I’ve been wondering, what would be the easiest way to route telemetry and commands from APM to Internet. Using 3G modem, would provide almost unlimited range (I know there has been some discussions about this in DiyDrones forum. Here in Finland the GSM network is very covering, but due the way the cellular towers…

Yesterday we scanned an area of around 2 million square meters and made an Ortophoto model with DEM 3d output. The flight was 15 min long. As you can see from the 3d model we scanned an area with diverse terrain. What is fascinating here is that the altitude error is less than 0.5m. From these models we can calculate yearly wood volume changes, we do landslide analysis, do research for flooding areas and more unlimited options.…

Helicopters, HTML & democracy: be a HACKER-JOURNALIST

Making software in the newsroom is the best job I’ve ever had.

It’s great work, and it’s for a purpose. We’re not here to “save journalism” (whatever that means) — we’re here to save democracy.

Requirements

• A passion for the…

Another Christmas/New Year's video. Enjoy!

This one was made using something like puppetry: an "actor" would hold a quadrocopter (props off) and move it. The motion would be reflected by another (flying) quadrocopter -- so you can do fun things like try to express emotions, walk around with some sort of a gait, look at things,…

Hi,

we have performed RC range simulations for 2 systems:

35MHz, 2.5m mean antenna height, 1m receiver height (vertical mast on the UAV)

and

2.4GHz, 2m TX antenna height, 0.5m receiver height (short antennas)

in order to simulate it over a vast terrain we know and use.

The range plot was made from 4km2 elevation model made by Pix4D and Pteryx UAV.

Treat it as a kind of reminder of what happens when landing using FPV.

We…

From IEEE Spectrum, a report on the latest EPFL research on bio-inspired flying robots: 

Gliding is a very efficient way for getting from…

Video of ROFL Tuning Session with spectacular crash when we deliberately detune one of the PID values! No quadcopters harmed (much) in the making of this video.  Video of stable flight below.

By the way, the ROFL quadcopter kit is still on sale on my website:…

I fly FPV as do most of you Here at DIY Drones, and I will admit that I have flown at times without the use of a Spotter. Yes I know it’s a bad Idea to do so, however I also know I’m not alone. Lots of you do This I know I have seen The videos, But I don’t want to talk about this other than to raise the point that…

Here's a good post by Mark Suster, a VC, on "The amazing power of deflationary economics for startups", which I think neatly explains the…

Part 2 of this ended up somehow as a forum posting.

After figuring out that I can remove and modify the motor shafts on my own (read part 2), I also learned that if you tap the bell and shaft of a brushless motor too hard against something, the…

4 flying robots in top 5, short piece on engineering.tv. 

Samarai UAV Inspired by Maple Seed wins - looks like one of Jack's.…

Its interesting that they are doing cool things but not quite breaking out commercially

But the other side of the coin is lots of money is being thrown at UAS in Europe and America really is beginning to fall behind.

Maybe ETH will put out their own or an enhanced opensource AP one…

Hi, I am still having problems to get my radio controls in order for my hexa. 

After a couple days of absence, I tried again today to get my radio calibrated, and it still didn't work.

I did receive a message after all from the supplier. I send them a picture of my receiver connections and they said they were right, that is after I changed sides for the cables as was suggested.

I also changed receiver and 8CH transmitter (as I have 2, the second one meant for videography…

Made a program that spun Marcy 1 in a variety of throttle & cyclic settings, to measure the effect of cyclic on period. …

Funny and horrible at the same time...

Poor Rudolph :(

Merry Christmas

Just found this in the news:

The Sea Shepherd ship, Steve Irwin, deployed a drone to successfully locate and photograph the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru on December 24th.…

The dev team is delighted to give a Christmas present to ArduPlane users in the form of a new geo-fencing feature!

Geo-fencing allows you to define a GPS fence around your flying area, plus a minimum and maximum altitude. Within the fence you can fly ArduPlane normally in any mode…

Enjoy your toys, spend time with your families and get ready for a rocking New Year!

(Graphics from the always awesome Max Levine, who's the closest team member…

My friends Raven was nearly taken out by Santa!

Some people will already be in it, some about to start and I guess for a few its ages.

Either way I hope you have been good and Santa brings what you were after.

Be safe everybody and have a great time with your friends…