News — Drones

[Update: 02 May 2017] The Karma Drone is here! Order now while stock lasts.

[Update: 29 March 2017] The Karma Drone is available for pre-orders. Delivery will take place end of April.

[Update: 23 March 2017] - The GoPro Karma Drone is coming soon! Stay tuned for the date announcement. The Karma drone is retailing for R14 999 without the Hero5 Black camera (includes Karma Drone, Karma Grip, mounting ring and Hard Case)

You can also read about the delay due to the recall back in Nov 2016.

[Update: 08 March 2017] - GoPro have re-released the Karma Drone but their production capacity isn't enough to sell worldwide just yet. The drone is on sale in the US currently and it will be in South Africa in the coming weeks. The arrival date in South Africa and the SA retail price are yet to be confirmed. For updates please email sales@actiongear.co.za to be added to our waiting list - this means that we'll send you email updates with any info which we hear from GoPro. Being on the waiting list will also give you first choice on placing a pre-order once pricing is confirmed. 

Written by Warrick Kernes 

 GoPro's brand took a bit of a knock last November when they had to recall the Karma Drone which had just been launched a few weeks before. A few Karma users had experienced power failures mid-flight which caused their drones to drop out the skies and this is something that GoPro couldn't hide from, they had to do the recall and ask all customeras and shops to return their drones. This is basically the worst case scenario when launching a new product but thankfully no one was hurt by one of these falling drones. 

Since that big decision was made GoPro have been keeping super quiet about any possible re-release. Finally Nick Woodman, GoPro's founder and CEO, broke the silence but still didn't give too much away. In a recent statement Nick said that they would be making an announcement in February about when they'll be sending out the new and improved Karma. 

Yes, the new and improved GoPro Karma Drone... GoPro took this opportunity to improve the Karma drone so when it does come back onto the market there will be some noticeable improvements. This move is probably due to the fact that DJI launched the DJI Mavic drone just days after the release of the long-awaited Karma by GoPro. [Read our comparison of the GoPro Karma vs the DJI Mavic]

This will be a critical time for GoPro as they need to do something amazing to rebuild the trust and brand perception of theirs which has been riding so high for so long. We really hope that they pull one out of the hat and blow us all away. 

What do you think? 

Comment below to say whether you would get a Karma drone or if you think that GoPro has fallen too far behind their competitors in the drone space. 

By David Davies:

Agriculture, Construction, mining!!

A drone, in a technological context, is an unmanned aircraft. Drones are more formally known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UASes). Essentially, a drone is a flying robot.

A scary example is STAR, a robotic surgeon. Many surgeries end up with complications, sometimes because the surgeon made a mistake. What if a robot performed the surgery?

Another great example below - watch the latest autonomous tractor developed by CNH Industrial. Believe me even if you are not in the agricultural space this video is still incredible to watch. 

Now flying robots have already been implemented in our daily work force. From thermal imaging security solutions, precision farming, stock counting on farms and even product stock counts in warehouses. Drones are taking off. As per a PWC report drones will replace $127 Billion worth of human labour and services across several industries. Infrastructure and agriculture making up $77.6 Billion between them. Click here for the PWC report. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, recently mentioned drones will become just as popular as cellphones. 

My friends  & customers -  I welcome you to the 4th Industrial revolution!

The Drone Age

Growing up I built remote control cars, drones and airplanes as a hobby. The improvements in cellphone technology however has been the real underlying reason for the rise of the drones. From improved GPS capability and sensors these advancements have really been the brain behind your drone. A very interesting point to take from what I just said there – essentially the hardware is irrelevant. I can build you a drone tomorrow – easy!  It’s the software that’s key. Why do we use drones – for reporting & to ultimately improve our decision making!

Now if you’re in the mining, agricultural or construction industries how do you make sure you’re making the best decisions, improving your crops yield, aggregates, stock pile management and most importantly staying ahead of your competitors. My answer to you is choose your drone hardware and software partners very carefully.

One of our most exciting partnerships is our exclusive agreement with Precision Hawk USA. As mentioned software is the real key to better management decisions within agriculture, insurance, mining and environment sectors. Precision Hawk DataMapper software allows you, the actual farmer or end user, to get analytics yourself. No need to outsource or call in specialists. (For software and product demonstrations specific to your industry email  me now – david@actiongear.co.za.)

We’ve bundled our Matrice 100’s with the DataMapper software. My recent trip to Precision Hawk, North Carolina USA also gave us insight to building specialist LIDAR gimbles for our Matrice 600 clients so we can now finally help facilitate South African customers.

Going back to my point of “are drones taking your jobs” – there is no real cause for panic, as technology advances there will always be a need for human operation and maintenance. Drones delivering parcels will create as much work for drone operaters as trucks do for courier drivers. The key is keeping up with technology and that’s exactly where Precision Hawk & Data Mapper fit in. This simple easy to use software allows you to build in house teams rather than out source. Allowing you to make critical decisions on site. My advice to my customers, such as Anglo American, have been to start drone divisions within their companies.  Below is also an example of the ROC structure required by the SACAA. Here we can see the promotion of jobs:

For software and product demonstrations specific to your industry contact me now – david@actiongear.co.za. We have product ready & available to purchase today.

Have a look below at some of the pictures (The ones I’m allowed to share) from my trip to Precision Hawk USA.

By Vhengani Emmanuel Mudzielwana 

Well, well, well – just as you think that DJI had all their surprises for the year out of that father Christmas bag of theirs, they give you the best of things to marvel on.

15th of November marked the release of the long awaited DJI Inspire 2, and of course the unexpected surprise Phantom 4 Pro. This of course gets DJI fans like myself quite excited about the new products – on the back of the delay on the Mavic , munching on the specs of the newly announced 2 products is mind tingling.

SO, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE INSPIRE 2 AND THE INSPIRE 1 V2?

A product that offers so many advancements from the Inspire 1 that you’d think are not of the same range at all – only to find out that they actually do come from the same range.

• 1st – The battery life on this new kid in the block is almost twice that of the Inspire 1, all thanks to the dual battery use on the new Inspire 2.
• 2nd – The range of this awesome thing is the same as that of the Mavic and the Phantom 4 Pro – just in case you are wondering how far theses 3 products can fly, it’s 7km away from your remote controller or ground station, not that it is pretty far considering the fact that you will not be able to see the unit at about 750m distance – if your eyes work pretty well.
• 3rd – The new camera range, first of all – remember those problems you had with the previous Inspire 1 camera range when you fly at night, low performance on low light condition, they claim to have solved that, bear in mind that we don’t have those units as yet – so we cannot at this point in time say they have actually one so. One other biggest thing with the new Z5S camera is the ability to shot videos at 5.2K 30fps - now that is pretty interesting.
• 4th – The all new set of obstacle avoidance systems that now gives you that peace of mind that your drone won’t fly to the wall or tree, maybe the person you are trying to capture without you noticing it or just avoiding your commands altogether. Not only does the sensor work on the front, but a top set is fitted in for you to avoid that roof or obstacles atop your drone when you are flying believe it or not – you know what that means right, the only thing you need to worry about is yourself since you may be the only thing behind the drone, and you can fly the drone indoor with little to no worries at all – just don’t drift to the side.

WHEN WILL IT ARRIVE?

Check out the Inspire 2 & the combo for more information on the product and arrival dates.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PHANTOM 4 AND THE PHANTOM 4 PRO?

Now this is one unit we were not expecting at all, to those of us who have had our eyes on DJI’s secret mission to impress the world, we had very little hope that they’d bring the Phantom 4 Pro in the market, but they actually did.

• The drone is faster than the Phantom 4 with an acclaimed 10Mph faster speed, this time around it keeps its obstacle avoidance system functional, that is a bit improvement. 
• Atop that, the Phantom 4 Pro has 5 side obstacle avoidance system – in case you are wondering what that really means, it means that the drone can now avoid obstacles that may come from either Front, Back, Left, Right, or Below. If that is not impressive to you, then you really don’t have anything that can impress you.
• So much sensor without sacrificing the battery life is an amazing work, the drone has an acclaimed 30minutes flight time, that is quite impressive – well done DJI.
• The camera is claimed to be the biggest from the Phantom range, and like the Inspire 2, the low light problem appears to be improved, we’ll have to wait until we get the product so that we can actually prove its worth ourselves.
• The remote of the Phantom 4 is the best thing that DJI has ever made - this solves a lot of problems faced with the App update problems.

To all DJI fans – save for one of this.

WHEN WILL IT ARRIVE?

Check out the Phantom 4 Pro, and the Pro + for product info and stock arrival updates.

AND HERE'S THE FULL RANGE:

[Updated 13 March '17] We have stock!! Check out the Mavic Pro & the Fly More Combo. You can read below about the delays and the progress over the last few months since the launch of Mavic Pro on the 27^th of September 2016. 

Written by Bernice vd Westhuizen

Please be ensured that this blog is 100% up to date and will be updated as the news changes.

So, when are we getting stock of the Mavic Pro?

Delay:

• From the initial ETA for the Mavic Pro, DJI have communicated that there is a 7 - 8 week delay in shipment, worldwide (according to the announcement on 03 Nov '16).
• Furthermore, DJI served their own customers before their retailers worldwide - and the interruption of the Chinese New Year (Jan / Feb '17) did not help in this matter. 
• Manufacturing and shipment is expected to continue from Feb and March 2017.

Date of arrival:

It is expected to arrive in March 2017

Can you secure one by placing a pre-order?

The first few deliveries to South Africa from DJI of the Mavic Pro will be limited quantities. We already have a number of valued customers who have secured their Mavic from these first orders by placing a pre-order. In order to place your pre-order please contact us on 011 781 1323 or sales@actiongear.co.za 

Alternatively you can ask to be added to our waiting list which means that as we hear updates about the DJI Mavic arriving in South Africa we will send an email to you immediately. 

Stock & batches:

Do not worry, Action Gear is sourcing stock from multiple suppliers in order to get you your Mavic Pro when the first batch of stock arrives.