what caught my eye are the SOTA battery cells used (Amprius SA08) - with pack costs of USD 1300. As you can see here: https://www.batemo.com/products/batemo-cell-explorer/?mode=n... - this is by far the best gravimetric energy density on the market.
Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
141–150 of 154 posts
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#142[deleted]
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
"like 3d-printed firearms" is this even a thing lol??? I thought manufacturer already have a safety in place like printer that refuse to print money for that
There are two parts to a gun. The "explody bit" that needs to survive intensive pressures, which boils down to a carefully machined barrel (rifling is optional) and a firing pin. The "comfort features" that make it easy to hold that barrel in a human hand, that direct the recoil to parts of the human body that can better handle it, that hold the ammo in a way that automatically feeds the next bullet (spring magazine)…
There are 3d-printed AR-15 lower receivers (see Hoffman Tactical for an example).
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#144Very impressive. How important are control surfaces with a multimotor design?
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#145Nice work! It's incredible, it looks super robust.
Thanks! Not robust exactly because the filament I used is has really poor impact and UV resistance. But that's the tradeoff with lightweighting
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#146Love this! This is what HN is for.
Thanks, really appreciate that
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#147For anyone not familiar with acronyms (like me), VTOL stands for "Vertical Take-Off and Landing".
Funny nitpick, this definition applies to most drones, because most drones sold are x-copters and do not have wings, they always take-off and land vertically. This should be "a 3D printed winged VTOL drone"
Yeah it's a strange term because it probably originated relative to fixed wing planes. Ie a VTOL plane. But now multicopters are the predominant species so VTOL can sound redundant to most drone builders today.
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#148I’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?
Same way you get it in a quadcopter. You increase rpm in the (say) clockwise rotating props and decrease it in the counter clockwise rotors.
Net effect is yaw counter clockwise, but zero net change in lift.
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better camera on the drone to fly faster and higher.
I am limited in height I can fly by the FAA (400 feet AGL).
Assuming 200 acres is 0.57x0.57 miles. If you fly at 15 mph you can do 15 lines in 30 mins. The lines would be 200 feet apart, and you'd move 22 feet per second. 15MP images would be 10 pixels per foot and motion blur with 240fps would be 1.1 inches.
Anything wrong with that?
Re: Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
>Aesthetics follows function in this case.
Not sure I agree with you here. The very same functionality can be attained with far less plastic.