I’ve been flying quadcopters a fair bit lately, and trying to learn some new tricks also means crashing them, which inevitably means repairing them. Last weekend, I was working on some wiring that had gotten caught and ripped a pad off of the controller PCB. It wasn’t so bad, because there was a large SMT capacitor nearby, and I could just piggyback on that, but the problem was how to re-route the wires to avoid this happening again.
By luck, I had just watched a video where someone else was building up a new quad, and had elegantly solved the exact same routing problem. I was just watching the video because I was curious about the frame in question, and I had absolutely no idea that it would contain the solution to a problem that I was just about to encounter, but because I was paying attention, it make it all a walk in the park.
I can’t count the number of times that I’ve had this experience: the blind luck of having just read or seen something that solves a problem I’m about to encounter. It’s a great feeling, and it’s one of the reasons that I’ve always read Hackaday – you never know when one hacker’s neat trick is going to be just the one you need next week. Indeed, that’s one of the reasons that we try to feature not just the gonzo hacks that drill down deep on a particular feat, but also the little ones too, that solve something in particular in a neat way. Because reading up on the hacks is free, and particularly cheap insurance against tomorrow’s unexpected dilemmas.
Read more Hackaday!
This is why it’s good to have a well-rounded education and to be constantly learning new things. You never know what bits of information will come in handy and provide unexpected dividends.
Absolutely
True.
But note that in the USA ‘well-rounded education’ has been redefined by weasels.
It now means ‘Education including no math or science beyond middle school level.’
In other words a BA, MA, PhD, EdD.
Not all of the ‘Piled higher and deeper’ people, but so many it makes the degree kind of stink.
The entire Ed school is in a class by itself for stupid, because they’ve been there decades longer.
I can’t read more Hackaday. I read it every day and there just aren’t any more.
If you rebranded to hackanhour or something then I could read more, but then I wouldn’t have time to build stuff.
We just need more days.
thanks for calling them what they are: quadcopters.
and yes. the day i do not learn something is the day i am dead. (i might learn that though)
When you get old enough you can learn the same thing several times a day!
Well, yes, but helicopter is made from two words: ”helico”, meaning spiral (from which we get ”helix”), and “pter”, meaning “wings” (from which we get “pterodactyl”, or “winged fingers”). Thus, “quadcopter” means quadco-wings. Even “copter” means co-wings.
I’m sure we could get some Greek words together to talk about things with four spiralling wings.
4-off in Greek is tetra. So tetrahelicopter? Helicotetrapter? That could shorten to tetrapter, almost rolls off the tongue!
… and tetraptor for military use.
Nothing about this means “co-wings”. “Co” meaning “co-” is Latin not Greek. “Quadcopter” means “quadcopter”, a Latin / French portmanteau. Genitive of “helix” is “helikos”. ==> helicopter
A lot of the problem I have is the ego or ‘persona’ being so loud I can’t watch it long enough to glean any information.
Series I like: HOWEESMACHINESHOP for machining tips, and for automotive technology Nivlac57 and Oliver Pickard ‘pickard mosquito’ car build. Down to earth, a little wacky, but solid and full of practical engineering, not hur dur ‘cleetus’ type stuff, or ‘I haz supercar’. Not that I care if you watch the other guys, I just can’t.
This article(/post) was tagged as ‘rants’ when in fact it’s the opposite, an..uhm.. stnar?