Quadcopters are hotter right now than Claudia Schiffer was in 1992–Shaawing!  It seems like the world of RC aircraft went from a hobby shared by fifty year old boys to something every self-respecting geek had to be into.

Claudia Schiffer Certification of Hotness

On my daily commute I pass by an RC airfield (Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego).  Everyday, I find myself staring at the helicopters, airplanes, and other contraptions soaring above the earth rather than paying attention to driving my car (Google, where is my self driving car already!?).   The fact that I am willing to risk bodily harm to myself and others is probably a sign that I may be a good candidate for this hobby.  I resisted as long as I could, but after reading Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson, I gave in.  Chris is the founder of diydrones.com and quite a salesman for his cause.  The renewed excitement around the unmanned aircraft scene is palpable among nerds young and old.  After finishing the book, I went to Amazon in search of a cheap, entry level unit capable of handling the brunt of my learning curve crashes.

SEFSD Airfield

Options were plentiful and Christmas was approaching.  Getting yourself a Christmas present and passing it off however, is no easy task.  I have been accused and admittedly guilty of shoving poorly-wrapped items under the tree marked “To Derek, From Santa”.  This behavior, I am told, “violates the spirit of Christmas”–Ouch!  The poor wrapping is usually the dead give away as my wife has elevated wrapping gifts to a high art form.  My wrapping jobs on the other hand, tend to resemble those Picasso paintings where human figures have misplaced body parts.  Usually however, the “gift” is worth the grief.

When Christmas morning broke, to my (lack of) surprise I had received a shiny new Hubsan X4 H107L Improved Version quadcopter and some spare propellers from Santa!  Dirty looks and eye rolls were sent my direction by other family members but it was a small price to pay.  The quadcopter was AWESOME!

Hubsan Quadcopter

I hurriedly installed the batteries and got to flying.  I figured that starting indoors, where there was no wind would be the safest way to start.  Wrong!  The conventional wisdom with regard to indoor flying is that the greatest danger is crashing into walls or ceilings.  The conventional wisdom in this case, is totally off.

Upon activating the throttle stick on the quadcopter controller, the motors started to whine and the propellers started to spin.  I slowly applied more throttle and the craft lifted off of the coffee table in our family room.  I was airborne on my maiden flight!  And then it happened.  Our 60-pound Goldendoodle, Maggie, flashed in front of my field of view.  She was in midair like an all-pro linebacker making a diving tackle.  In a flash, she had snatched my brand new quadcopter out of the air on its maiden flight.

Actual Picture of Event

I was in shock.  Denial and disbelief followed, then anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.  As I traveled the Kübler-Ross Cycle of Grief, my loyal dog danced victoriously over the vanquished craft.   Could it already be ruined?

Thankfully, Maggie has enough Retriever instinct in her to not bite down hard on her prey.  Historically, Retrievers were bred to hunt water foul, however in modern society they have found an ecological niche hunting quadcopters.  After wiping dog slobber from the Hubsan and doing a quick inspection, it was time for Madien Flight: Take Two.  With Maggie restrained, the quadcopter lifted into the air and flew beautifully.

After a few months of flying my Hubsan microquad, I had become quite a proficient flyer.  The cost of my proficiency however, was a considerable amount of abuse on the airframe.  The craft had been crashed so frequently that over the course of three months I had replaced two motors, one plastic body, one battery and countless propellers.  It was fair to say the craft was on its last legs when I took it out to fly one morning in the backyard.  Upon getting airborne I aggressively depressed the throttle stick to gain altitude.  At about sixty feet (and well above the rooftop of our house), two of the motors gave out simultaneously.  The craft careened out of control.  It sped over the house and down toward the street and out of view.  After killing the throttle, I ran through the house and out into the street.  My quadcopter was in the middle of the road with yet another shattered frame and two dead engines.  It was time to officially retire it.

The little craft was dead but it had ignited a passion for flying.

The Decision

What is better than a little quadcopter?  The answer is obvious of course: a BIG quadcopter!  Generally, there are two different ways of acquiring a BIG quadcopter:

1)  Buying a Ready To Fly (RTF) system that includes the craft, controller and accessories

2)  Buying the Almost Ready to Fly (ARF) kit which requires design, programming, procurement of required parts, assembly, and no instructions

It is cruel to offer such a choice to an engineer.  The correct choice of course, is to buy the Ready to Fly kit and save yourself the grief of wading through forum posts, firmware incompatibility issues, cold solder joints, hours on the phone with various manufacturers, etc.  Offering a project to an engineer however, is akin to offering whiskey to Indians or synthesizers to British musicians (to quote famous record producer and singer James Luther Dickinson).  In such cases and often tragically, the engineer makes the wrong decision.  This was no exception.

After about a six weeks of tinkering, dealing with firmware and software issues, fixing hardware incompatibility issues and generally being frustrated, the final product emerged.  The new quadcopter is about the size of a large pizza box and very fun to fly.  It is adorned with psychedelic black lights (which makes night flying fun) as well as some extra in-flight safety features.  To my amusement, the dog still loves to chase it and the high-flying game of keep-away entertains my ten-month old son.  Never has “violating the spirit of Christmas” provided so much entertainment!

The technical project details can be viewed on my Quadcopter Part Selection Guide page.