How to build a multi-rotor...

Rui Manuel, WOW! Thank you! That was some extensive piece of information!

To give a bit more background, I worked in the defense industry, and drones fascinated me already for a while. I also definitely am a helo-person.

The whole thing is gonna be 75% curiosity and "boy-toy". Just do it to get into the matter. 25% it will have practical application or hopefully lead to one. I'm a volunteer in inland water rescue in Finland and we very often go out for missing person searches on or from the lakes (and there's lots of those here - lakes as well as searches!). Especially at night, that is tedious and you can drive just 7m past a body and not see it. One of the things I wanna test somewhen later is, if a quad which is auto-following our cruiser or boat in some altitude with an FPV cam and IR illuminators can be of actual practical use in those tasks.

So my primary technical interest is (semi-) autonomy and extensive airtime plus a certain weather-resistance. Extreme maneuverability or payload capacity is not really important.

The budget - the budget is rather limited. I don't have that kind of budget that I could just go and order an rtf quad from udrones or anywhere else. It's gonna be a process. First the frame and maybe the motors, next month the APM and some sensors, then the R/C, the FPV system...

Finally, one quick and dirty question which I couldn't figure out from the website yet. Do I need a PC/laptop with GCS software for auto-follow me or can this work with an ardustation too?

R.D.: I would love to start one :D. As my project proceeds, I'll surely start a section about it on my private website.

Welcome to the crew Stefan!

Yes it can be confusing especially with no R/C background but.. you can learn this stuff.

From the perspective of flying, I seriously 2nd Monroe's recommendation of a sim. You can start doing that inside a week or less to get an idea of what it takes to control a flying vehicle. There are about 3 commercial choices of sims and a couple free ones available. All require an interface that looks and works like a RC Transmitter. Commercial route will cost around $200. 'Free' route - price of the interface box

You need to answer the question, "What is your budget?"

I know of no single site with all the answers. Want to start one?

You will be integrating several disciplines into a quadrotor.What kind of resources do you have? Tools and space are important but you could do this on your kitchen tableif you buy a complete kit from 3DR. If you have tools and a workspace, you can go the route I did and homebrew all but the electronics.

To answer questions of frame, 4, 6, 8 motors, etc is a bit early yet. Build what you can afford after a sim.

Don't forget, there is a Buy, Sell, Trade section of this group.

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Stefan Gofferje September 12, 2012 at 6:41am

Rui Manuel, WOW! Thank you! That was some extensive piece of information!

To give a bit more background, I worked in the defense industry, and drones fascinated me already for a while. I also definitely am a helo-person.

The whole thing is gonna be 75% curiosity and "boy-toy". Just do it to get into the matter. 25% it will have practical application or hopefully lead to one. I'm a volunteer in inland water rescue in Finland and we very often go out for missing person searches on or from the lakes (and there's lots of those here - lakes as well as searches!). Especially at night, that is tedious and you can drive just 7m past a body and not see it. One of the things I wanna test somewhen later is, if a quad which is auto-following our cruiser or boat in some altitude with an FPV cam and IR illuminators can be of actual practical use in those tasks.

So my primary technical interest is (semi-) autonomy and extensive airtime plus a certain weather-resistance. Extreme maneuverability or payload capacity is not really important.

The budget - the budget is rather limited. I don't have that kind of budget that I could just go and order an rtf quad from udrones or anywhere else. It's gonna be a process. First the frame and maybe the motors, next month the APM and some sensors, then the R/C, the FPV system...

Finally, one quick and dirty question which I couldn't figure out from the website yet. Do I need a PC/laptop with GCS software for auto-follow me or can this work with an ardustation too?

R.D.: I would love to start one :D. As my project proceeds, I'll surely start a section about it on my private website.
R. D. Starwalt September 11, 2012 at 4:52pm

Welcome to the crew Stefan!

Yes it can be confusing especially with no R/C background but.. you can learn this stuff.

From the perspective of flying, I seriously 2nd Monroe's recommendation of a sim. You can start doing that inside a week or less to get an idea of what it takes to control a flying vehicle. There are about 3 commercial choices of sims and a couple free ones available. All require an interface that looks and works like a RC Transmitter. Commercial route will cost around $200. 'Free' route - price of the interface box

You need to answer the question, "What is your budget?"

I know of no single site with all the answers. Want to start one?

You will be integrating several disciplines into a quadrotor.What kind of resources do you have? Tools and space are important but you could do this on your kitchen tableif you buy a complete kit from 3DR. If you have tools and a workspace, you can go the route I did and homebrew all but the electronics.

To answer questions of frame, 4, 6, 8 motors, etc is a bit early yet. Build what you can afford after a sim.

Don't forget, there is a Buy, Sell, Trade section of this group.

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