New Year, new Skybot Labs!
Welcome to 2021! With 2020 behind us now is the perfect chance for everyone to start fresh, and for Skybot Labs this means kicking things off with a new brand towards drone racing and customization with a new website, and our new drone racing product lines.
The New Skybot Labs Website
Built to be a gateway to the Skybot Labs’ brand, view our various product offerings, and ultimately have great shopping experience our website has been redesigned to ensure you can easily access information on our company, shop, communicate with us, stay up to date through our email newsletter signup, and of course access our Medium publication. Although our brand is based in the drone racing and customization we are always redesigning and engineering towards bringing drone lovers, builders, and pilots into using our products to fly with — be you a beginner-to-advanced pilot, a hobbyist, drone racer, a builder looking for unique components to integrate into your own build — we’ve got you covered. Overtime new content, deals, and drone-related products will be constantly added, and we invite you to visit and shop! Currently, our BNF(Bind-And-Fly) drones and frames are available for pre-order and will ready to ship by February 15, 2021 on a limited run basis(depending on supplier sourcing and carrier logistics with respect to COVID impacts) so if something is out of stock check back later or signup for our email newsletter to know when we restock or certain products are available. Other products like our line of Skids, 3D printed Accessories, and merch can be fulfilled in 2 days or less. Check it out!
New Products! — Drones, Frames, Skids, 3D Printed Accessories, and more…
Over 2020 and the emergence of COVID I was able to invest more time in the design and engineering of new versions of drones and drone-related products, following the first generation prototype version of the X-Blur V1 drone frame (which I posted back in August 2019). I’m happy to announce the following line up of new products that you find and shop on our site now (I’ll post a separate series of stories highlighting our products very soon):
Drones — 4 BNF (Bind-And-Fly) Models for every occasion. RTF (Ready-to-Fly) models will be available later in 2021:
- SBL X-Blur V1 5": Hybrid 4K/ FPV BNF — Updated Skybot Labs X-Blur V1 5" drone build variant with a RunCam Hybrid Split 4K/ FPV camera More details…
- SBL X-Blur V12 5": DJI Variant BNF— Using the Skybot Labs X-Blur V2 5" frame combined with the DJI Air Unit HD camera system with a twist More details…
- SBL-M1 BNF — A minimalist and customizable air ducted indoor/outdoor drone build using the Skybot Labs SBL-M1 frame More details…
- SBL Micro — A nimble whoop meant to fly any and everywhere More details…
Carbon Fiber Frames
- X-Blur V1 5" Frame — Our original version 1 frame redesigned More details…
- X-Blur V2 5" Frame — Based on the X-Blur platform established by the V1, more openness and expandability for components ad modular systems in a well-balance form factor More details…
- SBL-M1 Frame — A very lightweight and minimalist frame for air ducted drone builds More details…
Build Kits
Coming soon in 2021, our build kits will enable builders to have the building blocks to kickoff and build a drone, from construction to flying.
3D Printed Accessories
Our 3D printed products are like our line Skids or the shell canopy for the SBL Micro, represent our ability to design and print to fit the needs of our drones and for our custom orders on request at a high-level of quality, technique, and material use. More offerings through 3D printing will be available in 2021 as well.
Skids
Protecting your motors, carbon fiber arms, and other components is an investment well spent; not to mention having a level at rest position helps. Leveraging 3D printing unique techniques and designs I created a line of skid pads that offer both protection and varied position options to universally fit any drone or fit our proprietary X-Blur line of frames. Shop and check them out!
COVID -19…What did/ does that mean for Skybot Labs?
When COVID-19 hit in 2020 it definitely impacted our ability to originally launch in early spring (April 2020), thus creating a level of uncertainty, risk, and concern for us and the people within our immediate business, operations, and supply chain network as it did for everyone at a global scale. Fortunately we’ve been able to weather this impact, no one was or has directly contracted a positive case diagnosis, and we’ve been able pivot our operations to focus more efforts that reduce exposure — which led to more time that could be spent in R&D, engineering, and testing towards product development towards what we are viewing as rescheduling of business endeavors and future launches.
Due to pushing a lot of planned launches back into 2021, like many companies in our industry and other industries have, I’ve also looked into assessing the impact on our operations and supply chain capabilities. Overall many of source suppliers and carriers have had their own delivery estimates and logistics impacted negatively to COVID, thus making fulfillment estimates based on components and materials that we use in our products from our vendor and supplier network sometimes unpredictable in our internal supply chain and inventory. This has ultimately made us go the route of building in more buffer time to allow for vendors and supplier in our network to deliver needed components, something every business is dealing with at the moment. This translates into longer wait periods for drone builds and custom orders, a value proposition no one likes right now.
As such many of our pre-orders for our fully built BNF drone models and carbon fiber frames will be fulfilled shipped on a limited run basis as batches as our supplier inventory for components and delivery carrier logistics continue to change in the midst of COVID. I will continue to keep our readers and customers in the loop more often about our operations and ability to meet delivery dates as they potentially fluctuate into 2021. Our first batch for all pre-orders is slated for February 15, 2021. If for some reason there is a delay in your order, please contact me through our Contact Us page and know that we value your business but your order may be effected in our supply chain downstream to complete a drone or frame build to fulfill either a pre-order or regular order towards completion; or we will refund you upon request if the wait period becomes too uncertain for components needed to complete an order.
As COVID continues to be area of serious awareness and preventiveness we are ensuring that all of our products and the assembly of our products that you order are sanitized thoroughly at every stage of the assembly process towards packaging fulfillment as a precaution for our customers.
2021…Time to Fly!
This year gives Skybot Labs the opportunity to make awesome drone products and translate the value of a custom flying and drone building experience to you the customer. Over the year be on the look out for even more updates on our product lines, new products, drone flights, and ways to make the drone maker experience through this product blog that will updated even more frequently than in past.
Lastly, visit the official Skybot Labs site (https://skybotlabs.io)to shop and sign-up for our email newsletter!
2021 here we come!
