

How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom - shamp00
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/ff_drones/all/

======
forgottenpaswrd
"It’s safe to say that drones are the first technology in history where the
toy industry and hobbyists are beating the military-industrial complex at its
own game."

Oh, really? Mr Limdbergh begs to differ:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh>

He got some training in the military but he then beats them later.

Technology has been historically been pushed as much by civilian industry as
the military, or more. If only you let civilians spend their money and you
don't steal all their money in taxes like you do in war times.

Internet and other tech are widely attributed to the military by their
supporters but that is not entirely correct. Ethernet and laser all those
amazing tech was created by private companies and computer networks were
created by enthusiast before DARPA.

~~~
Alex3917
"Ethernet and laser all those amazing tech was created by private companies
and computer networks were created by enthusiast before DARPA."

But would we ever have actually had the Internet before DARPA? It took over 30
years before the Internet actually became a mainstream and profitable thing.
If the net had been developed by private companies then they would have done
it in such a way that would have let them become profitable within a year or
two, so it's unlikely that the net would be anything like what it is today.
And for all it's flaws, it's hard to imagine it being better if it were
developed by private industry.

~~~
eli
I feel confident that _some_ form of interconnected global computer network
was inevitable. I don't know if it would be better, but surely it would exist.

And there are many examples of private companies pioneering something new even
if it takes huge upfront resources and years of planning.

------
Gussy
I find how this is now all playing out to be quite interesting, and a little
amusing:

A few years back when there was really only one prominent open source UAV
system (Paparazzi), nearly everyone was focused on turning (fixed-wing) radio-
controlled planes into hobby UAVs. Back then we didn't have gyros or
accelerometers, we used thermopiles to detect the heat difference between warm
ground and the cold atmosphere on four axis. This worked well until it became
night time or started raining, and required a baseline calibration before most
flights.

When projects like OpenPilot and Ardupilot (aka. DIYDrones/3DRobotics) first
started to appear they were focused on building UAV systems for planes with
this same technology, multi-rotor vehicles where only just on the radar at
that stage. They were expensive and to be frank, not very good at flying
stable. Then game consoles like the Wii came along and over the next few years
gyros and accelerometers started to become much cheaper.

OpenPilot and DIYDrones/3DRobotics initially started out developing with these
new gyros and accelerometers in planes, but it wasn't really the right
platform as planes tend to me more costly and fragile in a crash, which is
inevitable when developing with these new technologies. OpenPilot initially
started to adapt their system to multi-rotors (aka. quadcopters) as a way of
quickly testing new code and new algorithms for planes. Unlike planes we could
even now test code indoors.

Quad-copters started out as a utility, to lift heavy items or as a test-bed
for fixed-win UAV algorithms. From there they have now become the first class
citizen in the world of open source and hobby UAV projects.

I think this is all really just starting to ramp up. The hardware we need to
build these systems is pretty much all there, it can get faster, smaller and
cheaper but innovation there is nearing a plateau. On the other hand, I think
software is still very much in it's infancy. There is still a long way to go
in making these systems reliable and repeatable, and most importantly user
friendly. We have progressed from having to re-compile under linux to change
one PID setting value, but the barrier to entry is still quite high on the
technical side of things.

Disclaimer: Co-Founder of the OpenPilot project.

------
ef4
The DIY copter crowd does some pretty sweet stuff (both autonomous and
piloted).

Here's a fun video shot by a guy who built a first-person-view Hexacopter:
<http://vimeo.com/18873955>

~~~
bri3d
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU0_tGHlR7g>

All of the RCExplorer videos are awesome, and they're shot with a very low-
tech drone (a tricopter with only roll/yaw rate stabilization - just piezo
gyros and no attitude stabilization at all).

~~~
bigiain
This one caused a _lot_ of controversy in the FPV (first person view/video) RC
community a while back:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9cSxEqKQ78>

if you don't have the time/patience to watch the whole 3-ish minutes, try this
but:

<http://youtu.be/M9cSxEqKQ78?t=2m2s>

------
chaseideas
Drones are awesome!

I've currently got the AR Parrot Drone 1.0 and looking to pickup the 2.0 soon,
and maybe a hobbyist grade quad-copter later this year or next. They're way
too much geeky fun!!

Highly recommend anyone on here who hasn't played with a drone/quad-copter to
have a go at it. You won't regret it.

~~~
polyfractal
I've been thinking about them for a while. What kind of flight time do you get
out of a standard quad-copter? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? That's my biggest
hesitation...how fun is 15 minutes of flight time?

~~~
bri3d
15 minutes is ridiculously fun, and about average.

My "450" sized quadcopter (4x 10" rotors) gets about 13-15 minutes with about
150g payload on top of the 3.3Ah 3S battery. I carry a GoPro Hero HD camera
sans waterproof case combined with a video transmitter and 15 minutes of
first-person flying can be quite rewarding and almost tiring at times,
especially in exciting environments (between trees, etc.).

I'd strongly recommend picking up a MultiWii board and a cheap transmitter and
parts from HobbyKing and trying it out - learning to fly isn't too difficult
since they stabilize themselves, and starting out will cost less than $500.

Watch out though - it's addictive!

------
zem
> Indeed, some of the newest sensors combine three-axis accelerometers, gyros,
> and magnetometers (nine sensors in all), plus a temperature gauge and a
> processor, into one little package that costs about $17.

which model is he talking about? i got curious and went looking, and the best
i could find was $50

~~~
Gussy
Chris would be talking about the new MPU9150 from Invensense:
<http://www.invensense.com/mems/gyro/mpu9150.html>

Pricing isn't public yet but you can get an idea by looking at the 6-axis
products.

~~~
zem
nice. if it's really going to end up that cheap, it's an exciting development,
paralleling the low-cost arm chips like the raspberry pi. it's going to be a
good decade for hardware hobbyists.

------
cynwoody
Quadrotor band plays the James Bond theme:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUeGC-8dyk>

------
hammock
How loud are these hobby/open source drones? Spy-worthy?

~~~
ivankirigin
They could land and perch silently, but when flying they are really obvious.

~~~
michaelt
Not all drones have to be quadrotor helicopters; with a fixed wing drone you
can glide over your target with the propeller stopped and make very little
noise.

