The folks behind UAV services company Coptercam just launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new light weight FPV racing quadcopter constructed from 3D printable parts. The Kickstarter has a set goal of $6,000AUD and the campaign will end on November 9th.
The newest sport that you can sit down while participating in is called Drone FPV racing and consists of a small RC drone fitted with a forward facing camera being controlled by a pilot flying through a pre-set obstacle or race course. The twist is that the person controlling the drone is wearing video goggles that display what the camera on the drone sees, making it extremely immersive and providing a first person view – FPV – of the entire race. As an example, here is a video of a recent race event in France:
The new sport still has a relatively small following among RC enthusiasts, however with the advances in drone technology and rapidly dropping prices, the cost of buying into the hobby are starting to become a lot more palatable. Additionally, 3D printing parts for your drones can make repairing broken rotors and other parts significantly cheaper. Racing drones like this will lead to inevitable collisions and crashes, and broken parts can easily be replaced by 3D printing them.
The Kickstarter for the FPV Quad Racer was launched buy Coptercam.com founder Hai Tran, one of their areal photographers Sam Thurtle and test pilot Wayne Ratcliffe. It was Thurtle who brought the other two into the campaign because he had already been racing FPV quads and loved the sport.
The Kickstarter will fund new 3D printers that they will use to manufacture parts for the racing copters, and you can back the campaign at various levels depending on how much equipment you need. The options include a bare-bones DIY pledge that requires you to have or purchase most of the electronics for only $40AUD all the way up to an assembled quadcopter and all the equipment that you need to start racing for $750AUD. You can view their Kickstarter video here:
All of the parts will be printed out of PLA, so they are extremely lightweight and quite durable. The drone was based on available open source quadcopters and they wanted to preserve that customizability so it was designed to have many interchangeable parts that can be replaced with available parts from other open source models. Of course you can also design and print your own custom parts that will fit seamlessly on to the existing drone.
You can view and support the Kickstarter for the 3D Printed FPV Quad Racer here, and if you’d like to learn more about racing drones or FPV racing you can visit the subreddit devoted to FPV racing, or you can visit the forums at RCGroups.com.
Brilliant concept! The fun never stops! 🙂