Quadrocopters, any builders here?

[GWestphal]

How expensive is it to build a quad that can do 30-60 minutes of stable flight?

 

[RossMAN]

I would loooooooove to but it's probably $$$

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsrzBwylodU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWh3dWLvF28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6svIcef5lQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0RIILW2VC8
Great video for beginners, it's long at 26 minutes but worth watching.

 

[Mackie2k]

There is a huge range depending on components and quality. Size also makes a big difference.

30-60 minutes is a long time to fly though. It's more realistic to fly for say 10-15 minutes. Especially if you are doing FPV and/or Adding Cameras.

Stopping by a local hobby store is a great start.

 

[dighn]

probably several hundred to a grand for something decent. like Mackie2k said there's a lot of freedom in every aspect of one.

I really want to build one and play around with autonomous navigation/video taking etc. but it looks like a very time consuming hobby.

 

[JoeyP]

probably several hundred to a grand for something decent. like Mackie2k said there's a lot of freedom in every aspect of one.

I really want to build one and play around with autonomous navigation/video taking etc. but it looks like a very time consuming hobby.

This would be a fun hobby. I'd love to be able to make one with a camera that transmits imagery to the ground, either for observation or for piloting the copter.

 

[unokitty]

Twelve minute flight time. Controlled by IPad or Android:

Parrot AR.Drone 2.0

I don't have one. But am interested in hearing from anyone that has 'hands on' experience.

Uno

 

[artvscommerce]

I have built quite a few for aerial videography. Very fun hobby but it gets really expensive really quick

 

[artvscommerce]

I hated the AR drone. It was cool the first couple flights, but controlling it with a touch screen really sucks and the craft itself is far more limiting than alot of the diy kits out there in that price range.

 

[artvscommerce]

How expensive is it to build a quad that can do 30-60 minutes of stable flight?

This could probably be done for under $500, but if you want to carry a camera or any other gear it becomes much much more difficult to achieve a flight time in that range. My goal for my aerial video platforms has been 10 to 15 minutes. But that's while carrying a heavy camera gimbal with servos and a Sony Nex 5N.

 

[Farmer]

I've been planning on building one for a long time. With arduino, I feel a few hundred dollars you can create your own. I kind of want to do it in vacuo, to see if I can actually do it.

The actual hardware is not too expensive: 4 PWM motors, a lipo battery, and an arduino controller with a wifi or RF adapter, 3 accelerometers, 3 rate gyros. If the design is small enough, the arduino board can serve as the power supply circuit.

Designing the structure is also not too hard. The material need not be exotic, balsa wood is fine. It has to be symmetric, probably some optimization regarding rotor length versus strut length. Longer strut length means better control of roll, but also greater bending moment.

The challenge (and the fun part) is developing a very stable feedback controller for different flight modes (i.e., hover, spin, translate, or even combinations thereof). Having a stable flight controller would make the thing idiot proof, WASD style, and that is what I want.

 

[Narse]

You are going to have a hard time finding one that does 30min + 10-15 is more realistic. Check out www.helifreak.com lots of info there for AP and multirotors.

I am pretty sure you can build a nice quad for FPV for around 1000-1500.

 

[artvscommerce]

You are going to have a hard time finding one that does 30min + 10-15 is more realistic. Check out www.helifreak.com lots of info there for AP and multirotors.

I am pretty sure you can build a nice quad for FPV for around 1000-1500.

It's hard but not impossible. They key is to use very low KV motors, running at a higher voltage with very large lightweight props. For example, 15" carbon fiber props w/ ~360KV motors running on a 5 cell lithium polymer battery. Something like that will be FAR more efficient than say 10" props w/ 900KV motors on a 3 cell or 4 cell lipo with a similar payload.

RCgroups is my favorite resource for multi rotor info. Multirotorforums.com is really great too.

 

[GWestphal]

Cool videos RossMan. Maybe when I have more expendable income I'll get a sweet FPV quad.

 

[moonbogg]

You can do it with a standard RC heli. They have stabalization hardware with gyros that use GPS to keep the heli in one spot and level. You can do this for about $3,500.00 and about 300 hours of practice. Price goes up as you crash and learn. Quads are for pussies. Good luck.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

wow those are really cool. i live in sf, you could do a lot of really cool flights around here, but i doubt it would be legal to put one of those in the sky. what is the range of those? what happens when you lose battery life, does it just fall out of the air?

 

[Eli]

Oh no, just what I need, another project to drool over....

 

[RossMAN]

Cool videos RossMan. Maybe when I have more expendable income I'll get a sweet FPV quad.

It's on my never ending to do/want list, one day, maybe.

 

[ussfletcher]

I've been planning on building one for a long time. With arduino, I feel a few hundred dollars you can create your own. I kind of want to do it in vacuo, to see if I can actually do it.

The actual hardware is not too expensive: 4 PWM motors, a lipo battery, and an arduino controller with a wifi or RF adapter, 3 accelerometers, 3 rate gyros. If the design is small enough, the arduino board can serve as the power supply circuit.

Designing the structure is also not too hard. The material need not be exotic, balsa wood is fine. It has to be symmetric, probably some optimization regarding rotor length versus strut length. Longer strut length means better control of roll, but also greater bending moment.

The challenge (and the fun part) is developing a very stable feedback controller for different flight modes (i.e., hover, spin, translate, or even combinations thereof). Having a stable flight controller would make the thing idiot proof, WASD style, and that is what I want.

This is essentially identical to a project I have planned...

 

[artvscommerce]

wow those are really cool. i live in sf, you could do a lot of really cool flights around here, but i doubt it would be legal to put one of those in the sky. what is the range of those? what happens when you lose battery life, does it just fall out of the air?

The range can be over 10 miles if you use a UHF radio. They will fall if the battery dies, but you can get telemetry fairly cheap to monitor the battery life during flight. You will also get to know what sort of flight time to expect and you always want to try to land with plenty of power left in the packs. Not only is this safer but the batteries will last far more charge cycles.

 

[artvscommerce]

http://www.multiwii.com/

multiwii is a really great open source project based on Arduino.

 

[adlep]

Great thread. Heads up guys: there is a new gopro 3 on the market thats up to 25% smaller and lighter.

 

[artvscommerce]

Great thread. Heads up guys: there is a new gopro 3 on the market thats up to 25% smaller and lighter.

4K @ 15fps sounds pretty interesting too.

 

[Aikouka]

http://www.multiwii.com/

multiwii is a really great open source project based on Arduino.

Oooo that looks really nifty! Are there any guides for the electrically challenged like me? :$

 

[quakefiend420]

There's a really good article on building your own in the latest 2600.

 

[Aikouka]

There's a really good article on building your own in the latest 2600.

I am not sure what this is! Maybe I can sweet talk Ruby into doing it for me.