GoPro Recalls Karma Drone (usatoday.com)

Wearable camera maker GoPro is recalling about 2,500 of its recently introduced Karma drones because they low power during use, the company said Tuesday. From a report on USA Today: GoPro said a "very small number" of units had lost power during operation, so it was recalling all of them to fix the issue. Most GoPro sales are from the company website, but Karma was also in stock at Best Buy, the physical and online retailer. The company didn't offer a timetable for when -- or if -- Karma would return to shelves, saying it was focused on solving the problem first. GoPro said owners could return their units to the company for a full refund and that replacement units are not being offered. A company spokeswoman said GoPro would pay for the shipping.

Comments

The reason being that

[OzPeter]

Karma is a bitch

But seriously, only 2,500 units sold? Seems like the GoPro tailspin is simply continuing.

Re:The reason being that

[Anonymous Coward]

I was confused by this, actually. The summary says "2500 of" the units sold, not that there were only 2500 sold. But, it also says no replacements are being offered, which makes one wonder how they know the other units sold were not defective, but can't offer more non-defective units.

Re:The reason being that

[OzPeter]

I was confused by this, actually. The summary says "2500 of" the units sold, not that there were only 2500 sold.

TFA is titled "GoPro recalls Karma drone" and says:

The company, which has seen its stock slide and sales tumble, said Tuesday it was recalling the 2,500 units sold of the new Karma drone

as usual TFS is a pile of shit.

Re:The reason being that

[AK Marc]

Go Pro stock should drop. As an owner of a GoPro Hero 3 Black as my first GoPro, I'll never buy another. It doesn't work well, and the support is horrible. The battery life is pathetic. The video quality is great. But you can get 4k on phones now. They need to get the rest of their shit working if they want to stay relevant.

Re:The reason being that

[kangsterizer]

The 4k you get on your phone is terrible compared to the 4k you get on the gopro.

4k is just the size of the picture. By your rationale, a cheap 30usd 4k camera, or even a high-end cell phone is good enough to film the next starwars. That's just not how it works.

The battery life is pretty bad on the gopro3 though - but the quality is otherwise there. While the GoPro Karma is very meh compared to the competition, I don't know of any action cam that is as good as the gopro5 black. yes, you can get a 4k one that looks like it for half the price.. but you also get lesser image quality.

Re:The reason being that

[Lumpy]

only because you cant get them, I tried to purchase 2 of them and they have been out of stock everywhere from day 1 release. Glad I was unable to get them now.
    It's a bummer because its' the most stable video drone available right now.

Re:The reason being that

[Anonymous Coward]

as someone that has the same my experience is 100% opposite of yours. maybe you should have researched what you were buying as the promised battery life is spot on to what you get.

Re:The reason being that

[AK Marc]

My phone is really good, and gives my 4kGoPro a run for its money. But the GoPro loses because I have to re-flash the firmware once a week to be able to record more than 3 seconds. Some massive software bug, but no development on the "old" ones, despite having reported the issue long before the replacement was out. A token discount off the new model was the offer for a broken GoPro under warranty.

Re:The reason being that

[AK Marc]

What's the battery life supposed to be? I get about 12 hours batter life, with the GoPro "off". The batter life when off is horrible. WiFi manages to spontaniously turn itself on while "off" and drain the battery. I'd love to be able to 100% disable the WiFi, but it turns on every time I pull the battery, which I have to do daily because the GoPro locks up often.

DJI MAVIC PRO IS ON TEH SPOKE

[Anonymous Coward]

 

It's a problem

[stealth_finger]

They low power during use? Nice.

Re:It's a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet they low altitude right after that, too.

Re: It's a problem

[Type44Q]

Msmash can low power, low grammar and high ignorance with the best of 'em.

Re:It's a problem

[dwillden]

Followed by going to extremely Low value

Re:It's a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, the problem is that when you aren't using them, their power level spikes to over 9000.

Re:It's a problem

[Drethon]

They low power during use? Nice.

I've had that problem with my ground RCs too. I can't figure out how to prevent lower power during use.

Re:It's a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

The bad grammar continues when you go to the site:

LOS ANGELES - As if GoPro didn't enough problems.

Re:It's a problem

[parkinglot777]

They low power during use? Nice.

It should be "they lose power during use" instead...

Re:It's a problem

[ColdWetDog]

DJI has had this problem intermittently. The software driving these things is pretty darn complex. A quad rotor has no redundancy and they glide like bricks. Lithium Polymer batteries are a difficult technology to manufacture and deal with. Just a few tenths of a volt below operating threshold and the thing crashes. Couple this with flight times measured in the realm of minutes where pilots are going to try to push the limit and find out exactly how unpleasant this can be (where'd my drone go?) and you have unhappy pilots and pieces parts of drones.

That hasn't ended well for a lot of DJI pilots and looks like GoPro is having similar issues. And it's not even winter yet (LiPos hate the cold).

DJI hasn't done a great job of rolling out this tech. The most common new poster poster complaint on the DJI forums is 'my Phantom crashed' (next is 'My Phantom flew away'). And they have a couple years of head start and dozens of firmware revisions on GoPro.

GoPro's marketing folks should be caned for suggesting the name 'Karma'. It's just too juicy to pass up.

Re:It's a problem

[nyet]

I still never understood why /. can't fix simple typos easily.

Re:It's a problem

[nyet]

12 hours later, still no correction.

Idiots.

Re:It's a problem

[sheramil]

The bad grammar continues when you go to the site:

LOS ANGELES - As if GoPro didn't enough problems.

what is WITH that? i see so many messages that are missing the verb, it makes me wonder if there is a bug in phone software that removes it. most of the time you can guess, but sometimes.. you .

Re:It's a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it's what Ollie Williams said anyway.

Re:It's a problem

[wonkey_monkey]

A quad rotor has no redundancy

It could have. There was a BBC bit recently about drones that could still fly purposefully with one, two, or even three props out. It kind of limps it's way back home, with the entire body of the drone spinning wildly around under the one working prop.

Re:It's a problem

[qwertyatwork]

I'll see your 12 hours, and raise you 9 days!

Shipping

[110010001000]

They are going to pay for shipping for their defective product? How generous. Once Trump makes them build their drones in America they will be great again!

GoBro bong and GrowBro legalization kit

[Anonymous Coward]

and a nice warm fleshlight

Earl

[Oswald McWeany]

My name is Earl. I'm very disappointed about this.

They low power? Oh no!

[wonkey_monkey]

because they low power during use

Low power no fly.

Re: They low power? Oh no!

[Anonymous Coward]

Low power during comment.

Re:They low power? Oh no!

[JoeMerchant]

Low power on your head, ow!

We've got a problem...

[Anonymous Coward]

"As if GoPro didn't enough problems."

Well yeah- they accidentally all of their new drones!!

Bring back Timothy

[Anonymous Coward]

All is forgiven!

Good thing

[AndyKron]

Good thing I ordered a DJI Mavic. Hell, they' haven't even shipped it yet!

Mavik Pro couldn't be made fast enough

[Anonymous Coward]

They delayed the Mavik Pro's availability in the US, doing prefilled orders. It was selling so well.

IMHO, DJI are Chinese and likely Go Pro manufacture in China, and so every feature GoPro were about to launch was leaked to the bigger Hong Kong/ Chinese company DJI.

So Go Pro launched this big drone project and DJI launched better, cheaper, Mavik, a week later effectively killing Go Pro's drone. Almost as if they had a headups to exactly what to launch. Only 2500 GoPro drones sold is the result.

Samsung's manufacture in Vietnam, they recalled nearly 3 million note 7 smartphones from the few weeks it was on sale. There are better places to manufacture where the brand is more in charge and the production less in charge. I suspect if Samsung manufactured in China, then a thousand small Chinese brands would have released a Note 7 clone the same week as Samsung.

Offtopict
Also fuck Republican election riggers. You've sold out America to Putin, and you're so fucking dumb you didn't even list to the CIA chief when he warned you of undisclosed Putin links to Trump. You've just been annexed by Russia and you fucker in the GOP did that.. /Offtopic /anger

Re:Mavik Pro couldn't be made fast enough

[HornWumpus]

There isn't much innovative about the GoPro drone. It was always just an 'us too' product.

DJI drones used to drive GoPro camera sales. Once GoPro made their own drone, DJI had no reason to stay out of GoPro's market.

On the plus side...

[LynnwoodRooster]

When the battery starts failing it bursts into flame so it's easy to spot where your drone crashed...

Good!

[Anonymous Coward]

Glad to know that Wi Tu Lo was able to find work again, however briefly. I'm sure he brought Bang Ding Ow along also.

GoPro is recalling about 2,500 of its recently introduced Karma drones because they low power during use, the

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[Disparo Digital]

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ooooh, Karma

[billdale]

I'm sorry my Karma flew into your dogma.

Bad Karma!

[tmjva]

(Subject line germane.)