Tiny quadrocopter piloted by PlayStation controller

While the PlayStation Network remains down, and your thoughts keep drifting to the safety of your personal details, it's understandable that you might be looking for something to distract you.

How about using that Bluetooth PlayStation controller to navigate a teeny tiny little quadrocopter? It's not like you can use it for much else, these days...

This chopper is called CrazyFlie. It weighs just 20 grams (0.7oz), and is a mere eight centimetres across (just over 3"). It uses a printed circuit board, an onboard Cortex-M3 CPU, and an assortment of gyroscopes, accelerometers and rotors to keep it in the air.

...and it's really very awesome, in case you needed further convincing.

The CrazyFlie has been in the works for over a year now, at Daedalus Projects, who have posted all the quadrocopter's details on their blog. Apparently, the most expensive part of the project were the motors and propellers - Daedalus actually cannibalised the parts from RC planes that were bought separately. If you're thinking of doing this one yourself, try to source those parts directly.

The original plan was merely to get a piece of circuit board to fly - I think the intention may have moved onto bigger and/or better things, as the team continues work on the next version of the copter.

Source: Daedalus Projects

One Response to “Tiny quadrocopter piloted by PlayStation controller”

1. Bernhard says:

   September 9, 2011 at 1:56 pm

   This is a small quadrocopter. In Austria they developed also a tiny quadrocopter (called nanokopter) which weighs 15 grams.

   Reply

Article Details

• published: May 3rd, 2011
• by: Jessica Citizen
• in: Company: Daedalus Projects, CrazyFlie, hack, Platform: Playstation 3, Playstation Network, quadrocopter
• comments: 1

Author Bio:

I like video games, fishing, Depeche Mode, long walks on the beach, writing discussion papers and cups of tea. Not necessarily in that order.

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