quadcopter – Matthew Petroff

Quadcopter Landing Skids

Matthew Petroff — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 02:21:24 +0000

One of my quadcopters recently had a hard landing that broke its landing skids. The skids that came with the frame kit consisted of 5mm carbon rods with flimsy plastic joints, and the crash broke both. I decided to replace the skids with a more durable pair by replacing the carbon rods with aluminum and the plastic joints with sturdier 3D-printed ones.

Once on the quadcopter, the new landing skids had similar give, but since they’re aluminum instead of carbon fiber, they should bend much more before breaking.

Update: The aluminum bends pretty easily, bending even if the landing isn’t that hard. Fortunately, it’s very easy to bend back and can survive a much harder landing than the original carbon rods.

Snowy JHU Aerial Photos

Matthew Petroff — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 00:03:40 +0000

These photos were taken at Johns Hopkins’ Homewood Campus from a quadcopter the day after a snow storm.

The full set is on Flickr.

Quadcopter in the George Peabody Library

Matthew Petroff — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:18:29 +0000

During intersession, I’m taking a class at the George Peabody Library. The librarians were nice enough to let me fly my quadcopter in the library.