The FBI has admitted it sometimes uses aerial surveillance drones over US soil,…

hello everyone, after two weeks of settings and adjustments, the achievement RVJET fly with APM 2.5 in auto mode
Flying weight: 2750 grams
autopilot: APM 2.5
Motor: 3020 1110kv scorpion
prop: 10x6
Battery: 1 x 5000 + 1 x 3000

firmware : arduplane 2.73

My quad is flying better than it should.  I almost feel guilty.

I slapped together a frame in a few hours.  I use cheap props mounted on long shafts with cheap collets.  The motors are not precisely aligned to the frame.  The props are not balanced perfectly.  Motor centers form a rectangle not a square.  APM is strapped to the frame.  I never bothered to calibrate compassmot.  CG is not in the center of the…

Novel application of 3D printing could enable the development of miniaturized medical implants, compact electronics, tiny robots, and more. It will probably take a while before this will be used for the hobby markt, but I though the story is nice enough to blog about it.

3D printing can now be used to print lithium-ion microbatteries the…

Hi Everyone,

Designed for a duration of four days at 65,000 feet. The first flight was just 28 minutes and it sustained damage on landing, but otherwise the mission was a success. ]UPDATE: This was a year ago, sorry for missing that. It's taken several flight since then]

Via…

In this post I’ll describe how to make your own cable to trigger the Samsung mirrorless cameras NX20, NX210 and NX1000. We’ll be using an ArduPilot Mega 2.5 to do the triggering but you can use any Arduino or even a soldered push button.

What you’ll need:

• Any 2 or 3 wire cable – I use a 30cm Futaba servo extender which I cut the female end off…

Well the price has finally been released for the new DJI Phantom gimbal @ $699.00 and comes complete as shown below. The nice features are the ability to charge the GoPro while flying and the ability to output video to your video Tx all contained inside the arms of the gimbal.  Full details …

MAVLink-compatible, which means it works with QGroundControl. All details here. Coverage from Engadget:

Starting next week, Parrot will be…

Many of you might be aware of the situation in Turkey, where protests have been going on for longer than two weeks. Some of you on DIYDrones might also be aware that a man was flying a small RC drone above these protests, that is, until his aircraft was shot down by riot police.

I originally wrote about this on sUASNews,…

Our new video shows position hold (the position can be moved on the fly, so its actually full position control) using the PX4FMU autopilot plus …

From the University of Florida (via…

ASME presents a podcast on the application of small UAVs in the study of severe weather, especially tornadoes.

Here is the link to the ASME…

My dad likes remote control cars. My brothers like remote control cars. I like them too. As a family, we grew up playing with train sets laid out on the family dinner table. As kids we also used to enjoy playing with a “Thunderloop Thriller AFX Slotcar Set” and making things out of Lego. The things that typical boys enjoyed playing with.

So where do I begin with this flying journey? How about this last Christmas. It was the year of… strangely enough remote control…

I talk a lot about the FAA and such and my concern for our community so I thought I'd give everyone a look at what's going on in the sky from the view of the FAA. Explain some basic things about flight charts and flight planning. 

You can get a look at what's going on above your head and plan better and safer…

I have been searching high and low for a good affordable large hexa system, with the main objective to lift 500gr (camera, FPV transmitter, etc) for as long as possible, and have the video stabilized. 

The S800 looked ok, but due to some issues around the boom flexibility and cost, I ditched that idea. The…

This was shot on a couple of different days, with a couple of different states of tune. Nothing fancy, just a hard mounted GoPro 2. It gives you a quick view of our sweet little office in the corner of the Swerve Co compound. 

One of the best ways to design micro-UAVs is to emulate insects. But figuring out how insects navigate and fly is hard, unless you can monitor their neurons in action. Scientists have now figured out how to do that. A fascinating piece from my alma mater, Wired:

The brain of a dragonfly has to do some serious calculations — and fast — if it hopes to…