Parrot Archives - Argyll Free Press

Parrot’s Disco Drone has Wings and it Can Reach Speeds of Up to 50MPH

January 5, 2016 By Deborah Campbell 1 Comment

Parrot’s Disco Drone has wings and it can reach speeds of up to 50MPH – oh, it’s also incredibly fun to play with.

Given that the drones trend has absolutely exploded over the past couple of years, enthusiasts want more performance, more flight-time and better recording hardware.

Parrot’s Disco Drone seems to fit the criteria perfectly – it’s super fast, it’s incredibly easy to control and it’s tough as nails!

Oh, did I mention that it has wings?

The Disco Drone can record up to 1080p HD, and the camera, which can be found on the nose of the gadget, is digitally stabilized so it gets the perfect shots. Wings have your usual flaps, which are controlled by motors, and the rotor on its tail makes Parrot’s drone resemble a small airplane.

Considering that it has wings and flaps, users might be enticed to seek something more easier to control. Parrot assures everyone that there’s no rocket science involved and, even though it’s far from being just an enthusiast’s drone, everyone will be able to fly it without murdering a wall.

Mainly due to its Parrot-made app, the Disco will basically fly itself.

The company even sells a specially made controller for those who want to get more bang out of their buck. The French-based company notes that using the controller is exactly like using the app – you have a single joystick that controls altitude, and right and left directions.

Parrot built into the Disco a variety of sensors that will keep it stable in the air. On the bottom, you’ll find both an ultrasound and a sight camera, which helps it maintain stability.

To determine the drone’s speed, the manufacturer build a pitot sensor in its nose, and, as with other top-notch drones, if you lose track of it, or if it realizes that it’s miles away from Kansas, it will come home by itself using GPS.

The drone weighs about 1.5 pounds, and with a 1.1-meter wingspan, the Disco isn’t a grab and go kind of toy. Parrot notes that it’s stuffed with a lot of tough foam so, if it happens to hit a tree, a wall, or crash into something, it will survive unscratched.

However, it really depends on the speed of the drone.

The battery allows the Parrot Disco Drone to fly for up to 45 minutes.

At the moment of writing, there’s no information on how much the Parrot Disco Drone will cost, or when it’s going to actually drop. We only know that it’s going to be available sometime in 2016.

Image Source: 1, 2

Parrot Bebop 2 Drone

November 18, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Parrot, a US company founded in 1994 whose purpose is to create cutting edge products for smartphones and tablets, has recently released the second model of its original Bebop drone: the Bebop 2.

The basic design from the original Bebop was kept, meaning that the Parrot Bebop 2 drone is also a cylindrical main body which houses the camera and processor etc. and 4 arms extending from this body on the ends of which the propellers sit.

But despite the same overall look, the Bebop 2’s 12.9 inch by 12.9 inch span only results in a weight of 17.6 ounces.

And despite being this light, the Parrot Bebop 2 drone features a 14 megapixel camera with a fish-eye lens that is capable of a 180 degree view angle and also benefits from built-in 3-axis stabilization.

All of the drone’s functions can be controlled through an Android or iOS smartphone by downloading an easy to use free app. This includes adjusting the angle of the camera (which you can do with a few taps), taking 4:3, 16:9 and fish-eye ratio photos and 1080p video (which get sent directly to your phone’s screen) as well as actually flying the drone, the latter of which being made simple because of what the company claims is an intuitive, user-friendly interface.

For example, there is a button you can tap which controls the take-off and landing of the Parrot Bebop 2 drone.

Of course, if you want to make an upgrade, you can pay extra and get the Parrot Skycontroller which, along with allowing you to control the drone with even more ease and “feel”, by joysticks, and extending the range at which it responds to controls to 6,561 feet from the 984 feet it is capable of when it is controlled by smartphone.

And speaking of flight capabilities, the Parrot Bebop 2 drone can, in 14 seconds, reach top speeds between 13 -37 mph, depending on whether it is flying vertically or horizontally, respectively. It also stops pretty fast, meaning 4.5 seconds. And if you make it go vertically, it can reach 330 feet in a matter of just 18 seconds.

As a bonus, when controlling it by smartphone, you can pay 20$ extra to purchase, inside the app, a feature that allows you to plan your flights in advance.

And if anything happens to go wrong during said flight, the Bebop 2 also has a neat safety system in place, so that if its propellers hit anything they stop completely and automatically.

Possibly the most important upgrade from the original Bebop, its successor can fly for 25 minutes before its battery runs out, as opposed to the original Bebop’s 10 minutes. A marked improvement, indeed.

And the price tag for all the pluses that the Parrot Bebop 2 drone brings is 549.99 $ if you buy it without the controller, just 50$ extra from the Bebop 1. If you buy the drone + controller bundle, it costs 799.99 $.

Image source: 1.

13 New Minidrones from Parrot to Take Control of the Sky!

June 13, 2015 By Michael Turner Leave a Comment

Parrot just announced that they are building 13 new inexpensive minidrones that will take control of the sky, land and, get this, the sea!

We already knew that drones, and minidrones alike, can tackle the blue sky, and the green land, but Parrot amazes us with the new addition – drones in the water medium!

They’re building a new hybrid UAV/Boat that is going to be called the Hydrofoil Drone – the product line will be accompanied by a couple of new Jumping drones, and a new model for their Airborne drone.

Quite strange that Parrot announced these new toys only on their official French website, but c’est la vie I guess.

The new top-notch, and seriously awesomely looking drones will cost no more than €200, that’s about $225, and they will be officially unveiled on July the 2nd at a London-based event. Until them, Parrot lets us drool over their videos, and press images.

Let’s start talking about their new addition, the Hydrofoil Drone – the most interesting of the bunch actually. Its build upon one of their Airborne models. If you want to use it on water, just clip it to the boat and voilà, you can wreak havoc at the local pool. Once you fire it up, it flips to its vertical position and the fun begins. Take a look just down below how easy it is.

It’s super easy to control using your smartphone of choice, and once you get the hang of it, you can reach speeds around 6mph and just lollygag around calm water for about 7 minutes or so. You can avoid obstacles, and change your course quite easily, because it has a front camera that streams directly to your smartphone.

Parrot’s Hydrofoil drone will cost about $190 making it one of the cheapest, and better looking drones on the market.

Even though the Hydrofoil drones look awesome, wait until you see these jumping babies!

I’m just going to call this now – sometime in the near future someone will strap a bomb or some kind of explosive to Diesel, or Buzz, and they will get these mind blastingly awesome toys banned.

Look at how these little cute minidrones jump! You can even scare the living hell out of your friends using its tiny built-in speaker.

Someone should definitely develop some sort of laser tag game using Parrot’s jumping minidrones!

Parrot Jumping Sumo

These two-wheeled 32-inch jumping remote-controlled cars will cost about $220 a pop.

Parrot has yet to announce an official release date for the US, but I wouldn’t be worried if I were you. The US is its main demographic target, and I’m 100 percent sure that shipping will be available for the states.

Image Source: 1, 2

Categories