Mikrocopter - WOW!

[RodKirby]

http://mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/VideoAbspielen?id=188

[RayintheUK]

I'll raise your "Wow" and add an "Amazing!"

Ray

[cabinetman]

I vote with Ray. If it ain't trick photography, instead of a one liter bottle of Coke, how about a bag of Sakrete? OK, forget the Sakrete, I needed that when I had to carry bundles of shingles to the roof.
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[atgcpaul]

That is pretty dang cool. Maybe I've been watching too many war movie
lately but I am definitely envisioning a lot of military applications for this. It's
less "messy" than a smart bomb. With quieter motors and GPS turned on,
send in one or two "knock" on the door. Then send in the next wave to finish
the job without blowing up the whole neighborhood.

[gsmittle]

I vote with Ray. If it ain't trick photography, instead of a one liter bottle of Coke, how about a bag of Sakrete? OK, forget the Sakrete, I needed that when I had to carry bundles of shingles to the roof.
.

Hmmm… Should be relatively easy to rig a release mechanism for a water balloon.

Great—now I have to decide: Rigid belt/spindle sander or Hexakopter… I better brush up my German.

g.

[atgcpaul]

I better brush up my German.
g.

Do you know about this? http://translate.google.com/#

You pop in the foreign URL, select the translation and bingo, bango, you're
reading the whole site in English. Really useful google tool.

[Rich P]

Figure he could drop the coke bottle from say 500' on Bin Laden's head? That should at least get his attention and it's probably a fraction of what we spend on the drones.

[crokett]

Now that is awesome! And wow is it fast. I could see equipping it with a camera, uploading a picture to it of say, the cat, and it could follow the cat around the house.

[phi1l]

@ $2k per. it's a bit pricey for me, but if ou have the right application, it's probably worth it.

[cwithboat]

Too cool Wonder what the flight time between recharges is?

[gsmittle]

Do you know about this? http://translate.google.com/#

You pop in the foreign URL, select the translation and bingo, bango, you're
reading the whole site in English. Really useful google tool.

Sure do! I took German in college (just after indoor plumbing was invented and before the Internet) and I keep looking for excuses to use it.

g.

[Uncle Cracker]

...and it could follow the cat around the house.

...until the cat went psycho and clawed somebody a new azz...

[cabinetman]

I could see equipping it with a camera, uploading a picture to it of say, the cat, and it could follow the cat around the house.

That's what more than one cat does.
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[phi1l]

Too cool Wonder what the flight time between recharges is?

I think he said it's about 15 min.

[LCHIEN]

i don't know how many of you read the documentation
but its pretty neat. the flying control is done by varying the speed of the motors in combination to rotate, tilt and spin the thing. It has motors turning clockwise and anti-clockwise that all provide lift. Its possible to speed up all the motors together and rise, or speed up the clockwise motors and slow the CCW motors to rotate in place yet not affect the rise and fall or tilt. By slowing the front pair of motors and inclreasing the speed of the rear motors it will tilt forward and travel in the forward direction (yes there is a forward and side orientation to this thing). so its real cool and unlike helicopters there's not a complex interaction of controls and unlike a RC plane you don't continually manpulate control surfaces. The control is all handled by directional commands which the on-board computer translates to motor speed changes.

Very cool. and probably pretty efficient. There are really no moving parts except for the brushless DC motors and all motion is done by changing relative motor speeds - there's no complex mechanical actuators and linakages like a plane's aerilons and rudders or the compound rotor gearbox in a helo.


As an engineer, I'm impressed. with the GPS and waypointing you can go to goole earth get the coordinates of your neighbor's pool and send the Hexcopter from your house to his to take pics of his wife sunbathing.... hmmm i wonder how quiet it is at 500 feet.
Anyway, one thing missing is collision avoidance... you have to make sure when sending it from waypoint to waypoint that you have sufficient clearance to get over houses, trees, power lines etc.

I was looking for the price of a complete kit... someone saw $2000?