[Noisebridge-discuss] occucopter hackers

[Forrest Flanagan]

Cops can reach tethers.

On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 10:01 AM, Corey McGuire <coreyfro at coreyfro.com> wrote:
> What is the expectation of flight time?  If it's anything longer than 20
> minutes, may I suggest an alternative?
>
> K.I.S.S.
>
> Balloon with tethers.
>
> Nothing relying on power and control is going to either withstand wind, have
> endurance, be lite enough to fly, or is going to stay in one spot.  And
> nothing is going to have autopilot/autohover for less than $2000
> (http://www.mikrokopter.de/ucwiki/en/KomplettsetUebersicht) unless someone
> is willing to spend a lot of DIY time.  One cannot will a device into
> existence that posses enough of all of these traits to beat a balloon with
> tethers.
>
> Besides, you'll need someone on the ground focused entirely on flight.
> Being that third person view in three dimensions is a challenging task,
> you'll find that most people get exhausted after almost no time at all.
>
> If you are still sold on the "something powered" solution...
>
> How do we fix flight time:
>
> Small blimps bob around like a buoy.  You'll get sea sick trying to watch
> the video.  Not only that, they'll sail off unless you have a very decent
> power supply.  Also, anything neutrally buoyant in open air?  How are you
> going to get it back down?  I invite you to solve this problem FIRST.
> Anything battery powered is straight out.  Lifting a battery in to the air
> means short flight times - period.  Grow the battery, increase the amount of
> work required to fly.  Quickly, your battery outweighs it's capacity.
> Fuel poses another problem.  You can't simply turn fuel craft on and off.
> If your craft goes out of control, then you have a spinning saw blade
> looking for a target.  There are solutions...but will they work to the
> satisfaction of, say, the police?  Believe it or not, there are laws to this
> effect, and they usually require flying outside city limits.
> Anything "copter" or "rotor" is going to eat through fuel because they do
> not benefit from the mechanical advantage of wings.  Basically, flight time
> requires wings.
>
> Once you've solved flight times, control is still a problem:
>
> Who is going to put the craft in a steady hover/flight pattern?
> Will you have a rotation of pilots?
> You can afford an auto pilot?  GREAT!  YOU still need to know how to fly and
> YOU still need to watch your craft at ALL TIMES.
>
> So far, through investigating this, I have found the following recipe:
>
> http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-mega-home-page
> http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__17227__Phoenix_2000_EPO_Composite_R_C_Glider_ARF_.html
> http://coxengines.ca/product.php?productid=453
>
> I still don't think it's a good idea, nor do I think it will please law
> enforcement for obvious safety reasons.
>
> My recommendation? Balloons with tethers.
>
> --
> Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler - Albert
> Einstein
> Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo Da Vinci
> Perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there
> is nothing left to take away - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
> Keep It Simple Stupid - Kelly Johnson
>
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