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Posted by noleary 2 days ago

Building a custom octocopter from scratch with no prior hardware experience(karolina.mgdubiel.com)
254 points | 56 comments
hazrmard 12 minutes ago|
This is very impressive! I researched fault-tolerant octorotor control using RL in grad school for a NASA project. Perhaps this may be helpful[1, see section 8.3]! The field is moving fast, so there may be better or more suitable approaches out there now.

For folks who are interested in UAV physics, I wrote up an explainer[2].

[1]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RTEVRd0XCWLuDXY2nkbmYuOaa5x...

[2]: https://iahmed.me/post/drone-physics/

mickeyp 5 hours ago||
You know you're doing a great job, OP, when the peanut gallery here has nothing more substantial to add than to critique your em-dashes; greek-latin root word mix-ups despite the common vernacular having moved on from that; and lack of title brevity.

Congratulations --- this is a super cool project. I wonder if you've considered using ultralight filaments and 3dprinting the frame? PLA is stiff but brittle, and I know Bambu and a few others sell specialised versions that supposedly weigh less than normal.

bri3d 4 hours ago||
Most filament based printed frames end up with really nasty resonance; it’s possible to engineer damping around the issue with some clever 3D design if the parameters of the prints are measured, but overall 3D printing copter frames doesn’t tend to be a straightforward solution.
felooboolooomba 2 hours ago|||
I wish we had some standard filament testing that most manufacturers were willing to provide results for.

Until that happens, this guy here is probably the next best thing: https://www.youtube.com/@MyTechFun

Plot twist: many of the "special" filaments aren't special at all or at least very exaggerated.

cwmoore 5 hours ago|||
Yes. And when your design is simply beautiful as this is:

https://karolina.mgdubiel.com/drone/drone-img/05-30-26/cnc_c...

the__alchemist 4 hours ago||
I agree with your first point.

The milled fiberglass the author used is a much better UAS frame material than anything from a filament 3d printer due to stiffness and related considerations.

mickeyp 4 hours ago||
Oh no doubt. I'm no drone expert!
Tossrock 32 minutes ago||
Something I've wondered for octocopters - could using a ring instead of arms be beneficial for weight? 6.28r < 8r, but then again the arm radius is usually less than the full circle, and some components want to be centrally located, etc. I could imagine holding the central components in tension via light filaments (carbon fiber, nylon, etc) in tension, vs having to have rigid structure, but the small factor between 6.28 and 8 and maybe makes it not worth it.
rolph 24 minutes ago|
consider "tiled" hexagons, like honycomb.

large schedule 40 or 80 tubing sliced into rings would be pretty quick source material, starting with duct tape and zipties until you find a good arrangment then get into the glue and screws.

sanex 5 hours ago||
People are so jealous. This is cool as hell.
felooboolooomba 2 hours ago||
Something happened recently that attracted a whole bunch of quite ignorant and frustrated people to this site.
lysace 2 hours ago||
So many activists of different kinds.
kobalsky 3 hours ago||
It's cool, but I could have done it 2.45 weeks!
felooboolooomba 2 hours ago||
This is cool as sugar! I have to ask though, how many end mills did you go through milling G10 fiberglass and carbon fiber‽

I've heard the dust from carbon fiber is second to asbestos for inhaling.

pjdkoch 5 hours ago||
Kudos for such a great learning journey!
geod_of_ix 2 hours ago||
I love everything about this. Well done! but missed opportunity to name it R_of_L-copter.
cyclopeanutopia 7 hours ago||
Will follow a fellow Polish inventor! :)
melagonster 5 hours ago||
I do not notice that the time of posts is reversed haha. I am confused whether you had build it.

Thank you, it's cool!

orn 1 hour ago|
Super cooool
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