jetlib.sec » Tags » quadcopter

There’s a reason we’ve seen a menagerie of quadcopters over the past few years – the key piece of any quadcopter build is an inertial measurement unit. Historically a very complicated and expensive piece of kit, these IMUs came down in price a few years back, allowing anyone with a few dollars in their pocket and [...]

Tags:  piece turning quadcopter inertial-measurement-unit imus menagerie drone hacks  

Instead of walking his kid to the bus stop like he used to, [Paul Wallich] lets this quadcopter watch his son so he doesn’t have to. It is quite literally an automated system for tracking children — how wild is that? The idea came to him when wishing there was a way to stay inside the [...]

Tags:  kid quadcopter man paul-wallich man-tracks automated-system bus-stop gps hacks  

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but that doesn’t diminish the awesomeness of [Matthew]‘s Raspberry Pi-powered quadcopter. [Matthew]‘s quadcopter is similar to all the other flying drones we’ve seen before with one important difference – all the processing, from reading the gyroscopes to computing exactly how much power to give each motor – [...]

Tags:  raspberry quadcopter doesn matthew gyroscopes awesomeness drones drone hacks  

When working on flying vehicles weight is always a consideration. [Brendin] found a way to get rid of a wiring harness on his quadcopter, simplifying the assembly while lightening the load. He did it by incorporating the power bus into the frame of the vehicle. He started with some copper clad board. Because the substrate [...]

Tags:  power quadcopter bus power-bus lightening-the-load copper-clad-board misc hacks  

If you’ve been trying to decide between building an autonomous quadcopter or a fixed wing UAV, you may not have to choose anymore.  [Team ATMOS] from Tu Delft University in the Netherlands, has developed a UAV that can autonomously transition from quadcopter flight to that of a fixed-wing aircraft. Although the world has seen several [...]

Tags:  uav quadcopter atmos the-netherlands tu-delft-university wing-aircraft drone hacks  

If you’ve been trying to decide between building an autonomous quadcopter or a fixed wing UAV, you may not have to choose anymore.  [Team ATMOS] from Tu Delft University in the Netherlands, has developed a UAV that can autonomously transition from quadcopter flight to that of a fixed-wing aircraft. Although the world has seen several [...]

Tags:  uav quadcopter atmos the-netherlands tu-delft-university wing-aircraft drone hacks  

What happens when you combine a TI-84+ graphing calculator with an added bluetooth module, a 1 Watt Alfa wifi dongle, and a Parrot Wifi Quadcopter? You get a long range quadcopter that’s controlled from the TI-84+ directional pad. This TI-84+ looks like a standard issue school calculator, but [Owen] added an ATTiny13 microcontroller and a [...]

Tags:  calculator quadcopter wifi owen ti-84-graphing-calculator bluetooth-module directional-pad cons  

When working on his quadcopter project [Matt] decided it would be best to build a robust controller for the device. He had never sent off a PCB design for fabrication, but took the plunge and ended up with a compact and reliable PCB on the first try. One of the first things that comes to [...]

Tags:  pcb designing quadcopter matt pcb-design robust-controller plunge microcontrollers  

After [Pyrofer] built a quadcopter, he purchased a cheap 6-channel transmitter made in China. Unfortunately, that transmitter was terrible so he took an old PS2 controller and built his own. For his build, [Pyrofer] broke out the analog sticks and wired them to an AVR housed in the handle of the controller. The AVR sent [...]

Tags:  controller quadcopter transmitter china ps2-controller analog-sticks radio hacks  

If you have a quadcopter and are looking for a beer delivery device, HobbyKing is putting on a beerlift competition The rules for the HobbyKing beer lift are pretty simple: lift the most beer with a quad/hex/octo copter and win a HobbyKing gift card. There are 3 classes: Unlimited, which means a vehicle of any size [...]

Tags:  quadcopter beer hobbyking beer-delivery delivery-device hex contests  

If you decide to fly into town on this bicycle-powered quadcopter your arms and legs really will be tired. That’s because this athlete had to give it his all to power the rotors through the foot pedals and the hand cranks. You can see just one of the rotors on the right side of the [...]

Tags:  town bicycle quadcopter hand-cranks arms-and-legs foot-pedals transportation hacks  

Most of the quadcopter projects that we’ve seen use a joystick-based control system. This lets you fly the thing around like any RC vehicle. But [Saulius] is augmenting his control system by pulling and displaying telemetry data. It doesn’t really change the way the vehicle is controller, but it lets the craft roam much further [...]

Tags:  telemetry quadcopter control telemetry-data fly Wireless hacks  

What a sweet thing it is to see the first outdoor flight of a quadcopter. [Botched] has done a wonderful job of documenting the entire build process. Take a look at all that he has done, then jump after the break to see the extremely stable test flight footage. Earlier iterations used feedback electronics that [...]

Tags:  quadcopter climbing flight outdoor-flight feedback-electronics climbing-the-mountain robots hacks  

Crazyflie, the itty bitty quadcopter that uses a PCB for its frame is at the cusp of being able to fly without a PC. We were enamored with it when we first spotted it, and the Crazyflie has only gotten better. As you can see, a new PCB gives it a slightly more stylized look, [...]

Tags:  pcb quadcopter tiny pc.-we pc crazyflie cusp itty-bitty toy hacks  

We think [FlorianH] did a bang-up job of prototyping his Minima Quadcopter on the cheap. The total bill comes in right around $200 and we’re very happy with the quality of parts as well as the results. Here you can see the top of the double-sided board which he etched to host all of the [...]

Tags:  florianh quadcopter diy job robots hacks  

It’s difficult to contain our excitement for this tiny quadcopter project called the Picopter. [Frank] managed to pull together an impressive collection of features when developing the project. First off, the quadcopter itself uses all-PCB construction. Even the supports for the motors are PCBs with keyed slots to mate perpendicular to the main control board, [...]

Tags:  pcb quadcopter project frank impressive-collection pcbs excitement robots hacks  

[Abhimanyu Kumar] has been hard at work building and posting about his quadcopter. So far he’s published ten installments for this build, letting us relive the adventure vicariously. But it’s number 11 that we’re really excited about as he plans to share the first free-flight footage in that one. The bug was planted in his [...]

Tags:  quadcopter flight abhimanyu kumar free-flight vicariously number-11 Wireless hacks  

If you’re contemplating a quadcopter build here’s a way to add stabilization hardware without breaking the bank. The BaronPilot project uses an Arduino and a Wii Motion Plus module to ensure an even keel for your flying projects. The hardware inside of the Motion Plus includes two gyroscopes, which the BaronPilot monitors for changes in [...]

Tags:  quadcopter motion plus even-keel wii stabilization-system arduino hacks  

[Tiakson] just wrapped up the construction of a quadcopter which piqued our interest due to the unexpected mix of hardware he used. A good portion of the copter is made up of the essential bits we have come to expect from a quad rotor system. Instead of using an Xbee or hobby wireless controller however, [...]

Tags:  web fonera-based quadcopter rotor-system xbee copter linux hacks  

DIY-er [Russell] wanted a quadcopter, and like many people out there, he knew the satisfaction that would come from building it himself. Rather than purchase a kit or follow a set of online instructions, he spent a lot of time researching quadcopters, and eventually put together a thorough tutorial himself. His Arduino-based quadcopter is named [...]

Tags:  diy-er step quadcopter russell satisfaction arduino hacks  

Behold the Land-Bear-Shark, a quadcopter on a rather grand scale. At a full eight kilograms it’s an easy target to compare the [Howard Hughes] behemoth, but in addition to the weight, this still has yet to make its first flight. To give you some scale to the image above, the board at the center is [...]

Tags:  spruce quadcopter scale howard-hughes easy-target spruce-goose first-flight misc hacks  

The challenge: can you build a flying turkey that drops pumpkin pie bombs? That’s the question that Utah Aerials asked themselves and they did manage to make it happen. Of course they’re not starting from scratch, but adding a little holiday cheer to an existing quadcopter in the form of a spray painted turkey fuselage. [...]

Tags:  turkey quadcopter thanksgiving utah flying-turkey thanksgiving-turkey holiday-cheer Wireless hacks  

[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 [...]

Tags:  quadcopter wooden body minnesota minnesota-state-fair foam-board toy hacks  

The University of Pennsylvania has churned out some impressive moves with a quadcopter. Perching on a vertical landing pad with some help from Velcro is impressive, but single and double flips combined with navigating through tight spaces at an angle makes this just amazing. We expect to see it in the next Bond film if [...]

Tags:  university nothing quadcopter bond impressive-moves landing-pad tight-spaces robots hacks  

[Karl-Engelbert Wenzel] developed a UAV capable of taking off and landing on a moving platform autonomously. The platform operates aircraft-carrier-style by driving around the room in circles. The quadcopter tracks a grid of IR LEDs at the front of the landing deck by using the IR camera from a Wii remote. The best part is [...]

Tags:  landing quadcopter platform wenzel karl-engelbert moving-target wii-remote landing-deck robots hacks  

[William Etter] and his classmates built a quadcopter as a class project. We love the details of these builds and they came through with some thorough documentation. Some highlights that we enjoyed were reading about ABS body design and construction, their analysis of two versus three blade propellers, and their breadboarded control mechanism. You can [...]

Tags:  wyvern class quadcopter william-etter blade-propellers classmates control-mechanism Wireless hacks