Raspberry Pi Drone Fire at the Pi Party Weekend

One of the talks at the Raspberry Pi Birthday Party weekend was one given by Andy Barker. He demonstrated "Zoe", a Raspberry Pi powered quadcopter.

His talk went well but the highlight was test run three. This is where "Zoe" drifted to one side, attacked Andy and then burst into flames. Luckily the fire was easily extinguished with a bit of blowing.

We all felt Andy's sense of disappointment at his demo not quite working out as he intended but I'm not sure any of the audience will forget the experience in a hurry!

The fire appeared to be caused by a short circuit in the motor wiring. Luckily it didn't involve the battery.

This also demonstrates the dangers of drones and the care that must be taken when they are flown in public. Things can go wrong.

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[Silpheedx]

ESCs have come a long way since then ^_^

[geekazoid]

take a deep breath of blue smoke annnnd exhale.

[ReubenHorner]

With these things catching fire you should probably pull the battery too

[changeagent]

Why cut power on impact when you can maintain throttle, dead stop the motors and burn out your esc? Lol

[Septoiz]

Poor microphone... that's one way to annoy the sound guy...

[esaedvik]

Flying something that big indoors without even a blanket on hand...first fail.

[DaveHoskinsCG]

If I was there all I could do is wince and shout "IDIOT." Instead - people clapped!

[andresilva_bjj]

this is a problem with the low cost chinese escs.. they dont have over current protection.. I am building my own drone and flight controller.. alraed burned lots of them =(