Building a Tri/Quad/Hexacopter for happy flying adventures
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atom
Dec 25, 2011, 8:01:33 PM12/25/11
to London Hackspace
Hello hackspacians, i hope you've all had a pretty damn good christmas
day and you've eaten/drunk yourself fit to burst :)
A few weeks back, I saw a gent (did not find out his name) who was
fiddling with some sort of multibladed helicopter in the lab rooms.
That got me thinking about how damn cool it'd be to build a tricopter
myself, and put it into use for my filming needs.
I work with a livestreaming crew, and something of a very similar
calibre has been done at a protest in the US -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/dec/21/occupy-wall-street-occucopter-tim-pool?newsfeed=true
I'm involved politically with alot of the occupy movement stuff in
london, but i'm also an avid photographer/amateur videographer. With
2012 looking to be a dangerous year for protesters in the capital and
the UK, i want to do everything I can do to keep people safe when
peacefully protesting, and also keep people informed about where
police are etc in realtime. And more importantly, these things look
damn awesome, and i want to learn to build/fly one myself!
I really want to get one of these up in the air ASAP, ready for end of
january or something, so I am considering buying one of these kits and
then filling it out with motors etc so it is good to go. I realise
this is not the true maker-way, but while i'd love to be spending my
time laser cutting/fiddling, i cant really invest that sort of extra
time into the project.
http://www.fpvmanuals.com/tricopter/
My question is....does anyone have experience with these projects?
Could anyone meetup with me in the space sometime to talk it over (and
possibly even help out with the project)? Thanks so much for taking
the time to read this people, and speak to you soon. Ollie
atom
day and you've eaten/drunk yourself fit to burst :)
A few weeks back, I saw a gent (did not find out his name) who was
fiddling with some sort of multibladed helicopter in the lab rooms.
That got me thinking about how damn cool it'd be to build a tricopter
myself, and put it into use for my filming needs.
I work with a livestreaming crew, and something of a very similar
calibre has been done at a protest in the US -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/dec/21/occupy-wall-street-occucopter-tim-pool?newsfeed=true
I'm involved politically with alot of the occupy movement stuff in
london, but i'm also an avid photographer/amateur videographer. With
2012 looking to be a dangerous year for protesters in the capital and
the UK, i want to do everything I can do to keep people safe when
peacefully protesting, and also keep people informed about where
police are etc in realtime. And more importantly, these things look
damn awesome, and i want to learn to build/fly one myself!
I really want to get one of these up in the air ASAP, ready for end of
january or something, so I am considering buying one of these kits and
then filling it out with motors etc so it is good to go. I realise
this is not the true maker-way, but while i'd love to be spending my
time laser cutting/fiddling, i cant really invest that sort of extra
time into the project.
http://www.fpvmanuals.com/tricopter/
My question is....does anyone have experience with these projects?
Could anyone meetup with me in the space sometime to talk it over (and
possibly even help out with the project)? Thanks so much for taking
the time to read this people, and speak to you soon. Ollie
atom
Toby Catlin
Dec 25, 2011, 8:46:51 PM12/25/11
to london-h...@googlegroups.com
you wanna talk to the universal air guys
sorry too drunk and full to help much more
t
Yuan
Dec 25, 2011, 9:32:55 PM12/25/11
to London Hackspace
Hey. It's Yuan here from Universal Air Ltd.
Thanks Toby, yes, I think we can help, our ROFL quadcopter kits come
almost ready to fly (you will need your own RC transmitter and battery
charger. Optionally you could go with computer-controllable ROFL-H
variant, but those are somewhat experimental at the moment). Our
quads are extremely hackable.
I can meet you to run over these things sometime soon.
But, you need to know that there are some laws and regulations
surrounding where you can fly a quadcopter (particularly one with
camera attached), if you do fly a quadcopter, it is your obligation to
ensure that you adhere to these for legal and safety reasons. I can
give you a pointer to some relevant documents explaining these if we
do meet.
Let me know!
Yuan
On Dec 26, 1:46 am, Toby Catlin <t...@korfball.com> wrote:
> you wanna talk to the universal air guyshttp://www.universalair.co.uk/
Thanks Toby, yes, I think we can help, our ROFL quadcopter kits come
almost ready to fly (you will need your own RC transmitter and battery
charger. Optionally you could go with computer-controllable ROFL-H
variant, but those are somewhat experimental at the moment). Our
quads are extremely hackable.
I can meet you to run over these things sometime soon.
But, you need to know that there are some laws and regulations
surrounding where you can fly a quadcopter (particularly one with
camera attached), if you do fly a quadcopter, it is your obligation to
ensure that you adhere to these for legal and safety reasons. I can
give you a pointer to some relevant documents explaining these if we
do meet.
Let me know!
Yuan
On Dec 26, 1:46 am, Toby Catlin <t...@korfball.com> wrote:
> you wanna talk to the universal air guyshttp://www.universalair.co.uk/
Yuan
Dec 25, 2011, 10:32:01 PM12/25/11
to London Hackspace
Oh yeah, forgot to link some videos and stuff in case you were
interested:
Stability testing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCkBym3SCs0
Wireless tuning (this is similar to how you would control the
quadcopter from a computer instead of an RC transmitter):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgq2YsG89bE
(the crash was deliberate demonstration of what happens when you
detuning of one of the values).
Shop site: http://www.universalair.co.uk/catalog/rofl
We'll have a few more videos up later, including I think GPS
autonomous navigation, "follow me mode" and fun stuff like that.
Yuan
interested:
Stability testing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCkBym3SCs0
Wireless tuning (this is similar to how you would control the
quadcopter from a computer instead of an RC transmitter):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgq2YsG89bE
(the crash was deliberate demonstration of what happens when you
detuning of one of the values).
Shop site: http://www.universalair.co.uk/catalog/rofl
We'll have a few more videos up later, including I think GPS
autonomous navigation, "follow me mode" and fun stuff like that.
Yuan
Russ Garrett
Dec 26, 2011, 6:11:09 AM12/26/11
to london-h...@googlegroups.com
On 26 December 2011 01:01, atom <theat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm involved politically with alot of the occupy movement stuff in
> london, but i'm also an avid photographer/amateur videographer. With
> 2012 looking to be a dangerous year for protesters in the capital and
> the UK, i want to do everything I can do to keep people safe when
> peacefully protesting, and also keep people informed about where
> police are etc in realtime. And more importantly, these things look
> damn awesome, and i want to learn to build/fly one myself!
> london, but i'm also an avid photographer/amateur videographer. With
> 2012 looking to be a dangerous year for protesters in the capital and
> the UK, i want to do everything I can do to keep people safe when
> peacefully protesting, and also keep people informed about where
> police are etc in realtime. And more importantly, these things look
> damn awesome, and i want to learn to build/fly one myself!
If you're considering doing this, it's worth being aware of the law as
it pertains to "small unmanned surveillance aircraft":
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/3015/article/167/made
--
Russ Garrett
ru...@garrett.co.uk
Anish Mohammed
Dec 26, 2011, 6:35:33 AM12/26/11
to london-h...@googlegroups.com, London Hackspace
Hi Atom,
Happy to give u a hand. I have build quite a few of these platforms,( six platforms) and contribute to at least one development platform, I am assuming u want to use that as fpv/recording platform. Tri/quad's are a bit low on redundancy , would reccomend hex or octa, which would give u a bit more lifting power :) Please drop me a note if u need some assistance.
Regards
Anish
Happy to give u a hand. I have build quite a few of these platforms,( six platforms) and contribute to at least one development platform, I am assuming u want to use that as fpv/recording platform. Tri/quad's are a bit low on redundancy , would reccomend hex or octa, which would give u a bit more lifting power :) Please drop me a note if u need some assistance.
Regards
Anish
Anish Mohammed
Twitter: anishmohammed
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/anishmohammed
Matthew & Anna Israelsohn
Dec 26, 2011, 8:21:24 AM12/26/11
to london-h...@googlegroups.com
Hi atom,
Some useful links for further research etc:
OccuCopter wishlist on pastebin
http://pastebin.com/XWfGB41m
OccuCopter wiki page
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/OccuCopter
Timothy Pool (occucopter dude mentioned in the Guardian article you linked to)
http://about.me/timpool & http://www.facebook.com/Timcasts
Civil Aviation Authority 54 page PDF "Guide to flying model aircraft"
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP658.PDF
From Appendix B ("Relevant Legislation"):
Model aircraft are exempt from most of the rules, or Articles, of the Air Navigation Order which contains the statutory requirements for the operation of aircraft in United Kingdom airspace.
Article 164 specifies exemption from the Order, except for the following Articles:
...
Article 96(1) The Secretary of State has the right to prohibit, restrict or impose conditions on flight.
cheers.
Matt / deafanon
Some useful links for further research etc:
OccuCopter wishlist on pastebin
http://pastebin.com/XWfGB41m
OccuCopter wiki page
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/OccuCopter
Timothy Pool (occucopter dude mentioned in the Guardian article you linked to)
http://about.me/timpool & http://www.facebook.com/Timcasts
Civil Aviation Authority 54 page PDF "Guide to flying model aircraft"
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP658.PDF
From Appendix B ("Relevant Legislation"):
Model aircraft are exempt from most of the rules, or Articles, of the Air Navigation Order which contains the statutory requirements for the operation of aircraft in United Kingdom airspace.
Article 164 specifies exemption from the Order, except for the following Articles:
...
Article 96(1) The Secretary of State has the right to prohibit, restrict or impose conditions on flight.
cheers.
Matt / deafanon
Yuan
Dec 29, 2011, 1:01:21 AM12/29/11
to London Hackspace
I think it's high time we ran a Drone Journalism workshop at LHS.
Anyone up for that at the end of January? Last time we ran a
workshop, we only had one development quadcopter kit that we could
demo, but this time we can bring a handful of quadcopter kits for some
proper hands-on including some outdoor flying weather permitting.
This includes a couple of special ROFL-H/FPV units that have wireless
video feed to a laptop and two-axis stabilised FPV camera. We haven't
got any pan/tilt mounts for large cameras at the moment, but you can
strap a light camera onto the frame with no problems, or make your own
pan/tilt camera mount.
Let's aim for 28th or 29th January. Invite all your hacker journalist
friends.
I'll post a new thread about it soon.
Anyone up for that at the end of January? Last time we ran a
workshop, we only had one development quadcopter kit that we could
demo, but this time we can bring a handful of quadcopter kits for some
proper hands-on including some outdoor flying weather permitting.
This includes a couple of special ROFL-H/FPV units that have wireless
video feed to a laptop and two-axis stabilised FPV camera. We haven't
got any pan/tilt mounts for large cameras at the moment, but you can
strap a light camera onto the frame with no problems, or make your own
pan/tilt camera mount.
Let's aim for 28th or 29th January. Invite all your hacker journalist
friends.
I'll post a new thread about it soon.
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