World's Smallest Homebrew RC Unit

MC68040 writes "I assume you've seen the mini-helicopters and airplanes that are becoming increasingly popular as office toys out there. Well this guy decided the market wasn't filled enough, luckily =) He's built the by far simplest and most functional mini Remote Controlled unit. It weighs under 7 grams, is made of carbon fiber and it's smaller than your thumb (or a hamster, as the author seems to prefer to compare). Go check it, it's truly a amazing feat."

Comments

Want to buy one?

[zeux]

From this page:
Pixels are unique prototypes, and are not for sale. I am sorry for all those who would like to buy one.

Too bad I can't buy one... Do you know if it's possible to buy an equivalent or to build my own? Is it a hard work?

Looking at the pictures it doesn't seem hard to do...

Re:Want to buy one?

[Stuwee]

More importantly, anyone got the schematics for these thumb-sized hamsters?

Re:Want to buy one?

[maxbang]

To make one 1) take a rectangular piece of paper sized 2 inches by 6 inches 2) from one end cut in three inches down the center, lengthwise 3) fold the resulting flaps back in opposing directions 4) affix a paper clip to the uncut end 5) climb atop the jungle gym 6) release 7) observer with awe and amazement, maybe with gusto

Re:Want to buy one?

[dboyles]

I didn't know Richard Gere had a /. account.

I know, I know, the first time you heard that one you almost fell off your dinosaur...

Re:Want to buy one?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a prototype. Perhaps possible in the future, the guy is working with a vendor.

Actually, you can nearly buy a 100 grams one from Petter Muren, Oslo, who can get a mini video cam, and can be driven entirely with the image (it's much more stable). In fact, proxflyer also made a sub 7 grams helico, and the two men have done that in friendly competition. Here is their press release:

Engineers in Belgium and Norway have developed the worlds smallest and lightest autonomous and remotely operated flying robots.

BRUSSELS, Belgium and OSLO, Norway, December 17, 2003. After many years of development in technology, concepts and materials, it has for the first time been possible to build micro flying robots weighing less than 7 grams. Unlike other micro flying robots, these recently unveiled robots operate fully autonomously without any cables to transfer power or control signals. The power comes from onboard batteries and they are operated by infra-red or radio based control devices. The micro flying robots were announced today, on the 100 year anniversary of the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers.

In Brussels, Alexander Van de Rostyne together with leading suppliers of micro robotic components, has developed the Pixelito, a 6.9 grams helicopter-like flying robot with a full 4- axis control similar to larger helicopters. Its two-bladed rotor has a diameter of 148 mm and can be controlled by an infra-red control device that enables the pilot to have full control over it in all the dimensions of space.

In Oslo, Petter Muren in close contact with the same team of component suppliers, has developed the Proxflyer Micron, a 6.9 grams totally silent and aerodynamically stable coaxial rotor flying robot that has a rotor diameter of 128 mm. It is controlled via a 2 channel radio transmitter and an onboard FM radio receiver.

Both the Pixelito and the Proxflyer Micron are battery powered, utilizing onboard state of the art lithium polymer batteries, micro electronics and coreless motors. Space age material technology including carbon fiber and Kevlar is used in the rotors and in the mechanical structures. Both robots rely on new and patented, but totally different ideas to radically simplify the necessary control mechanisms. They are built, and unveiled to the public as proof of concepts and as a demonstration of what is possible to achieve in this field of technology using current commercially available materials and components.

The robots are believed to be the lightest and the smallest flying robots or helicopters ever built anywhere in the world and they open a whole new area of possible applications, including indoor surveillance using onboard micro video cameras, military operations as well as other applications in the hobby and toy market. According to the engineers behind this latest achievement, it is possible to build even smaller and lighter flying robots with today's technology, and as the development of motors and batteries moves on, the flight time and capabilities of such robots will further increase.

with a picture

They beat Epson who did a 9 grams one just one month before: Press release

If you want more on micro R/C, see RC groups

If you want to buy a 10 grams living room plane,
Didel, Switzerland sells a kit. The weight record seems to be 4.4 grams, with muscle wire :) in this thread.

--
Croco

New solutions create new problems...

[jmuzic1]

Now all he has to worry about is the toy going out of his sight range, not the radio range.

Re:New solutions create new problems...

[Moderation abuser]

You put a camera on board.

http://www.rc-cam.com/

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

The server must be hosted on one of those things. I feel sorry for the Hamster RC unit! It must have already burst into flames and burnt to the ground...

*sniff*

"Home Brew"?

[ergonal]

Damn, when I saw the title of this article, I was imagining a minature home beer brewing kit, with a remote control to deliver beer to my desk! The disappointment upon reading the rest of the story was overwhelming.

Popularity

[Wexton]

I wonder if being posted on slashdot has over loaded the server banded with, i threw "Gansta Nation" - Westside Connection music video and the webpage was still wasn't loaded after the end.

I've patented Slashdot!

[Linker3000]

"A device for rendering a previously-accessible Web site inaccesible by the mass mobilisation of Web users, in effect by directing said users to visit the stated Web site in response to a brief article posted on a publically-accessible forum-based, user-moderated news service."

All your user IDs are belong to ME!!!

L3K

PS: Are you with me (small licence fee payable) or do I have to sue you all?

Re:I've patented Slashdot!

[quonsar]

Federal agents have arrested Commander Taco, of Slashdot.org on cyberterrorism charges under the USA PATRIOT Act for a malware attack against over 20 internet web sites. As part of an online weblog on February 29, 2004, Mr. Taco "linked" the sites on the front page of his website. He disguised the links as ordinary "hypertext", thus inducing users to click them. This effectively sent the malicious links to his 800,000 readers. The next time they tried to log on, they would end up killing the servers linked to. Prosecutors charge that the act meets the definition of cyberterrorism since it endangered public internet safety."

Flight issues at small scale?

[Lord_Dweomer]

So I know when you scale helicopters down they get much harder to control, which is why RC helis tend to be so damned jumpy compared to their full size brethren.

Could anybody who knows the physics behind this please explain how this thing will perform/behave compared to a normal RC heli, and then compared to a full size heli?

Re:Flight issues at small scale?

[Moderation abuser]

The small cheapo ones don't have gyros. The more expensive, larger RC ones usually do.

Re:Flight issues at small scale?

[LiquidCoooled]

isnt it to do with the range of motion the servos have than the full sized control units?

TO miniturise them you can only get a preset range of positions.

I am only speculating, but it seems plausable after the mini RC cars I have owned, my original large 1/12 scale had variable steering, but the smaller ones all seem to operate simply between straight ahead and full lock.

Other things you can do with RC helicopters

[Realistic_Dragon]

One of the research groups here has a RC helicopter that has mounted on the bottom a video camera, a still camera, location system and 4 FM 56kbps transmitters. It has an embedded xscale and embedded PPC processors.

It's supposed to be a testbed for data compression and transmission type stuff, but in fact they mostly use it on hot summer days to look in local gardens for sunbathing women :)

Re:Neat-O! No swashplate!

[caseih]

Since the technology has been patented, full details should now be available in the patent application itself. Despite the company trying to require him to keep the technology secret, since it's in the patent, it can no longer be secret. Seems that legally the most the company could do is require him to license the technology to them exclusively. But to force him to keep it secret is quite absurd.

This looks like a nice project..

[Awptimus Prime]

I would like to see someone post some mini-RC howto sites. Some instructions on how to build a little chopper or plane would be some nice reading.

Re:This looks like a nice project..

[Awptimus Prime]

Okay, I am not one to usually reply to my own comment, but I went searching for small-scale projects and found a design involving using parts from a $10-40 TOMYTEC mini-RC car (or clone) and a $13 electric airplane.

It involves a decent amount of hardware hacking, but looks like a fun design for not much money. Mind you, you can probably buy a pre-built toy with similar capabilities for about the same money.

The project is located here.

Re:Neat-O! No swashplate!

[wfberg]

A patent was filed early 2001. The 'problem' is that soon after that, a company took a license on this technology, and required to keep confidentiality. This implies I can not show pictures, or give details or comments about the way this works.

European patent search

DEVICE FOR STEERING A HELICOPTER, filed 24-03-2003, inventor Van de Rostyne, Alexander, number WO03080433; on this link, simply click on the number again to get access to 31 pages (each in one PDF document)..

The original link is slashdotted, but at least we can admire this guy's "secret" patent.

Re:he should really

[dougmc]

He should really attach a little beeper thing to it. Like a car in a parking lot, this thing could be lost very easily.

You mean something like this? At 7 g, it would double the weight of his helicopter. :) (but yes, you can buy or build similar devices that weigh less.)

Still, for larger (larger than 7 g anyways) R/C planes, these things are *very* nice. I put one in just about all my planes, and already they've saved me lots of trekking around in the woods looking for a plane of mine that I've lost ...

Granted patent

[nuggz]

This patent has not been granted yet.
So they are keeping it a secret.

If the patent is denied, they can have an advantage by rolling it out earlier.
If it is granted, you can go look it up.

Re:google cached

[swilver]

Working link

The United Stated is the whole world, isn't it?

[frovingslosh]

I'm not sure about abandoned applications, though. In addition, the full text of every patent since the mid-1970's is available online at www.uspto.gov.

Look at the site's URL. Alaxender isn't in the United States. Why assume he filed the patent with the uspto? Still, the "secret" may be a matter of public record, but not likely at the link you gave.

Mirror to picture

[va3atc]

I have managed to get a picture off the slashdotted webpage. Appears small might be an overstatement of its size.

Re:Mirror to picture

[3digitnic]

I for one welcome our new giant hamster overlords?

You can buy them

[ASDFnz]

Even though the guy does not sell the ones he builds he got together with a German company a while ago called Ikarus. You can now buy micro-helicopters all over the Internet at places like http://www.slyshobbyden.net/fun_piccolo .

Re:google cached

[Celsius10]

Look at that hamster watching and plotting, waiting for the right moment. Ten years from now the sky will be black with those things!