CNN talks drones

CNN has a video clip about the rise of drones and aerial cameras in the near future here.

It starts with use for real estate photography, then moves to use in law enforcement and short statements about other uses. But then it goes into a short interview with Chris Anderson of DIY Drones about why someone might want these for personal use.

Short, but interesting.

Farhad Manjoo: "I love you killer drone"

Slate writer Farhad Manjoo writes about how cute quadrotor drones are and what changes they are sure to present to warfare and police work in the near future: Slate Magazine

So...all put together.

So...all put together.

But nothing works.

It seems to be a lack of power to the ESCs. There should be a chime or lights or something when they are first plugged in, but I'm getting nothing. The battery charger indicates both that it charged the LiPo and that it is full. So I'm guessing that there is some fault with the power distribution spider.

I'm going to have to tear the rig apart and make an individual test of a single motor plus ESC plus battery and see what I get. Which means a new set of leads to solder, but that's becoming routine by now.

Let's look at the work I did this weekend.

Motors start with the axle sticking out the mounting end. This does not work for a multicopter, so the axles have to be knocked through and re-pinned. In this picture, you can see a finished motor on the left, with the original state (plus soldered on connectors) on the right.

Let's look at these pins more closely. (Cut to macro photos)

A pin is mounted in a groove, holding the inner and outer bodies of the motor together.

Pin was removed, screw lock on other end loosened, then axle knocked down to end-of-axle groove and re-pinned.
Then mounting bracket was screwed on and motor is ready for attaching to quadcopter arms.

The entire body of the quadcopter is done. All of the components are on and attached. Here is the final look (before I tear it apart to figure out why it is not working).

Quadcopter, without props

View through protective cage at the simple flight controller from HobbyKings.

An ESC stuffed into an arm of the quad, with triple connectors going to the motor.

I have holiday plans interfering this week. (*cough* Still need to buy gifts for family...) So little work will be done on the project until I get home on Christmas afternoon.

Meanwhile, I tested out the light camera intended for this first flying platform. I strapped a Contour GPS to my Santa hat and went on a pub crawl. There were technical issues and I did not have a lot of time for editing, so I just hacked together this crappy video so that I had some idea of what my wearable action cam was going to produce.

[Video in the process of uploading to YouTube.]

Friday links and video 12-16-11

Hexacopter seen in Moscow protests.
A hexacopter was "unidentified" as a UFO over the Moscow protests this week. Here is a blurb and video from the Telegraph in the UK.

Non-profit looks at UAV use.
Non-profit Matternet is investigating the use of UAVs for point-to-point delivery in roadless areas. This group is centered on the idea that distribution networks are the missing link is lifting rural areas out of poverty (no pun intended). Initially, they are looking at medical and emergency supply delivery.

Video cranes
I saw an ad for this, probably because it is tied to aerial photography/videography: Kessler Jibs and Cranes.

That sucker costs about twice what I have put into my project so far and probably exceeds my final costs. Sure, it lifts 20lbs, but it is limited to 19 ft of lift and only pivots around that tripod. I'll be able to lift a 3lb DSLR for video 200+ ft in the air and have total movement. I can "dolly" around a subject, which this thing can't do. And my rig will fit into the trunk of my car. Best advantage of the dolly: it's silent. Multicopters have prop noise to deal with.

Timelapse skylines
Kessler did lead to this video about a project using their gear. Not quite aerial, but in my field of interest.


"Orbital" Citibank / JFK Installation from Rama Allen on Vimeo.

"Constructicons"
Here is an awesome project in which a team turns quadcopters into an autonomous construction team to produce aerially constructed sculptures. Read the whole article, of just sample the project with this video (one of two on that webpage).

A little more work over the weekend.

Not much done this weekend or Monday, due to other commitments. But I did get the power "spider" finished and sandwiched in between the top deck and the bottom deck.

Someone should tin his wires better before soldering a joint...

Tip to the beginner: melting solder produces heat in your wires high enough to melt your hot glue. Expect to require three hands (like usual). But the drilled holes did a great job of holding all of the wires together at the junction point. And the hot glue should insulate the top and bottom sets.

Monday evening is being spent reversing the axles on my brushless motors so the propeller turns above the quadcopter, not below it.

Tuesday I have another project (and some Skyrim), so expect little or no post on Wednesday.

I know I have one of those around here somewhere...

Wednesday evening's efforts were apparently focused on hunting for a misplaced glue gun.

Photo by CraftyGoat on Flickr.

Can't seem to find the glue gun, so I'm saving the power spider creation until another day. Meanwhile, I am assembling most of the frame according to the instructions on Frank's Instructable's page. Not much to report on.

Meanwhile I did figure out what was going on with the motor. I have to reverse the shaft so that the motor can mount properly. I found a good step-by-step procedure on the MachineGrid website. It even shows the exact same model engine I am working with, which is probably no coincidence.

Burned fingers

I've got bullet connectors down. They are actually fairly easy. It's splicing a bunch of wires together with solder that is darn hard.

This just isn't a good solution. Since these need to be insulated, I'll just drill a bunch of holes in a plastic bottle cap, insert wires, and then do the soldering. Pictures tomorrow.

Also, how do you get this prop mount attached to the motor? No instructions and so far, I have not found any tutorials online.

The prop mount definitely goes on that side, but I can see no way to attach it. Frustrating.

I thought I was half way done Monday night, but no. I only had most of the bullet connectors done. The power spider and figuring out some of these issues without instructions continue to be challenges.

Friday links 12-9-11

Links

NPR had a segment on All Tech Considered in which they elaborate on the LA Times story from last week. Give it a listen!

Or there is this older article about micro-drones being worked on by the US Airforce.

Videos

There is an entire channel on Vimeo for quadcopter movies. Lots of it is boring pictures from the ground of people piloting their aircraft through not-quite-stunts. But here are a few winners:

Short but sweet:

Monster Truck - Descent Over Cyclone from AirKraft Productions on Vimeo.


Another pro demo reel:

A flight day with the new quad and T2i from Heli Video Pros on Vimeo.


And from YouTube a cool compilation video:

Friday links and videoes

Another Friday, another sampling of why I find aerial photography exciting.

Here is a blog from a group of aerial quadcopter photographers in Utah. Definitely check out their hike into the real life location where the events of the movie 127 Hours took place. Or go directly to the video on YouTube here.



Some gorgeous aerial panoramas by BlimpMaster.com. You need Quicktime to view the 360º images, but they are breath-taking. Shot with a blimp rig, however.

More photos and Quicktime panoramas at BlimpMaster's website.

Another demo reel by the Copter Kids. Always great editing!





A different team, Heli Video Pros from Vancouver BC, show us their demo reel.


A flight day with the new quad and T2i from Heli Video Pros on Vimeo.


Have a great weekend. I'll be doing some photo gigs (Christmas parties, yawn), playing some Skyrim, and getting started on photographing the initial quadcopter build. Expect photos of the initial steps on Tuesday.

No more waiting

Okay, the package from HobbyKing has arrived. It was pretty quick once it finally left the shipping warehouse in Hong Kong. (Wonder if they just wait until the air-freight container is full?)

Yes, unboxing photos. How geeky, right?

The two white boxes in the foreground are the quad-frames, with the rest of the parts laid out on a work table. The four motors are light blue (and tiny). The slim little 15-18A ESCs have orange labels. By weight it certainly feels like that blue LiPo battery is the most heavy component.

Remaining is a trip to Radio Shack or Fry's to get wire, solder, soldering iron and a trip to the craft store to get some Gorilla Glue for the frame. (Second frame is "spare parts".)

I'll have to choose this weekend between crafting in Skyrim or crafting in the real world. Good thing I have this blog to act as accountability or else I would totally slack-off this weekend. I still might slack-off some...

[Addition]
Interesting side-note. My invoice apparently lists the wholesale prices for these parts (oops!) And the shipping and handling just lists the shipping costs. The wholesale for my $300+ in parts is $74 and my $77 S&H charge only costs them $27. Nice profit margin there.

What other people are doing

Another Friday link, photo and video post.

Links
A point-by-point article discussing the differences between learning to fly an RC helicopter and a quadcopter, focusing on use for aerial photography: See this blog.

Google apparently experimented with aerial photography using a "Microdrone". Wonder if this project is still in action. Article on the Registry.

Photos
There are some great photographs on this German language blog.



Video
Here YouTube user Andrita35 installs a panoramic camera mount on the bottom of his hexacopter:



At this site, you can see a Flash-based display of the resulting panorama:


Commercial video for swimwear utilizing a Droidworz Hexacopter:


This is the sort of work I hope to be doing next year. Finger's crossed....

See ya next Tuesday.

Great examples of multicopter photography/video

On Fridays I intend to list links, pics and videos from other people that have been flying multicopters. Following the long tradition of posting time-consuming media for the destruction of productivity at the end of the week. That's what blogs are for, right?

First a couple of blogs and articles:
From June 2008, a short blog from an unnamed author documenting his build process
An amazing article about preparing and then field modifying a quadcopter intended to track bats in flight.

Flickr user sjardine has taken a gallery of aerial photos with his quadrocopter:

Photo gallery found here.

Video taken by a hexacopter flying in Cameroon, Africa:

And a pro aerial photographer's demo real:


Copter Kids Aerial Reel from Trent Palmer on Vimeo.

Deciding on an airframe

There are several key factors when deciding on an airframe, but as I see it, these are the three main factors:

• Weight
• Strength
• Cost

There are other factors, but many of them are not very flexible once you have set other elements of your design. For instance, if you are going to be lifting a heavy load, your motor size and prop radius are decided by the lifting power you have calculated. At that point the size of your airframe is more or less determined by the spar length, which is determined by the prop radius (and a few other factors).

A almost complete Arducopter kit, photo by Ole Bendik Kvisberg

It should come as no surprise that weight, strength and cost are all directly related. Choose components that alter one factor and you have surely changed one or both of the other factors. Using solid aluminium spars for the motors instead of hollow tubes increases all three factors, using carbon fiber decreases weight, increases strength and cost.

It is possible to get the most efficient design if you are some crazy engineer that can calculate the strength needed for operation or crashes. But from what I'm reading on the web, people just guess. Plus one needs to normally use easily available parts, rather than custom ordering the exact thickness and material that an engineer might determine is the most efficient.

But then, you also have to build it.

Photo by Kevin Vertucio

A kit is far easier than a handmade frame. There cost of the kit is certainly more expensive because the value of the design and identically produced parts increases the price vendors can ask for the kit. Sometime this cost is, er..., rather high ($1095.00 Droidworx AD-8 HL Airframe Kit).

Hand-making your frame does save you money, but takes more time since you will need to custom manufacture some parts. Alternately you can buy some of the frame and make the rest yourself (example: a frame plate sold individually by Mikrokopter US).

Here are there resources I am using to make my decision. A couple of handmade frames and a couple of kits:

• Cheapest kit on the planet. As used in the Instructables quad (see link on right). $15
• 1000mm Quad Copter Design (by "Old Man Mike"). About $35.
• Step-by-step frame build. Price not listed, but carbon fiber plates suggests $60+.
• AeroFPV Frame. Open source maker of the Aeroquad, costing $200
• Mikrokopter Okto XK Frame Set. Commercial frame costing $280
• Carbon SCARAB Quad/Octa. All carbon fiber frame by MultiWiiCopter, for a bling price of $350

Decision

For the prototype, which will be small anyway, no reason not to go with the cheap plywood frame from HobbyKing for $15. I can get two and thereby have spares arms for the inevitable crashes. This kit even comes with a camera mount tilting camera mount!

For the heavy lifter I believe I am going to go with a custom frame using carbon fiber. Keeping the frame as light as possible enables more flight time or more lifting power for the camera. Hand-building will keep the costs down.