Archive for the ‘Flying’ Category

Wii-controlled robo-blimp

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Today on BBtv, Xeni talks with Wired’s Chris Anderson and “airplane geek” Jordi Munoz about blimp-based aerial drones. Through his DIYDrones site, Chris is on a mission to create an under $100 UAV.

The robo-blimp used in the vehicle shown in the vid is Jed Berk’s Blubber Bot kit, featured on the cover of MAKE Volume 12. You can buy the Blubber Bot kit in the Maker Store.

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

DIY Helicopter kit

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

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I doubt the MAKE Store will be carry this any time soon, but we can always dream. This is the ultimate kit to make and show off to all your friends. You can pick one up for under $30,000 which is cheap compared to other helicopters. Imagine showing up for the next meet-up in this thing. - Link

Related:
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Homebrewed helicopter - Link

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Original post by Marc de Vinck

Wired Science on DIY UAVs

Monday, February 18th, 2008

Wired Science has a nice segment on Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson’s efforts to bring together amateurs working with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

DIY UAVs - [via] Link

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

Personal helicopter lifts you above the rest

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Is this really the world’s smallest personal helicopter? Your guess is as good as ours, still it looks like a pretty cool way to avoid the morning rush if you don’t mind burning a hole in your scalp. Watch the video!

A Personal Helicopter Can Lift You Up - [via], Link

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Original post by Jonah Brucker-Cohen

Full size Electric Plane

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

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Electric cars, and conversion kits, can be found all over the Internet. But when was the last time you saw a full size electric plane? Yeah, me neither. This is not an RC toy, it’s a full size, human carrying, electric plane powered by an 18 kW, 25hp, brushed “industrial” motor. It flew for 48 minutes and went 50 km, that’s about 31 miles. I would love to know what kind of noise it made as it flew by.

On Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 11:50 took place, the first flight of F-WMDJ ELECTRA, equipped with an electric motor of 25 hp and Lithium-polymer batteries.

The website was originally published in French, but there is a translated version that has some interesting information and more pictures. - Link [Via]

Related:

  • An Amazing electric car - Link

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Original post by Marc de Vinck

The low-down on BALLS 17

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

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BALLS 17, the premiere experimental rocketry launch contest, has been announced for Sept 26, 27, 28 in Black Rock, Nevada. The event website has details on BALLS 17 and the competition rules.

This is the extreme rocketry event where experimental rocketeers push the envelope of size, staging/clustering, altitude, home-made components and motors, and cutting-edge rocket tech. Not for the faint of heart and not for children. Bring your hard hat.

BALLS 17 - Link

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

HALO2 High Altitude Balloon

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

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Another successful high altitude balloon flight with some gorgeous images. Alexei writes:

High altitude ballooning is an emerging hobby, since the price of GPS and communications equipment has gotten quite low. It is an excellent hobby for people fascinated by space flight and telerobotics and has many learning aspects — from systems design to electronics design to software engineering. There is also an exciting risk factor, namely, that you could lose your precious electronics if something malfunctions. In this project, many of my interest and knowledge areas came together. Also, I have verified that the Earth is indeed round and that space is black.

Helium Balloon Mission to Near-Space - Link

Related:

  • Successful High Altitude Balloon! - Link
  • High Altitude Ballooning - Make: Video Podcast - Link
  • A view from 66,000 feet up - Link
  • Satellites on a Budget - High Altitude Balloons - Link

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

Motorola sets ears on fire with S9-HD Bluetooth stereo headset

Monday, January 7th, 2008

Filed under: , ,

Motorola launched a slick headset today as a follow up to the original MOTOACTV S9 we saw this time last year. Form looks unchanged on this outing, but Moto has opted to add high-definition sound with SRS WOW HD and fixed the issue we had with background noise by improving the earbuds. Battery life is touted as 6 hours of play time on a single charge — but of course your mileage will vary — and weighs in at a measly one ounce. If you’ve been looking to upgrade your current sweat damaged S9 set, this may well be a worthy upgrade for you.

 

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Original post by Sean Cooper

Gadgets for Christmas

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

I got a couple of cool gadget gifts for Christmas, both of which were from my wife. The first gadget was a Men’s Digital Photo Wallet from Brookstone featuring a built-in (yet removable) 1.4&quot color LCD screen for displaying up to 55 digital photos. The LCD unit is fairly thin, but will add some thickness to your wallet. I have to say, mGeorge Costanza Dinery old wallet was starting to rival George Costanza’s overstuffed wallet which made him sit at a tilt with it in his back pocket, forcing him to even it out by stuffing his other back pocket with napkins. Later his wallet exceeds "maximum density" and explodes on the street with his cash, receipts, and other paperwork flying everywhere.

In any event, I hooked up the digital photo wallet to my computer via USB (mini-USB on the device) to both charge it and download some photos. Here’s a picture of my wallet:
Digital Photo Wallet - Niki and Megan

The resolution is decent, but not earth-shattering. But hey, you stuff 55 color photos in your wallet. Try that with traditional paper photos. Here’s a photo further out so you can see the entire wallet:

Digital Photo Wallet - wide

My next gadget was even cooler and one that I played with all day on Christmas, the day after, and the day after that.

Remote Controlled HelicopterIt’s a mini remote controlled helicopter. If you went mall shopping this Christmas, you probably saw a kiosk in the main walkways selling these cool little flying gadgets - or at least I did when I went mall shopping. Crowds would gather around the kiosk to watch the mini-flying helicopters, including me. I oohed and ahhed and thought it would be cool to own one. I had no idea my wife was going to buy me one for Christmas.

Flying the mini-helicopter takes some practice. During my early flight time training, my 2 year old niece was hit in the head by the helicopter. It is so lightweight it didn’t hurt her, but the tail rotor spun up some of her hair and the helicopter was stuck to her head. It looked pretty funny actually and fortunately she was laughing about it. I glanced around the room and no one saw what I had just done. I leaped over and gingerly pried the hair free, but had to break a few hairs off. Just when I thought I was going to get away with flying a helicopter into my niece, my wife walked in. Damn, almost got away with it too! She ribbed me for my flying error, but kept it hush-hush from the rest of the family.

I learned very quickly that you have to be very subtle in your joystick movements, both for turns and for ascending or descending. Before long I was flying the thing around the Christmas tree and around the room. It is extremely durable for such a small object. I bounced it off ceiling fans, walls, coffee tables, nieces , TVs and the thing just keeps on going. Part of the reason for its durability is that the helicopter is so light. It charges pretty quickly taking about 20 minutes to charge for about 5-7 minutes flying time. They go for about $35, so you might want to consider buying a couple so you can charge one while flying the other.

So those were my two cool gadgets. I also got some non-gadgety stuff for Christmas, including Call of Duty 4 for PC, big jar of pistachios, various chocolates, gift certificates, clothes, and a 3 month membership to my local gym.

So what are your favorite gadgets that you got for Christmas?

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Original post by Eric

Snowball cannon

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

Say no more. (Usual cautions apply and read the comments for some tips on “keeping all your digits and spleen,” which is always something to keep in mind.)

Pneumatic Snowball Cannon - Link

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Original post by Gareth Branwyn

Nicely documented high-power rocket build

Monday, December 17th, 2007

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Kevin Cook does a nice job of documenting his building of a 93″, 45 lb., K-motor rocket, done as part of his Level 3 high-power rocketry certification.

Kevin Cook’s Red and Black “Sky Attack” Level 3 Certification Project - [via] Link

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Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

Vanity mirror and talk trainer for birds

Monday, December 17th, 2007

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The “Talk ‘N Play” attempts to teach basic phrases to the birds in your backyard while also allowing them to activate lights on the device’s front panel. Each button on the device, when pecked, triggers a new phrase played from the device’s onboard speakers. The next version of this device should also teach your local birds to only use your neighbor’s lawn furniture as an outhouse.

Talk N Play Bird Toy - Link, [via]

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Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

Amazing junk fliers on BBtv

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

On today’s episode of BBtv, Xeni interviews Carl Rankin, a model plane builder who creates impressive R/C planes out of take-out food cartons, drinking straws, sewing thread, Reynold’s wrap, and tape (among other things). There’s also a fun video that uses Wonder Bread like clay to create “dough-mation.”

BBtv: Flying Puppets / Wonder Bread - Link

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Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

First-Person View hobby site

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

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In response to the virtual pilot video item we posted several weeks back, a reader sent a link to this site, a portal related to “video piloting in the newly growing and exciting hobby of First Person View (FPV or RPV) that has become popular with Radio Controlled airplanes, R/C helicopters, cars and boats.” Who knew?

FPV Video Home Page - Link

Related:

  • Virtual pilot video rig for R/C plane - Link

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Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women


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