HobbyKing Quadcopter Frame V1 build instructions

video here.

Arcticopter 1: Maiden Flight

Success...  The Arcticopter 1 flies!

youtubage: part 1, part 2.  Recorded this with the iPhone... Next time we'll bring a better video camera.  Between Josh, Andreas, and myself we've got 3 GoPros on order, so there will  really be very little excuse!

Josh and I did a pre-maiden (youtubage) the other day, trying to tune in the gyros.  We brought it down hard,and popped the bolts off the nylon connector holding on the landing skids.

But, Andreas to the rescue!  He brought both his helicopter flight skills and his helicopter training wheels (rescued from his old heli which had an unfortunate landing in a tree).  It was a great training session for me:  learning to fly a plane and a heli is quite a bit different.  With the heli training wheels, you give just enough power so that the unit can scoot around, giving you practice to keep it centered on one spot.  The secret is an agile right thumb... keep it wiggling and constantly responding to the bird.  It also doesn't pay to spend a lot of time trimming when you're first starting out, since you'll be practicing your thumb-twitch.  It does pay to trim the rudder, so you can keep the unit pointed away from you, making it easier to keep your directional orientation.

Here's a closeup of the training wheels.  There's a bracket in the middle, to which four 3mm carbon fiber hollow tubes are attached. Some ping-pong ball sized sphere are place on the end.  The bracket points all four tips down, so there's a bit of bounce when your bird hits the ground.  Andreas attached the training wheels using some wire wraps.  When it didn't look like this was going to be enough, he grabbed some thing bungee cord from his car and used that.  Note to self:  add duct tape to flight box!

Some flight notes:

• Andreas noted the thrust/weight ratio is a bit low.  We'll try some different props, and check the load on the ESCs.  I'll pull off the light wires and see if that helps as well.
• Sufficient for now, training and flight system testing.
• I'm curious to see what happens when the gyro is set too high.
• Overall, thrilled to see that thing in the air!

I found a box that just holds the Acticopter, but the blades have to be removed.  Here's the complete Arcticopter flight pack, including radio case.  The box in the middle is a recycled MacBook box.  I'm going to get something to cover that up.  It would be so sad for someone to break the window of my car thinking they had scored a MacBook only to discover they had an old box filled with random RC multicopter parts. The poor guy would probably walk around in a bad mood all day long!

Mikro: A New 1000mm Quad Copter Design

On RC Groups.  Check out the video, it's really smooth!

Mikro sez:  "The whole system is quite impressive. I always thought one needed to have the custom modified I2C ESC's and expensive motors to be able to lift these loads with the stability you'd want for aerial photography. This design proves you don't and it has a lower price point than the other approaches. Thank you VERY much Mike Dammar and Mike Cook (Old Man Mike)!"

jDrones, "making UAV's and aerial robotics easy and affordable"

jDrones

"Welcome to our store, we are the official manufacturer for ArduCopter kits. Our
we have a wide knowledge on GPS devices, Micro controllers, electronic design, aviation and open source projects."

Frames, boards, arms, lots-o-stuff!

$2 quad frame!

YouTube video
Writeup and details
Based on the UAVX.

Frame: 15mm 'U' channel aluminium pipe
Central plate: 'Wall mount plate of Electric Bulb Holder'
Total frame cost: less than US$2
net weight of frame: < 800g.
battery: 2500mA 3S 25C
motor: r2hobbies.com Turborix 750 rpm/v DAT-750 RC 800g Plane Outrunner Brushless
ESC: himodel.com, 40Amp

WAGO 222-415 connector for power distribution

Here's a nice flickr set by Lenz Grimmer for his quad build.  He is distributing power using Wago connectors and credits Christof Glückler for the idea.  Genius!!

The 5-connection unit is WAGO 222-415.  They also sell 2 and 3 connection units.  There's a couple of people selling them on ebay.

UFO Camera quadrotor

YouTube - ufocamera's Channel

High end AP platform, 10K euros for aircraft, 18K euros including downlink, control, and camera stabilization.

Quad 016.jpg by Mikro - RC Groups

Quad 016.jpg by Mikro - RC Groups: "Here's my Q4 frame side by side with my new quad. It's about 2 inches longer on each arm. The kicker is that they weigh about the same, and the Q4 costs ~$350 and my design costs $40!"

Indoor fun with a tiny ArduCopter quadcopter - DIY Drones

Indoor fun with a tiny ArduCopter quadcopter - DIY Drones: "Do you have an Ardupilot Mega and shield and want some fun for little money? check this tiny quad... my last drone in family..."

Draganflyer X4 Four Rotor UAV Helicopter Aerial Video Platform

Draganflyer X4: "The small, battery powered Dragaflyer X4 gets you the same great aerial pictures that renting a plane can, but at a fraction of the cost. Avoid the hassle and expense of using a full size aircraft for projects that can be accomplished easily and economically with our Draganflyer X4 UAV."  One of the original commercial units, and a steal at only $8,000!

Things I'd like to try: Parrot AR.Drone

"The Flying Video Game"  Intuitive Piloting.

Flying Hobby has it here.

Imagine you are the pilot of an aircraft that flies like a dragonfly, and with an on-board video camera, you see exactly what the pilot sees. By tilting your iPhone you control the AR.Drone, and by releasing it, the Drone is instantly stabilized.

The AR.Drone is the result of a high tech development: the quadricopter, a helicopter that is extremely easy to fly. It is controlled by means of micromechanical accelerometers, gyros, ultrasonic sensor, two video cameras, combined with a powerful embedded Linux platform. All of these technologies have been combined for the first time by Parrot’s engineers to create the first fully-integrated Augmented Reality device: the Parrot AR.Drone.

Controlled by iPhone.  There's a development SDK and related web site.

Arducopter project on google code

http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/ArduCopter_Quad

We're pleased to announce that we've joined forces with the other Arduino-based powerhouse in the aerial robotics world, the AeroQuad quadcopter team, to extend the ArduPilot platform to whirlybirds of all kinds. The project will use the ArduPilotMega and IMU shield hardware along with a low-cost custom platform that will be available commercially to provide a full quad UAV with both stabilization and GPS waypoint navigation. It builds on the awesome work of Jose Julio in ArduPilot quad development, with the excellent full-systems integration of the AeroQuad team. We expect that first code and hardware will be available this summer.

Arducopter dev team member kinderkram's RCGroups blog.

Tricopter build linkage

Got to get these sorted out... which ones are really necessary?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwus5FOuYac
http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6776
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1219598
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1210445&page=3#post14841496
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1097355
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14841496&postcount=40
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1142429

Amphibious Quadracopters!

Insane people in Australia and Germany are not satisfies with flying quads through the air, so they fly them through the water as well!

• Simon Jardine 
• In Germany

Watch the videos for full impact.

Some quadrocopter links

• ArthurP has a great thread on building a quadrocopter in 2007.  I hope there's less soldering involved today!
• rc-cam is a site dedicated to all kinds of interesting video and rc projects.
• need to understand: what is I2C?
• Converting a TowerPro by resoldering and reflashing the code. Lots of other interesting pages in this wiki.

Djago has the coolest looking multicopter here.