Drones again in solidworks

Once again, i got bitten hard by the drone bug.

Started with the model of a brushless outrunner which i had designed in autodesk inventor back in the day:

Lets do it all again in solidworks (1 hour of work):

Luckily, i still had all the decals in my archives. Ordnung rockt:-)

Watch out for more to come!

If you want to have the models, just shoot me a mail.

Looking forward, looking back, or: lessons learned

Today, drones have become mainstream. The drone boom is at it´s peak, or maybe beyond.

More than ten years ago, on the way into our summer holidays in bavaria, we stopped at a gasoline station. My dad bought me an issue oft he P.M. magazine, featuring an article on small unmanned airplanes. I still remember that day like yesterday. I was hooked.

I simply knew MAVs, as outlined in that article, were possible. I imagined the endless possibilities for a small, portable „eye in the sky“. In the coming years, i was daydreaming of drones literally for days on end. The more technology evolved, the more my imagination grew. I read DARPA´s „Towards a new dimension in flight“ on my dad´s old mac. This is one oft he first „scientific“ papers i ever printed out (in color!), and one oft he first papers i read. I knew this technology would shape the future. It was the future.

Yet, the technology i imagined was vastly different from what it turned out to be. I was inspired by the agility of nature, fooled by the promises of modern bionics (or should i say biomimicry?). I expected drones to have their final breakthrough only when artificial muscle became cheap and reliable. Eletro-chemical (or purely electrical) muscle like in Michelson´s entomopter  The MFI (micromechanical flying insect)-project became my holy grail. But again, i was fooled. Different technologies became standard, quadrocopters became the kick-starters of civil unmanned flight innovation. Different terms were coined. Ten years later, it is not MAVs, UAVs or MFIs. It is drones.

  But even more than this, i was passive. I dreamed.

I had not yet learned how to educate myself. Different people my age started (and, very recently, sold) companies which became world leaders in UAV innovation.

 It does not count what you think or imagine. Thoughts do not change the world.

Only actions do.

Lesson learned.

Some progress

Last weekend, the mill base and the column were given away for milling and drilling. If all goes according to plan, i will finish the mill in a week or two. Yesterday, i finished the configuration of Mach3 on the cross-slide (y-axis). Mach 3 can really be a bit messy when it comes to setup, but now everything is running fine. The x-axis can now reference itself by a switch, soft limits are working, coordinate system is implemented. Axis scaling is configured correctly. Transporting the polymer concrete subassemblies was done with two steel bars attached to mounting/anchor screws on each part. All easy. I am happy to say that my weight calculation in CATIA was spot-on. Both parts are massive and heavy, but good to carry with two persons.

Meanwhile, enclosure planning is making progress. Stay tuned:-)

 Agenda for today: write test code for x axis repeatability test.