Lazy

I really need to get back on this project. A trip out of town, holidays, winter-blahs and Skyrim have all taken the place of being industrious and focusing effort on this project.

And then there is being accountable to your blog, which creates guilt, rather than action. Projects are hard, especially when you are not really sure what to do next or run into a mysterious problem that is going to take a lot of effort to figure out.

I got a multimeter for my birthday, so I am on the right track for pin pointing the issue, hopefully. But it is a matter of putting my "sculpture" on the work bench and starting to tear it apart. I need to get to it, dammit!

Tonight I have a photo gig in Seattle, so it is unlikely I'll do anything at all on the project, but hopefully some work will get applied on Friday evening or this weekend. Can't hide from my failures in Skyrim all winter, can I?

Who am I and what do I want a multicopter for?

My name is Todd Gardiner and I am a both a professional photographer and a software test lead. I like to work so much I have two jobs. I also go to Burning Man; ten years running now.

I specialize in documentary photography and shooting events. You can see my photography here:
http://thebes-inc.smugmug.com/

I want a hexacopter (maybe an octo) to lift my Canon 60D into the air for aerial photography and video. Hopefully I can even turn that into a business model, but that's going to take a while. The laws on commercial use of RC aircraft are still in limbo, although I am allowed to shoot things for my own purposes and even sell that footage. But operating for-hire could become illegal.

I don't know much about electronics. I have done some simple circuits, rigged lighting for things, played with EL-wire, but I have not worked with microcontrollers, radio control (RC), or other electronics. I'm not skilled at soldering, but I've done it before. I don't know the programming language and tools that Arduino uses, but most of my coding skills have been learned by playing with existing code; since there is already code for controlling an Arduino-based multi-copter, I should be okay here if I go slowly and test as I go.

So, if you are like me, this might be a good blog for you. I am about to embark on reading up on multicopters, selecting hardware, and then building my device. One day you too might be able to get your camera into the air.

--Todd