MK vs. DJI adv list

[DucktileMedia]

the question is, how many that were happily flying MK are equally as happy with the DJI? Seems there are a handful of MK guys that have had QC issues. At the same time DJI, being a newer product for multi's, has their own unknowns. Please add to the list.


Advantages/disadvantages:

MK
---------------------------------------------
works better in wind
matched escs/faster response
lighter
tried and true
reliability relies on assembly
octo with gimbal outputs
expensive/parts too costly


DJI
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clean assembly
fail safe-return home (mk has now)
easier to use any esc
better customer support
better low wind stability
good GPS reliability
more product for the price

 

[redridinghood]

the question is, how many that were happily flying MK are equally as happy with the DJI? Seems there are a handful of MK guys that have had QC issues. At the same time DJI, being a newer product for multi's, has their own unknowns. Please add to the list.


Advantages/disadvantages:

MK
---------------------------------------------
works better in wind
matched escs/faster response
lighter
tried and true
reliability relies on assembly
octo with gimbal outputs
expensive/parts too costly


DJI
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clean assembly
fail safe-return home (mk has now)
easier to use any esc
better customer support
better low wind stability
good GPS reliability
more product for the price

Disadvantages

DJI
No octo and gimbal ability unless sbus
Waypoints and telemetry are expensive addons
Esc are a week point due to slow refresh rate
Gimbal stabilization is broken
Instability in any wind
No ability to fine tune the settings
Support is missing
Random crash problems
Marketing is straight out lying (Sidneyw)

Mk
Need to solder yourself
Support is missing
Overheating problems
Random crash problems
Altitute hold not steady
Development is slower

 

[BorisS]

hmm i dont now, I think the essential part of failsafe return to home it the landing and if i check out the landing
of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hC2nPcFpbM&list=UUXv7l7VoJSViTQ6skMGmuSg&feature=plcp

this probably went good after 10 tries and i still don't want my bird landing like this.

So for me return to home and auto-landing is not comparable between the WKM and MK.

Boris

 

[Droider]

For me both have their advantages I love the trouble free flying of my WKM quad and Y6. For survey work and photos their bomb proof. I have 100% confidence in them both. Maybe if I have an unexplained crash my confidence will be the same as with the MK..

 

[*****]

and who bought the commercial version of the Navi controller since if you make pictures for money everyone should pay there fees..

 

[Macsgrafs]

and who bought the commercial version of the Navi controller since if you make pictures for money everyone should pay there fees..

I did see posted somewhere that thier license only covers when in Germany!!!!

Ross

 

[*****]

I did see posted somewhere that thier license only covers when in Germany!!!!

Ross

nope , the MK police is watching
everyone making money on MK stuff is obligated to purchase a license for commercial use.
so if you take a fiver for a picture, you need to spend another 800 or so on a license good thing is you can fly 1km in radius on gps mode.
intellectual rights go further then just germany so i heard

 

[Macsgrafs]

nope , the MK police is watching
everyone making money on MK stuff is obligated to purchase a license for commercial use.
so if you take a fiver for a picture, you need to spend another 800 or so on a license good thing is you can fly 1km in radius on gps mode.
intellectual rights go further then just germany so i heard

I bet they dont get many signup, especially if they have zero customer support!!!!
1Km, I thought it was 500mtrs radius, shows how much I know :shame:

 

[DennyR]

I bet they dont get many signup, especially if they have zero customer support!!!!
1Km, I thought it was 500mtrs radius, shows how much I know :shame:

I wonder if MK contacted the PRS before using the music on the videos.

I doubt that they could afford a blanket license. Probably don't even know what it is.
The Performing Rights Society could shut em down in the blink of an eye.

 

[DennyR]

The fact is very simple, they are not in the same class. DJI manufacture a product that comes to you ready to use straight out of the box. If you use it correctly it works perfectly. MK on the other hand is a kit of parts that may or may not work as quality control is not an option that needs to be addressed. They sold defective FC's for several months knowing that the gyros were not correctly mounted. they also sold BL's with a known fault. As any form of warrantee goes out of the window once you put a soldering iron anywhere near it. Why should they care. Their command of the English Language is remarkable when discussing sales but goes into uncontrolled hyper dyslexia after that point. I used MK on my commercial ops. for quite some time and it became known as the MK fireworks kit, BL's would bust into flames whilst the model sat on the ground trying to acquire satellites without the motors even running. My best FC system to date is DIY Drones stuff but it takes a lot of work to get it working right. At least one knows that at the outset.

 

[Bartman]

I certainly respect everyone's right to an opinion but I just don't think it's entirely true that the DJI WKM is ready to use out of the box. First there's the power distribution circuit that has to be built or bought. Next, there's the issue of tuning the FC and configuring the ESC's. I don't doubt the quality of the flying that it does as many have confirmed it but it, like all the others, leaves a fair amount of work to be done to bring it together and it can be confusing at times.
If you were referring to the fact that DJI has done their part and the equipment is 100% assembled and either ready to fly or DOA then, yes, it is but out of the box there's still a kopter to be built and probably a bit of soldering to do.
As a business, MK is a shameful bunch and plenty of people have had to pay good money to make things right after initial purchase/installation didn't go as planned. I hear the stories and I believe them but I also believe that the overwhelming majority of the MK's purchased are successfully flown as my first was within a week of starting the build. Not only did it fly perfect but I never had to touch a single flight parameter in the software in the 8 months I flew it before putting it into a tree. It was ready to go to work on day one and was entirely reliable. Truth be told, it's the MK dealers that really continue to make MK a viable option. Without them I doubt MK would even still be around as what I hear about the individuals at the top doesn't leave me wanting to ever meet them or associate with them.
It comes down to making a choice and then just doing the work to make it function as you wish. Either will get very satisfactory results.

 

[DennyR]

Well to start with the flame wheel has the power dist.board built in and unless you are trying to fly a heavy lift device with 15" props then it works fine straight out of the box.
In fact a large model also works without tuning if you use the right props. All ESC's have to be initially set to give the right throttle span. It is a function of your radio and has nothing to do with DJI. If you were to compare a flame wheel with a MK quad then you would have to be very biased in your opinion, inexperienced or blind not to be able to to see a world of difference in both design and manufacturing expertise. I am about to start shooting a new video with a flame wheel just to show what can be done with it. The camera is fixed and has no moving axis. The only mod that I have done to the airframe is to tweek the thrust angles slightly with a heat gun to tighten up the yaw control.

Anyway what do I know about it. As Dave would say "Ee knows nowt about out".

 

[Bartman]

i don't think people are buying MK's to put on a small quad for fun flying so the flame wheel isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison. as for choosing props, you can spend hundred of dollars on propellers and still need to try more, it's largely a matter of good guessing and luck. so, "out of the box", isn't entirely accurate.
MK BL's (ESC's) don't need to be configured for each radio. I've seen folks spend weeks trying to get ESC's properly configured. It may seem simple to you with your depth of experience but when the pile of parts staring back at you is the first pile of parts you've ever seen, it can be confusing.
Neither option is a walk in the park, that's all I was trying to say.

 

[Bartman]

Anyway what do I know about it. As Dave would say "Ee knows nowt about out".

You need a vacation from the Internet.

 

[Bartman]

fwiw,
if you look at the early videos produced by MK i think it's evident what their goals and priorities were. there wasn't much bling but they were very proud of the flight times and efficiency of their systems. i think the one video of them in a gymnasium having a flight time contest is very indicative of why there aren't cases on the electronics, why wires are soldered together instead of being held by weighty connectors, why the dome was the minimum thickness possible, why everything seemed to be done to the bare minimum to hold it together and that would be to save weight and increase the usefullness of the batteries. i think a lot of people overlook this when they're buying "stronger" airframes, thicker domes, bigger motors, etc. The original MK Okto (BL 2.0's), with what we'd consider small motors and 10" props, could carry a camera mount, a Canon T2i with the heavy 10-22 lens, video Tx gear, and dual 4S 5000 mah batteries and still fly for 10 to 11 minutes. Outside air temps above 90 F would erode flight times but high density altitude (high temps and humidity) effects all craft equally.
To me, looking at it this way it makes perfect sense why a lot of the MK way is how it is. (except for the ****ty QC)

 

[DennyR]

Actually it is a joke that those South of the Thames and those North of it like to play out occasionally. It is nothing personal just a bit of fun the English do as we are usually on the receiving end of it.

 

[Bartman]

fwiw, as a working aerial media guy and the owner of this forum, i don't have an interest in any one company dominating the market. there are people out there enjoying success with just about every flight controller available. if it makes sense at some point to move on from MK then that's what I'll do. right now, it works for me doing what i'm doing.
Peace, Love, and Understanding to all,
Bart

 

[plingboot]

This technology is still in it's infancy and many of the big players have grown from hobby projects.

With that in mind i think it's entirely predictable that QC and Customer service can be found wanting - doesn't make it right though.

It's always struck me that MK is very much in Holgars workshop and that they've not expanded in a way which would make the ever growing customer base feel either supported or valued.

That's not to say that MK isn't good - it's bloody great.

One company missing from this conversation is 3DR in the USA. I think they've set their stall out the right way, they've moved a bunch of times in the last year to bigger units and invested continually in the right equipment for the job to keep up with demand and plan for the future - so they have control over manufacture, QC/testing, shipping, after sales. They have a team with proper departments dealing with things the way a proper company should do.

The new APM2 looks like being a blinding product more plug and play while being more hackable too and given that the code is being developed Open Source in people's free time it's amazing how far they've come and i think it's fair to say that in the near future (if not now) they are as big a force as either DJI or MK. The big downside IMHO has been the very diy nature of the project - not that it's much different to building an MK - and the fact that, again IMHO it's only been in the last few code releases where it's straight forward to configure. The experience is night and day from what it was a few short months back.

I've bought an APM/OilPan and a whole bunch of other bits from them over the last year and never had an issue - very prompt and cost effective shipping and when there was an issue with the mag units they offered to cover return shipping and part replacement - no fuss, no bother - definitely worth a look.

 

[Macsgrafs]

. It may seem simple to you with your depth of experience but when the pile of parts staring back at you is the first pile of parts you've ever seen, it can be confusing.

Slight understatement Bart Terrifying is the word I would use!!!!

Ross

 

[plingboot]

i got hooked when i saw jose julios clip of his small quad with a sonar and he and a mate were kinda playing tennis with it.

i bought a bunch of bits from 3DR, then more bits, then more, then a MK hexa, then other stuff - the pile grew. I bought parts cases to keep everything sorted (compulsive obsessive behaviour trait), more tools, more bits, i designed a quad frame and tried various ways of making it, i bought a radio, then another one, then more receivers.

i had a huge pile of bits, some part finished quads a finished mk hexa2 and an awful lot of printouts of wiki pages, forum threads etc etc.

to be honest the arducopter took about 10 months to see a proper flight and although the hexa2 was up and flying quickly i'm still dumbfounded by most of the mktool settings.

however, it's a hobby so all the above should be (and for me) is the enjoyable bit. When there's better weather and i get better at flying it'll be even more fun.

Embrace the chaos, but keep it all in compartmented boxes/shelves or i'll know… :dread: