[Target70]

Originally Posted by DAEMANO

TK was really in a prototype phase. Almost proof-of-concept stuff. Rob has a commercial product. It's like the difference between the Chinese military vs. the U.S.A.s'. China has prototypes, tech demos and research papers. While the U.S. brings deployed battle tested hardware, process, supply chain, and tactics. Rob is that far ahead of where TK was. Most importantly, Rob's controller hardware/software looks to be much more sophisticated than what TK had developed long ago.

Or you can think about it from a materials and equipment prespective. TK went with 3 motors because a single motor didn't exist at the time to do what he wanted. However if TK had reached whatever air compressibility threshold he needed to maintain >10PSI what would that make the rest of his kit look like (batteries, cabling, controllers, etc)? Rob's TQ250 motor is up to the task of his tightly focused product. He's methodically reaching farther (TQ300) while keeping the product commercially feasible. TK had 6 batteries for the same reason. Today batts are available far cheapear and up to the task. Rob's setup, compact enough to be a drop-in replacement for the factory battery.

Things will get really interesting when someone comes up with a 24v kit that drops-in like Rob's. Chances of that happening soon however are slim with just how much engineering has gone into the current Phantom product.

I understand and agree, and do not mean to hate on a poineer. However, while realizing the technological limitations of the day, and the prototype nature of the system, the sheer complexity removes almost all chance of a pleasing appearence. (I mean, look at that junction block in the trunk) Not to mention that same complexity would likely render the setup financially impractical.
Even So, ignoring the bulk and expense, If you were to use todays technology, I wonder what type of performance is possible out of that type of a setup. 36v dual dump pack? and a beast of a motor with scalable engagement control.