The BlimpDuino is the latest creation by Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine and Jordi Munoz of DIY Drones. This amazing kit will make its debut at Maker Faire Bay Area on May 30th & 31st. Be sure to stop by the Maker Shed to see BlimpDuino flying all around.
Features
- 17 grams, with ultrasonic and IR sensors.
- Controls two motors and one vectoring servo.
- Built-in RC compatibility (can read two RC channels–throttle and steering)
- Designed for a 7.4v LiPo battery; has an automatic power cut-off at low voltage to protect the battery
The BlimpDuino kit is a very low cost, open source, autonomous blimp. It consists of an Arduino-based blimp controller board with on-board infrared and ultrasonic sensors and an interface for an optional RC mode, a simple gondola with two vectoring (tilting) differential thrusters, and ground-based infrared beacon.
We will begin shipping the week of May 25th.
In the Maker Shed: BlimpDuino kit by Chris Anderson
6 thoughts on “In the Maker Shed: Pre-order the BlimpDuino kit by Chris Anderson”
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Weia! Noch ein Duino!
So viel Erfolg ich der Plattform an sich wünsche, langsam wird’s langweilig… Macher, laßt die Fantasie spielen! Wie wär’s mit Zeppelino… oder meinetwegen auch Blimpo, wenn’s schon kein Starrluftschiff ist. Alles, was gegen die einsetzende duino-Allergie hilft!
You can see for yourself how hard it is to keep all those -duinos and ardu-s sorted – the PCB label reads ArduBlimp :)
It is 12:12 CST, 5-19-2009.
The Blimpduino is listed as “Availability: Pre-Order”
The reviewer is obviously a friend of the developer, since he got his hands on one before Make started selling it and it is a very, very favorable review. This seems like an advertisement for the kit instead of a review by a customer. It states his name, but not any association.
Now I cannot trust any review on your site. Thanks.
http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=mkca1&Click=19209
“Blimpduino = Ideal UAV Starter Kit May 19, 2009
Reviewer: Ron Evans from Los Angeles, CA United States
The Blimpduino from Chris Anderson and Jordi Muñoz is an amazing accomplishment: a starter kit for creating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for less than $100!
You will need to source some additional items, like rechargable LiPo batteries + a charger. Also, you will need some way to remotely control the blimp, if you want to just fly the thing around and have fun. In our case, we easily adapted the Blimpduino to use a pair of XBee modems, but you can also just connect any standard 2-channel radio controller.
My brother and I have been working with a couple of the Blimpduino prototypes for our open source UAV framework flying_robot (http://flyingrobo.com). We chose Blimpduino as the first implementation, because it is inexpensive, simple to build, and yet has some very cool capabilities for experimenters.
If you are ready to explore the incredibly fun and interesting world of homebrew UAV’s you would be hard-pressed to find a better place to get started than the Blimpduino.
Was this review helpful to you? “
@Odin84gk
The reviewer says right in the post that he got prototypes. He gives his real name, his location, and the URL to his website. Not common for “phony” reviews.
I assume he’s on the DIYDrones website and has followed the development of this tech — and got prototypes through participation there. I have also followed the development of Chris’ UAV prijects since the beginning, and altho I haven’t played with any of this hardware, I certainly think that an under-$100 kit for creating a UAV IS an amazing accomplishment. I don’t see how anyone can argue against that.
And Chris and Jordi won the UAV contest at SparkFun, so they obviously know what they’re doing.