I Attempted to Design my Own Drone... with SUPERCAPACITORS

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Who knew that making a drone from scratch would be hard? Well, most people would probably know that, but I wanted to see just how hard it is by making my very own from scratch, from designing the PCB, to the chassis, and the software. TLDR, it was much harder than expected!

Disclaimer: you will need to use the Arduino cloud if you want to give commands from a web based dashboard (about $5 a month I believe), unless you are able to change the code to work with a radio transmitter using a receiver on your own drone.

[conradyork]

Much respect for trying the capacitors, just to see why they they weren't more common. I don't see a mistake, i see a brave pursuit of knowledge.

[theoldknowledge]

You should mention in the title that it's a super capacitor drone!! Incredible

[someoneontheinternetuvenev]

The reason the mosfets are breaking is the motors create a voltage spike when the magnetic field collapses whenever it is turned off. You have to put a zener diode between the mosfet and the motor to prevent backsurge when it happens. Besides, putting a cap in parallel with the ground and the power input of the motors could work well. Also the arduino is a very "toy" microcontroller since irs only a single core 8 bit 8mhz system. I would recommend using an esp32 since its similar in weight, 72mhz, 32bit dualcore. Also has internet onboard. You could run the remote control/telemtry and PID in parallel without obstructing one for the other.

[ColinHo-Shing]

I love that you walked through your entire process. All your brainstorming and problems. It helps to see how other engineers think and work out problems

[MathC]

The mosfet will fail if you don't add a flyback diode to protect them. This is something you must do since you are using brushed motors.

[bernard]

In science you do not fail if you learn and move forward. By sharing, we all learn. Well done and I am now a subscriber.

[Arctdus]

I love your attitude towards failing and the way the video shows your actual process and doesn’t fake any progress nor hides any problems.
Thank you, I am a sub now!

[yussefhazem]

As an electrical engineering student in my senior year this video has reignited my passion for engineering. As I am currently struggling now with subjects like Digital control(PID and all that stuff) and electrical machines and power electronics, watching you push, through topics you don't fully grasp until making it work is amazing. Keep going man.

[themeandrousengineer]

This was a pretty great video. The editing was good and I was surprised by your 3d animations to explain everything. I've thought about building one of these myself, but now I may hesitate a little more. You're right about learning how the real world works vs theory. You might have made things harder on yourself in some ways, but like you said, you learned a lot from your failures.

[rogerdahl]

16:50 Absolutely loved the PID explanation and graphics.

[juanignaciocarrano]

I did this for my thesis and it cause me to miss the graduation deadline and I got my degree one year later. Still 100% worth it. The breakthrough came when we built a testing rig with a ball joint that allowed us to safely test all 3 rotation axis simultaneously. Something like your camera tripod but inverted, and it should be impossible for the props to hit the rig.

[hhwippedcream]

You're very talented at explaining and representing how the physical and conceptual elements align to make the whole system work! Thank you for sharing this! I will be checking out your other videos and I look forward to learning more! Total n00b to this stuff and getting ideas on what you can do with a little creativity and puzzling. Thanks again!

[odahithedubious]

Thank you for this video. I'm an old "wire monkey, " an assembler and not an engineer of any stripe. I appreciate your thorough and detailed explanation of your process. I also like your attitude and humor. These kinds of projects are very useful. "I have not failed. I've just found 10, 000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

[maceliusfpv]

Great video! Loving your learning/teaching process and presentation. Best description of PIDs I've heard thus far.

Stay safe and healthy brother, You're gonna do great things!

[Jakerton]

Please put capacitor in title this is so much cooler than just a drone!!

[wahajuddin]

Really great video!! Loved how you documented the ups and downs.
Looking forward to more such projects videos from you!!

[seearress]

welcome to drone life. Recommend working to reduce blood pressure and couples therapy numbers on retainer.

[kocurekovher]

Little trick. Put a small capacitor with resistor acros the + and - on motor to sovle that starting peak.😉

[OshanDissanayaka-cw]

You can use STM32 microcontrollers instead of Arduino development boards for this project. This choice will help reduce the weight of the drone and is also a more efficient way to manage power consumption while providing high performance. If you want to control the drone via Wi-Fi, you can use the ESP-01 module for wireless connectivity. It's the cheapest way to do it. There may be some issues with my idea. But try...

[dangfd]

8:11 I’ve gotten so many of those. The surface area is so small that all the heat dissipates into your finger. You can see the skin cook in the spot you press.