Drones Are Fun an informational resource for everybody interested in UAVs, especially for personal use.

Hi everybody,

Gary McCray here, past wiki editor for DIYDrones, announcing my own Informational Web Site: http://www.dronesarefun.com/

I am very much strong advocate of our APM and Pixhawk flight controllers, but I wanted to produce a resource that was also able to address interests of DIYDrones community that extended to all areas of personal and civil drone use.

The existing DIYDrones Wiki proved inappropriate for my goal, due to a desire to keep it strongly focused on implementation and use of the APM/Pixhawk.

This site will extend further into other topics than those in charge of the DIYDrones wiki/manual want it to embrace.

I think this is actually an understandable situation as the APM and Pixhawk flight controllers are complex and require a considerable effort to be explained appropriately and thoroughly.

I also thought that this extended information required a permanent and non-temporary resource with proper subject indexing and linking unlike the Blogs and Forums which were the only other DIYDrones available resources.

In no way is this site in competition with or disrespectful of DIYDrones, 3DR or any of it's members and in fact is only seeking to provide a useful supplement to the DIYDrones community.

http://www.dronesarefun.com/ is written entirely in HTML and CSS with a tiny bit of Javascript.

If Javascript is turned off, the floating Pull Down Menu at the top of the page won't work, nor will the cart, but since I am not selling anything, that is of no consequence.

Every page link in the top drop down menu is also accessible from every page from the Table Of Contents tab.

Every page is also accessible from the home Drones Are Fun page as a link below the associated illustration.

Below is the Page Linking Table of contents, one of the Drop Down Menu Selections can also be seen.

This is just my first pass at this site and I plan on adding a great deal more to it.

I would very much appreciate it if any of you who feel so inclined might look it over and let me know what you think, what you might like to see added and any errors you might notice.

I am also hoping to add a more conventional companion wiki with full public interaction.

I know the format of my site is very different from what you are used to seeing, but it is as completely uncluttered as I could make it so that it makes the information available as clearly as possible.

There is no advertising or other irrelevant clutter and it is best viewed at a fixed width.

Page to page navigation and indexing is as simple as I could make it.

The Page Index at the top of the page even allows you to jump to specific topics within each page.

It has been tested and works well in Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer (Top menu bar doesn't float in Explorer).

And it even works quite well in Chrome on an IPAD and on Android Tablets, but is not really ideal for the phone format.

I hope this is of benefit to the DIYDrones community as well as to new people interested in exploring this fascinating endeavor.

Best Regards To You All,

Gary McCray

Gary, one more thing. I think Archibald Montgomery Low would have been really impressed with the scope and content of your work on the dronesarefun.com site. In case anyone following these posts is wondering, my 2 cents rarely get any response and I don't care, because I have not contributed much of meaning. But after following this tech for 10 years (since Roberts publications on quadrotors control theory and flight dynamics in 2004) and publishing technical journal articles with other researchers on US Army MICOM Skunk-works tech for drones in the late 80's, (yeah I am obsolete - so what) I might have some insight into this. Dr. Low was really the father of drone technology, though some may think otherwise: In May 1914 a press release in a london newspaper said: An inventor, Dr. A. M. Low, has discovered a means of transmitting visual images by wire. If all goes well with this invention, we shall soon be able, it seems, to see people at a distance. Then from 1914 to 1917) WWI Dr. Low proceeded to develop an "electrically guided rocket" with a visual imaging system that transmitted images back to his receiver. Most people just remember the WW2 drones that were just radio guided targets for munitions. Anyway, What you have done is really impressive. I really mean it. Your web site is phenomenal in content and really an incredible resource for DIY droner's. After only a cursory review, it is obvious that it will be much more useful than the blogs posted here on DIY Drones (no offense Chris), even though this has been the best resource ever, until your site. You have given us ORGANIZATION & MEANINGFUL CONTENT rather than a stream of confusion that DIY Drones has become.

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Comments

Gary McCray June 1, 2014 at 11:25am

Hi Quadzi,

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I was suspicious of that particular element myself.

Generally, at this point in time I don't consider fuel cells to be remotely feasible for at least 99.9 percent of the readers they cost too much and have other deficits.

I have just removed the fuel cell item, because if you do correctly take into account the entire structure, it really won't show exceptional performance anyway and they are largely irrelevant in any case, among other things they are a fuel cell, not a rechargeable battery.

They really are more analogous to a fuel engine even though their output is in electricity.

They are really the subject for a different page altogether, one dealing with various modes of providing power.

I am still adding to and redoing this page, I will be adding a better description of battery characteristics (what C means for instance as well as handling and safety information.

I'm also going to reorganize it, it got a little scattered as I was putting it together.

Thank You,

Gary
Quadzimodo May 31, 2014 at 8:31pm

The only reason I was able to find this error is because I am across both the source material and your site, most others utilising the dronesarefun site in the future, whether it be for personal or academic reasons, will not have this luxury.
If you are to absorb data such as that provided by Stephen Gloor on Jared's wonder battery post then it is vital that you properly reference the source material. That really means providing users with a hyperlink to relevant post or comment.
Quadzimodo May 31, 2014 at 8:18pm

Gary - I would drop the horizon fuel cell off the chart if I were you. I don't think the numbers are accurately calculated, as it appears that the weight of the fuel cell itself has been used to calculate total weight and therefore energy density. If my hypothesis is accurate, then no allowance has been made for the weight of the fuel or (more critically) the vessel which contains it.
Gary McCray May 31, 2014 at 7:53pm

Hi all,

Batteries page has been expanded and updated, I am trying to make this a genuinely useful page for our membership so any feedback would be appreciated.

http://www.dronesarefun.com/BatteriesForUAV.html

My plan is to undertake a series of practical photo and video pages next including cameras, gimbals, vehicles, and how to accomplish various filming tasks using the facilities that APM and Pixhawk now make available to us..

Best Regards,

Gary
W. Joe Taylor May 30, 2014 at 10:57pm

Why are my comments posting twice? I am not that important.
W. Joe Taylor May 30, 2014 at 10:48pm

Gary, one more thing. I think Archibald Montgomery Low would have been really impressed with the scope and content of your work on the dronesarefun.com site. In case anyone following these posts is wondering, my 2 cents rarely get any response and I don't care, because I have not contributed much of meaning. But after following this tech for 10 years (since Roberts publications on quadrotors control theory and flight dynamics in 2004) and publishing technical journal articles with other researchers on US Army MICOM Skunk-works tech for drones in the late 80's, (yeah I am obsolete - so what) I might have some insight into this. Dr. Low was really the father of drone technology, though some may think otherwise: In May 1914 a press release in a london newspaper said: An inventor, Dr. A. M. Low, has discovered a means of transmitting visual images by wire. If all goes well with this invention, we shall soon be able, it seems, to see people at a distance. Then from 1914 to 1917) WWI Dr. Low proceeded to develop an "electrically guided rocket" with a visual imaging system that transmitted images back to his receiver. Most people just remember the WW2 drones that were just radio guided targets for munitions. Anyway, What you have done is really impressive. I really mean it. Your web site is phenomenal in content and really an incredible resource for DIY droner's. After only a cursory review, it is obvious that it will be much more useful than the blogs posted here on DIY Drones (no offense Chris), even though this has been the best resource ever, until your site. You have given us ORGANIZATION & MEANINGFUL CONTENT rather than a stream of confusion that DIY Drones has become.
W. Joe Taylor May 30, 2014 at 10:21pm

Gary,

This is really great. You have always provided top notch posts - how you have the time to do such a fantastic service for the DIY Drone community is miraculous and really splendid. Thanks a gazillion.
W. Joe Taylor May 30, 2014 at 10:21pm

Gary,

This is really great. You have always provided top notch posts - how you have the time to do such a fantastic service for the DIY Drone community is miraculous and really splendid. Thanks a gazillion.
Gary McCray May 30, 2014 at 9:00pm

Hi everybody,

Just added a batteries for UAV page:

http://dronesarefun.com/BatteriesForUAV.html
Developer

Mark Colwell May 30, 2014 at 2:57pm

Nice site. Well setup!

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