oh man that fricking rocks.

also first post

I implore you don’t visit http://www.diydrones.com for the love of all that’s holy avoiiiiiid :)

i would really really like to build one but a 14 year olds budget doesn’t allow for it…

@ monkeyslayer56

Don’t worry dude, this 36 year old’s budget doesn’t allow for it either…… :(

a 21 year old’s budget doesn’t allow for it either ahaha.

One of these days my budget is just gonna have to get used to the idea.

http://mikrokopter.de they’re way better!

the controller is the real pain, its around $500.

jup, stuff at mikrokopter.de is nice.
only half the fun to use their designs, but their stuff works. it’s more like building a kit-car.

ducts work, makes the thing quiter aswell, if you are not standing right below it.

thing is, if you go for a custom body, ducts are not that much more. have to use different propellers to get the most out of them.
what i like most about using the “duct design” is that the copter is much less prone to damage something in minor accidents or while navigating realy tight spaces.

helps to have some material engeneering students on hand that also know their cad software.

I’m ALWAYS tempted when I see these – I’ve always wanted to build one!

I actually met up with someone else from Hackaday and we wanted to build one, but I was too busy. Still am, sadly.

Some day I will build one.

Anyone know any links to info about simplified Kalman Filters that don’t use matrix math? I never did a lot of that in college and I’d love to dive into something without having to re-learn all that, if i don’t have to.
-Taylor

As an electrical engineer noob, my question is:
If you used two of those recommended batteries in parallel, could you pull a theoretical 40C current?
Either way, you’d get way more flight time from a 306g payload.

I want to build one so bad, but that is not within a 20 year old college student’s budget :\

From looking at the build pictures, I could see a couple weight-reducing components to make up for the second battery I would add.

@by_matt

Yes, you can pull double current. You would be able to pull 40C, assuming the recommended batteries are 20C. 60C if you had three, etc.

If you could get the weight down then you really need very little thrust to keep it up . Probably the easiest way to experiment with something like this is styrofoam for a structure and some cheap DC 12 volt fans like a pc uses, use it wired till you get a feel for the overall design.

Could also do the steampunk way. Use a very small steam generator powered by something like sterno to power the electronics.

Roman candles firing randomly at the ground and flying in a back yard that is under power lines. Did anyone else notice this?

Perhaps you would like the one I built.

http://www.nicoleto.com/NicoletoMK/Home.html

It’s based on Mikrokopter technology.

at 18, I can barely fit the necessary parts for my VW into the budget, I don’t think I can afford this quite yet. I always wanted to build one of these or get one and mod it but I’ve never had the time or money..

hmm.
as for a source of cheap batteries, the ones used in the ipod touch 3G (32G+) are pretty light and small.

i just obtained some 300mAh LiFePO4 CR123 replacements but they are pretty heavy, though have the advantage of being able to handle ridiculous currents without risk of fire.
stepup converter + cell = 12.5V from one CR123 :)

Hahaha, this post was posted about 3 days after I started building my Quadrotor based on the frame design of the one hackaday has linked to. (The power and electronics will be very different).

I’ve spent about £300 and the only thing left to get is the IMU.

I never said it wouldn’t be stabilized. And the gyros are cheap, just not in a prepackaged module. $23 worth of parts sold for $115.

If anyone would like to help me design a PCB, we could make these things very cheaply.

what about using one of those cheap sparkfun 2.4ghtz transmitters? would work until you’re done testing it

I don’t have time to read all the comments but it doesn’t look like anyone has mentioned the X-UFO. It is a very affordable quadcopter that comes with the controller and everything. Be aware when looking that you won’t get far with the stock gyro though. There is at least one company selling solid state electronic gyros for them and I hear they are bulletproof.

Sadly, I have two of them sitting on a shelf collecting dust. I lost interest (read: time) before I could upgrade the gyros. I upgraded the battery to LiPo and they run very nicely. Check youtube for them. Most of the sites I found with info were in German.

Here is a video of my Aeroquad build in flight!

In theory YOu could actually do it for a hell of a lot less, Example get the motors proppellers and speed controls from hobbycity.com ( you can even find combo packs for as litle as 20 for those three parts x4 so $100us get a 4ch rc transmitter 2 stick aircraft type not pistol you can find these controls for as cheap as $40us with 2.4GHz tr module and rx module. next you need either gyros or accelerometer you might even want to toss in a BEC (battery Elimination Circuit) to cut down on weight so you don’t have to have a battery pack for the rx module as well as the main power supply Bec is about $10us using gyros your looking at $60us for all 3 or $10-30 for a accelerometer (3-axis) and a stmicro discovery board for $10 (s\h included) finally you’ll need and want a frame…you can get carbon fiber rods and tubes from a few hobby stores online and they aren’t that expensive so whats the guestimated total? just under $400 probly less if you could find some deals, for a quick design idea check out rc groups.com.

@sam
I haven’t read the build, so I may be wrong, but I’ve heard of quadcopters getting yaw control by rotating the propellers in opposite directions. By having opposing props rotating in the same direction, you can increase the rotation speed of two opposite props and decrease the speed of the other props, generating torque.

I’ve needed to lose weight anyway…looks like I’ll be skipping lunches!