Remote Controlled Multicopters

[Vision 2025]

Try an ND filter on the GroPro it will dampen the Jello effect created by the sunlight going through the props and prop wash.  Nice work and please keep it low and legal, I'd hate to meet that beast in the air.

[Hoss]

Try an ND filter on the GroPro it will dampen the Jello effect created by the sunlight going through the props and prop wash.  Nice work and please keep it low and legal, I'd hate to meet that beast in the air.

As an AMA member I know all the regs regarding flying of hobby aircraft. 

But yes, I have a cap set on my flight controller in case something goes amiss (400ft AGL which is the limit).  I'm still in the beta-testing phase.

Thanks for the notes about the GoPro.  I also had someone suggest to me filming in 60fps instead of 30.

[Conan71]

That looks pretty badass.  Too bad we got rid of the next door neighbor, that might have put her over the edge.

[Hoss]

That looks pretty badass.  Too bad we got rid of the next door neighbor, that might have put her over the edge.

Yeah, I was going to ask about that....

[dbacksfan 2.0]

As an AMA member I know all the regs regarding flying of hobby aircraft.  

But yes, I have a cap set on my flight controller in case something goes amiss (400ft AGL which is the limit).  I'm still in the beta-testing phase.

Thanks for the notes about the GoPro.  I also had someone suggest to me filming in 60fps instead of 30.

Here is a link to GoPro about the wave/warble effect. For all of the dampening software it has, there seems to be a couple o frequency ranges they have a hard time eliminating.

http://gopro.com/support/articles/how-to-prevent-waves-distortions-videos

http://www.flitetest.com/articles/vibrations-and-jello-effect-causes-and-cures

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Hoss, I don't know if I posted these before, but here are a couple of screen shots I captured from my GoPro last year while driving the PCH from Bodega Bay to San Francisco of a near collision between my car an either a buzzard or a condor.





Having just left here





This was the route I drove that day.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38.3459835,-122.9715765/37.8791322,-122.5332445/37.4620148,-122.4343749/36.5904447,-121.8960345/@37.7513715,-122.5794497,10.53z/data=!4m26!4m25!1m10!3m4!1m2!1d-122.8104014!2d38.0829579!3s0x8085c5dfaaaaaaab:0xe787718848541930!3m4!1m2!1d-122.6988519!2d37.9363102!3s0x808594c11415c66b:0x6edb51400ed8fac6!1m10!3m4!1m2!1d-122.4804273!2d37.7943025!3s0x808586e335d31717:0x3c1322443d0d9226!3m4!1m2!1d-122.513539!2d37.778952!3s0x808587b59fa73a03:0x3446fa56eeb2efb9!1m0!1m0!3e0?hl=en

[patric]

Then...


In their losing battle against wildfires, drones could be a firefighter's ace in the hole.

"We can get more information for less cost, and it doesn't put anyone in harm's way," said Sher Schranz, a project manager at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who researches fire weather modeling.

Fighting wildfires is a tricky game, since the direction and intensity of the massive blazes can change in seconds. Drones can help in two ways: They can safely gather more information about fire conditions than is currently available, and they can send that information to firefighters on the ground quickly.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/19/technology/innovation/fire-fighting-drones/


Their potential usefulness, particularly their ability to pinpoint hot spots and fly in thick smoke that would ground other aircraft, was shown in an Alaskan fire nearly four years ago.

The fire, which burned over 447,000 acres — roughly half the size of Rhode Island — northeast of Fairbanks, was generating so much smoke that no planes were permitted to fly overhead. But a drone belonging to the University of Alaska Fairbanks was launched and easily identified the extent of the blaze and its varying levels of heat.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/us/faas-concerns-hold-up-use-of-wildfire-drones.html


And Now...


Southern California's first major wildfire of the season, the Lake fire in the San Bernardino Mountains, was interrupted on its first day by a drone.

It forced the air tanker pilots to jettison a total of about 2,000 gallons of retardant at a cost of roughly $15,000, U.S. Forest Service spokesman John Miller said. It also forced the grounding of three aircraft, including two air tankers preparing to drop retardant along the eastern flank of the fire.

"More importantly, it could've killed everybody in the air," Miller said at a news conference the next day, which was held specifically to address the drone situation.
http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/20150717/drones-continue-to-hurt-southern-california-fire-fighting-efforts

[Hoss]

Update..so, like any true guy, I keep working on this thing because the initial kit I got I found some flaws in.  Of course I wind up spending more money on it than I should, but I digress...

Motor mounts coming with the kit are cheap, using brass inserts into plastic that hold the screws.  Problem with this is if there is either too much vibration, or you herk down on a screw too hard during construction/re-assembly, that brass inserts separates out from the plastic, creating all kind of havoc.

So I got some replacement, CNC aluminum motor mounts that also have rubber grommets to help with engine vibration.  They cost twice as much as the plastic replacment mounts, but I was having to replace those about every third flight, so I'm sure after 6 flights they'll pay for themselves.

The problem is that I'm using 13" props.  I was pushing the size of the propellers as they were (clearance between tips was about 1/2" or less).  The new motor mounts shorten the length from center of the vehicle to center of the motor shaft by about 1/4".  Tips of the props nearly touched.  Luckily, I measured those out while installing the new mounts so I didn't fire the thing up before measuring.  That would have been a messy (and dangerous) disaster.

Finding the kind of carbon tube these things take is not easy, and especially now I have to custom fit these to extend the tubes out to make the propellers fit.  I found tubes in 1200mm lengths and bought two.

The messy part was figuring out how to cut fabric laminated carbon tube.  Circ saw doesn't work...so wound up using a grinding wheel on a Dremel to cut.  A little time consuming and messy (carbon dust is nasty; my brother did all that wearing a respirator).  Essentially, I widened the vehicle from a 680mm - or about 26" in diamter from motor hub to motor hub (hence the model name was Tarot680Pro) to about 800mm - or about 31".

Problem is we had to take the vehicle apart.  Lot of parts and fasteners.  Plus, while in there we re-wired it (no Tim Allen references please) with a little thicker gauge wire to hopefully reduce voltage drops under load and to get the connectors out of the middle of the tubes.  We would have issues when we would need to replace a motor mount that the whole tube would have to come off.  No fun and time consuming.  This change should eliminate all of that.

With the new configuration, I should be able to turn a slower motor on this with bigger props (looking at going to 14 or even 15 inch props) and get better flight times but would have to change from a 4S battery (which is 14.8V) and go to a 6S battery (22.2V).  I could run two 3S batteries in series but that bulks up the undercarriage.  I'd also have to buy 6 new motors.  More lettuce.

Here's a picture of the hex before the modification:



Here's a picture after..no center cover but you can still see the difference.



Sorry to bore you guys with this.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Not at all boring!!

[DolfanBob]

So this is a thing.

http://dronenationals.com/

[patric]

So this is a thing.

As is this, apparently. 
WASHINGTON -- CBS News has learned that the Department of Homeland Security has sent an intelligence assessment to police agencies across the country about drones being used as weapons in an attack.

The bulletin went out Friday and warned that unmanned aircraft systems or drones could be used in the U.S. to advance terrorist and criminal activities. Law enforcement sources say, "emerging adversary use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems present detection and disruption challenges."

According to federal officials, "The rising trend in UAS incidents within the National Airspace System will continue, as UAS gain wider appeal with recreational users and commercial applications."

Currently, intelligence bulletins are released almost weekly as law enforcement responds to threats from ISIS sympathizers. But the release of a bulletin dedicated to the threat from UAS is unusual. The bulletin does not mention any specific upcoming events authorities are concerned about but points to the overall security challenges drones present.

Lets hope they act quickly to stem the runaway epidemic of commercial and military crashes caused by model aircraft.
/s

[Hoss]

So this is a thing.

http://dronenationals.com/

Yep, first year for it.  So?

[Townsend]

Yep, first year for it.  So?

I want Battlebots kind of stuff.

[DolfanBob]

Yep, first year for it.  So?

Pretty wild stuff. They race with virtual goggles on. The view is like your sitting in a cockpit flying the drone. Something the participants have really got to get adapted to. Kinda like Star Wars Pod Racing. Makes me think of the Tulsa Glue Dobbers but a step up from what they do.

[Hoss]

Pretty wild stuff. They race with virtual goggles on. The view is like your sitting in a cockpit flying the drone. Something the participants have really got to get adapted to. Kinda like Star Wars Pod Racing. Makes me think of the Tulsa Glue Dobbers but a step up from what they do.

It's called FPV and it's not really that difficult to get used.

Don't get me started on the current incarnation of the Glue Dobbers.