Quadcopter

[silvercruiser]

whoops

 

[Rob]

Ouch, have you bent the motor shafts or damaged the motor bearings as well?

 

[Crispin]

Ouch, have you bent the motor shafts or damaged the motor bearings as well?

I feel quite vindicated - I decided to mount the motors with nylon M3 screws instead of the normal metal screws. The idea was that during a crash they would give and save the shaft. Normally, the slightest knock and the shaft bends.
With this crash, the screws gave way but unfortunately so did the motor wires. Will add a tether now.
So, two motors with torn windings () but no bent shafts. Dug around in my box of crash leftovers and dug out two perfectly good armatures with bent shafts. 30 minutes later, working quad

 

[Rob]

Brushless outrunners are so easy to fix aren't they! Surprised you haven't bent the shafts, you can bend then quite easily, even when you try to load the motor up while running with your fingers on the shaft.

 

[Crispin]

There's not much to them is there... I have many bent shafts from previous accidents but since using the nylon screws, not one. Not to say they won't but the screws give way easily (strip their thread) under shock but never a sign of any issues under normal use.

All on now, about to take for a test flip (bright LEDs and wirring noise might ​freak out the neighbours a bit.

 

[Matt Wright]

Oh no. Mine's been sitting on blocks since I got back. Must must must cull some hobbies to make time for it!
I keep checking at the geo-fence still isn't available. Am I looking in the wrong place?
What's the latest firmware like? I updated last night

I had a bit of a problem last night.

Crashed into the side of a house one road over, about 6 houses away. Motor failure

 

[Crispin]

Geofence is available in the current firmware. You need to turn on auto-fence. It'll not let you fly more than 100m away from the takeoff point. I think the response is RTL if it hits the fence.

Latest firmware is very good. Mine is (apart from the pic above) rock solid. On a windless day it just sits there and hardly drifts, with gusty wind, it works hard but pretty much stays in one place. Compared to what it what when I first started flying it, they have come along leaps and bounds in stability.

 

[Matt Wright]

Sweet, that's more than enough reason for me to get off my butt and gear her up for a flight tonight.
In our move I've safely packed a bunch of battery chargers for various devices but yesterday charged 6 of them using the Turnigy charger with the multi head adapter Worked like a bomb! Lead acid, NiMh and Li-Ion Styling..
Sorry to hear about your crash man.. Good thinking on the nylon screws though. If only one could source things like that in Darkest Africa. I miss eBay
I'll start badgering you on email again soon!

Geofence is available in the current firmware. You need to turn on auto-fence. It'll not let you fly more than 100m away from the takeoff point. I think the response is RTL if it hits the fence.

Latest firmware is very good. Mine is (apart from the pic above) rock solid. On a windless day it just sits there and hardly drifts, with gusty wind, it works hard but pretty much stays in one place. Compared to what it what when I first started flying it, they have come along leaps and bounds in stability.

 

[TonyP]

Yup like Crispin, I find the new firmware quite stable. I seem to have a issue with Alt Hold, but apart from that very good. My 12 year old had a go yesterday and he was quite good with it. Take off, fly around (small squares) and landing all on his own! Off course I was standing next to him like a nervous wreck!

 

[Chas]

One day, we will all be killed by them.

Son of Arnie?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPJMk2fgJU

 

[Crispin]

ha ha - there is not much stopping anyone creating something like this. This video though is a fake - lots of CG in there.
There is a video on youtube where a not-so-clever redneck mounted an (apparent) M16 to the side skid of a normal remote control heli. When he pressed fire the pilot and/or the heli could not compensate for the recoil of the gun mounted so far from the axis. Lots of ducking going on as it turned into a bit of a spray.

There is the security "issue" in the US about these things; they can fly without any one controlling it. You can pre-program it, using google maps, to fly to a set location, take a picture and, fly away again - assuming it did not get destroyed in the explosion, I mean, photo. With the standard battery on mine, no wind, I've clocked it doing 45MPH (according to the on-board GPS) With a flight time of 10-12 minutes, 45mph, you can get 6-7 miles away from where you were, assuming of course, you're not interested in retrieving it.

As always, there is someone who looks at the evil and bad side to it and in the US, there are ramblings about regulating them.

In the meantime, I will continue to crash them and have fun

 

[Chas]

I did wonder if it was a fake, I'm sure it would need to be much bigger that that to cope with the weight of a machine gun and ammo, I just thought it was funny after your comment that one day we'll be killed by them.

 

[Crispin]

You be surprised how much they can lift - mine, which is not built for weight, can lift a 1KG (1L or water) payload (it already weights 1.4KGs with battery). It can only hold the load for about 15 seconds before the battery gives in but with 500g it flies ok. Gte the 6 motor option and you can fly around comfortably with a SLR hanging under it. Make no mistake, they'll be armed soon and they will be in battle.

 

[Chas]

Make no mistake, they'll be armed soon and they will be in battle.

I didn't realise they could carry that much weight. I can see they would be very useful in hostage situations?

 

[Crispin]

yup, mine, being a quad, only has 4 motors. You also get a tri, hex and an oct - 3, 6 and 8 respectively (but you knew that ) The octs have a 4.5KG payload weight with 15 minutes flying time.

 

[Chas]

Just found this clip showing that it doesn't always go according to plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVrxvqYlCDs

 

[Crispin]

I should show you my Broken-Parts bin...

 

[uHu]

Here's what you can do with your quadcopter (or Octo-) (Video):
http://www.nrk.no/rogaland/bar-trommesettet-til-preikestolen-1.11046688

These guys didn't get a permit to use a helicopter, so they used octocopters instead, after carrying all their gear 4 km. Got even better shots they say.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

nice, not much jumping about for a rock band though

 

[uHu]

nice, not much jumping about for a rock band though

Not much of a rock band either. And this is more like pop, with a slight rock tinge. And that's a fact