[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/6194911]
Quad copters have been pretty popular for the last few years, but this one is new to us. Take the same basic layout, but bump it to 6 rotors. Then you’ll have the hexacopter (google translated). With 6 rotors, built in GPS and stabilization and a camera mounted on the bottom, this thing is pretty well equipped. You can see how agile and stable it is in the video above. We know it isn’t necessarily new, but it is new to us. Of course, you don’t have to stop at 6 rotors. You could always just continue on to 8.
70 thoughts on “Hexacopter”
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Too bad it takes soooooooo long to get off the ground. Obviously with only six rotors it’s underpowered.
Bad ass! Where can I get one?
just 8? Hell, why not take it all the way to eleven? Then add a bit more cowbell :-)
To paraphrase an Onion article:
Executives say, ‘F*%k it. We’re going with 6 blades’.
It sounds like an angry swarm of bees!
Very impressive, I guess the extra blades help it get so much lift (a full coke!).
‘of coUrse’
Scared the shit out of me when it first flew off.
Wow!
This is awesome! Question: what is the altitude resolution/accuracy of GPS?
Wow. For such a small copter, that’s a lot of weight it can carry! Very stable too. I wonder how long the battery lasts?
VERY impressive…I want!
Another fine example of German engineering.
I’m amazed how much this thing can pick up. It almost looks like you could make bigger and it might pick up a person. Imagine these things transporting soldiers in war. I bet one that scaled at 3ft could lift a person. all you would have to do is get it to hover then grab on and go. The noise would suck to listen to.
“Of coarse”
Oh god, the misspelling hurts. That one is so obvious!
Cool copter though. I’ve got to built one of these!
One thing I just realized is that is you assume you’re never going to reverse the motors (probably a safe assumption), the motor controller gets *way* simpler – just one MOSFET, instead of 4, per motor. Unless they’re brushless, but I haven’t seen many hobby brushless motor controllers. I have been thinking about building one actually…
If i ever did make a good hobby brushless motor controller, would any of you be interested? Or does someone already make them?
-Taylor
Forget transporting soldiers, mount a gun on it and it would be a really intimidating soldier.
an excellent thing. agile and fast. Congratulations man
Nah, what you need is a higher res camera that can transmit back live video. Then you’ve got a light weight, VERY agile UAV. Or even a whole fleet of them.
3:09
Soon all mikrocopters will turn on its owners and slice their heads open!!
@taylor
I don’t know where you have been all these years, but 95% of all hobbyist multirotors are brushless, and I would say the vast majority of electric RCs are brushless also. maybe 5 years ago brushless was still expensive, but today you can pick up a motor and ESC for under $10.
By the way, this looks like it is using a custom designed ESC from scratch – usually the mikrocopter guys reflash the mega8’s on store-bought ESCs for use with I2C. interesting
Urban Aeronautics of Israel is developing an unmanned medevac/cargo VTOL aircraft according to Aviation Week. Looks like it uses fans for lift and propulsion. I would hate to wake up inside a pilotless craft on my way to the med center!
when that thing goes haywire some pepsi-nazi( :P ) is gonna get a coke to the head!
P.S. Caleb: Stay the coarse! You’re doing fine.
my fucking god if you could put a water balloon on it with a release switch…
I personally really like that “come back” feature.
Simply amazing
I want one.. Put some crazy LED’s on it, fly it at night, I could certainly convince at least one of my neighbors that aliens are invading..
Oh my god, I want this badly :)
I can see this simplifying the lives of many..
well, at least me.
If you could pre-program GPS locations and a safe travel route, I would never leave the house. if one of my friends wanted something, I’d send this thing on its way.
How much would one of these cost to make?
or fix, if it broke?
probably too much for me.
the only thing that worries me, is the “hover” at about neck-level.. there should be a safeguard so it can only hover at, say, 7 feet.
I don’t know what’s happened to this website, but it’s taken a decidedly different direction. Not too sure how I like it yet, but the writers need to go back to high school and refresh their writing skills, especially when it comes to their spelling and grammar.
It’s called, `spell check’. Try it, you’ll like it and we’ll all appreciate you all the more for it when you do. Until then, this website has gotten so sophomoric in its writing, it’s no longer fun to visit.
@Cubby,
Actually, spell check doesn’t catch that one. Which might be why that specific one slips by me every freaking time.
Are there any non-German websites with more info about this thing? I tried Google but struck-out.
@Matthew Restko
Some german guys hang around the RC Groups forums in the multirotor section, there is a big thread on the mikrocopters.
i wonder what the battery life is like, and how much you could extend it by sacrificing that 1k (!) payload.
Can anyone explain what the benefits of more than say 3 blades would be?
Colin-
More blades means the same amount of air can be moved with fewer RPMs. It also reduces noise.
If you have more blades you have some kind of redundancy.
if you, for example hit an object or there is an malfunction and the blades brake or the motor stops working, this thing is flyable. you can land it safely.
As far as i know the altitude can be hold acurately be 20 mm with a air pressure sensor.
Don’t know if you guys know what i mean. My english is not that good burt my german is ;)
Greetings from Austria
sounds like a swarm of bees all playing wistles. very cool though
Simply stunning!
The stability & speed is amazing, with some sonar distance sensors added I’m guessing it would make it fairly crash-proof in an urban environment.
I’ve wanted a decent four-blade coptor ever since I first saw them, but stuff that, now I want a six-bladed one! :D
Found a link to buy them:
http://www.nghobbies.com/cart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=98&zenid=b5d38268a1435c2f4e4edba525fc0d5d
The one in the video looks to be about $1,600 US
Dang, but that thing is quick!
It’s a good day for copter posts. I wish I had me a hexacopter, and one of these: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/triceracopter.html
Be sure to check the part of the site that’s already translated. Doesn’t have everything, but they detail a lot of good info and resources for copters in English including CAD files, code, and more: http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/MikroKopter
There is more to it then the kopter itself. The Quadrokopters/Hexacopters/Optokopters are sold as a kit only – otherwise the shipping charges would be exponential. If somebody wants to get engaged, there are a few things to know upfront. Here are a few links to get you thinking:
Things to consider before buying: http://nghobbies.com/forum/index.php?topic=30.0
Functions:
http://nghobbies.com/forum/index.php?topic=31.0
Transmitter selection:
http://nghobbies.com/forum/index.php?topic=32.0
Skills required for this project:
http://nghobbies.com/forum/index.php?topic=33.0
Make sure you read these to have a better understanding. All these pages are in English, so it should be easy enough.
but why?
Holy crap, it’s a hoverdrone (from Dark Angel)! I’ve also been interested in building a ridable version for a while, but you can’t scale a quadricopter up enough because the rotors get too big, you have to make them variable pitch instead of fixed pitch, and it just becomes more practical to make a helicopter. With this approach I can really see 8 – 10 small (12-18″) rotors working in a rideable ‘flying saucer’ configuration. Ideal power source would be nanophosphate lithium batteries but as yet they still only give a flight time of a few minutes; maybe a hybrid drive with a central ~100kW engine generating electricity to run a bunch of 10kW fixed pitch rotors?
How do you say, “no sh*t?” in German?
Jim
sehr gut.
i think i may make a few, then sell em to local coke dealers so they can fly there coke over the border. if it can carry 1Kg then i would be able to sell them for 5 grand easy cause they would be carrying a 30 grand payload
thats how to put something to good use. nicely done
That’s IMPRESSIVE! I want 9 of those things! I was really surprised during the first flight test – that thing took off a lot faster than I thought it would!
Check out the latest podcast from DIYDrones.com there is an OpenSource being workedon called OpenPilot that has much better hardware and will be much cheaper as well.
Autonomous solar recharged swarm.
Enough said about that idea?
;-)
Not talking about the wonderful Halloween applications… I flew this ghost under a 400mm quadrokopter…
http://vimeo.com/2076007
What do you think would happen if he tried to fly that thing near the White House ?