Difference between CoDrone pro and CoDrone Lite?

robolink_hansol

What is difference between Pro and Lite and does same battery work in both?

robolink_wes

Yup! You've got it exactly.

honda147

Thanks a million. So to code pre-determined flight patterns and the like, the Lite is fine. The Pro gives you the remote, which lets you 'fly' in real-time, and the remote itself is programmable (or needs to be programmed), right? Thanks!

robolink_wes

@honda147 The Lite and Pro are the same drone, just that the Pro comes with a remote you can build and program in Arduino.

So to answer your question, you can program the Lite in both Snap and Python.

Hopefully that clears things up!

honda147

Hi, I'm still a little confused. Can you programme the Lite version in Python, or just Snap!

robolink_wes

So if I get the pro version, am I still able to use Snap and block based coding?

You can use the Pro version for everything the Lite version can do. The Pro and Lite are the same drone, the Pro just includes the buildable remote.

Does the pro version drone come with sensors to detect objects?

The drone itself doesn't have advanced obstacle detection other than the IR height sensor that detects the ground. So in terms of detecting the lateral areas around it, there are no sensors for that. However (segwaying into to question 3)...

It seems there is a separate camera that can be purchased. Is this just to see what the drone sees? Or is it part of the sensors to detect objects?

The camera add on pops on to the top of the drone. Yes, it would be seeing from the drone's perspective. Right now, it's simply a camera, but we're currently working on using it to act as a sensor to do computer vision-based lessons. We demoed a bit of that at CES this year, which you can see on our YouTube channel.

Check out this video

1Ilikechess1

Thank you for the prompt reply, I have a few more questions below:

So if I get the pro version, am I still able to use Snap and block based coding?
Does the pro version drone come with sensors to detect objects?
It seems there is a separate camera that can be purchased. Is this just to see what the drone sees? Or is it part of the sensors to detect objects?

robolink_wes

@1ilikechess1 That's correct, the Arduino coding portion would require the buildable remote since the Smart Inventor is part of the remote. However, you would be able to program in Python. The tutorials for Python will be coming out soon, we are still in the process of putting those together. Python will provide some pretty advanced features.

For now, if you'd like to have room to expand into programming Arduino, we'd recommend getting the Pro version.

We've definitely had many hobbyists and university students use the CoDrone as a way to get exposed to programming or as research projects on pushing its limits, so there's no definitely no age limit

1Ilikechess1

So does that mean if we purchase the lite version, we would not be able to program advanced codes nor use Arduino? Also, is this for adults too? Many thanks.

robolink_wes

@hansol Great question! So the drones themselves are the same drone. The only difference is that the Pro includes a buildable transmitter remote, which has an Arduino-compatible main board. That means you're doing full-on text-based coding, whereas the Lite is only the drone. You program that primarily using block-based coding, which you can do using Snap.

So the Pro can do everything the Lite can, it just includes an additional buildable remote for more advanced text programming.