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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 |
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Feb 4, 2011 01:53
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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 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? 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 |
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Feb 4, 2011 15:07
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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.
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Feb 4, 2011 16:12
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helno posted:Those quadcopter frames sold out incredibly fast. 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.
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Feb 10, 2011 22:21
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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.
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Feb 11, 2011 01:41
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helno posted:I did a bit of work on a large glider I have been putting together this winter. 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 |
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Feb 14, 2011 16:27
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Oh god I have people to not let down now  There are no paper instructions for this kit, which means I'll be following video directions from the maker himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awNHCEm4bLk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oSo3e2Fog4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTjOU6jp02c Now to boring things: I'm currently self-employed, I'm in the process of moving apartments, AND I got possible job offer in another country a few days ago, so please excuse me if you're not flooded with updates, although I'll try to keep things going - I just have a lot on my plate right now 
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Feb 14, 2011 22:39
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wJUWzYuuqs Thought this was quite neat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n55v_bZ5zTk
Manny fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Feb 15, 2011 |
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Feb 15, 2011 15:43
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Someone at my club trying to give my camera a haircut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAbUIB7Vu2U
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Feb 17, 2011 15:38
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I think it is a 250, but not entirely sure. To keep this thread rolling, here's a couple of my other toys:  Click here for the full 1024x683 image. My current favorite - .82ci 4stroke attached to a plane weighing about 4lbs.  Click here for the full 1280x853 image.  Click here for the full 1280x853 image. This is the same guy as from the video above:  Click here for the full 1280x853 image. Manny fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Feb 23, 2011 |
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Feb 22, 2011 11:40
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Have you tried balancing the tail rotors? I'm still waiting for parts to ship from Hong Kong, I've been practicing with a soldering iron though, so hope to report some progress soon!
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Mar 2, 2011 16:43
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It depends what type of products you're looking for. I now buy all batteries from an online shop based in Hong Kong for a fraction of the price of my local model shop, and chances are they may even be made in the same factory. A few years ago the quality wasn't really there, but the latest Li-Pos have been excellent, and so much cheaper that even if you do get a lemon, the savings mean that it doesn't really matter. I think the cheap motors are pretty good too, although I have had issues buying 3 identical motors that turned out not to be. They're also usually a little less efficient than the more expensive brands like AXI, or Mega. For electronics like speed controllers, I'm not really sure myself. The really cheap ones just aren't as good as the more expensive brands. My top recommendation for speed controllers is a company called Castle Creations. They're quite expensive, but not outrageously so, but you notice the quality difference to the bargain basement ones. Theres an instant throttle response whilst I've had unbranded controllers that had a frustrating slight delay on pick-up. You can also plug them into a pc by USB and update the firmware and programming very easily instead of having to use a programming card or input stick controls to a series of beeps. It's got me wondering if I want to risk a £300 GoPro to 3x $15 speed controllers when a failure of any one of them would cause a guaranteed crash.
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Mar 11, 2011 18:33
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That's just now it's designed, with the battery on a movable slider so you can balance it out. I'm building it as planned for now, but I'm looking at pan and tilt mechanisms which would be better suited to hang directly below. The camera can be configured to run upside too. Here's a few stills that I've taken with the camera strapped to a twinstar. I'm working on editing the video, and trying out some stabilization software too.    I tried attaching it under a nitro-powered plane and it didn't end well. First it covered the camera in a smeary mess of oil, then on the 2nd flight the engine quit after takeoff and I tried to make it back to the field but going downwind and the extra drag and weight of the camera didn't help me. I should have stayed into wind - live and learn. Ended up breaking off the undercarriage and cracking a camera mount. Horrible vibration from the 4-stroke too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKJcGurY46s The videos I've taken with the electric twinstar are a lot better, just finding time to edit down all the footage.
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Mar 21, 2011 19:00
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I agree. The MCX is an amazing little heli for a total beginner, they're incredibly easy to fly. The MSR is a little less stable, but more manouverable, so it's good upgrade. A friend just sent me a link to the new Blade MCP and it's insane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqunygaQlQM
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Mar 23, 2011 16:35
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Nebakenezzer posted:Sweet. What kind of engines do these planes have, anyway? The twinstar has 2 little cheap brushless electric motors, the nitro plane is a little Saito .56 glow 4 stroke. I was just getting round to building the frames of my tri-copter and my home internet goes down, and I need to see the building tutorial videos on youtube...
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Apr 9, 2011 23:15
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Giblet Plus! posted:here we go: I remember ARTF variants of this being really gentle and lovely to fly - should be a nice summer plane! flick3r posted:Pretty much I've been thinking the same thing, but instead of airsoft using real BB's. I did some research and then started thinking about drilling out an aluminum tube, mounting it to the sides of the helicopters like real military heli's, and putting bottle rockets in the tubes with some form of igniter attached to the fuses in the back.. I did some research and there are actually people that battle little remote control warships from WW2 and WW1 in lakes... They do not use BB's or Airsoft pellets, they use bigger ball bearings for shot. (dang.) A while ago a company made something called a sonic combat module and you could plug it into a special port for their planes and allowed you to have combat sessions. I think if you hunt around you can see mods to enable it to work with any plane - not as exciting as real projectiles I know but an option.
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Apr 28, 2011 16:21
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