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Ola
Jul 19, 2004

First off, I don't know much about these things so this thread is just as much for my learning as yours. Feel free to use it for discussion, questions, showing off your project or whatever.

Here's two videos from a very craft Swede to get you into "holy gently caress I want this" mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s4m0AXLTtQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozHoP_YThRI



So remote controlled flying contraptions now have batteries light enough and motors strong enough that you can carry a high quality camera - and you can feed live video to a monitor or eyepiece, you can make the camera turn with headtracking, build autopilots and many other things. How? gently caress if I know.

Here are some links:

Very talented Swede: http://www.rcexplorer.se

Massive forum: http://www.rcgroups.com/aircraft-general-130/

High end, high $$$ camera platforms: http://www.draganfly.com/

Frames to hang spinning, buzzy things off: http://quadframe.com/

Korean site with lots of parts: http://www.kkmulticopter.kr/

Site dedicated to live video feed craft: http://fpvpilot.com/

My goal is first to find out what you need, how much it would cost and how you put it together. What I want is something that is easy to fly and can take great pictures from points of view you normally couldn't access. Live video feed and fancy stuff like GPS and autopilot is not as important right away.

One idea I have which I have not seen implemented is a parachute. A simple plastic canopy and some form of RC release could possibly save lots of money in addition to being very cool.

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SnoPuppy
Jun 15, 2005
Don't forget about http://diydrones.com/

It was started by Chris Anderson of Wired magazine.

Colonel K
Jun 29, 2009
Following on from the AI thread, these are really impressive bits of kit. Out of interest, how far away can and do they go?

It looks like an incredible way to get pictures that you just couldn't get from a light aircraft.

Delta-Wye
Sep 29, 2005
gently caress ya'll, I'm cross-posting this bitch from the robot thread:

MEEEEeeee posted:

This is my current build project:


Click here for the full 1126x845 image.

See it belongs in the robot thread because it's a robot, and belongs here because it flys!

I bought an easystar foamie aircraft to use as a fixed wing POV flyer, but I haven't put it together yet. I do have the camera though which I've modified heavily. I might spend some time mounting the servos today and then I'll put up a couple pictures. $60 for a wireless camera isn't too bad, especially if you're willing to do a few modifications to make it actually work. I've taken it all the way apart and done some custom modifications that (supposedly) make it better, and I was hoping to write up a nice documentation so other people can also effectively spy on girls.

EDIT:

quote:

One idea I have which I have not seen implemented is a parachute. A simple plastic canopy and some form of RC release could possibly save lots of money in addition to being very cool.
Or you could just not crash! :v:

Delta-Wye fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Feb 4, 2011

Snapshot
Oct 22, 2004

damnit Matt get in the boat
Crosposted from AI's Aeronautical Insanity thread:

I was looking at building a quad with friends, to get a stable camera platform/General Purpose lift platform also. The reason we didn't go with a tri-rotor is the control laws would be a touch more difficult. The camera we were thinking of was one of the new Elec. viewfinder/Interchangeable lens so it could be aimed with a through the lens view. The main problem is weight for us, We're looking to have 5kg of payload, including a flight cam and a high quality camera.

Ola, pressure gauges are easy, they're a 3 lead part, if I remember from the cansat. GPS stationkeeping may be a little more difficult, as gps can be imprecise, and slaving it into the controls would probably require kalman filtering. hover hold's been done. Check out the Parrot AR Drone. http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/ Once you get a feed from the gyros, you have the control law hold the angles when it's hands off. That's also a very basic autopilot.

Edit: Definitely enough of a derail for a new thread.
-----
EDIT: Well, regarding the chute, you'd have a few issues: Weight, opening time, fouling in props, etc.

Snapshot fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Feb 4, 2011

Manny
Jun 15, 2001

Like fruitcake!
I've ordered the parts and will be building a tri-copter, at first as an aerial video camera platform and then later I may try some of the first person video stuff. I'm going for a tri over a quad as they're easier for orientation in the air, and cost less as you need 1 less motor and ESC. Also the 120degree angle of the arms means they shouldn't appear in view on my wide angle camera.

Current shopping list: (Click the pics to links to where to buy them)

The Brains



I'll be assembling a KK multicontroller (named after the designer Kaptein Kuk) which combines the guts of 3 cheap helicopter gyros, and some microchip magic into multi-rotor flight control unit. It can support 3, 4 and 6 rotor machines.

I'm buying mine as a 'build your own' unit, which is probably where the main challenge will lie as I'm hardly adept with a soldering iron. The chip will be pre-programmed for 3 rotors so I just have to put it together.

The Gyros



It will also require 3 gyros, one for each axis of rotation, for stability control. Helicopter gyros used to be quite expensive affairs but thanks to Chinese mass production, you can now get them for $12 each. You remove the bulky outer casings and solder the gyro units directly to the PCB.

When finished it should look something like this, albeit a lot more messy as I'll be making it:



The Frame



A lot of people make their own frames, but this guy from Poland makes some really nice ones, that have the added benefit of being foldable for transport. You can get really fancy carbon-fibre ones but you're getting into hundreds of dollars and I'm trying to keep costs to a minimum.



Motors



Really cheap stuff, I remember buying motors for 5x the price in the past. I'm still looking at ESCs (electronic speed controllers) as I had read some of them have a problem due to frequencies used by the controller and I'm not sure if the latest firmware fixes that.

Camera



I'll be using a GoPro HD as it's what I've got. It can shoot 1080@30fps or 720@60fps, and it seems very popular in the RC world so lots of support, and the frame I've bought has a mount designed for it.

In the future I may try to install a gyro-stabalised pan and tilt on it, but I'm still not sure how far I'm going to go with this right now.

Manny fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Feb 4, 2011

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

Manny posted:

Kaptein Kuk

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I remember a teacher who pronounced Captain Cook exactly like that when we learned about the great explorers. The whole class snickered at her English pronunciation as in Norwegian Kaptein Kuk means Captain Cock. That alone sells me so hard on that unit. Ahem.

Anyway, that looks great. If I shamelessly copy you I'll be well off. How much do you figure it'll cost, sans tools and camera?

Regarding a stabilized camera mount, what if just swivels under its own weight? Some smooth but dampened joints + gravity?

Here's a video from a Norwegian FPV guy.

https://vimeo.com/18097187

His Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/fpvleif/videos

Article in Norwegian with some small pics of their rigs: http://www.side3.no/article3066772.ece

HarmB
Jun 19, 2006



Don't forget to make sure you're compliant with local air traffic laws. In the US, it's illegal to fly only by camera without the license from the FAA.

Shodansown
Nov 8, 2007
I've recently been thinking about exactly this quite a bit. I was wondering if theres a market out there for aerial photography at much lower costs than having actual aircraft do fly-bys. Surveying, real estate photography, whatever.

I'm not normally an entrepreneurial person, but flying RC planes and getting paid would be rad, and I think there could be a demand if its impressively cheaper than the real plane version.

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

Oh I think there's definitely a market for that. Aerial videos as well. Think of a hotel or a theme park doing an advert. Getting helicopter video is easily four digits per hour. And you can get some quite amazing shots, going from up close or even inside a room all the way out to full landscape.

I think the microfourthirds and similar cameras would be ideal - if they can give video out while they are recording.

Shodansown
Nov 8, 2007

Ola posted:

Oh I think there's definitely a market for that. Aerial videos as well. Think of a hotel or a theme park doing an advert. Getting helicopter video is easily four digits per hour. And you can get some quite amazing shots, going from up close or even inside a room all the way out to full landscape.

I think the microfourthirds and similar cameras would be ideal - if they can give video out while they are recording.

Hell, once the video quality is good enough, airborne RC will be a major component of the film industry. The moment the technology is viable, someone will notice how stupidly effective the whole concept could be. Just imagine all those huge cranes and zipline fixtures totally made obsolete. The technology is becoming realistic in this application pretty much for the first time right now, in terms of film-quality HD in flyable sizes.

I hadn't thought of that until just now...it makes me kind of giddy to think of how that would actually work, and how the industry would recognize the concept's potential.

Manny
Jun 15, 2001

Like fruitcake!

Shodansown posted:

I've recently been thinking about exactly this quite a bit. I was wondering if theres a market out there for aerial photography at much lower costs than having actual aircraft do fly-bys. Surveying, real estate photography, whatever.

I'm not normally an entrepreneurial person, but flying RC planes and getting paid would be rad, and I think there could be a demand if its impressively cheaper than the real plane version.


I think this has already been happening for a while, but it's just been really expensive to get into. I think it's only just relatively recently with things like multicopters that use off-the-shelf parts and the video abilities of modern DLSR cameras that it's become accessible to hobbiests. On the business side, you'd want some type of liability insurance as a CEO probably wouldn't be happy if you parked your machine on his BMW.

This is how it's traditionally been done:




Ola posted:

Anyway, that looks great. If I shamelessly copy you I'll be well off. How much do you figure it'll cost, sans tools and camera?

Regarding a stabilized camera mount, what if just swivels under its own weight? Some smooth but dampened joints + gravity?

As for the costs of my little project, I'm looking at around $200-250 not including transmitter/receiver as I have those already.

The camera only weighs 100g so not sure that swivel idea would work. I have seen some pretty effective stablisation techniques in video post-production, which remove a lot of the airframe vibration.

Harmburger posted:

Don't forget to make sure you're compliant with local air traffic laws. In the US, it's illegal to fly only by camera without the license from the FAA.

And I wonder how many people actually do that. For me, I'm only going to fly in third person for now, and I'm also a member of a club affiliated with the UK national modelling association, so I'm insured as well. Part of the guidelines from the association on FPV flying is to always fly within sight, and to have a second person connected via a buddy cable so they can take over if you get disorientated. It's advisable to never fly alone anyway as I've seen nasty accidents happen when props connect with fingers, and it's good practice to have a lookout on the ground to check for people/objects in the landing zone. For the smaller parkflyers you'll probably be ok, but when you get into bigger stuff with internal combustion engines, you can do some serious damage if you hit someone.

Here's a video I made a few weeks back testing out the GoPro. It's really not meant for low-light indoor stuff and the different types of lights confused the white balance. There's a bit after 1 minute where I tape the camera to someone's AR Drone and gingerly fly it around a bit, and at the end there's a bit where I attach it to to one of my planes and lumber around trying to miss the walls as it was overweight to the point of being unflyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezJP2znPrmM

I'm hoping the weather will clear up so I can have a go at attaching it to something a bit bigger outdoors.

Manny fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Feb 4, 2011

ValhallaSmith
Aug 16, 2005

Harmburger posted:

Don't forget to make sure you're compliant with local air traffic laws. In the US, it's illegal to fly only by camera without the license from the FAA.

Not true. The reality is that there is no legal framework for FPV flying. Either for or against. The most you will find is that private organizations for RC aircraft like the AMA have their own rules and guidelines for members. The FAA did issue some guidelines back in 81, but they are just guidelines and not legally binding in any way.

If I want to drop an FPV airplane off a weather balloon at 100K feet I'm free to do so. And it would be loving awesome.

Now I do believe people doing FPV have an ethical and moral requirement to keeps the risks of FPV flying reasonable. But thats a whole different kettle of debate. And really the risk to full size aircraft is minimal. A goose is a much bigger threat to most aircraft.


I think I'm going to do one of these for a summer project. Optionally I think I'm going to see if I can make some sort of miniature TCAS receiver.

Edit:

As far as vids go. I'm quite partial to trappy's nyc vid: http://www.vimeo.com/17351140

ValhallaSmith fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Feb 4, 2011

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

ValhallaSmith posted:

Optionally I think I'm going to see if I can make some sort of miniature TCAS receiver.


What about a rather powerful TCAS transmitter and scare the poo poo out of airliners on final? But I guess that falls on the wrong end of that nitpicky "ethics" thing. :rolleyes:

The information so far is excellent and Manny that is a very reasonable budget. Less than a GoPro camera!

One thing I'm wondering is if it's possible to stabilize the machine in hover hold with gyros. Is it? The idea would be to be able to fly it in relative mode instead of absolute mode. Don't know if that makes sense but:

Absolute: thrust lever controls thrust of engines, simple as that.
Relative: thrust lever becomes more like altitude selector. Hold up to go up, when centered the machine maintains altitude by itself.

Manny
Jun 15, 2001

Like fruitcake!
I think you'd need something more than gyros to do that but I'm not exactly sure how it would work. What you described is how the AR Drone works though - I think it has some kind of sensor aimed at the floor, as it can get confused when you fly over objects.

Nebakenezzer
Sep 13, 2005

The Mote in God's Eye

Was I just imagining things yesterday, or was the phrase "video goggles" used in conjunction with piloting these honkeys?

Snapshot
Oct 22, 2004

damnit Matt get in the boat

Ola posted:

What about a rather powerful TCAS transmitter and scare the poo poo out of airliners on final? But I guess that falls on the wrong end of that nitpicky "ethics" thing. :rolleyes:

The information so far is excellent and Manny that is a very reasonable budget. Less than a GoPro camera!

One thing I'm wondering is if it's possible to stabilize the machine in hover hold with gyros. Is it? The idea would be to be able to fly it in relative mode instead of absolute mode. Don't know if that makes sense but:

Absolute: thrust lever controls thrust of engines, simple as that.
Relative: thrust lever becomes more like altitude selector. Hold up to go up, when centered the machine maintains altitude by itself.
You'd need some sort of accelerometer/barometer/altimiter. Gyros only give angular rate information. Once you have that, all that you need is a control law to neutralize z axis movement.

EDIT:

Nebakenezzer posted:

Was I just imagining things yesterday, or was the phrase "video goggles" used in conjunction with piloting these honkeys?
Yeah, you could use video goggles and a 2DoF head-tracking system to give yourself a decent view.

IsaacNewton
Jun 18, 2005

I'm not sure why the only interest in flying comes with the ability to mount a camera on the thing. Flying those helis and planes are fun as hell in their own rights.

I used to fly 450s until the cost of repairing them made me poorer than poor, plus it's tedious.

Your Mans and Them
May 15, 2010

by Ozma

IsaacNewton posted:

I'm not sure why the only interest in flying comes with the ability to mount a camera on the thing.

Without a camera, it's an RC aircraft. With a camera, it's telepresence.

And let's not forget, spy drones are more innocuous to girls than some of us :riker:

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

Snapshot posted:

You'd need some sort of accelerometer/barometer/altimiter. Gyros only give angular rate information. Once you have that, all that you need is a control law to neutralize z axis movement.


But a gyro should say when poo poo is moving and a controller should say "poo poo! poo poo is moving when I told poo poo to stay still." Airliners are perfectly capable (with some exceptions) of navigating across the world with only a gyro (albeit a very costly one) as their primary instrument.


IsaacNewton posted:

I'm not sure why the only interest in flying comes with the ability to mount a camera on the thing.


I thought about this when writing the first post and my conclusion is this: It's not about flying a thing, it's about looking at something in a way you couldn't look at it before, with the added bonus of flying a thing. I.e. it's not about the craft filming the waterfall, it's about the waterfall, but the craft is really cool. And particularly when you can show it to other people in glorious HD.

The past two years of my SA account are mostly dedicated to motorcycling and that interest was triggered by people on the internet showing pictures and video and writing text about their motorcycling. Display and conveyance, holy poo poo they are good motors for storytelling.

(PS did you know there are enthusiast priced side scan sonar and ROVs? Yeah, I have no future which isn't already bought up by childish exploration at a prosumer pricepoint)

Snapshot
Oct 22, 2004

damnit Matt get in the boat

Ola posted:

But a gyro should say when poo poo is moving and a controller should say "poo poo! poo poo is moving when I told poo poo to stay still." Airliners are perfectly capable (with some exceptions) of navigating across the world with only a gyro (albeit a very costly one) as their primary instrument.


I thought about this when writing the first post and my conclusion is this: It's not about flying a thing, it's about looking at something in a way you couldn't look at it before, with the added bonus of flying a thing. I.e. it's not about the craft filming the waterfall, it's about the waterfall, but the craft is really cool. And particularly when you can show it to other people in glorious HD.

The past two years of my SA account are mostly dedicated to motorcycling and that interest was triggered by people on the internet showing pictures and video and writing text about their motorcycling. Display and conveyance, holy poo poo they are good motors for storytelling.

(PS did you know there are enthusiast priced side scan sonar and ROVs? Yeah, I have no future which isn't already bought up by childish exploration at a prosumer pricepoint)

You're still getting some sort of linear input, via gps, or even by indicated air speed. Inertial Navigation Systems still have linear accelerometers in them. The problem with the gyros is that they sense angular data only - they don't sense movement, they sense rotation. If you move the craft such that it doesn't tip at all, as in a quad copter with contra-rotating props going straight up, you won't see any signal at all on the gyros. However without the gyros, you can't make sense of any of the linear data as you don't know the orientation of the craft wrt the ground.

helno
Jun 19, 2003

hmm now were did I leave that plane
If you really want to get into aerial video on the cheap you can always strap a small key chain camera onto a regular RC plane.

Like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqbtKNa7Q5M

The price point on FPV stuff is getting close to the point that I might buy a setup but it is still limited in range unless you violate most countries unlicensed power limit.

If you guys are looking to get into R/C on the cheap you can get just about everything at http://www.hobbyking.com I would probably have far fewer planes if that site didn't exist.

CptAJ
Sep 15, 2007
El Capitanisimo
Well, I couldn't find another RC thread (I'm sure there must be one but I can't search) so I'll ask here and you guys can answer or point me in the right direction:

I got this cheap toy indoor helo from a friend yesterday and I've been struggling a bit with the controls. It has no manual and I can't find anything about it online. So here's a picture of it and the controls and maybe you can make a best guess as to what each of them do:

http://i.imgur.com/fyqQo.jpg The helo

http://i.imgur.com/1vBBD.jpg The controller. A few notes:

1- This joystick moves up and down. It has a groove for sideways motion but its a dummy I guess. Controls the throttle.
4- This one does have up/down and left/right motion. Controls the turning and foward/back motion.
5- Is a knob and along with 6 seem to have some effect on turning too but I cant figure it out.
2- Something with the throttle. Dont know what
3- some effect on foward/back motion. not clear either.
7- Dummy. Does nothing, doesnt move.

Thanks in advance!

Delta-Wye
Sep 29, 2005

CptAJ posted:

Well, I couldn't find another RC thread (I'm sure there must be one but I can't search) so I'll ask here and you guys can answer or point me in the right direction:

I got this cheap toy indoor helo from a friend yesterday and I've been struggling a bit with the controls. It has no manual and I can't find anything about it online. So here's a picture of it and the controls and maybe you can make a best guess as to what each of them do:

http://i.imgur.com/fyqQo.jpg The helo

http://i.imgur.com/1vBBD.jpg The controller. A few notes:

1- This joystick moves up and down. It has a groove for sideways motion but its a dummy I guess. Controls the throttle.
4- This one does have up/down and left/right motion. Controls the turning and foward/back motion.
5- Is a knob and along with 6 seem to have some effect on turning too but I cant figure it out.
2- Something with the throttle. Dont know what
3- some effect on foward/back motion. not clear either.
7- Dummy. Does nothing, doesnt move.

Thanks in advance!

Looks like part of the complexity is because they're using a 4-ch controller but only activated 3 channels (why the left stick looks like it should have left-right control but doesn't).

The sliders next to the sticks (2,3,6,7) are usually used to adjust the zero point of the joysticks. If you find your copter turns slowly without any right stick movement, you should be able to zero it out with the sliders. 5 might be similar but I don't recognize it.

HarmB
Jun 19, 2006



Delta-Wye posted:

Looks like part of the complexity is because they're using a 4-ch controller but only activated 3 channels (why the left stick looks like it should have left-right control but doesn't).

The sliders next to the sticks (2,3,6,7) are usually used to adjust the zero point of the joysticks. If you find your copter turns slowly without any right stick movement, you should be able to zero it out with the sliders. 5 might be similar but I don't recognize it.

5 is how my s105 toy copter adjusts any in place rotation, so I guess it's another way to do the same thing?

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

Snapshot posted:

You're still getting some sort of linear input, via gps, or even by indicated air speed. Inertial Navigation Systems still have linear accelerometers in them. The problem with the gyros is that they sense angular data only - they don't sense movement, they sense rotation. If you move the craft such that it doesn't tip at all, as in a quad copter with contra-rotating props going straight up, you won't see any signal at all on the gyros. However without the gyros, you can't make sense of any of the linear data as you don't know the orientation of the craft wrt the ground.

Ok thanks, I'm getting closer to wrapping my head around this. As long as the gyros can keep it level you could set to engine idle speed to = hover and down throttle means sink and up throttle means climb. That could be done on the fly on the transmitter right?

Snapshot
Oct 22, 2004

damnit Matt get in the boat

Ola posted:

Ok thanks, I'm getting closer to wrapping my head around this. As long as the gyros can keep it level you could set to engine idle speed to = hover and down throttle means sink and up throttle means climb. That could be done on the fly on the transmitter right?

Yeah, you could hold attitude using the gyros, although that would probably require some sort of onboard control system. You then would have to keep manipulating the throttle to get the hover that you wanted. You'd be providing the translation data with your eyes and the throttle input. You wouldn't be able to correct drift very well.

helno
Jun 19, 2003

hmm now were did I leave that plane
Those cheap helicopters do not use gyros for flight stabilization. The gyro on most helicopter is only used to keep the tail from drifting side to side. Most helicopters that are relatively stable use flybars to keep the helicopter upright which is why they are so limited in speed.

The 3.5 channel helicopters are as cheap as they are because they do not actually contain servos for control they simply use transistor based speed controllers to vary the speed of the two main rotors and the .5 channel is the vertically mounted tail rotor to give the small amount of forward speed they can achieve. After you have flown even a basic 4 channel helicopter you will see what you have been missing when you don't have cyclic control.


The Sliders you guys are referring to are called trim controls. They provide a slight offset of the main controls so you do not have to constantly hold a certain control input to maintain level flight or a hover. The trim will drift over time because the motors never spin at exactly the same RPM so you will need to retrim periodically.

evilmonkeh
Apr 18, 2004
meh
I've been designing my own radio + autopilot with accelerometer + gyroscope for the last few months, and the hardware is nearly ready to build. Hobbyking has a $15 Quadcopter frame which looks pretty good for testing so I've ordered one.

Snapshot
Oct 22, 2004

damnit Matt get in the boat

evilmonkeh posted:

I've been designing my own radio + autopilot with accelerometer + gyroscope for the last few months, and the hardware is nearly ready to build. Hobbyking has a $15 Quadcopter frame which looks pretty good for testing so I've ordered one.

Radio + autopilot, eh? Details, Please! Are you licensed for a particular spectrum?

helno
Jun 19, 2003

hmm now were did I leave that plane

evilmonkeh posted:

I've been designing my own radio + autopilot with accelerometer + gyroscope for the last few months, and the hardware is nearly ready to build. Hobbyking has a $15 Quadcopter frame which looks pretty good for testing so I've ordered one.

Those quadcopter frames sold out incredibly fast.

Manny how much do you think your complete tricopter is going to cost? They look like a great platform for photography.

evilmonkeh
Apr 18, 2004
meh

Snapshot posted:

Radio + autopilot, eh? Details, Please! Are you licensed for a particular spectrum?

The whole system is based around a JN5148 2.4ghz zigbee microcontroller, has good range and is fairly fast. Using an IMU-3000 and ADXL345 as sensors. I'll post more details in the next month or so, going to order some PCBs soon then I can start proper development!

Snapshot
Oct 22, 2004

damnit Matt get in the boat

evilmonkeh posted:

The whole system is based around a JN5148 2.4ghz zigbee microcontroller, has good range and is fairly fast. Using an IMU-3000 and ADXL345 as sensors. I'll post more details in the next month or so, going to order some PCBs soon then I can start proper development!

Ahh, low power unlicensed. I remember looking at those for the CanSat in 2007, or something similar. I'm looking forward to seeing this. For my quad that I'm designing, I'm probably going to take advantage of my amateur radio ticket, and up the transmitter power. That and probably use one of the GHz bands for the video feed.

Manny
Jun 15, 2001

Like fruitcake!

helno posted:

Those quadcopter frames sold out incredibly fast.

Manny how much do you think your complete tricopter is going to cost? They look like a great platform for photography.

Wow, for that price I was expecting to see some small plastic toy frame but that's amazing. And I thought my frame was on the cheaper side.

$100 - Frame
$30 - Controller
$36 - 3 motors
$36 - 3 speed controllers
$36 - 3 gyros



Radio gear I already have, but you'll probably want a 2.4ghz set as having to run a traditional long aerial down one of the arms could be a recipe for interference.

helno
Jun 19, 2003

hmm now were did I leave that plane
Well if it is that cheap might just add one to my collection.

I could probably design a frame and just get it laser cut to save money over a prefabbed one. Does it end up being cheaper to do the DIY controller and the chopped up HK gyro's instead of the complete pre-made controller?

Manny
Jun 15, 2001

Like fruitcake!
I just had a thought - those figures don't include postages costs.

I think the diy kits work out at just over half the price of the pre-made controllers. The problem I had was finding anywhere that had the pre-made ones in stock, as there seem to be limited batches made of each revision. I also wanted to give the diy kits a try as assembling PCBs is something I've never done before.

helno
Jun 19, 2003

hmm now were did I leave that plane
I did a bit of work on a large glider I have been putting together this winter.

http://helno.ca/?p=27

3.2m wingspan

Manny
Jun 15, 2001

Like fruitcake!

helno posted:

I did a bit of work on a large glider I have been putting together this winter.

http://helno.ca/?p=27

3.2m wingspan



Looks good, are you going to have trouble sawing the nose off and fabricating a motor mount? I guess you'll also need to have the correct thrustline set up. My Dad had a similar problem, and he got someone else to do it - they made up a carbon-fiber disc, which was epoxied into the nose. Also, nice pool table!

Ok so for an update for me, I received a box of bits today:

Crazy Poland stamps


Controller board and bits


Arms - pre-drilled too! You'll note there are 2 spare arms for accidents.


The base parts are made of fiberglass - they're surprisingly strong, they hardly bend at all.


All the bolts and engine mounts


A little stowaway gift too


The circuit diagram fills me with dread


Laid out on the floor - it's smaller than I was expecting.


Things are a bit hectic in real life at the moment so I don't know when I'll be able to seriously get started on it. Motors and gyros are still in the post.

Manny fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Feb 14, 2011

IsaacNewton
Jun 18, 2005

Holy poo poo I need to stop looking at this thread. I'm way too poor for this sort of envy. :mad:

I am living through you Manny and you need to get to work quickly and take many pictures. :smith:

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Ola
Jul 19, 2004

Most excellent post Manny! I shall be taking notes. I don't expect to get started before late spring, you posting pics will help a lot. :)

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