[Greasetattoo] shares the process of building his wooden quadcopter body that won 2nd place in the Minnesota state fair. His plans were purchased as a kit back in 1999, but he never got around to actually building them. The original plans called for a foam board body, but he felt that a wooden piece of art would be much nicer. This build isn’t focusing on the electronics, they’re just a kit from Mikrokopter. Instead, it is a log of the entire process of making the beautiful wooden body. He really put some nice detail in there from the layered and nicely finished dome to the little oak sleeves for his motors. Great job [Greasetattoo].
Maybe he could use the BaronPilot could complete it?
http://www.elenafrancesco.org/arduino/baronpilot/
Nice wood work! Beautiful and functional. Certainly deserves to be on display.
What a difference a decade makes. Back then I used a foam one with a NiCd battery that only kept it airborne for about 3 minutes. Crashing it would destroy it completely, as I discovered the hard way, after a few days of use. The motor-based gyro sucked too. I guess I should get a newer unit to play with, and mount a downward facing camera on it :)
Foolishly tried to build a balsa and electric T configuration device a couple decades ago. Had to use a cord, the battery power just wasn’t there. It did OK in ground effect, but would surge and flip over regularly due to crappy filtering.
After the second or third near decapitation of my girlfriend’s dog, it was relegated to the scrap heap. A friend built a quad copter using nylon push rod tubes, and it did much better – but still flew only in ground effect.
He went on to R/C planes after his quad-copter prototype hit his wife in the back and left a nasty mark. Un-guarded propellers can hurt.