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3D Robotics High school students developing autonomous blimp

This team of 17 years olds designed this RC blimp from scratch, and learned a lesson in weight control and using optimal components, since this seems to be based on heavy Vex parts. Next up: autonomy. If they want a Blimpduino, we'd be happy to send them… Continue

Added by Chris Anderson on October 16, 2009 at 3:57pm — No Comments

Laser rangefinder with RS232 output

See: http://www.opti-logic.com/industrial_rangefinders.htm Pricing from $495 for the 100 yard unit to $595 for the 400yard one.



7-9VDC conditioned required and Current draw @ full power (~ 1.8W)



Range (Minimum 4 Yards)

Resolution 0.2m

Dimensions: 32x78x84mm

Weight: < 8oz…



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Added by Sarel P. Wagner on October 16, 2009 at 3:58am — 6 Comments


Moderator Balloon Boy



Priceless



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220702/Boy-6-trapped-homemade-aircraft-floating-thousands-feet-air.html?ITO=1490



http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/8757668…



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Added by Gary Mortimer on October 16, 2009 at 1:34am — 5 Comments

The dry Stanford lake bed

is a long long long drive from the east bay on 25mph roads. Then on weekdays you're greeted with permit parking only, anywhere within 1/2 mile of the lake bed. Fortunately, U can park in the golf course parking & walk 1/2 a mile to get in.



It has scattered tall weeds, making landings tricky.









It's a very large area with spectacular views from 400ft,… Continue

Added by Jack Crossfire on October 16, 2009 at 12:00am — 5 Comments

Someone has GOT to remember seeing this!

SOme time back (within the last two or three months) I recall seeing a ground station setup where a guy was using a graphical LCD module similar to the one proposed for the NEW ArduStation Mega, and he had a very cool interface, even had an artificial horizon on the screen - DOES ANYONE ELSE REMEMBER SEEING THIS?? Wa it here or on some other forum??

Added by Scott Plunkett on October 15, 2009 at 10:29pm — 4 Comments

"tube" plane

here are some pics of a plane I helped design and build

greg w/tube



tube



tube in xflr5

if you look closely you can see all the specs for the… Continue

Added by wayne garris on October 15, 2009 at 9:23pm — 38 Comments


3D Robotics Sparkfun Autonomous Vehicle Competition open for entries

Sparkfun has just announced that registration is open for its second annual Autonomous Vehicle Competition (which we won last year). It will be held on April 17th. New this… Continue

Added by Chris Anderson on October 15, 2009 at 9:00pm — No Comments

F1E

I am looking to make an electronic steering system for my magnet steered free flight model aircraft. GPS is not allowed by the rules. A gyro compass seems to be the answer, but I have not found any at a reasonable price. A gyro updated by an electronic compass to correct drift would also work I think. The aircraft dynamics are too much for a tilt compensated magnetometer.

Added by Thomas G. Ioerger on October 15, 2009 at 4:31pm — 5 Comments

Autonomous Landing

Can anyone give any advice on an autonomous landing setup. What should I use to sense change in altitude and do you think it could possibly work to land on water. Do you think laser or ultrasonic will work over water?

Added by James Greenhorn on October 15, 2009 at 2:30pm — 9 Comments

Two words...

u-Blox rocks.
More to follow....

wait, that's five words.... I mean nine words...that is to say thirteen words.......oh poo

Added by Brian Wolfe on October 15, 2009 at 9:47am — 4 Comments


Developer IMU nose Dive problem/solution

In Bill's recent pod cast he talked about how the imudevboard experienced a random nose dive or extreme over estimation in the pitch (theta) axis. His theory was that the noise due to engine/aircraft vibration was causing the gyros to give inaccurate readings. He said that he put the imu in foam and the problem went away. I don't know how repeatable his experience was or how many test vehicles this "technique" was run on, but I find it no… Continue

Added by Ryan Beall on October 14, 2009 at 3:30pm — 45 Comments

Starting Out!

I just wanted to say hello to everyone on this great website and I can't wait to get started on my project!



I'm out in Orlando, FL and me and a few guys are looking at pricing components for our system. I want to work with the UAVDevBoard b/c I'm familiar w/ programming PICs. Any suggestions for data recorder boards that work well with it?



Is it really possible to control an aircraft just from a single microcontroller? Don't autopilots need inertial navigation, guidance,… Continue

Added by Josh Hathaway on October 14, 2009 at 7:17am — 14 Comments


3D Robotics Latest DIY Drones stats

Just a FYI: we're doing an average of 15,000 page view a day here, with around 4,000 unique visitors/day. Total membership will hit 6,000 in the next week. The site's traffic has more than doubled over the past year!

Added by Chris Anderson on October 13, 2009 at 11:00pm — 2 Comments

Skeletal Remains Found At Old Alameda Naval Base

http://cbs5.com/local/skeletal.remains.found.2.1244063.html



Getting freaked out? Maybe he was in 1 of these shots & we didn't know it. Maybe he lost an airplane in the toxic waste area & didn't make it back. How many skeletons R near your flying area?…





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Added by Jack Crossfire on October 13, 2009 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

Bill Premerlani is this week's guest on the podcast

iTunes links

AAC: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330632997

MP3: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330633212



RSS feed

AAC:… Continue

Added by Tim Trueman on October 12, 2009 at 9:30pm — 2 Comments

A good video of my system in action...

This Saturday I had 15 mph winds gusting to 25 mph.. Still landed without issue. Wind is coming from the top of the image towards the bottom. You can see the aircraft try to land down the runway (right to left) but fighting the wind made the path a bit weird. But impressive given that the wind was something I wouldn't have flown in myself. Here's the plot:



I have to say that windy flights are far more impressive. I had a nice crowd watching the airplane land in the crazy winds. One… Continue

Added by Tj Bordelon on October 12, 2009 at 9:09pm — 7 Comments


3D Robotics ArduIMU Firmware 1.2





Hi there! I'm happy to announce the new ArduIMU firmware and ground station, you can download it from here:

http://code.google.com/p/ardu-imu/downloads/list…



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Added by Jordi Muñoz on October 12, 2009 at 2:30pm — 28 Comments

Airtec in Frankfurt 3-5 Nov - anybody plan to visit?

Hi,

beginning of next month I plan to visit Airtec (especially UAV and Heli world exhibitions)



http://www.airtec.aero/english/the-airtec/

http://www.airtec.aero/documents/Dokumente/2009/090715_a4flyer_uav_world.pdf



Mostly for fun and take some pictures.

Anybody have been before on this exhibition or plan to go this year?



Seems to be interesting and is close to Frankfurt-Hahn (Ryanair, so it is cheap :-). Entrance fee is 23Euros(for three days),… Continue

Added by Dimitar Kolev on October 12, 2009 at 3:19am — 7 Comments


3D Robotics MIT's quadcopter with laser scanning for indoors navigation



Very light laser scanner and excellent mapping… Continue

Added by Chris Anderson on October 11, 2009 at 11:15am — 13 Comments


3D Robotics Tonight's podcast--not available live

Tonight we'll be recording a podcast with guest Bill Premerlani of the UAVDevBoard fame. But I'll be in a car so we're not using Skype. That means we can't livecast it on UStream or take question in the chat board this time. We will be recording, however, so you'll be able to download the podcast on Mon. We should be back to our normal livecast next week.

Added by Chris Anderson on October 11, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

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