
OpenSource Nano Quadcopter Kit - jwillmer
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/preorder-crazyflie-nano-quadcopter-kit-10dof-with-crazyradio-bccfk02a-p-1365.html?cPath=170_172
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visarga
I got a quadcopter as present for Christmas but I didn't enjoy it much - it is
too hard to stabilize. I can't do anything with it. By comparison, a Syma 107
helicopter was much more fun.

So, quadcopter designers out there - please make them less fragile, less crash
prone. Can you mount sensors in all directions to keep it from bumping into
walls and hovering at the designated location without human intervention? That
would be useful.

~~~
bajsejohannes
Isn't the point of a quadcopter that it's supposed to be _more_ stable than a
helicopter?

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ynniv
While it's easy to automate level flight with four rotors, it's difficult to
prevent horizontal drift.

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stcredzero
I would've thought we'd have consumer fly-by-wire by now.

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ynniv
There is for $hundreds, but not for $tens. The Syma helicopters and
quadrocopters mentioned are less than $40.

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ef4
If you like this, also check out <http://openpilot.org>. It's an open source
autopilot project.

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sc00ter
With a megalomaniac leader who has already dispatched two key developers,
setting the project back months in the process? I suggest you don't. Instead,
check out the <http://diydrones.com> site founded by former Wired editor Chris
Anderson, and particularly the open source / open hardware Arduino based Ardu
Pilot Mega (APM) flight controller, and software
<http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/ArduCopter>.

~~~
ivanvanderbyl
I can vouch for ardupilot. Out of 6 flight controllers I've flown (KK,
Mikrokopter, Multiwii and variants) it is the most advanced and stable flight
platform under active development.

OpenPilot looked promising but I haven't seen any proof yet.

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netcan
These things are so cool, but also a little scary. Someone's gonna make one of
these things assassinate a public figures or steal your keys.

~~~
pchristensen
They are un-ignorably loud, have battery life < 10 min, and are flown by line
of sight. So if you tried to harm someone with it, you wouldn't get away.

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sc00ter
Correct on the first two points, but larger hobby UAVs can be flown FPV at a
range of several kilometers. Not legally in many western countries countries,
but then norm is harming people.

Edit: Line of site restrictions, maximum heights, and the maximum power of
radio communications permitted without additional licensing are typical
limiting factors.

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youngtaff
These guys were at Øredev in Sweden back in November - there's a video of
their talk here - <https://vimeo.com/53073656>

Had a play with a Parrot at the same time and the CrazyFlie was much more
nimble but relies on user control.

Felix Geisendörfer did a talk on hacking a Parrot AR at Øredev -
<https://vimeo.com/41836614> and it was great fun too.

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sp332
Here are some papers that might be useful for budding quadrotor hackers and
pilots:
[https://fling.seas.upenn.edu/~dmel/wiki/index.php?n=Main.Pub...](https://fling.seas.upenn.edu/~dmel/wiki/index.php?n=Main.Publications)
and a video made by that school: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQIMGV5vtd4>

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icpmacdo
I cant wait to see the price drop enough on these so I am able to have my
personal quadcopter army.

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sgt
This'll make a mean spycopter (i.e. for having fun with collagues).

I suppose putting a camera on it should be doable - but wth 250kbit/sec @ 80m,
is it enough?

That'll probably give you 320x240 video (assuming that anything more than that
will be too intensive to encode), which might not give you enough visual
acuity to remote maneuver the quadcopter. Any thoughts?

~~~
elteto
If you watch the video on the site you'll see that they fixed a tiny camera to
it, though no info on range / data transfer rates.

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robin_reala
When’s the Raspberry Pi of quadcopters coming? Would love a £40 quadcopter
with a basic video camera.

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larrydag
I think most of the cost in quadcopters are in the sensors. I looked for cheap
arduino copters and found this <http://code.google.com/p/quaduino-
ng/wiki/ShoppingList>

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sc00ter
That's silly. You can buy a complete arduino based flight controller with
3-axis gyro and accelerometer for less than $13. (For the best value I'd
recommend the KK2.0 for $29, and for more comprehensive sensors one of the APM
based boards, but you get the point.)

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tocomment
I'm picturing putting two little prongs on the front of this and having it use
image recognition to fly up to electrical outlets and recharge itself while
hovering.

Then it could fly indefinitely.

I guess you'd need it to carry an AC/DC transformer though? Too heavy?

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jlgreco
I've heard ideas for flying robots that would hook themselves onto power-lines
like birds (or maybe more like bats I guess) and charge themselves with
induction from the line.

Probably _several_ kinds of illegal, but it would be pretty neat.

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beambot
There are examples of wireless recharging [1], and UAVs perching on power
lines for recharging [2]. Apologies for the self-indulgent links -- I wrote
the articles, so they were easy for me to locate. ;-)

[1] [http://www.hizook.com/blog/2012/04/17/wireless-power-
transfe...](http://www.hizook.com/blog/2012/04/17/wireless-power-transfer-
ground-sensors-using-uav-quadrotor)

[2] [http://www.hizook.com/blog/2010/07/20/gliding-uav-perches-
po...](http://www.hizook.com/blog/2010/07/20/gliding-uav-perches-powerline-
recharge)

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Gertig
Really looking forward to seeing more and more of these nano quadcopters hit
the market. I funded one on Kickstarter a fair number of months ago (still
waiting on delivery) and can't wait to start playing with it.

~~~
sc00ter
Just go out and buy one:

<http://www.google.com/search?q=hubsan%20x4>
<http://www.google.com/search?q=walkera%20ladybird>
<http://www.google.com/search?q=wltoys%20v929>

To name just a few of the better known / more flyable ones.

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thematt
If you're interested in serious quadcopters, check out the stunts these guys
are doing: <http://team-blacksheep.com/videos>

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tocomment
Can a quadcopter fly on 3 motors if one dies, or does it crash?

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alexsb92
It wouldn't be able to fly on three motors only. Opposite motors essentially
stabilize each other, both on a horizontal plane and in terms of rotating the
quad. So if one motor dies, it would do a combination of spinning out of
control, similar to a helicopter without its tail rotor, and rotate on the
axis of the two opposite motors that are still running.

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stcredzero
How about swarms of these designed to fan out and seek out any humanoid mammal
in the area and deliver a taser/ tranquilizer charge? The batteries will run
out in a few minutes, but not before everyone in the area has been
incapacitated or telemetry data has revealed the location of all people
encountered by the swarm. This could be the basis of a new counter-terrorist
weapon.

~~~
malandrew
I didn't realize we had so much terrorism that we need to program swarms of
these to do what you described. Or by terrorism do you mean legitimate
activist groups that threaten existing power structures?

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stcredzero
_> I didn't realize we had so much terrorism that we need to program swarms of
these to do what you described._

You didn't realize because you aren't in command of all the facts, or you knew
and didn't correlate:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis>

Using gas in a situation like this isn't like in the movies. Dosages vary
tremendously with physiology and interactions with other drugs, so dosing
everyone is very likely to produce fatalities. Swarms of TASER-bots would
avoid this.

 _> Or by terrorism do you mean legitimate activist groups that threaten
existing power structures?_

That's largely a matter of point of view. Is your point of view that anyone
who even thinks of the weapons implications of technology automatically is for
the oppression of dissent? If so, then this reveals your prejudices. For
myself, I think that these sorts of _gedankenexperiments_ about potential
military use are interesting and valuable, because they allow for concerned
parties to become aware of these possibilities, which is constructive. The
automatic tarring of people doing such speculation has the opposite effect.

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gusgordon
I wonder if it's possible to find another battery about a third of the
capacity that's a third of the weight (or less if the quality is higher). Then
there would be considerably more weight for a camera or other things.

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imwhimsical
Amazing! I've already preordered a set. How do you think it'll rank up against
my current model? (A Parrot AR Drone 2.0)

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simias
The AR Drone is bigger and has cameras, wifi, ultrasound sensors etc... Most
of the software (outside the kernel) is also not open source. It's also more
expensive. Not the same kind of product really.

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ComSubVie
Finally! I've watched the Crazyflie project for quite a while and not finally
I'm able to order one!

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meaty
Sold! That's just what I wanted to play with :)

I reckon I'll bust the PCB in about 5 minutes though.

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tunesmith
What's the danger level on this? Will it chop off your fingers?

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sc00ter
That thing? Not a chance. The motors have no power, and the props virtually no
inertia. A newborn pinkie would stop it in its tracks.

A full size quad, hex or octo on the other hand can do some serious damage,
from serious cuts to digit reduction.

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robodale
This. Is. Gorgeous.

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srlake
Quadrocopters FTW.

