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hexacopter, wow.. ("toy" if you can call it that) - Page 4

post #46 of 57
2/23/10 at 2:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by catachresis View Post
A larger model with a set of video cameras could be extraordinarily effective for covert surveillance. It seems to be extremely stable, maneuverable, and--relative to other drone models--inexpensive to manufacture. An assembly line that ground out thousands of these at around $500 a pop would make them almost disposable by military standards.

What I can't figure out is why it hasn't snapped-up by and occulted by a shadowy investment cartel--all the sites that had previewed it shut-down or blanketed with statements from the inventor that the design ultimately proved to be unworkable. Then three years and $50 million later, somewhere in southwestern Pakistan, near the North Korean border, or in the jungles of Columbia, combatants begin to hear the maniacal drone of high-powered bees. . . .
Eh, surveillance seems the last application to me? Too loud, can't see through mud, brick or sand, and transmitting a live image home would take power and/or be insecure. Good surveillance doesn't alert the target to the fact that they're being watched. But the GPS homing and the speed/maneuverability would make a very potent special delivery bot...I imagine expanding the number of programmable waypoints from 1 to 100 would be easy, and obviously GPS can do rough height measurements as well. Imagine if a medic could summon a tourniquet or medkit, in hostile situations. Or if I could open the window and summon a pizza. Or say you fit a harness to a well-trained wolverine, and you've given the most vicious (pound for pound) predator a set of UFO propulsion...
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post #47 of 57
2/23/10 at 6:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omega View Post
Cool. Anyone puzzle out the power source? I've had several of those foam copters with similar blades that run on batteries, and they last 15 minutes at best...more like 4-5 minutes under heavy throttle. And under the dome is mostly electronics, not batteries.
Quote - Mikrokopter.de
"For power-providing usually Lithium-Polymer batteries or LiPos are used."

Actually all of them (Quadro, Hexa and Octocopter) will last about 20minutes. Should be best combination of weight and runtime possible at the moment. Everything else won't bring much advantage
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post #48 of 57
2/23/10 at 11:43am
Thread Starter 
I don't know a thing about lipo batteries. are they as 'dangerous' as li-ions?

imagine if that thing had a battery explode in air.

actually, that brings up a good point: what kind of redundancy does that thing have, other than extra propellers? if something goes out, will it just drop on the person its hovering over?? that might be, uhhh, bad.

if its in flight, I think there should be some redundancy in the key subsystems. but maybe I'm thinking too much like an engineer
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post #49 of 57
2/23/10 at 3:32pm
this is brilliant. Me want!
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post #50 of 57
2/23/10 at 3:55pm
that thing looks like it could chop someones head right off.
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post #51 of 57
2/23/10 at 4:03pm
Looks like it could be modified into a modern flying guillotine!
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post #52 of 57
2/23/10 at 4:03pm
Lipo batteries are Lithium-Polymer and an improvement compared to Li-iones. They will have a battery management system for (dis-)charging.

As well as it shouldn't be a problem if one or two propellers stop working. As long as they are not on the same side of the copter. Even with 4 propellers the hexacopter should still be able to fly safe.
Sure it will be bad if the baterrie fails or some other bad error occurs, but I think you'll have the same problem with a normal remote helicopter or something similar. As long as you use plastic propellers, like it is standard it won't even be able to cut of your fingers, but at least it will hurt a bit....
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post #53 of 57
2/23/10 at 7:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jubei View Post
Looks like it could be modified into a modern flying guillotine!
Master of the Flying Guillotine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also this guy: Photo Oddjob
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post #54 of 57
2/23/10 at 8:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Armaegis View Post
Exactly.
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post #55 of 57
2/23/10 at 11:34pm
Meh... fun to play with but I'd get bored off it after 20 mins or so. I would much prefer to be shrunk down to about 2" in size and actually pilot it... that or build a bigger one for grown ups.
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post #56 of 57
2/24/10 at 2:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graphicism View Post
Meh... fun to play with but I'd get bored off it after 20 mins or so. I would much prefer to be shrunk down to about 2" in size and actually pilot it... that or build a bigger one for grown ups.
Well here you go then: http://www.moller.com/
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post #57 of 57
2/24/10 at 2:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Armaegis View Post
Well here you go then: http://www.moller.com/
That's more like it! ...time to start saving.

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