4 ms·

And he's just making a grill scrubber. I just ordered a bunch of drone parts. The majority of those part were only available from China.

jacquesm 7mo ago
If you want: motors, ESCs, flight controllers and radios those can be sourced from outside of China, and competitively priced too (if you're in Europe, outside you'd still have to add taxes).
- petterroea 7mo ago
  Yeah tbf I wouldn't underestimate Eastern Europe. The drone industry there must be booming nowadays, pun not intended.
  - jacquesm 7mo ago
    It's everywhere. And 'China free' is a real motto here.
    - aprentic 7mo ago
      I can't install a motto in my drone. None of the alternatives will allow me to put a physical drone part in my hand with any degree of reliability.
  - aprentic 7mo ago
    How? As near as I can tell, the vast majority of the parts are made in China. When I look at the few alternatives, they're full of Chinese circuitry. If I look at circuit components, they're all made of Chinese raw materials. Both Ukraine and Russia are planning to deploy (and use up) several million drones over the next year. Iran just joined them as a major procurer. Where are all the US and EU component factories?
    - jacquesm 7mo ago
      In Spain, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
      - aprentic 7mo ago
        Do you have any links?
        jacquesm 7mo ago
        Already in that other comment.
        aprentic 7mo ago
        I checked both the links in the other comment. While they satisfy the technical requirement of, "there exists an alternative" neither of them is generally available as a viable alternative to China.
        jacquesm 7mo ago
        They are for me.
        aprentic 7mo ago
        This whole thread is in response to an attempt to someone trying to source parts to manufacture something in the US. If "for me" is limited to some rich guy in the Netherlands, that doesn't solve the problem "for anyone else."
        jacquesm 7mo ago
        Well, we could counter that and say that the whole thread here is exactly about how the US is losing its soft power position and the import situation you are facing is an integral part of that. And 'some rich guy in the Netherlands' is a nice target for you but I know plenty of people that are in other parts of Europe that seem to have no problem ordering from both of these. You asked for alternatives, you got them. You could have just left it at that but you feel the need to explain why those alternatives are not the alternatives you wanted. What did you expect? A 1-900 number and someone taking your credit card?
- aprentic 7mo ago
  The thread is about manufacturing in the US so tariffs do have to be factored in. On those specific parts: Motors: T-Motor F90 1300KV - $119.60(incl shipping) + Tariff ESC: Holybro Tekko32 F4 50A - $88.97(incl shipping) + Tariff FC: Matek H743-SLIM V4 - £88.12(incl shipping + VAT) + Tariff Radio: Radiomaster M2 $95.99(incl shipping + sales tax) The FC was from a UK store but it originated in China. I already had the radio so I don't have current prices on it. I'd love to find a list of vendors that have comparable parts, in stock, and without being insane multiples of those prices. edit: formatting
  - jacquesm 7mo ago
    https://motor-g.com/en https://motor-g.com/en https://www.arctus.ai/products https://www.arctus.ai/products
    - aprentic 7mo ago
      Motor-g doesn't seem to ship outside of Ukraine. That's totally understandable but for anyone outside of Ukraine, they effectively don't exist. Arctus asks you to contact them just for product info. It seems they just raised 2.6M in seed funding 3 months ago. It's great that there are startups in NL but that's not even close to a replacement for China's scale yet. Both of these may change the landscape in the future. For now, neither of them is a practical way to get drone parts without China.
      - jacquesm 7mo ago
        > Motor-g doesn't seem to ship outside of Ukraine. They absolutely do. > Arctus asks you to contact them just for product info. You can order as much as you want from them, the price is right and the quality is extremely high. Indeed, they're not on AliExpress, but that's roughly the difference between being a producer in Europe and in China, and that is precisely the difference that you should be happy with.
        aprentic 7mo ago

jacquesm 7mo ago

If you want: motors, ESCs, flight controllers and radios those can be sourced from outside of China, and competitively priced too (if you're in Europe, outside you'd still have to add taxes).

petterroea 7mo ago
Yeah tbf I wouldn't underestimate Eastern Europe. The drone industry there must be booming nowadays, pun not intended.
- jacquesm 7mo ago
  It's everywhere. And 'China free' is a real motto here.
  - aprentic 7mo ago
    I can't install a motto in my drone. None of the alternatives will allow me to put a physical drone part in my hand with any degree of reliability.
- aprentic 7mo ago
  How? As near as I can tell, the vast majority of the parts are made in China. When I look at the few alternatives, they're full of Chinese circuitry. If I look at circuit components, they're all made of Chinese raw materials. Both Ukraine and Russia are planning to deploy (and use up) several million drones over the next year. Iran just joined them as a major procurer. Where are all the US and EU component factories?
  - jacquesm 7mo ago
    In Spain, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
    - aprentic 7mo ago
      Do you have any links?
      - jacquesm 7mo ago
        Already in that other comment.
        aprentic 7mo ago
        I checked both the links in the other comment. While they satisfy the technical requirement of, "there exists an alternative" neither of them is generally available as a viable alternative to China.
        jacquesm 7mo ago
        They are for me.
        aprentic 7mo ago
        This whole thread is in response to an attempt to someone trying to source parts to manufacture something in the US. If "for me" is limited to some rich guy in the Netherlands, that doesn't solve the problem "for anyone else."
        jacquesm 7mo ago
        Well, we could counter that and say that the whole thread here is exactly about how the US is losing its soft power position and the import situation you are facing is an integral part of that. And 'some rich guy in the Netherlands' is a nice target for you but I know plenty of people that are in other parts of Europe that seem to have no problem ordering from both of these. You asked for alternatives, you got them. You could have just left it at that but you feel the need to explain why those alternatives are not the alternatives you wanted. What did you expect? A 1-900 number and someone taking your credit card?
aprentic 7mo ago
The thread is about manufacturing in the US so tariffs do have to be factored in. On those specific parts: Motors: T-Motor F90 1300KV - $119.60(incl shipping) + Tariff ESC: Holybro Tekko32 F4 50A - $88.97(incl shipping) + Tariff FC: Matek H743-SLIM V4 - £88.12(incl shipping + VAT) + Tariff Radio: Radiomaster M2 $95.99(incl shipping + sales tax) The FC was from a UK store but it originated in China. I already had the radio so I don't have current prices on it. I'd love to find a list of vendors that have comparable parts, in stock, and without being insane multiples of those prices. edit: formatting
- jacquesm 7mo ago
  https://motor-g.com/en https://motor-g.com/en https://www.arctus.ai/products https://www.arctus.ai/products
  - aprentic 7mo ago
    Motor-g doesn't seem to ship outside of Ukraine. That's totally understandable but for anyone outside of Ukraine, they effectively don't exist. Arctus asks you to contact them just for product info. It seems they just raised 2.6M in seed funding 3 months ago. It's great that there are startups in NL but that's not even close to a replacement for China's scale yet. Both of these may change the landscape in the future. For now, neither of them is a practical way to get drone parts without China.
    - jacquesm 7mo ago
      > Motor-g doesn't seem to ship outside of Ukraine. They absolutely do. > Arctus asks you to contact them just for product info. You can order as much as you want from them, the price is right and the quality is extremely high. Indeed, they're not on AliExpress, but that's roughly the difference between being a producer in Europe and in China, and that is precisely the difference that you should be happy with.
      - aprentic 7mo ago