Hackney University Extension Year 12 Masterclass
Why do I keep seeing micro drones hitting walls and smashing into a million pieces when I close my eyes? Oh, now I remember, we did another Drone Masterclass. This one was for Hackney University Extension Year 12 (16-17 years), so we stepped up the science a bit.
The two hour evening session seems like complete chaos when you're caught in the middle of it, but, looking back at the photos, it doesn't look that bad. We lost one of the butterflies and the repaired H-Frame, plus the unmodified HubSan got smashed to pieces against a wall, but, by some miracle, the dragonfly survived to fly another day. I think two of the motors are also broken, but I've still got to go through all the equipment and check it out properly. I noticed that at least one of the flight controllers has had its wires shredded by the propeller, so that will need replacing.
I've compiled a video of the event into a quick YouTube movie. This is a combination of the 1080p RunCam pictures and the 720p HubSan camera pictures taken from the quadcopter. Just remember that the drone camera makes everything look a lot closer than it actually is. It's interesting to see that, by the end, they're actually trying to understand how to fly them properly. That's the advantage of keeping the unmodified camera drone, so I can show them how it should fly, then they can have a go with that and compare with their 3D printed versions. In the end, there was one person who seemed really interested to get one for herself and was quite surprised when I told her that they only cost £30 each.
Thanks to Elpida for letting us do this again, plus our two CASA helpers, Mateo and Mercedes, who made it possible. Also, thank you to Olly for the VIVE demos and sorry about having to drag the AlienWare computer half way across the campus.
Related Web Pages
UCL STEM: https://twitter.com/UCLEngEdu
http://www.bsix.ac.uk/bseven/raisingaspirations.htm
http://www.engineering.ucl.ac.uk/schools-engagement
Twitter
@CASAUCL
@en_topia
@UCLEngEdu
@BSixHUE
#drones4good
The two hour evening session seems like complete chaos when you're caught in the middle of it, but, looking back at the photos, it doesn't look that bad. We lost one of the butterflies and the repaired H-Frame, plus the unmodified HubSan got smashed to pieces against a wall, but, by some miracle, the dragonfly survived to fly another day. I think two of the motors are also broken, but I've still got to go through all the equipment and check it out properly. I noticed that at least one of the flight controllers has had its wires shredded by the propeller, so that will need replacing.
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| That which remains... after a Drone Masterclass |
I've compiled a video of the event into a quick YouTube movie. This is a combination of the 1080p RunCam pictures and the 720p HubSan camera pictures taken from the quadcopter. Just remember that the drone camera makes everything look a lot closer than it actually is. It's interesting to see that, by the end, they're actually trying to understand how to fly them properly. That's the advantage of keeping the unmodified camera drone, so I can show them how it should fly, then they can have a go with that and compare with their 3D printed versions. In the end, there was one person who seemed really interested to get one for herself and was quite surprised when I told her that they only cost £30 each.
Thanks to Elpida for letting us do this again, plus our two CASA helpers, Mateo and Mercedes, who made it possible. Also, thank you to Olly for the VIVE demos and sorry about having to drag the AlienWare computer half way across the campus.
Related Web Pages
UCL STEM: https://twitter.com/UCLEngEdu
http://www.bsix.ac.uk/bseven/raisingaspirations.htm
http://www.engineering.ucl.ac.uk/schools-engagement
@CASAUCL
@en_topia
@UCLEngEdu
@BSixHUE
#drones4good
I've updated the video above to a 1080p version as the original was horribly low-res. You can see the low-res one for yourself here if you want: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51F9uYL8Wg8
ReplyDeleteI'm going straight to 1080p in future and ignoring the "upload for YouTube" options that the GoPro software has.
As for the state of the equipment afterwards, we have 3 damaged motors, and a flight controller with one eye not working. The black HubSan is going to need a whole new lower bodyshell, but we have 5 replacements and it's easy enough to do. I haven't fully checked everything yet, but the equipment seems to be surviving (somehow?). Next time, though, we are definitely adding better blade guards.