Manny posted:

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.