YouTube

Head over to the channel on YouTube for the latest videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCExn6YCdXi6mTbpqkV3zyxA

ImpulseRC Alien 4.5"

As mentioned in the previous post, I built an Alien 4.5" (from ImpulseRC)

Basically the 4" body but with the 5" arms, meaning 5" props but a smaller frame and different camera mount to what you see in Mr Steele and others builds

Soft mounted T-motor F40-II of course :)

5V for ImpulseRC Alien 4.5" (Pololu)

I built an ImpulseRC 4.5" Alien (4" body with 5" arms), and the stock PDB doesn't have a regulated 5V nor 12V.

So I bought a few 5V 1A Pololu regulators (D24V10F5) - which is code MCU-60198 from RobotGear (link here) 

Put the pin headers in and place your wires:

You can see above, i've hot-glued the wires in which worked out great

It fits perfectly behind the camera mount (this is the 4" body camera mount for the ImpulseRC Alien, not the 5" camera mount)

BOOM :)

The other option is an after-market PDB, but I like this solution

Bando session

A few quick batteries at an abandoned spot in Melbourne, unfortunately my Xaomi Yi HD camera failed a lot and I missed heaps of footage.. but some made it

See more at Instagram.com/Dronerant

DJI Mavic controller protector 3D printed

I couldn't resist and got a DJI Mavic.

The compactness is excellent, but in terms of protecting your sticks in the 'fly more combo' DJI back, you definitely need one of these:

Printed in soft and flexible TPU (Ninjaflex)

Design by BMSWeb, exact model here on Thingiverse

Epic bridge

This my friends, is an epic bridge..

Full flight footage coming soon

Automatic shark detection

Sharks are a natural hazard to surfers and beach goers, and the trusty old Westpac helicopter was ripe for disruption (huge cost, poor uptime, etc)..

So here it is, the Sentinel VDS system

The Sentinel VDS system leverages drone technology to capture live video footage with highly sophisticated detection software working autonomously to warn beach users if target shark species are detected

Pretty simple and likely effective.

Article on the guys here

Soft mounting motors

All the rage. Does it make a difference? 

Yes.

More drone defence

More drone defence, this time on display at the world economic forum in Davos

Apparently it's a HP 47 Counter UAV Jammer from these guys

See article over at MIT Technology Review 

Flipping about a light pole (Youtube)

Power supplies for charging

My old "brick" style 12v power supply failed after traveling (squealing caps), and i'd wanted to upgrade to something stronger anyway.

I was tempted to use a 1250w HP one I had in a 1RU server in the shed but that server has another purpose, and besides it's damn noisey!

So I settled on a Corsair VS450 PC power supply, for a few reasons which i've listed at the bottom, but basically: clean 12v rail, reliable, cheap ($54 AUD), I could pick one up from the local PC store

Of course, a few modifications are needed..

Opening it and voiding the warranty you see the 12v rail (yellow wires)

I decided to cap off the 3.3v and 5v rails as I might use them in the future for Arduino/5v projects. The alternative is to desolder these from the PSU board, cross the PS_ON (see below) directly and only have the two 12v rails.. 

So, a bit of shrink wrap as below, before taping:

I then soldered the two 12v lines to create two 12v outputs, directly in to XT60 adapters

Shrink wrap before taping before wrapping again

That basically gives you the two lines:

Because the power supply is for a PC, it needs a switch to enable 'on' mode (PS_ON). Simply shorting the 16th wire in Green (ATX supply V2 standard), you basically turn it on:

And you're done!

This covers my two chargers at full rate with some headroom, 380w and 30a, as the power supply does 408w and 34a

Why I chose the corsair VS450

• Corsair are known for their reliability
• The output is clean and reportedly quite good on the 12v rail specifically
• It's super quiet with a dynamic fan based on heat/draw not feedback from a PC
• The specs covered what I had charger-wise today with some head room at max capacity (408w 34A)
• It was only $54 AUD, going up to 600-800w was > $100 for something good
• I already had one wired to my 3D printer so now had a degree of failover :)
• They had one at the local PC shop I could collect today

Attracted to water

Apologies for the poor tune at the start, two maiden builds
Realacc/x210 (https://goo.gl/uJ0nUi)
ZMX X25 2300kv (https://goo.gl/JyKPoL) 
HQ DPS5x4x3 (https://goo.gl/kkm7NY)
Joos batteries (https://www.instagram.com/p/BN0-ZlKDUY0/)
1080p/60 using EKEN H9R (meh, but better than Xaomi Yi running Waffle as seen at the very start)
Track by @Jukan (Soundcloud)

ESC caught fire

After hitting a circular gate racing on the weekend, my quad tumbled and landed upright.

I went to take off but one of the motors/props was out, so I assumed a busted prop..

Then, it caught on fire - good orange/yellow flames visible from 20 meters, a mate ran over (I was de-goggling and putting glasses back on), picked it up and blew it out - man it stinks..

Advice - don't use cable-ties/zip-ties on your arms to hold ESC in place, it makes them overly rigid and more prone to stripping electronics off the top. This is the second XM20A to fail, I don't think i'll be using those ever again.

And follow me on Instagram here -> @dronerant

3D printed quad shell

Design extraordinaire Perry custom designed this sleek outer shell for the QAV-X/RealaccX210

Yup, that's an 'internal' VTX antenna at the back!

Did I mention all the internals are also 3D printed!

He's calling it the SlipX, and is planning to make it available online for a small fee (i'll link it here when it's up)

Can't wait to try it, one of the big advantages and innovative points is the internalising of the VTX antenna, great move for all-day reliable racing


Follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/dronerant/

Xiaomi Yi wedge (4th iteration)

I'm pretty happy with this iteration, 35 degrees, 9.7gm, raised cable-tie mount, fits snug with the camera face-protector .. very happy overall


Printed on the side so the lines of the print go with the maximum stress point, which is front-on crashes of course :)

Only 9.7 grams (0.34 oz)