Tiny Clever Quadrotors Now on Kickstarter(spectrum.ieee.org)

65 pointsby eguizzo14 anni fa22 comments

spectrum.ieee.org

Tiny Clever Quadrotors Now on Kickstarter

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/tiny-clever-quadrotors-now-on-kickstarter#.UJgZOllWS58.hackernews

6 comments

Baliw14 anni fa

I was expecting this to link to Kickstarted, not some blog.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/qfolabs/mimixtm-tilt-to-...

dsl14 anni fa

I agree about the direct link, but IEEE Spectrum is kind of a big deal.

Baliw14 anni fa

My bad. It wasn't one I recognized right away, but had I stopped to actually look at it in stead of automatically expecting this to link to kickstarter then I would have given it more credit.

R_Edward14 anni fa

Saw John demo one of these a couple weeks ago at my FIRST Robotics club. Cool product, but man, I wish the battery lasted longer than 10 minutes per charge. Also, it would be amazing if the IR dogfighting system included lasers to paint where the shots were landing, so you could visually adjust your aim. Gonna have to sign up for a sponsorship.

dchuk14 anni fa

isn't 10 minutes pretty standard for electric RC copters/planes? I don't think there's a battery that can last longer than that without being insanely expensive.

Someone14 anni fa

I think weight is more the driving factor than cost.

starpilot14 anni fa

Yeah, this is the issue with electric aircraft. Fossil fuels are still much more energy dense than batteries (40 MJ/kg vs 2 MJ/kg [1]), plus burning fuel provides a nice weight reduction which increases range [2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density#Common_energy_de...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_(aircraft)

gojomo14 anni fa

Are tiny combustion engines practical for RC aircraft?

pyre14 anni fa

Back in the 70's the CIA commissioned a watchmaker to build a hummingbird or dragonfly (forget which) that ran on a tiny two-piston combustion engine.

[edit] Source: http://hackaday.com/2011/02/10/the-cias-amazing-bots/

Scene_Cast214 anni fa

Yes. Besides piston-based engines, you can even get real turbines, both for jets and helicopters - see JetCat for example.

wmf14 anni fa

Not indoors, but most RC planes are using engines (or were 15 years ago when I stopped paying attention).

bigiain14 anni fa

If you're curious, it'll be enlightening to pay some attention to modern RC aircraft. Lipo batteries and inexpensive brushless motor controllers have changed the hobby dramatically since the '90s. Fuel powered RC aircraft are definitely no longer the majority.

quinndupont14 anni fa

All small rotocopters only get about 10 minutes per charge. My cheap and tiny Ladybird gets about 8 mins. They charge quickly though.

R_Edward14 anni fa

I was thinking removable battery so you could have a couple spares and keep flying while another is charging, but now I'm thinking you might actually want that downtime while the fixed battery recharges, so the motors can cool down a bit.

mhb14 anni fa

And to replace the broken pieces.

theevocater14 anni fa

Getting "Service Unavailable - DNS failure" from IEEE site. Did HN really just stomp spectrum?

Maybe mods could change to link directly to kickstarter instead?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/qfolabs/mimixtm-tilt-to-...

EDIT working again

joshuarrrr14 anni fa

The IEEE's datacenter in New Jersey has been without power for days and eventually ran out of generator fuel. There were some intermittent DNS issues after Spectrum moved to backup servers in Arizona. I've been told they're resolved now.

tomkinstinch14 anni fa

I'm glad to see they included $37k in the Kickstarter budget for regulatory certifications (CE, FCC, UL, etc.).

Many hardware projects on Kickstarter include no mention of it, and it's a pricey thing to skip.

motters14 anni fa

I don't see how inverting the props is necessarily any more efficient.

nathannecro14 anni fa

From the Kickstarter: "Why are your props upside down? The inverted props give an efficiency gain proportional to the amount of obstacles in the air column. We've found it varied between 10-20% depending on the frame and protection ring design. The inverted props also let us put the props right in the middle of the center of gravity for awesome control response. Even better, with the props on the bottom they keep spinning when you run up against the ceiling making flying indoors a breeze."

[deleted]14 anni fa

sebbi14 anni fa

marshallp14 anni fa

There's some chinese comp selling $130 quadcops, linked to from diydrones

quinndupont14 anni fa

You can get small quadopters for $50, with control and everything. Look on banggood.com (they are lots of fun and worth the price)