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

[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.

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

[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

[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

[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!

They low power? Oh no!

[wonkey_monkey]

because they low power during use

Low power no fly.

Re:They low power? Oh no!

[JoeMerchant]

Low power on your head, ow!

Good thing

[AndyKron]

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

On the plus side...

[LynnwoodRooster]

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

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.

Bad Karma!

[tmjva]

(Subject line germane.)