Quadcopters are the epitome of high-tech hobby electronics. We’re quite used to seeing the frames built out of modern materials (carbon fiber, 3d printed, etc). But it’s pretty hard to beat the strength-to-weight ratio of kebab skewers. You heard us correctly. [Shiny Shez] built his quadcopter frame from kebab skewers.
You might want to get that Boy Scout Handbook out and brush up on your lashing skills. Lashing is a method of using rope (string in this case) to fasten together wooden sticks (bamboo kebab skewers). Once the lashed joints are precisely oriented [Shiny] applies a liberal coat of super glue to cement them in place.
He went the easy route when it comes to control hardware. You can get spare parts for the Husban X4, a commercially available quadcopter. Its main controller is used here. The single board controls the motors, monitors an IMU to keep the aircraft stable while in flight, and includes a wireless transceiver. On the receiving side [Shiny] uses an Arduino with a wireless module. This way he can control the quadcopter from his laptop, or go one step further and use an Android phone.
I’m pretty sure this is an octocopter.
That looks like an octocopter to me…
more an octocopter…
It’s HubSan… Not Husban!
Great, with this kind of availability and price, there is literally nothing stopping me from building a quad other than my laziness.
Thanks, HaD.
I see eight. Eight is not four.
It’s a bi-quad! Assuming the motors are controlled in pairs to act as four.
Octocopter
Neat looking toy, after owning the ladybug 2.0 quadcopter close to a year now i’m pretty hooked on quads. The stability at slow speeds but also the raw power make it out perform all of my other flying craft.
The writing has already suffered now that the head of hackaday has left, sad because it was already really bad to begin with.
Yo,
The photo is of an octocopter or ‘bi-quad’, the Instructable describes how to build a quad as well – I wrote it in a hotel room and had to make do with the photo’s I had handy.
Surprisingly despite only being a ‘bi-quad’ the octo is actually tolerant of a certain amount of engine failure. And it can lift a little video camera with a reasonable amount of grace and airtime.
Cheers
Shez
nice octo
I was gonna build one, but them skewers look mighty pricey..
Very nice. I was just searching for hackmyquad as I just saw one online at a website call http://www.hackmyquad.com and found yours the their look sort of the same, but you have more motors! :-) Yes we need to check the price of skewers…. cool idea!