Ep. 286: GoPro Karma (& Hero 7 Black) Unboxing

[@tdrdronesebikesandscooters8377]

I saw your facebook post, good luck with it. Have had mine for a while, its great as long as you keep it within 1000 feet, after that things can get troublesome

[@RCPhysics]

Thanks for watching! Yeah, I completely agree with you on the range. I sometimes can't get farther than 500ft away in areas with a lot of wi-fi interference. That is the one major downfall with this platform, but the more I think about it, it may be less of an issue for the Karma's intended customer base. Here's how I think about it now. The Karma was never really intended to be a pure "recreational drone". It's a 'Flying GoPro', meaning it is intended to get a high quality camera in a difficult position to get a good shot for a customer or publication. Given that, I think the Karma was really meant for Part 107 operators who wanted a drone that would work with their existing GoPro investments. Since you are never supposed to fly further than you can see the drone with an un-aided eye, the limited range still makes this drone usable for a "low-end" commercial drone pilot getting good real estate or landscape shots. While "pure hobbyists" might risk their hardware doing range tests or flying out beyond line of sight to "see what the drone can do", someone who uses their hardware as part of their livelihood would probably be more concerned with just getting the shot they came out for and moving on to the next job. That said, I think a lot of the problems guys get into with Karmas are due to them pushing the range of their aircraft, loosing connection or GPS lock, and not understanding what the drone will do next. For example, after the drone looses GPS, it no longer has the ability to hold its horizontal position, so it will get blown in whatever direction the winds are blowing at altitude. If it also looses connection while this is happening, it will just set itself down wherever it happens to be since it has no way of finding its home point. I plan to do a deep dive video on that topic soon. 😃