Dear all

In the beginning, I would like to apologise for a long time since the last update.

I would like to kindly announce that we have started the production phase on 10.01.2018. It was the day we have finally confirmed the drawing together with the factory and began the tooling phase, it took a bit longer than I have initially thought.

The tooling takes 8-12 weeks, as we will use harden steel ( not rapid tooling). Then we will have 1-2 weeks for the final testing and corrections.

In the meanwhile, I work on the packaging design, instruction manual etc.

I have spoken to the factory, three days ago, and I was told the tooling is halfway down and we can expect a ready model at the end of March. Currently, they celebrate the New Year, therefore the factory is closed until 26th February.

Before that, I have decided to apply two last changes to the drawing, that I think will make the product better. First is the back arm design, ( now is a bit lighter and slimmer, lighter and more flexible -harder to damage). The second one, quite important is how arm attaches to the drone’s body.
Below are the details:

I know you have been waiting for so long for the model ( me too), and all you are amazing backers! That means a lot to me, thanks to you the project continues, and it is already in the last stage. I would like to give something in return for your patience. I will just wait for the factory to confirm the final pricing and I will update you what it will be.

Please remember you have right to get full refund at any time.

I would also like to share the good news, as you may notice, there quite a few designs of human-carrying drones, like Ehang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8shiw6zY_A.

I was asked to draw a draft of future Flying Car, that can be presented to potential investors. I took few days off and drafted the full-size idea; I hope you like it.

I hope this idea one day will be reality, fingers crossed.

BTW Please join Xerall’s Facebook page at : https://www.facebook.com/xerall/

DEAR TANKCOPTER FANS

Firstly, my apologies for a long time since the last update.

The reason was simple when there is money involved there is a problem ?. We spend over 4 weeks just negotiating the tooling agreement with the factory, the whole process took much longer than initially estimated. We had to make corrections then send the document to the lawyers for review and back to the factory, (5 times) before we found common ground.

Ahead of us is the manufacturing contract, but that has only one paragraph that worries us, the 4000 MOQ, from which we are far away ☹ in terms of pre-orders. But there is also the positive information; the factory will fulfil the current order at slightly higher price, so there is no reason to worry about yours pre-orders.

As you can see in the graphic above, there is a quite a lot of components to produce, in order to make this relatively simple idea alive. We went through them all very carefully, as we have limited funds, therefore, we need to get tooling right at the first time.

We finally received the Production TimeLine Plan from the manufacturer which looks as follow:

1. Tooling  – 35 days (We will start the tooling from next Monday)
2. Engineering phase – 16 days
3. FEP(Final Engineering Pilot ) – 12 days
4. PP(Pre-production) 14 days – that is the moment when we will start shipping your orders
5. PS(Production start)

Seeing that time-consuming process ( agreement negotiations). We decided to have a look at recently released 8.5x23mm motors, we took them on the test bench to see if there are any better from the currently used (8.5x20mm). The result was as expected, the thrust was slightly increased so we decided to implement them (small change in CAD). It is a little upgrade but always a score.

As the project takes more time to complete than initially estimated, we fully understand that some of you cannot wait any longer. Please have in mind that you can withdraw your order and receive full refund at any requested time, in that matter please contact us at [email protected]

Thank you for being with us 🙂

DEAR TANKCOPTER FANS

We are pleased to inform you about a new feature, that has been applied to the X-TankCopter. Now, it is possible to remove all the arms ( together with tracks, motors, wheels ) and convert the hybrid into very agile long endurance quadcopter. By removing the arms, model becomes much lighter ( there are no extra components left from the driving gear),  has less aerodynamic drag, consequently the endurance and the thrust to weight ratio increase significantly. The flight time is about 11-12 min. That is an amazing score for the quadcopter that fits in the palm of the hand, weighs less than 100 g and has HD live video camera on the board.

This upgrade carried out the need the need for setting up 2 different PID settings. Those are now easily accessed via remote control. All it takes to convert the hybrid to quadcopter is removing arms and pressing PID button on the remote control.

We had to increased air ventilation for electronic boards ( due to higher currents and temperature produced) . Therefore the vent holes on the main body. Which also add to the overall style ( hopefully you like it). Small changes were also applied to the arms design.

The bottom wheels are bit wider now and equipped with teeth, those will get a bit more traction. We also increased the flange size in order to prevent the belt from disengaging.

At the moment we are in the progress of finalizing the formalities with the manufacturer. We hope to sign the Tooling Agreement within next  week and begin of tool making, in the meanwhile we are working on the last improvements of the model.

As we are approaching the production stage, we are slowly starting to look for distributors around the world.
If you or your colleagues in the network are interested to be one the first distributors. Please sing up at: https://xerall.com/resellers/

DEAR TANKCOPTER DRONE FANS

Apologies for the silence since the last update.

After the last prototype testing: we had to modify the design of the back arms, change the gear ratio and apply few modifications to the internal structure. Now drone performs as it should, therefore the R&D stage is over and now we are facing tooling stage!

In order to do so we have few things on the way, first most important we had to draft the OEM contract that we hope to sign soon with the factory. Before that, we have to visit the factory, confirm price and quality. Then we can move to tooling phase and first batch production, certification and finally to product shipment 🙂 Hopefully short, successful crowdfunding campaign on the way ( on Indiegogo or Kickstarter ).

Thank you for being with us, we are closer and closer to the shipment day!

Below are pictures of the last prototype, sorry for not finished, bad painting, the final item will look much better( like the rendering at the top).

Dear TankCopter lovers

According to the last update, we have modified the design ( propeller’s motors inside the arms). Prototype was build and tested.

We have ran comparative testing. Model worked very fine for 20 flights, after that we have found only one issue.

The crown (face gears) have worn off, only some of them, to be precise 2 of them have girded off and disengage from the spur gear sitting on the motor’s shaft. After investigating the problem we have found the housing needs to have better stiffens in order to keep the gears mesh properly, small deviation will cause problem. Also bigger gear module will help.  We have modified the construction accordingly.

The good news, is that we have already moulded the Radio Transmitter, VR googles. Those are working with no issues, also look and feel quite nice.

Also the smartphone app is in its finest stage.

Below the corrected version of the last model. On the 15th we will get final feedback from factory that is already working on prototype. We will know precisely how much funds we still need in order to start mass production, and the timescale of delivery.  At the moment we are sure, that we will not be able to deliver by the end of the month 🙁 BIG APOLOGIES for that, but we have to take this last step in order to make this product great, not only the function, but endurance, quality, crash resistance, agility etc.

As you can see on the pictures we also upgraded the propellers to 3 bladed. New propellers produce bigger thrust compared to the 2 bladed ones, also at hover they use less power, that is a score towards better endurance. In the box we probably include two sets, 2 and 3 bladed propellers. We will also implement the teeth on the 2 high pulleys for better ground performance ( thank you Valentin for the idea)

Please share, comment share your thoughts

DEAR TANKCOPTER FANS

At the beginning of the update, we would like to inform you about the shipping delay. Which is now expected in mid July 2017.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but the delay is for good reasons:  we would like to implement last design update, that makes great improvement to the model. Hopefully you will like it. Also due to low pre-orders volume, would like to run short kickstarter campaign, to help us rise funds for the tooling and MOQ.

We are glad to have you on the board, but we also understand that some of you cannot wait any longer, so if you feel this way, please remember you have right to full refund at any time up to 160 days form the purchase. To request the refund please email us at [email protected]

Below are the pictures of the both prototypes we have been testing.

The design upgrade is the last and quite important, therefore we have decided to take a bit more time and implement it.

The change in design is about moving motors ( powering the propellers) into the arms. This way we will reduce mass by 4 x  current motor housing ( since they will be housed in arms), that also means less components therefore more reliable system.  Another advantage is the better clearance, so better driving experience.  By this change we also increase agility of the model since the mass is moved towards the centre of the system.

We are still awaiting for the the newest prototype ( that should arrive next week). We will test all 3 of them. So far there are no issues . We have already finished work related to Remote Controller design, App, Flight Controller. So the only last thing is to apply mentioned above changes.

Please let us know what you think in comments below.

Dear TankCopter fans

We have prepared short update, to let you know the progress and timescale of the project. We constantly working on the design of the drone, since last version we have made following upgrades:

1. Back arm, was re-designed, in order to improve aesthetics, protect gears against dirt, as well as to reduce aerodynamic drag.
2. Spur gears transferring power to propellers were also, encapsulated.
3. New battery connector was designed. It makes battery changing much easier and faster that before.

1. We moved the microSD card slot to the side of the model, which is easier to reach than  from the bottom of the model ( also slot in this position, is less likely to pick up any dirt).
2. According to the changes above, we considered upgrading battery to 1000 mAh
3. All sketches are ready for the tooling, prior to that we will run few last test.
4. Flight/Drive Controller was also upgraded in order to deliver necessary power for the new driving motors.

Regarding the time scale, we are still on the track to deliver the drone at the end of May 2017 😉