: reliability comes from scale, and there's very little scale in U.S. electronics manufacturing in the first place. Chinese stuff ranges from cheap to expensive, super reliable and super unreliable, too.

Less drones for you, more for the military. There is no real downsides for the current gov’t here.

by lazide 10mo ago

Less drones for you, more for the military. There is no real downsides for the current gov’t here.

I build hobby scale drones for fun, mostly sub250g micros with no military value. I’d pay more for domestic parts, because I think the capability is strategically valuable, and the quality of Chinese stuff is super variable. There’s basically no industry here because the aliexpress parts are so cheap, so I support some protectionism, understanding that it will make the hobby more expensive. I think you’re probably right, but I think going for million dollar drones from anduril while wiping the rest of the market is a miscalculation.

bethekidyouwant 10mo ago
Where is the ban of cheap motors, escs, cameras, radios from aliexpress? How does this affect hobby drone market at all?
- lazide 10mo ago
  Based on the article, it says it also bans motors, controllers, etc. pretty much all major parts.
  - bethekidyouwant 10mo ago
    Wow, the title of the article really buries the lead as this is a much bigger deal than banning new versions of fully assembled drones made by a Chinese company. I can’t even think of another country that makes 4S Lipo batteries or the motors or the ESC’s or the VTX or the GPS module..
    - lazide 10mo ago
      Yup, it essentially defacto bans civilian drones - unless something pretty major changes with domestic manufacturing anyway.
      - bethekidyouwant 10mo ago
        No, I imagine that they will start assembling the pcbs in Vietnam from Chinese chips
        lazide 10mo ago
        Won’t help them since the Vietnamese chips will likely be similarly banned.
tucnak 10mo ago
What makes you think U.S.-manufactured parts would be less "variable" than Chinese stuff? I would guess the opposite to be the case: reliability comes from scale, and there's very little scale in U.S. electronics manufacturing in the first place. Chinese stuff ranges from cheap to expensive, super reliable and super unreliable, too.