A couple of years ago I started looking at what it would take to make a quadcopter. At the time, I only had the limited tools at the Austin hackerspace available to me (which I don’t think even has a space anymore). So I shelved the idea since I didn’t see a time effective way to make any of the components. Fast forward to a few months ago when I joined the TechShop in Austin. Now I have no excuses to not make a custom Quadrotor.
Status: Active, In Progress (Updated: 4/18/2013)
Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmiyc/sets/72157633185131473/with/8653034709/
This Quadrotor project is a collaborative effort between Mike Kurdziel and I. The unique twist on this collaboration is that he is located in Menlo Park, CA and I am in Austin, TX. We’re collaborating remotely while doing most of work on the TechShop locations in each of our towns.
One of the projects I really wanted to get back to when I joined the Austin TechShop was my Reflow Oven based on a Toaster Oven. The first prototype I made was a mess of AC wiring boxes with an Arduino sitting on the side. While the oven did work, it was far from pretty. Making use of the laser cutter, large workspaces, and friendly members at TS Austin, I was finally able to put together my 2nd prototype.
After getting a couple of flashing lights working on a microprocessor, the next fun project is generally building some kind of Matrix. At first I built a 5×5 LED matrix which was relatively simple to solder together. When trying to make one much larger, the task because significantly more complex. That’s when I decided to build a LED Matrix Shield for the Arduino which did not use Charliplexing, like the LoL shield. I wanted something that was simpler to understand and (ultimately) code for. Unfortunately, 5mm LEDs means 8 columns x 6 rows, instead of the traditional 8×8.
