“The Fuselage Upgrade Kit went from being just an idea to a featured product on the front page of Shapeways in a matter of months."

In 2013, I discovered the confluence of two emerging technologies – aerial drones and desktop 3D printing. The two proved to be perfect compliments for each other.

Early aerial drones, like the DJI Phantom 1, sold the dream of aerial cinematography – the possibility of swooping panoramas and a true bird's-eye perspective for video. But early drones had some extreme limitations. Chief among them a very limited battery capacity, and consequently, very short flight times. The cinematic dream became a nightmare of technical challenges.

Frustration with the then state-of-the-art technology became the impetus for a blossoming side business and a tremendous learning experience.

Overcoming the Phantom 1's abysmal flight time became a passion. As I read online forums, I discovered there were hundreds of other disillusioned drone pilots that shared the same frustration. Some would cobble together custom wires, duct tape to double-up on batteries attempting to keep the Phantom 1 aloft longer and show their make-shift handiwork online.

Rather than a bailing-wire-and-chewing-gum approach, I wanted a more finished product-oriented solution.

Coincidentally, just as these early drones were arriving on the market, the first desktop 3D printers did, too. The two were natural compliments. Seeing the possibilities, I purchased a Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer. The printer proved to become an invaluable tool in imagining, innovating, inventing, iterating, ideating and incarnating new drone parts – and this became the starting point for what became a cottage side business.

The Fuselage Upgrade Kit v 1.0 for Phantom 1 was the first product I developed. The kit doubled the flight time of the stock Phantom 1, and provided a low-slung camera mount that kept the drone's props from appearing in the videos. Interestingly, the form-factor of the Fuselage Upgrade Kit v 1.0 shares some similarities to the unorthodox configuration of the DJI Inspire that DJI released 2 years later.

As evidence of the desktop product revolution, the Fuselage Upgrade Kit v 1.0 went from being just an idea, to a featured product on the front page of Shapeways – in a matter of months. This was both a surprise and an honor because Shapeways had more than 500,000 products, 23,000 shop owners and was shipping in 140 countries at that time. The Fuselage Upgrade Kit v1.0 project also became one of the favorite projects on Instructables.com as well, garnering nearly 30,000 views. 

In the quest to find ever better solutions, and listening to customer feedback and comments, the Phantom 1.5 concept was later developed. The idea was simple. Reskin a Phantom 1 – take all the electronic components – and put them into the larger Phantom 2 shell. The only problem was the Phantom 2 had a proprietary battery bay, so the conversion left a gaping hole on the aft of the reskinned aircraft.

The Phantom 1.5 Battery Door was developed and allowed the Phantom 1 to accept large-capacity 3rd party batteries internally. The Phantom 1.5 matched the flight times and performance of the then-new Phantom 2. In addition to doubling the flight time, the Phantom 1.5 Battery Door became an online sales hit, in part because it had two features the original Phantom 1 didn't have. It provided an integrated bottom-facing status light location, which is easier for pilots to see from the ground, and an external USB port to plug-in for upgrades. Product sales soared in Shapeway's drone category. Hundreds of copies were sold and many satisified customers later. Three years later, the product remains one of the top 30 drone parts of all time on Shapeways. 

A number of spin-off products such as camera mounts, landing gear and accessories were created to compliment the original battery upgrade kit solutions.

The product's success also attracted several copy-cat competitors who tried to copy the design, but who were unable to match the strength of the latch, the light-weight design and fit-and-finish.

Despite the initial successes, and the fun adrenaline of the "Wild West" in the drone parts business, the market has curtailed almost as quickly as it began. Since 2013, manufacturers have worked hard with each product release to vertically integrate all their components and to lock out 3rd party power solutions with proprietary batteries and other parts. The highly-competitive drone industry churns out new products every 6 months – even faster than the break-neck cell phone market – creating a moving target – that's also accelerating. 

In addition to efforts taken by manufacturers to squeeze out competition and 3rd party makers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has acted with a heavy hand, introducing numerous regulations that have tempered the market and introduced substantial uncertainty and ambiguity to the fledgling drone parts market. The two factors together create a formidable headwind for this business space. Future development in this business space will require forethought, perseverance and agility to adapt to a constantly changing marketplace.

Visit my print-on-demand 3D parts shop at Shapeways.com.