DescentBB

Ever since someone here linked that one video with racing multicopters, I've been getting more and more interested in a hobby that makes my other expensive hobbies look cheap.

To anyone with no clue what I'm talking about, someone here posted this link, which shows a bunch of french people in the woods, racing around. That video got me hooked on watching other videos like it. Here's a great video with lots of racing from the Netherlands, I believe:

[youtube]lQuEgVNAQhE[/youtube]

Personally, I never had much interest in RC flying craft because single rotor copters and planes weren't really designed to race around tight enclosed spaces. They'd fail catastrophically when clipping a tree or pole. The quadcopters, however, seem to do great against hitting stuff. Now I'm really interested, because my fantasy of diving through tunnels and bushes with an RC plane is now real!

Here's an example of how tough these quadcopters can be. Notice when they go through the brush, they knock the crap out of some foliage:

[youtube]70pusNNunMA[/youtube]

This is better that actually flying in some ways, because you can get a lot more reckless and do stuff you've only seen in Starwars. (...Endor...)

On top of all that, I'm learning that some people found a way to control their quads with a PC joystick, which I'd prefer over the conventional RC plan transmitter, with its pinchy sticks.

Is anyone building a racing multicopter? Are you using blackout parts?

Yup, FPV quads for the win.

Unfortunately i don't have the resources to maintain a quadcopter, (and some annoying regulations wherer i live) so instead i do fpv cars. Not as cool as flyey things, but a hang of a lot of fun whizzing around at scale 300kph.

Maybe in a few years when they've sorted out the legal side and i have a little more disposable income...

Yeah, I'm worried about the future of our FAA restrictions in the future, here in the U.S.

I've seen a few of your videos. It looks like fun!

One of my favorite quadcopter channels is in Australia. Where are you?

I've been off and on flying an RC helicopter for quite a few months actually, I own a fixed pitch micro (single rotor) and I have a simulator for everything else. I think the reason behind the use of quads for this is because it is a little easier to design one to weather a crash, they don't require the same mechanical tolerances nor are they quite as weight critical, so they can afford flexible/springy frames with snap together joints and stuff like that.

Another reason for using quads is probably because even though a full blown single rotor collective pitch RC helicopter is a LOT faster than a quadcopter, a forward facing camera in one wouldn't be very useful. Because in the right hands a collective pitch RC can seemingly defy all kinds of physics and common sense:

[youtube]l5FqYiZb_5s[/youtube]

[youtube]uyTIN9IvF1Y[/youtube]

Probably the biggest reason why collective pitch helicopters have such strict weight and mechanical tolerances are because the energy requirements to pull off these kinds of stunts are pretty absurd, they chew through a pretty big battery pack in just a few minutes. It was a fairly recent development where they figured out how to build batteries which could hold an energy hog like a collective pitch RC helicopter airborne for a worthwhile duration and not explode from the massive discharge rate. (Your typical li-poly battery like for your smart phone or tablet would not fare very well if you tried to discharge it from a full charge to empty in just 4-6 minutes, in fact they would literally explode and vent a column of flame out the side for 20-30 seconds if you could even pull that kind of current.) Once they had the batteries for it, electric started showing up as the best option for competitions and stunts because it has a better power to weight ratio than nitro or gasoline types even if it can't stay airborne for quite as long (yet).

Krom, why do those kinds of helicopters still try to resemble real helicopters, with a fake windshield? Why not just throw away the decorative plastic?


That's another thing that I like about these new multi-copters. They're not trying to look like anything or represent a bigger vehicle, save a few exceptions. But for the most part multiroter RCs are suppose to look like multirotor RCs.



more:

They are flying devices after all, aerodynamics are still relevant to the design. The cover helps smooth out the drag from what would otherwise be a bunch of wires, circuit boards and a brick shaped battery.

Star Wars meets quadcopters. Way cool.

http://www.cnet.com/news/imperial-star- ... ve-france/

So this thread got me thinking, and finally I went out last weekend and bought a Blade mCP X BL collective pitch micro helicopter. It is a totally different beast than the fixed pitch I was flying before. Its pretty fun, but a little scary when it spools up, thing sounds like some kind of circular saw from hell when it gets going at around 6000 RPM. All that extra power makes it pretty crazy inside, but does actually let it fly outside in some wind.

Krom wrote:So this thread got me thinking, and finally I went out last weekend and bought a Blade mCP X BL collective pitch micro helicopter. It is a totally different beast than the fixed pitch I was flying before. Its pretty fun, but a little scary when it spools up, thing sounds like some kind of circular saw from hell when it gets going at around 6000 RPM. All that extra power makes it pretty crazy inside, but does actually let it fly outside in some wind.

Is it like a rocket?

tunnelcat wrote:Star Wars meets quadcopters. Way cool.

http://www.cnet.com/news/imperial-star- ... ve-france/

Cool stuff!

However, have you seen the hellicarrier quad that actually lets smaller RC air craft land and take-off from it?

[youtube]0u7CWB40ezM[/youtube]

I intended to attach a video to my previous post in this thread, but it appears I forgot, so here's a sampler of the ground-based FPV:
[youtube]2JamKGiSbEc[/youtube]

sdfgeoff wrote:I intended to attach a video to my previous post in this thread, but it appears I forgot, so here's a sampler of the ground-based FPV:
[youtube]2JamKGiSbEc[/youtube]

I was watching your video then I had a panic attack. First of all, I love your video. Great music. I hope you post more. I was watching it then I thought I saw your avatar eye blink out of the coroner of my eye and it freaked me out, because I don't know if I really saw it or not. I kept watching your avatar instead, but nothing happened. Then I kept watching the video and I thought I saw it blink again. Once again, it was out of the corner of my eye. I don't know if it's blinking or if I'm losing my mind. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

I would like to put there not toy pilots, and live frogs or mice, for example. It would be much more fun ...

sigma wrote:I would like to put there not toy pilots, and live frogs or mice, for example. It would be much more fun ...

Yes, I'm sure they'd love that.

Isaac wrote:

sigma wrote:I would like to put there not toy pilots, and live frogs or mice, for example. It would be much more fun ...

Yes, I'm sure they'd love that.

Yes, you're right, it's too cruel. It would be better to drop the dogs in the water like a bomb, for example

Krom wrote:So this thread got me thinking, and finally I went out last weekend and bought a Blade mCP X BL collective pitch micro helicopter. It is a totally different beast than the fixed pitch I was flying before. Its pretty fun, but a little scary when it spools up, thing sounds like some kind of circular saw from hell when it gets going at around 6000 RPM. All that extra power makes it pretty crazy inside, but does actually let it fly outside in some wind.

You could do this if you bought 2 bigger model helicopters instead of one micro helicopter.

[youtube]77uK19KxMuI[/youtube]

Now we go charpu speed.

Ferno wrote:Now we go charpu speed.

I love watching his FPV footage. He was in one of the first FPV quad racing videos I saw. There's this amazing video of him at an abandoned building (here it is: I really really want to build a quad like his.

wheeee

[youtube]tjzbPvQBzK4[/youtube]

Ferno wrote:wheeee

[youtube]tjzbPvQBzK4[/youtube]

That's crazy awesome

I made this video about wanting a blackout mini h quad
[youtube]wSlgtlEP9_A[/youtube]

Krom wrote:Because in the right hands a collective pitch RC can seemingly defy all kinds of physics and common sense:

In my hands the helicopter would have done this: lift off, veer in some crazy direction, crash.

Also, check out the 3D ultralight planes... people can do some pretty cool stuff with those, too.

The ultimate quadcopter, the hoverbike. Just the toy for Issac.

http://www.gizmag.com/closer-look-mallo ... ike/33414/

snoopy wrote:Also, check out the 3D ultralight planes... people can do some pretty cool stuff with those, too.

[youtube]WprH5W6L9e8[/youtube]

[youtube]UzlZuO_KCvc[/youtube]

[youtube]NSbbYLvnG9I[/youtube]

Man, watching that last one, I really want a qav or blackout...