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Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

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Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

#111

Post by cyanydeez »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #88
cyanydeez wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I reviewed and purchased a smaller drone, from WHISPR. Through that, I looked at similar VTOL drones, which OP is demonstrating. In theory, they're cheap: https://www.uavmodel.com/products/makeflyeasy-hero-2180mm-ua... This one has a maximum climb rate of 3 degrees. Which means you'd need to plan a route that's continously climbing, and tacking back and forth to avoid going steeply. So you would probably combine flig…

While that Sony piece of kit probably can do some cool things, 2950$ without objective/lens, seems rather expensive. Also 8.6 oz / 243 g (Body Only) don't look that light to me. I'd probably go for some Sony Experia 10III[¹] or upwards, for no more than 300$ at 170 g (unmodified), and strip the hell out of it. Does it need a display, all the parts of the case, and so on? Can can I use its GPS, and pipe it into the fl…

If you use ground control points, GPS accuracy isnt a bog deal, but im willing to bet the standard GPS puck still gets better.

I dont know much about the weights involved, but hardware surgery was not interesting to me.

Keepbin mind tge guys starting at DJI and youre proposing stripping dowm a camera

Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

#112

Post by yard2010 »

energywut wrote: post #54

I have ~200 acres of land I fly a drone survey mission to map. Today, that piloting is done by dronelink and a DJI drone. The challenge is that it's about 3 hours of flight time, give or take, to cover the space, and a given battery is good for about 35 minutes of flight time. I have 4 batteries, which means I basically need to be refilling my batteries as quickly as I consume them in order to keep flying continuousl…

If you want and have time you can enter the world of FPV, building a drone yourself. You can change the frame, motors, ESCs, controllers etc. You have much more control compared to what you have with a DJI. It's very rewarding, too. But it takes time so it might not be the economic option.

Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

#113

Post by jojohohanon »

I’m curious about the control surfaces. Since you have the four quadcopter motors, you could potentially just induce all three of yaw pitch and roll by powering those up.

I wonder if the reduction in weight from the now unneeded servos would pay for the extra battery drain.

Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

#115

Post by btbuildem »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #4

It's an impressive achievement for an amateur. He has separate motors for vertical and horizontal flights, which simplifies the design, but creates a rather bad inefficiency, the vertical motors create lots of drag during the horizontal flight. Maybe it's not a big deal, I'm not sure. Making motors rotate would add weight for sure, thus reducing the range.

There are lots of DIY variations on the theme -- here's one: https://hackaday.com/2022/08/22/optimising-a-rc-tilt-rotor-v...

Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

#116

Post by [deleted] »

energywut wrote: post #54

I have ~200 acres of land I fly a drone survey mission to map. Today, that piloting is done by dronelink and a DJI drone. The challenge is that it's about 3 hours of flight time, give or take, to cover the space, and a given battery is good for about 35 minutes of flight time. I have 4 batteries, which means I basically need to be refilling my batteries as quickly as I consume them in order to keep flying continuousl…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

#118

Post by kulhur »

jojohohanon wrote: post #113

I’m curious about the control surfaces. Since you have the four quadcopter motors, you could potentially just induce all three of yaw pitch and roll by powering those up. I wonder if the reduction in weight from the now unneeded servos would pay for the extra battery drain.

How would you get yaw?

Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

#119

Post by tsungxu »

jojohohanon wrote: post #113

I’m curious about the control surfaces. Since you have the four quadcopter motors, you could potentially just induce all three of yaw pitch and roll by powering those up. I wonder if the reduction in weight from the now unneeded servos would pay for the extra battery drain.

Great question, but spinning lifting motors in cruise draws more power than it's worth for efficiency.

There's ways to use differential thrust for multiple cruise motors to roll if not positioned at spanwise Cg (e.g. wing mounted like in a commercial jet), but again, usually not efficient. Servos are a small mass fraction relative to other components.

Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

#120

Post by tsungxu »

aa-jv wrote: post #98
energywut wrote: post #54

I have ~200 acres of land I fly a drone survey mission to map. Today, that piloting is done by dronelink and a DJI drone. The challenge is that it's about 3 hours of flight time, give or take, to cover the space, and a given battery is good for about 35 minutes of flight time. I have 4 batteries, which means I basically need to be refilling my batteries as quickly as I consume them in order to keep flying continuousl…

The OP VTOL drone is aesthetically pleasing, I feel, but is over-engineered for a task such as mapping long distances. For your needs, a slow-stick with a KFM wing would suffice - the smallest, lightest, simplest , most capable airframe one can build, and that is a slow-stick[0] with KFM wings[1]. VTOL is cool for those of us raised on a healthy sci-fi diet, but is entirely unnecessary for a slow-stick, which can be…

Aesthetics follows function in this case. And agreed VTOL is not beneficial at hobbyist scale for most because of the ease and short distances required to hand/runway launch and land an RC plane
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