A Quadcopter Development Platform (Video)

Not everybody at a Maker Fair (or even Faire) is there to get kickstarted or to make a billion of whatever it is they're displaying. Ned Danyliw is one of the non-kickstarter people: an electrical engineering student displaying a quadcopter development platform he hopes can bring the cost of a quadcopter prototype down to $50 or so, or about the same price as a toy quadcopter. You can follow Ned's work step by step and see all the code at his blog, Burnt Transistors. (Alternate Video Link)

Comments

Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[Trachman]

Just wait a little bit. I can smell that very soon there will be initiatives to regulate drones in the same way they want to regulate 3D printers For those who have not seen here is the link with impressive drone model, all DIY, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Re:Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Of course they will, once someone builds a killer anti-personnel quadcopter. Every modelmaker will be labeled a terrorist by then.

Re:Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[ArcadeMan]

Toys.

Re:Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[BitZtream]

...

They've been regulated since before they existed. The FAA already handles them, just like RC airplanes they've handled for the last 50-60 years.

And for reference:

http://ardupilot.com/

They aren't going to bring the price down to $50 until the sensors are $1 each. Considering a quality GPS still costs > $50, as do a set of gyros or a set of accelerometers that are high enough quality to be useful, this is a year or two off still.

Re:Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[NewtonsLaw]

Actually, they are *not* regulated -- and that's the big problem right now.

From the FAA's perspective, there are no regulations pertaining to RC model aircraft -- only guidlines.

This is why the courts overturned a $10,000 fine levied against Raphael Pirker by the FAA -- because there are no regulations to back up that penalty.

The FAA are scrambling to come up with some regulations but, until then, they are hoist by their own petard (or lack of work in this area).

Re:Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[NewtonsLaw]

Please cite the FAA regulations that state this.

I think you'll only find an *advisory* which has no legal standing.

Re:Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[bluescrn]

RC planes and helis have been around for decades. Small microcontroller kits and GPS modules have been around for years.

Yet we've not seen this tech used as a weapon. Why? - because an amateur drone is a rather fiddly, unreliable, and failure-prone method or carrying out any sort of attack, compared to the simplicity and much higher payload capacity of a suicide bomber or car/truck bomb.

Re:Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I was thinking more about assassinations than about mass killings. You don't need a huge payload for that. A gram or two of a skin-absorbed poison (perhaps nicotine sulfate?) is all you'd need. A few incidents like that and watch the governments cracking down on airborne systems of any kind.

Re:Wait. Drone diy kits will be banned

[Slashdot Parent]

They aren't going to bring the price down to $50 until the sensors are $1 each. Considering a quality GPS still costs > $50, as do a set of gyros or a set of accelerometers that are high enough quality to be useful, this is a year or two off still.

I watched the video yesterday and I'm not re-watching it, but did Danyliw's quad even have GPS? Because if not, you can already get a decent Micro Quad for about $50 that's built out of a PCB. Granted, it doesn't have GPS and can't fly autonomously, but it is a standards-compatible and hackable quad at the $50ish price point.

So it's like this one

[TheDayOfMe]

Turnigy Micro-X.
It's designed to be hacked, has 6050 MPU and 328P Atmel processor and built-in DSM2 receiver. It comes with the open source multiwii software, I'm sure the other arduino based ones work just as well.

The nRF24 sounds neat.

Re:So it's like this one

[Slashdot Parent]

This is true. There is nothing new about Danyliw's project other than the 3D printing aspect of it.

That being said, I think it is a super cool project that he's doing, especially for an undergrad. He'll learn a ton from it, and will probably go on to do great things.

Platforms, frameworks, etcetera

[StripedCow]

If the term "platform" is even slightly comparable to "framework", it is time to run.

Faire

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just whining, but personally I really dislike the "Faire" name a lot of people use. I think it turns people away from going to these events..

When I see that spelling, I think of things like people who are in to "faeries" and "magick" and SCA members and other such niches. It doesn't sound at all like "People showing off cool stuff they've built", and I wish people would stop spelling it that way.

Re: Faire

[Trinn]

Some of us are into both and find people like the parent poster to be a real part of the problem.

The most fun you can have with one of these

[NewtonsLaw]

Forget about aerial video and photography with these "drones" -- the most fun you can have with one of these multi-rotor craft is this:

FPV racing

These are tiny multirotor craft fitted with FPV (first person view) video gear and flown around a course (which can be as simple as a few trees in a field).

Stunningly good fun and a real adrenaline buzz -- without all the privacy and safety issues that "droners" create with their DJI Phantoms and other consumer-grade multirotors.

Just Google/Youtube for "mini H quad" and you'll find much more

Why the quadcopter obsession?

[walshy007]

Why not just build an RC helicopter sizable enough to do what you want?

You want automation? It can be done on an rc helicopter too.

I just don't see the point of having a bunch of weak motors as opposed to a single strong one with control of thrust via cyclic and collective pitch controls on the blades.

Re:Why the quadcopter obsession?

[Alioth]

If you don't think RC helis are agile, you've not seen what Alan Szabo does with them.

Re:Why the quadcopter obsession?

[hawk]

I don't care *how* it flies so long as I can have it chase anything larger than a hummingbird, yet smaller than a cat, that moves.

@*#(*^% air rats eating my seeds, berries, and other fruit. Go at them while emitting raptor cries . . .

hawk