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  • John Wright July 29, 2010 at 9:52am
    The AR Drone is HERE!!!

    AR Drone for sale
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 28, 2010 at 10:14pm
    Version one will probably be the usual 400hz, which is fine for virtually all uses. But pro photographers want super stable platforms, so we may offer faster ESCs for them.
  • Jeshua Lacock May 28, 2010 at 10:02pm
    Wow! How many hertz is version 1 going to be? Do you think version one will be reasonably upgradable?
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 28, 2010 at 10:01pm
    Would be interesting to test. We're working on a 1,000Hz custom I2C ESC for maximum stability for photo applications. Probably for version 2...
  • Jeshua Lacock May 28, 2010 at 9:44pm
    Thanks Chris! It took me about 6 months to build in my spare time, and $$$$$. :)

    Sounds good. My understanding is that ducted blades can provide more stable flight with a bonus of additional saftey. Since I am primarily interested in flying a DSLR and other instruments, the more stable the better.
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 28, 2010 at 9:39pm
    Nice setup! We're designing the ArduCopter chassis now. We haven't thought much about an optional foam ring, but I can send you a prototype of the body when we've got it done if you'd like so you can consider ring options.
  • Jeshua Lacock May 28, 2010 at 8:03pm
    I think that tooling alone is going to be quite expensive, and likely prohibitive without some pretty serious capital.

    I have a rather large CNC machine (usable 4x4x2 feet) that I would happy to use for the "cause". I plan on building a couple quad copters in the near future myself.

    I think there are a couple options for cost effectively creating the foam pieces. One option would be to mill the foam per order (milling foam is like milling butter) - not ideal but for small volume could be the most cost effective.

    Another option would be to mill the original, and cast cement molds of it that could be used to expand the polystyrene. This would be much less expensive than milling billet aluminum.

    Yet another option would be to mill the mold out of foam and then cast it into aluminum using the lost foam process. I have a capable foundry and experience to cast it.

    Attached is a picture of my mill.

  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer May 27, 2010 at 10:46am
    NOW you are talking Scott, way to go. Make it a big wing
  • Scott Plunkett May 27, 2010 at 10:37am
    This got me thinking about shrouds and molds and airframes, etc - then I remembered a friend of mine who lives in Dongguan City (outside of Shenzen.) She just moved there to become a manager at a plant that does vacuum forming and builds foam pallets and shipping foam components for TV manufacturers (you know, all that foam that came tightly packed around your most recent HDTV purchase.) Anyway I sent her an IM last night and we talked on the phone briefly. The molds are CNC machined from billet aluminum, and coated in teflon, and we could conceivably get an entire fixed wing airframe and all wing components along with whatever shroud component we come up with all on one mold - NOW WE"RE TALKING!! I sent her some pics of various airframes and parts etc. and she is going to have one of her engineers spend a little time and give me a quote for JUST the tooling - then we can at least know what it costs!
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson May 26, 2010 at 2:31pm
    Scott, good point on the shroud. We don't have one in the initial design, but we should make one available. Any thoughts on how best to make a cheap manufacturerable one? I don't think we'll have the volume to justify making a foam mold (but maybe they're cheaper than I think?)
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