All manufacturers need to step up with strict quality control. From FBL systems ESC/motors etc. For too long you RC modellers have put up with products that aren't up to scratch needing upgrades to get right. I have had electronic experts look into some for instance FBL controllers and the price far exceeds the components inside. Yes good products need R&D but can anyone explain why a controller sells for over $200 when there is less than $10 of components inside .It should be $20 to produce $40 to distribute $80 to retail . Everybody then gets 100% profit .Rant over it aint ever going to happen! Now back to the subject. From an onlookers point of view there seems to be very little in design change except for the very first Rc helicopters with glass bodies. Almost every NEW innovation has been copied /cloned from various previous designs of the past with the exception of heads. For example the swash, belt and tail drive are all from previous old designs. The emphasis is now for direct servo control without the levers from the past. I wouldn't ever dare say that we have enough power but at what point will there ever be enough as new space age materials are developed. Itll be fun to see what's really new. To me the race is on for new battery - power technology world wide then there will be a BIG change.

 

Let me answer the above message in two parts.

The wheel is round....it has to be round for it to turn.
A helicopter has to have a main blade and a tail to counteract torque.....the system used is like the wheel, it works !



The $20-$40-$80 "theory" sounds great.
But in realility there is software developement a business premisie, electricity, overheads and testing that costs the money, I would have thought that would be common sense to know such things being in the industry ?

 

Being the owner of a hobby shop does not translate into being in the industry, as the industry really being referred to is the electronics manufacurting industry, however you are right, there are a lot of overheads, but most FBL units from just raw material costs , pcb, components, loading, ect ect are under a $80 to produce, some cases well under.. I know this because i have been in the electronics manufacurting industry for over 15 years, and it's my daily job. But yes, there are transport cost, wages, and many other overheads, not to mention the cost of R&D that they have to make back .. But in saying all that they are still making well over %100 profit on each unit, I don't have a problem with that myself, considering what go's into bringing a product to market and the initial outlay i'm happy to pay $200 - $300 for a FBL.. What erks me is the rip off's that people support, when they just grab a unit reverse engineer it and then bring to market a stupid low price.. Cus they are just rip offs / Copy's, They have not had any of the associated costs with bringing a unit to market, But the prices do reflect just how little the units in fact cost to make from a raw material point of view. All your ikons and vbar, ect ect would be around $40 - $60 Per unit to manufacture.. Thats all !

 

The things that make a great helicopter are:

Light Weight - you can allways add weight if you have to
Strength - Structural strength while maintaining reduced weight
Balance (Most of the weight centralised as close as possible to the disk so the helicopter rolls and flips better)
Minimal parts
Low Cost
Huge power
Super fast servos and gyro
Accurate gyro

So these are IMO the base attributes...now how to achieve them...

 

Actually I think that is a good statement from "Someone in the Industry" who is prepared to question the existing status quo. If no one does this, nothing will change.
A good example of this is the MP3 player. Ask yourself who made the first mp3 player??
Then go and look at the legal history of them. You may be surprised.

As for business premises, you can see how things are changing with crowdsourcing sites like kickstarter etc. The days of "traditional" business models are being challenged in many ways and it may be time for this to flow into this hobby. I was having a discussion with someone about a great idea he had, but realized that the idea would involve one brand destroying the market share of their "Top Range TX's"

I use a TX that now has (only a single UK online poll) has a 5% market share vs Futaba at 40% with no advertising or sponsored pilots. It however has very active opensource developers, after sponsoring the developers, they are able to sell the hardware at a lower cost.

Maybe we might see a change similar to other electronic components.
New models sell at a higher cost, which decreases over the "life" of the product.
Early adopters pay a premium for bragging rights..

To get this back on track, why not think of a niggle, with existing ones, and someone can come with with a problem/answer, why not take this to something like kickstarter.

Cheers,
Yak.

 

To get back on Track.
While this is not a performance issue, how about this for an idea (which may be coming in soon)
Everyone likes to have neat wiring on an Heli.
CUrrently there are two choices, shorten the servo wires, and use cable sheathing.
If you use sheathing and need to change or check anything you may need to pull the whole thing apart again.

What about producing some PCB's for signal cabling, custom made for popular heli's
This could be mounted internally, which connectors that could be removed for repairs, checking etc.

An example of this would be the connections on a 450.
You have to run the servo leads, throttle, & possibly RX to the FBL on the back.

Cheers,
Yak.

 

Not a bad idea, how would the servos terminate to the pcb track? short plug?

 

PCB header pins..
Like this or 90 degree
http://www.altronics.com.au/p/p5446-oupiin-40-way-x-3-header-pin/

Cheers,
Yak.

 

Isn't Gaui already doing this in a frame set Yak ?

http://helidaily.com/gaui-tsh-x3-embedded-x3-circuit-frame/

 

Yep, I saw that..
However (from the piccys) it looks to be an integrated part of the frame.
A good idea, but I think it's a bit hard to get that frame onto another heli..
Some multirotors have also been doing the same thing, but there is nothing that can be retrofitted to an existing one.

Cheers,
Yak.

 

Your talking about a flex pcb, that we can stick to the inside frame ?

 

Yak…

Im confused, " I think it's a bit hard to get that frame onto another heli.." ???

 

I was thinking of a "traditional" copper coated fibreglass PCB, that could screw mounted, but a flex PCB is a good idea also.
Don't know how vibe resistant the connections pins would be..

Cheers,
Yak.

 

Sigh.. a joke..
The gaui solution is integrated into the frame.
To use their current solution you would need to use the frame.

Yak.