by Malek Murison on Twitter @MalekMurison
1. Can you tell me a bit about the inspiration behind Tanky - Why did you want to build an fpv racer?
In 2014 we moved from San Diego to the High Desert in Southern California, into a house that’s completely off the grid. By that I mean completely off the grid, as in no water, electricity, or Internet hookup. We get the water delivered, electricity is all solar, and internet is provided via a satellite service. As you might imagine, the road to our house is mostly off-road terrain for the last mile or so. As a result, we had to get rid of our fast toys, 2 bikes and a Corvette. Naturally we needed a replacement hobby :) so we got into FPV flying.
There is a ton of land around here to fly, and the terrain is beautiful. Of course the downside of a rocky desert terrain is the price tag attached to every crash. It’s one thing to crash into a tree or grass. But crashing full speed into a rock is pricey, which makes learning how to fly very interesting :), to say the least.
In late 2015 Bogdan started designing concept for a drone with a detachable head with a tiltable FPV camera. It was originally going to be just a CF design. I got involved, and you know how it is, you get preoccupied with something, and keep polishing it, until something really cool emerges. When finally we had the drone we always wanted. Fast, sleek, wire and clutter free, and damn fast. We 3D printed all the parts for Tanky on Shapeways, because they can 3D print out of Nylon, which makes the prints incredibly tough by comparison with normal consumer 3D printers.
After test flying Tanky we decided that it’s really awesome. I know, we might be biased :) But honestly, if I could buy a drone like Tanky I would! It’s so fun to fly. So if I like it, other people would love it too, or at least that was the logic. So thus Tanky Drone the product was born.
The inspiration for Tanky’s name came from Tiny Tank, a video game from the early 2000s about a “cute killing machine.” Tanky is a cute flying machine.
It occurred to us, after registering the website and all, that a flying tank does not inspire in the mind’s eye the idea of speed. But Tanky is also really tough, so that fits. The plastic covers around the motors, especially, protect the motors from impacts with the rocks. The plastic is soft enough where it absorbs most of the impact energy, keeping the motors safe.
But to make Tanky a reality, we want to make injection molded parts, which means huge upfront costs. So we decided to try doing a Kickstarter to raise the money.
2. What do you think differentiates Tanky from other FPV drones on the market? Say, for example, versus the Aerial Atom that recently had a successful Kickstarter campaign.
The best comparison for Tanky would be ImmersionRC Vortex Pro. A ready to fly drone that is designed for people who want to get into the hobby right away, but don’t have the skills yet to build their drone from scratch. But we didn’t just want to make an RTF drone, we wanted to make an RTF drone that even the pro racers would love to fly.
For instance, Tanky has same size motors and props as the Vortex Pro, but it’s only 282g (without battery) vs. Vortex Pro, which tips the scales at 415g! I know it’s a little presumptive, but we like to compare Tanky to a Ferrari, a race car…. with creature comforts. Tanky is a race drone, but with a lot of creature comforts, such as OSD, external camera tuning port, and tiltable camera, and an elegant design. Elegant design doesn’t make it faster, but it matters, especially if you really want to be noticed in a crowd of CF and wires.
As for the RotorX Atom, it’s actually a really cool little drone, though it’s a shame that it doesn’t fly standard 3-inch props. By contrast, Tanky is able to run standard ESCs and 220X motors, and standard 5-inch props. The main difference, however, is SPEED. Tanky is really fast. It will easily keep up with any custom-built race drone. So, with Tanky you can go to any racetrack with confidence that the only limiting factor is your own piloting skill. Maybe that’s a downside of Tanky as well, no option to blame the equipment :)
3. Why are you choosing to crowdfund? I know plenty of businesses need help with startup costs, while others see it as more of a marketing ploy - Is it a bit of both for you?
We are looking to crowdfund primarily to help with startup costs. We already developed most of the electronics for Tanky and the mechanical design is done. Generally speaking, if it wasn't for the injection molded parts, we could just start production and make Tanky right away.
We know that many drone companies opt for 3D printed parts, but unfortunately 3D printed parts, even when printed on high end, $200K+ machines that Shapeways uses, just do not have the strength and durability we were looking for. We destruction tested some injection molded parts provided to us by our manufacturing partner, and the strength of what we can get with injection molded thermoplastics, especially some combinations of polypropylene are incredible.
The downside of injection molding is mold creation. In fact, more than 80% of the cost of a molded part is in the upfront cost of creating the mold. This is one of the reasons we needed to get crowdfunding.
The other is order quantity. If we are able to place orders for 500 units or more, it allows us to work with our suppliers on new and innovative component designs. For instance, we have been working for the last few months with FrSky on a very interesting receiver for our project, but we believe that they will market that receiver more broadly once it’s designed, which would greatly benefit the hobby overall. We can’t say much more at the moment, just because that project is still in R&D.
The marketing aspect of crowdfunding would help, for sure, but people really like Tanky, and we believe if we were to just start selling it today, it would be very successful. But we do need help with some of the upfront costs, to make Tanky really special.
4. Flight time is always an issue with FPV racers - I noticed that some of the perks you are offering include 'spare parts' - does this include extra batteries?
The crash pack in our perks will include spare props, a bag of extra screws, and extra arm and LED covers, as those parts get beat up the most in a crash.
Unfortunately, we are not able to include any batteries in our kit, and are not including a charger. Due to recent LiPo shipment regulations, it’s impossible for us to ship Tanky via any sort of airmail if it comes with a LiPo battery. Also, there are many jurisdictions that have very specific regulations about the import of LiPo batteries. As a result, we will be creating a list of online vendors in different areas around the world that sell LiPo batteries locally, so that our backers can purchase those batteries separately from their local dealers.
This might change when we are able to secure dealer agreements in various locations, but without a local dealer it’s very difficult to distribute a product with a large capacity LiPo.
As for the charger, we were considering including a high quality 4 button charger with our kit, but that would add significantly to the cost of the kit, and many of our backers may already have a high quality charger. Having experienced a LiPo fire personally, a battery exploded just feet away from me due to a short in a low quality knockoff charger, I was fervently against including a cheap wall plug type charger you see commonly included with other RTF kits. It’s just not worth the risk.
Not to mention the fact that most people would quickly upgrade a cheap charger anyway, which means more trash in the landfills. That was our philosophy throughout the process of creating Tanky, to only include high quality components. You can go and purchase a high quality charger or a set of goggles, but you would not need to upgrade any of the components already included with Tanky because they are of the highest quality. Why waste money and create more trash?
1. Can you tell me a bit about the inspiration behind Tanky - Why did you want to build an fpv racer?
In 2014 we moved from San Diego to the High Desert in Southern California, into a house that’s completely off the grid. By that I mean completely off the grid, as in no water, electricity, or Internet hookup. We get the water delivered, electricity is all solar, and internet is provided via a satellite service. As you might imagine, the road to our house is mostly off-road terrain for the last mile or so. As a result, we had to get rid of our fast toys, 2 bikes and a Corvette. Naturally we needed a replacement hobby :) so we got into FPV flying.
There is a ton of land around here to fly, and the terrain is beautiful. Of course the downside of a rocky desert terrain is the price tag attached to every crash. It’s one thing to crash into a tree or grass. But crashing full speed into a rock is pricey, which makes learning how to fly very interesting :), to say the least.
In late 2015 Bogdan started designing concept for a drone with a detachable head with a tiltable FPV camera. It was originally going to be just a CF design. I got involved, and you know how it is, you get preoccupied with something, and keep polishing it, until something really cool emerges. When finally we had the drone we always wanted. Fast, sleek, wire and clutter free, and damn fast. We 3D printed all the parts for Tanky on Shapeways, because they can 3D print out of Nylon, which makes the prints incredibly tough by comparison with normal consumer 3D printers.
After test flying Tanky we decided that it’s really awesome. I know, we might be biased :) But honestly, if I could buy a drone like Tanky I would! It’s so fun to fly. So if I like it, other people would love it too, or at least that was the logic. So thus Tanky Drone the product was born.
The inspiration for Tanky’s name came from Tiny Tank, a video game from the early 2000s about a “cute killing machine.” Tanky is a cute flying machine.
It occurred to us, after registering the website and all, that a flying tank does not inspire in the mind’s eye the idea of speed. But Tanky is also really tough, so that fits. The plastic covers around the motors, especially, protect the motors from impacts with the rocks. The plastic is soft enough where it absorbs most of the impact energy, keeping the motors safe.
But to make Tanky a reality, we want to make injection molded parts, which means huge upfront costs. So we decided to try doing a Kickstarter to raise the money.
2. What do you think differentiates Tanky from other FPV drones on the market? Say, for example, versus the Aerial Atom that recently had a successful Kickstarter campaign.
The best comparison for Tanky would be ImmersionRC Vortex Pro. A ready to fly drone that is designed for people who want to get into the hobby right away, but don’t have the skills yet to build their drone from scratch. But we didn’t just want to make an RTF drone, we wanted to make an RTF drone that even the pro racers would love to fly.
For instance, Tanky has same size motors and props as the Vortex Pro, but it’s only 282g (without battery) vs. Vortex Pro, which tips the scales at 415g! I know it’s a little presumptive, but we like to compare Tanky to a Ferrari, a race car…. with creature comforts. Tanky is a race drone, but with a lot of creature comforts, such as OSD, external camera tuning port, and tiltable camera, and an elegant design. Elegant design doesn’t make it faster, but it matters, especially if you really want to be noticed in a crowd of CF and wires.
As for the RotorX Atom, it’s actually a really cool little drone, though it’s a shame that it doesn’t fly standard 3-inch props. By contrast, Tanky is able to run standard ESCs and 220X motors, and standard 5-inch props. The main difference, however, is SPEED. Tanky is really fast. It will easily keep up with any custom-built race drone. So, with Tanky you can go to any racetrack with confidence that the only limiting factor is your own piloting skill. Maybe that’s a downside of Tanky as well, no option to blame the equipment :)
3. Why are you choosing to crowdfund? I know plenty of businesses need help with startup costs, while others see it as more of a marketing ploy - Is it a bit of both for you?
We are looking to crowdfund primarily to help with startup costs. We already developed most of the electronics for Tanky and the mechanical design is done. Generally speaking, if it wasn't for the injection molded parts, we could just start production and make Tanky right away.
We know that many drone companies opt for 3D printed parts, but unfortunately 3D printed parts, even when printed on high end, $200K+ machines that Shapeways uses, just do not have the strength and durability we were looking for. We destruction tested some injection molded parts provided to us by our manufacturing partner, and the strength of what we can get with injection molded thermoplastics, especially some combinations of polypropylene are incredible.
The downside of injection molding is mold creation. In fact, more than 80% of the cost of a molded part is in the upfront cost of creating the mold. This is one of the reasons we needed to get crowdfunding.
The other is order quantity. If we are able to place orders for 500 units or more, it allows us to work with our suppliers on new and innovative component designs. For instance, we have been working for the last few months with FrSky on a very interesting receiver for our project, but we believe that they will market that receiver more broadly once it’s designed, which would greatly benefit the hobby overall. We can’t say much more at the moment, just because that project is still in R&D.
The marketing aspect of crowdfunding would help, for sure, but people really like Tanky, and we believe if we were to just start selling it today, it would be very successful. But we do need help with some of the upfront costs, to make Tanky really special.
4. Flight time is always an issue with FPV racers - I noticed that some of the perks you are offering include 'spare parts' - does this include extra batteries?
The crash pack in our perks will include spare props, a bag of extra screws, and extra arm and LED covers, as those parts get beat up the most in a crash.
Unfortunately, we are not able to include any batteries in our kit, and are not including a charger. Due to recent LiPo shipment regulations, it’s impossible for us to ship Tanky via any sort of airmail if it comes with a LiPo battery. Also, there are many jurisdictions that have very specific regulations about the import of LiPo batteries. As a result, we will be creating a list of online vendors in different areas around the world that sell LiPo batteries locally, so that our backers can purchase those batteries separately from their local dealers.
This might change when we are able to secure dealer agreements in various locations, but without a local dealer it’s very difficult to distribute a product with a large capacity LiPo.
As for the charger, we were considering including a high quality 4 button charger with our kit, but that would add significantly to the cost of the kit, and many of our backers may already have a high quality charger. Having experienced a LiPo fire personally, a battery exploded just feet away from me due to a short in a low quality knockoff charger, I was fervently against including a cheap wall plug type charger you see commonly included with other RTF kits. It’s just not worth the risk.
Not to mention the fact that most people would quickly upgrade a cheap charger anyway, which means more trash in the landfills. That was our philosophy throughout the process of creating Tanky, to only include high quality components. You can go and purchase a high quality charger or a set of goggles, but you would not need to upgrade any of the components already included with Tanky because they are of the highest quality. Why waste money and create more trash?