Happy to see Skydio 2+ launch

[Sky Cyclist]

Just finished watching this videos of the new product launch event and information about Skydio 2+.

I am happy to see Skydio 2+ launch.

The new Skydio 2+ is enhanced in many areas however it also protects the original investment of Skydio 2.

If I am just about to buy the first Skydio, then Skydio 2+ is definitely the first choice.

Those who are already Skydio 2 owners are not affected too much. In other words, existing users' investments are also protected.

This will make me more willing to invest in Skydio for a long time in the future.

Here are some of the information I compiled:

1. What's the most difference between Skydio 2 and Skydio 2+?
   
   The only difference in hardware is the new antenna design of Skydio 2+.
   
   Others, including the new high-capacity battery, have been confirmed to be compatible with Skydio 2. In other words, the original Skydio 2 can also use a new battery to get a longer flight time.
   
   
2. Whether the new antenna design is practical or not, it will require more practical verification in the real world!
   
   For example:
   
   (1) Will this affect the upward obstacle avoidance function?
   (2) The antenna brings additional wind resistance, will this have an adverse effect on the flight?
   
   
3. In addition to the slight hardware improvements, the newly released KeyFrame function is very much looking forward to.
   
   And this new feature will also be applied to the existing Skydio 2. This is really great.
   
   I can't wait to upgrade my Skydio 2 to the latest version.

The above are probably some preliminary thoughts. I don't know what you think about the new release of Skydio 2+?

 

[TonyPHX]

It seems that this bird has more cameras than anything else out there, so I am hopeful that the introduction of the antennas won't impact the optics. So excited this is on the way!!

 

[onlysublime]

so as a Skydio 2 owner with multiple batteries, the beacon, and the controller, can I use any of these with the new Skydio 2+?

I’m not sure about getting a completely new kit as I’m pretty happy with the current drone (with the exception of range). Can I at least re-use the controller and batteries? The boosted flight time seems minimal and I would rather not buy new batteries just to get 3 additional minutes.

I would be happy to buy a new skydio 2+ as well as the beacon 2+. I'm just wondering about the batteries (not interested) and the controller (not interested)

 

[ETdronehome]

so as a Skydio 2 owner with multiple batteries, the beacon, and the controller, can I use any of these with the new Skydio 2+?

I’m not sure about getting a completely new kit as I’m pretty happy with the current drone (with the exception of range). Can I at least re-use the controller and batteries? The boosted flight time seems minimal and I would rather not buy new batteries just to get 3 additional minutes.

I would be happy to buy a new skydio 2+ as well as the beacon 2+. I'm just wondering about the batteries (not interested) and the controller (not interested)

The “old” battery and “new” batteries are compatible with both aircraft according to the Skydio product descriptions. In fact they are both described as 4280mAh batteries so I’m not sure what’s different other than the $

Controller looks the same in the photos and they don’t say they changed anything like they did with the beacon so pretty safe to assume it will work with either aircraft.

The new beacon is more capable but my logic would be it would still work with the older aircraft. The inverse might be true but you wouldn’t get the increased signal performance.

Won’t really know until someone gets hands on and published results or Skydio comes out with more statements.

Skydio seems to have gone out of their way to not offend the existing user base so it would flow that they would keep the components as “compatible” as they can.

 

[kenmavic2zoom]

im not taking any chances with the controller and of course, the beacon since it's a 2. the s2+ is supposed to get better range and connectivity and using the old controller might hurt it. as far as the batteries, no different than any other battery. more mAh. otherwise use whichever you feel like.

i plan to see everything i have skydio 2 except for 1 or 2 batteries. plus i will be keeping my 2-bay charger.

eta: 99% sure the remote for the s2 and the s2+ are identical.

 

[RiverEagle]

The “old” battery and “new” batteries are compatible with both aircraft according to the Skydio product descriptions. In fact they are both described as 4280mAh batteries so I’m not sure what’s different other than the $

Looks like the website mislabeled it -- on review videos and photos on the back of the new batteries you can see the higher specs compared to the old one. DC Rainmaker's review of it on Youtube shows it, for example.

Ray

 

[Sky Cyclist]

so as a Skydio 2 owner with multiple batteries, the beacon, and the controller, can I use any of these with the new Skydio 2+?

I’m not sure about getting a completely new kit as I’m pretty happy with the current drone (with the exception of range). Can I at least re-use the controller and batteries? The boosted flight time seems minimal and I would rather not buy new batteries just to get 3 additional minutes.

I would be happy to buy a new skydio 2+ as well as the beacon 2+. I'm just wondering about the batteries (not interested) and the controller (not interested)

The battery is confirmed ok. And, I think the other accessories are also compatible.

 

[Waldo Pepper]

From what I can see, differences are longer flight time and longer flight distance. Other than that, about the same.

Always wanted a Skydio, actually canceled my original order when they were first taking preorders 2+ years ago. I fly RC planes, With Skydio beacon attached inside an RC plane will make a terrific video with Skydio following the RC planes every move.

So I ordered the Skydio 2 + with the Pro upgrade today, actually feel it’s a great deal.

I’ll share my experiences with Skydio 2+ in the coming months ahead, already have an Evo 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Pro but any of the two Skydios is completely in a league of its own. Looking forward to the Skydio experience, very excited.

Happy Skydio everyone!
Paul

 

[onlysublime]

From what I can see, differences are longer flight time and longer flight distance. Other than that, about the same.

Always wanted a Skydio, actually canceled my original order when they were first taking preorders 2+ years ago. I fly RC planes, With Skydio beacon attached inside an RC plane will make a terrific video with Skydio following the RC planes every move.

So I ordered the Skydio 2 + with the Pro upgrade today, actually feel it’s a great deal.

I’ll share my experiences with Skydio 2+ in the coming months ahead, already have an Evo 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Pro but any of the two Skydios is completely in a league of its own. Looking forward to the Skydio experience, very excited.

Happy Skydio everyone!
Paul

from my experience, you need both the beacon and phone in combination.

the phone helps the drone figure out where to point the camera. if you use only the beacon, the drone will follow the beacon but the drone won't know exactly where to point the camera. when you use both in tandem, you see yourself on the phone. you then tap on yourself which tells the drone what it's filming. the beacon is there to maintain lock in case the drone gets obstructed in some way (like you go beneath some tree canopies and the drone can't see you so it gets left behind (if you were to only use a phone)). the beacon is also to position the drone at a certain spot to the subject (e.g., if you're biking down the coastline and you want the drone to be on the right side of you so you can see the mountainside or if you want it to be on your left side so you can see the ocean or in front or behind you so you can see both the landside and the oceanside).

So I guess you could put the phone in the RC plane, but I don't know if you can tap on the plane to track it. The app looks for people (just like a Canon camera looks and tracks for people unless you switch it to animal mode so it can track an animal).

 

[paularity]

from my experience, you need both the beacon and phone in combination.

the phone helps the drone figure out where to point the camera. if you use only the beacon, the drone will follow the beacon but the drone won't know exactly where to point the camera. when you use both in tandem, you see yourself on the phone. you then tap on yourself which tells the drone what it's filming. the beacon is there to maintain lock in case the drone gets obstructed in some way (like you go beneath some tree canopies and the drone can't see you so it gets left behind (if you were to only use a phone)). the beacon is also to position the drone at a certain spot to the subject (e.g., if you're biking down the coastline and you want the drone to be on the right side of you so you can see the mountainside or if you want it to be on your left side so you can see the ocean or in front or behind you so you can see both the landside and the oceanside).

So I guess you could put the phone in the RC plane, but I don't know if you can tap on the plane to track it. The app looks for people (just like a Canon camera looks and tracks for people unless you switch it to animal mode so it can track an animal).

umm, not really how it works

I fly beacon only the majority of the time and if you hand launch the drone will turn around and track you visually and you then see the eye icon

from a distance you can 'call' the drone with the beacon using the +/- buttons and it will use the GPS signal until it regains visual tracking and you will see the eye icon with a ? as it is identifying a subject that is moving with the beacon

can confirm it works for both cars and people as advertised

objects like a RC plane it won't track, it will be following the GPS signal of the beacon and yes the tracking will be somewhat erratic. there are Youtube videos of people doing this and the results are inconsistent

 

[onlysublime]

umm, not really how it works

I fly beacon only the majority of the time and if you hand launch the drone will turn around and track you visually and you then see the eye icon

from a distance you can 'call' the drone with the beacon using the +/- buttons and it will use the GPS signal until it regains visual tracking and you will see the eye icon with a ? as it is identifying a subject that is moving with the beacon

can confirm it works for both cars and people as advertised

objects like a RC plane it won't track, it will be following the GPS signal of the beacon and yes the tracking will be somewhat erratic. there are Youtube videos of people doing this and the results are inconsistent

hmm.... that's interesting.

I always had the skydio point in whatever direction it wanted (even though it was at the correct position based on how I picked the position). using the phone and beacon at the same time fixed that for me.

 

[onlysublime]

this video was amazing to describe the new Keyframe feature!

 

[albystarvation]

Alert: this post somehow rains on Skydio's parade......

They published two products: a new drone, and a new feature for all drones ( bar Skydio R1, as usual...).
The new drone IMHO hasn't even the right to be called evolutionary: they merely tried ( we'll see if it works as advertised) to fix a problem in the previous product. I have a Skydio R!, had a Skydio 2 for a brief stint. The former has minimal range, short flight time, big size and weight.... but I feel it was a. superior product to the 2. It had a better focus on the "tracking" aspect of drone filming, was better built, even with the practical shortcomings it sported.
Skydio 2 is, in my opinion, a repackaging of that product into a cheaper format to try and reach a lesser price point maintaining sales margin. It gave up some performance in tracking, trying to gain on the logistics of carrying and commercial appeal ( smaller form factor, longer flight time, controller - albeit without a true remote video relay and the low latency required to effectively pilot a drone, etc...). In my opinion this "bastardized" the product, trying to appeal more to the general drone market. Skydio thus hit the minimal range problem head on, and had to react by adding 5Ghz to the equation to try and demonstrate that the product is capable of appealing to theDJI operator market.
I would have preferred to see the "state of the art autonomous drone" philosophy pursued instead, for example with a sub 250g drone with the same OA, even if this meant lowering the flight time to say 10 minutes.
Self tracking and filming shots are seldom over 5 minutes. Often I use some only, say, 30 seconds from a drone shots while tracking myself: the rest is GoPro or other cameras laying around.
The waypoint feature is cool, but it lacks a feature that even my R1 cablecam shot has: it doesn't track you while flying through the waypoints ( at least this hasn't been quoted anywhere so far, AFAIK). This would have made this feature a killer app for sports tracking.

In the end, I feel both the 2+ and the Waypoints didn't hit the goal of putting Skydio again at the forefront of drone evolution.

 

[Saladshooter]

In the end, I feel both the 2+ and the Waypoints didn't hit the goal of putting Skydio again at the forefront of drone evolution.

Agreed, this is just a small evolutionary step. If Skydio really wants to compete, they need to continue toward delivering a complete package. The Skydio 3 will need to have a better camera, all the features we have come to expect from a camera drone, a folding design, better controller and better range. They will need all these things while maintaining their edge in tracking and obstacle avoidance.

As a US company they will never survive by aiming at the low end of the consumer market, so they will have to win by packing in features and pricing appropriately. Skydio's recent move toward adding features to the software gives me some hope, but they are still holding back some basic functions that are available only with the enterprise license.

 

[albystarvation]

Another thought: I find the industrial design & look of the R1 way better than the 2's, let alone th 2+ with the added "ears". A little anecdote: once I asked to Skydio Support if I could add an Apple Airtag to ( then) my Skydio2, and were it would be best placed to interfere the less with the OA cameras... they answered to better not put it on the craft, it wasn't designed to have anything attached to it... and then they put Evangelion shoulder blades on it?

 

[Ridefreak]

It's likely they tweaked the programming to accommodate the new antennas. That's the one place I could see them adding something, between 2 OA cameras, rear also but the antennas would have to be going downward.

 

[Waldo Pepper]

from my experience, you need both the beacon and phone in combination.

the phone helps the drone figure out where to point the camera. if you use only the beacon, the drone will follow the beacon but the drone won't know exactly where to point the camera. when you use both in tandem, you see yourself on the phone. you then tap on yourself which tells the drone what it's filming. the beacon is there to maintain lock in case the drone gets obstructed in some way (like you go beneath some tree canopies and the drone can't see you so it gets left behind (if you were to only use a phone)). the beacon is also to position the drone at a certain spot to the subject (e.g., if you're biking down the coastline and you want the drone to be on the right side of you so you can see the mountainside or if you want it to be on your left side so you can see the ocean or in front or behind you so you can see both the landside and the oceanside).

So I guess you could put the phone in the RC plane, but I don't know if you can tap on the plane to track it. The app looks for people (just like a Canon camera looks and tracks for people unless you switch it to animal mode so it can track an animal).

Thank you onlysublime,

For explaining the limitations of the beacons capabilities, I understand now will still need phone to help maneuver camera pointing towards subject. Still, the Skydio has s many possibilities I can use for my type of hobby.

Looking very forward to its arrival, sky's the limit so many avenues to explore.

Thanks again,
Paul

 

[Waldo Pepper]

It seems that this bird has more cameras than anything else out there, so I am hopeful that the introduction of the antennas won't impact the optics. So excited this is on the way!!

Hello Tony,

I'm hopeful as well, the antennas will not interfere with the optics. They are probably already made adjustments to allow the antennas, and I’m hoping maybe mounting a small tracker will be okay now based from the adjustments made.

I’ve read from a previous post, A user asked Skydio if mounting a Tracker tile would interfere. if memory serves me rIght, Skydio’s response was either at present time wouldn’t work or the response was no it wouldn’t or response was something similar.

I use a tracker from Trackimo with my drones, the Guardian model it’s very small. I’d like to try it out on the Skydio 2s, hopefully it’ll accept it with no optics interference.

Paul

 

[RiverEagle]

I see the 2+ as what some might call a traditional product refresh. I'm glad they addressed a few issues with it and allowed some backwards compatibility for those with the 2.

I'm looking forward to flying the 2+ when it arrives!

Ray

 

[Ridefreak]

Agreed, this is just a small evolutionary step. If Skydio really wants to compete, they need to continue toward delivering a complete package. The Skydio 3 will need to have a better camera, all the features we have come to expect from a camera drone, a folding design, better controller and better range. They will need all these things while maintaining their edge in tracking and obstacle avoidance.
camera capabilities are above the average user.
As a US company they will never survive by aiming at the low end of the consumer market, so they will have to win by packing in features and pricing appropriately. Skydio's recent move toward adding features to the software gives me some hope, but they are still holding back some basic functions that are available only with the enterprise license.

Actually Skydio hit the bullseye far better then others at the consumer level but they're small company and I doubt they will ever have the market impact someone like DJI has. Most buyers know that and more then a few purchase the SD because it's an it comes from an American company. Aside from the folding arms, and possibly a better controller you are describing professional or prosumer level features, there's not many complaints about the SD2s video quality even from DJI users. Long range flying is a niche but I agree it needed improvement and they did that, most users never fly their drones out to the limits of their range.

Ask an average user which of of two features they prefer, a 1" sensor or reliable OA? SD2 provides that capability at the consumer level, nobody else has been able to master yet with any confidence and it's something far more important to an average user then sensor size.

There's possibly room for a prosumer level SD2 but it suspect it would cannibalize their existing sales and spread an already thin workforce thinner, also they'd then be in direct competition with DJI, a 20X larger company with a world wide presence. The price bump associated with a prosumer level Skydio would be outside the pricing for many of the average users which is what happened to the Mavic, it's solidly a prosumer level device now with capabilities well beyond the use of an average consumer of course it's priced outside the realm of the average user also.

The photography and videography industry has always been like that, you could spend $400 on a camera that did everything pretty well and was mostly automatic or you could spend $2K for a fully capable DSLR that takes better pictures in the right hands and required photographic knowledge to operate correctly. You can screw up a DSLR camera's picture fairly easily, it's much harder to mess up a pic from a decent automatic camera. I don't have to tell you which one most consumers chose while that was still a thing. Now it's done with cell phones and GoPros at the consumer level. I'm not knocking the features you're describing but they're beyond what most average users care about. Sure there's room for improvement. The fact that the update doesn't include a redesign isn't surprising, they're a small company without the ability to leverage many of the improvements off features from other product lines.

I see the same thing in motorcycles, there's models targeted at some of the niches, and others that appeal to a wider range of riders, along with that come complaints, why don't they add this, or add that. It's very noticeable when hopping on a bike that doesn't have the features you appreciate and are used to. No difference here.