Thinking @ Speed of Light

It is possible i might be overdoing it with the Star Wars references. If you find a better name for the next post (which will probably be the first flight) let me know. I worked the whole of last Sunday and finally got the model now ready. So here it is. This time the whole model weighs only 1396 grams. A 19% improvement on the old model.  The motor (EMAX CF2822) along with the propeller (8"x4")  and the bullet connectors (3.5 mm)  The Quad Control Board -  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=19534  Luke !!! Battery - Tied down with Velcro.  Pictures by Rahul Krishna Upadhayaya. Link to more posts on the  Quadrocopter.

There have not been any updates from my side on the quadrocopter for the past 6 months. This is partly because i was working on other stuff but mainly because i got lazy (really really lazy). So one fine day about 2 weeks ago i decided that i have to finish this project. I ordered a quadrocopter control board as i was getting one at a very reasonable price (details later) and i did not have the time to build one for myself (as earlier planned - i might do this sometime later). I did make some changes to the design changes.  Firstly this time i went for an entirely wood construction instead of the aluminium and acrylic combination(what the hell was i thinking??). There are a few reasons for this. It is easier to work with than aluminium. Wood reduces the vibrations of the motors. Wood is cheaper (was able to get material for building 4 quadrocopter for 280 bucks !!!!) and most importantly it available near my house unlike aluminum rods (laziness FTW)....

For my 50th blog post i decided to post videos of the crash of the Pearl EPO Glider 800. The crash happened on our first try on the 18th of December. I would have posted the videos on that date but we had recorded the videos using a sony handycam and it took some time to extract the videos (I hate sony handycams and their non standard USB's and Memory Cards). Anyway i did manage to get the videos and here they are. Enjoy First Try Second Try Ill fix it up and have it up as soon as i have some free time.In the mean while enjoy he pics of the broken plane:

Recently (by that i mean about 2 months ago) brought a glider from www.rchobbyaddict.com. Have finally managed to assemble it.  Here are some pics and a video of the glider. It uses a brush-less DC motor, 4 servo motors, and a 2S1P 800mah battery. Will give detailed specs in a post in one or 2 days after the flight.   

Ok i got a bit further with the qua, drocopter ( link to part 1 ) project. I've finished the wiring for the motors and added a few LED's. I've also mounted the propellers and decided on the the design of the landing gear. As far as the stuff still left to do the list goes as below: Flight Computer Gyros and Accelerometer for stabilization  Radio Control System software for monitoring telemetry I'm hoping ill have everything done by the middle of may. Will upload all schematics and code then. After that i'll try to add some more gadgetry to the quadrocopter such as: GPS Automatic Paintball gun Camera Mount with Pan-Tilt As far as the Accelerometers and Gyros i was thinking of going for the sensors on either the Nintendo Wii Motion Plus or the Sony PS3 Move controllers because they are way cheaper than buying off the shelf parts and will involve some sort of hacking. Now my roommate is  also building a quadrocopter and he decided to use the Ni...

The first time i heard about a quadrocopter was when i saw a video on how the special effects in spiderman 2 were done (the scene  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NLgY6f60CA  at 1:45 was shot using a quadrocopter).I was amazed at the maneuverability of this machine.I wanted one but buying one was out of the question mainly because of the cost of a ready-made product. Also personally i would be happier if i built one instead of buying it. So about about 2 weeks ago i though i would go ahead and build one. I still have no idea what i will do with it when i'm done but who cares. I ordered all the mechanical parts i would need (details later) , bought a drill   and got to work on fabricating the body of the quadrocopter.  The design is fairly simple(as is the case with most quadrocopters). It is basically an X shaped system (built with aluminium rods, acrylic sheets and bolts) with a with a brushless motor connected to a propeller at eac...