The frame is the Micro Spider Hex from Blue Sky RC. There’s a build thread for this at RCGroups.

This will be the last multirotor I do with an Arduino chip. This does have the 6DOF (degrees of freedom) sensor board attached. The sensor is from Bob’s Quads. The software is from The Multiwii community.So here we have the Arduino mini-pro, the 6DOF sensor with 3 axis gyro and 3 axis accelerometers and the shield board for ease of mounting and connectivity.

I have the ESC (speed controllers) and 5 of the 6 brushless motors mounted so far. The 6th motor (and some spares) are on a boat coming from China right now. Here’s a peek at what we have so far.

Stay tuned for more…

DJI is releasing a new Hexa “Spreading Wings” together with Zenmuse 3-axis gimbal in a few weeks. This thing is BIG and can carry quite a payload. Pricing is set at $1,050.00 for current DJI Quad owners and $1,370.00 for everyone else.

Detail of pricing, package price and pre-order – click here

Police, Border Patrol, other agencies looking to expand drone use at home

Apparently something is VERY wrong there. A LOT of people are having their cards charged and getting no merchandise in return.

Let’s Make Robots

Angry rage monkey

The BBB

And there are a LOT more.

I ordered a USBASP programmer from them 3 weeks ago.

http://www.diybin.com/products/SeeedStudio-AVR-USB-Programmer.html

If you look you can see the status is “Available for Order”. Silly me, I thought that meant they HAD THEM. Apparently not. Three weeks later my order status is “This order is marked as Awaiting Fulfillment“. I paid nearly 4 times as much as the same device would have cost coming from China but I needed it in a hurry so I ordered one in the good ole USA. I also paid $9.90 to get it shipped quicker. They charged my credit card illgally. They must have the item in stock and ready to ship to charge it, and they clearly DON’T!

I have sent three messages to them using the form they provide. In fact, it says this. “For order inquiries click here. Do not use this contact form. Doing so will delay your request”. Ray of hope? No, all three requests for info have been ignored. If you are considering using DIYBIN.COM be aware that some people (not just me) have had less than stellar results dealing with them. They will not be getting any more of my business. And people wonder why China is kicking our asses????

The HobbyKing (and others) KK flight controller boards for multi-rotors have always lacked one thing, auto-level. Not anymore! This is from the post on rcgroups.com,

“The NeXtcopter open source code for the KK boards was just a starting point for my ultimate goal: bringing the much-requested auto-level feature to KK-level boards.
Over the last few months I have been working on bringing the most current open-sourced KK software up to date. Along the way a number of great new features, some unique to NeXtcopter Plus, have been added.
These include:
– Autolevel (switch selectable in-flight with CPPM mode)
– PID loop control on all axis (PI for auto-level)
– Support for accelerometers and auto-level functions
– Support for Dan’s under-development MEMS board
– Custom MultiWii GUI interface for use with serial adapters or potentially bluetooth
– Simple LCD menu system for on-field adjustments without a laptop
– Low Voltage Alarm support for LEDs or piezo buzzer
– Support for CPPM receivers with up to 8 channels
– Lost model alarm”

You can read the entire post, and all the replies here.

www.multiwii.com

So much info, and so many birds to build. Who’s going to join me? This is a great place to start, easy builds and very affordable.

Great frames can be had here,

www.blueskyrc.com

Too much information about them in general here,

www.rcgroups.com

This is phenomenal! The ultimate in small form factor video stabilization for multi-rotors! Now I need to come up with $500.00 to start testing one.

This thing is going to ROCK.

4 brushless motors
4 speed controllers
7 channel 2.4 GHz
LiPo battery
HK KK controller board with Bluetooth for firmware updates and configuration and 3 axis gyros

Fully acrobatic and fast as hell and….. it’s only 8 inches from motor to motor. Should be doing the maiden flight before the 1st. I have a MUCH bigger one with 6 motors being built that can carry a GoPro cam and get aerial video (at trackdays maybe?).