chrisdalke

If you're against a monopoly Netlify is actually a good option for static hosting, since it's a competitor to GitHub Pages. They also support Gitlab and Bitbucket. I'd assume the reason they don't integrate with arbitrary git repositories is that a lot of their automation features rely on workflow messages from the repository hosts beyond what a normal Git server would provide.

He’s been pretty careful to not do anything illegal (he’s talked about this in a few live-streams), for example not open-sourcing any of his control software and using just local IMU data for in-flight control.

I’ve wondered the same thing. It’s so ridiculously convenient that there has to a catch!

I previously used the S3 + Cloudfront setup that many commenters have mentioned, but have switched to Netlify for static sites simply because I don’t have the overhead of setting up any configuration in AWS. With Netlify, you can be up and running with a new static site as soon as the DNS record propagates.

I’ve always wondered if there was any throttling or performance impact at high traffic- but I haven’t built any high-traffic sites yet :)

I'm in a similar position -- This is great, nice work! Looking forward to experimenting with the library.

There are a lot of similarly great React libraries that focus on just one high-level component. A few of my favorites that have saved me tons of time:

- react-grid-layout (https://github.com/STRML/react-grid-layout) for draggable / resizable grids with an easily-serializable layout.

- react-mosaic (https://github.com/nomcopter/react-mosaic) for tiling / movable window layouts.

- react-table (https://react-table.js.org/) for a very powerful, expandable table implementation.

That's great to hear that you haven't seen any issues with the PCB design. Thanks for all the great work!

Look up the Jumper T16 - it’s a multiprotocol transmitter that supports most of the major brands, which means you’re not tied into any brand receiver.

Like bri3d said in his comment, there are a few options -- ArduPilot is heavily focused on mission planning (Waypoints, GPS guidance, etc). There is other flight controller firmware like Betaflight which is more focused on the stabilization and PID control of a quad.

There's definitely a lot of different decisions you can make on the hardware side: Choosing what sensors you include, flight computer & flight controller, ESCs and motors, frame, and so on.

On the other hand, you could also choose to build a drone from a kit or ready-to-fly model, and experiment more with higher-level software. ArduPilot can be connected to ROS, which is the standard software platform for robotics. Much of the swarming behavior, visual tracking, and other experiments are done on a platform like ROS, which then sends waypoints or other instructions to the flight computer.

Some areas to research if you're into this:

ArduPilot (Firmware handling waypoint missions, guidance, etc. on an onboard flight controller): https://ardupilot.org/copter/index.html

MavLink (Standard serial protocol used to communicate with drones, used to communicate between an ArduPilot controller and a ground station): https://mavlink.io/en/

ROS (Software platform designed for robotics, commonly ArduPilot drones feed into a ROS system for swarm experiments etc.): https://www.ros.org/

I agree -- and beyond a catastrophic crash, I wonder how practical the PCB frame is for longevity of the quad, vibration dampening, etc.

Looks cool, it's great to have another good open source ready-to-fly option.

I have some concerns about larger PCB quadcopter designs because I can imagine that fatigue due to flexing on the PCB over long-term use could cause issues with the PCB delaminating or solder joints failing. On the ArduBee particularly, you can see a lot of surface-mount components mounted on the arms. I'd love to read more about any lifetime testing they've done on the PCB.

Of course there's always the risk of just crashing your drone and breaking it, but that's no different than other drone designs!

The ArduPilot software platform is used very commonly across the drone industry and this is definitely not the only programmable drone available! The ArduPilot site has a list of some ready-to-use drones that have ArduPilot installed: https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-rtf.html.

A lot of the time ArduPilot is installed with a flight computer (separate from the flight controller) which sends control signals inline with the RC receiver and can be retrofit onto an existing drone.

You can also pick up pretty inexpensive kits to retrofit any DIY quadcopter or RC aircraft with autopilot capability. Two examples are the older APM2.8 hardware (no longer supported, dirt cheap) and the Pixhawk PX4 (actively supported, more expensive but still <$200.)

To add to your question, what would the mass of virus actually appear like in terms of physical/optical properties?

This is great! I got so lost in the Time Quest minigame that I forgot about the larger game for a while! :)

Ah, cool. Most of the people on that site are doing sealed underwater pod motors (much like a trolling motor) and even though those projects are all hydrofoils, a lot of the same advice for waterproofing brushless motors applies for a conventional boat.

FWIW here's a really cheesy video for an electric outboard project I did back in college: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elw9DDL6wTM

I'm building a real-time telemetry platform for makers. The project lowers the barrier of entry for data collection on hardware projects: You can very quickly wire up a hardware system to a server/UI and collect, analyze, and act on data from multiple data sources. This lets the maker focus on building better, more intelligent systems.

Out of the box with minimal configuration, my telemetry platform has:

- Support for many common telemetry protocols, for example: (NMEA 0183, Mavlink, CAN-bus, VE.Direct, Key-Length-value strings)

- Realtime data streaming, play/pause/replay, time scrubbing

- Dashboard editor and component library (charts, gauges, text displays, instrument panels, etc)

- Data syncing in realtime between servers and the cloud; dashboards can be shared and viewed anywhere

My background in this is from my work at the University of Rochester leading a manned electric boat racing team. A need we saw across teams at our competitions was the ability to integrate realtime data from many embedded devices into a single data stream, plot data live on dashboards during races, store data for later analysis, and easily share that data among team members. Building out the infrastructure to do this gave our team a great advantage as we were able to back up high-level decisions with quantitative data we received from our system.

For example, where other teams would guess based on sparse data the ideal propeller pitch for a desired event, we had exact data on the RPM/torque from our drivetrain and current draw on the motor, and were able to quantitatively compare our propeller selection in different events to optimize for speed, efficiency, etc.

The professional ecosystem in this area is huge:

- ROS is the dominant telemetry platform across hardware systems

- The Mavlink protocol is used for drone communication

- CAN-bus and other hardware standards are used in the vehicle industry

- Matlab is commonly used for data collection & analysis among researchers

Across all these systems there is a common problem for beginners: There is a huge amount of domain knowledge and setup required before you can effectively build complex systems. Across almost every amateur project that does hardware data collection, people are repeating the same steps: Set up a custom protocol for streaming from an MCU over serial, write a program to receive/store that data, use an external tool to load, process and chart the data, etc.

On some level, that experience is really valuable, and I'm building the platform not to force you into a certain method: Using one piece of the system does not require buying into every feature. For example, you could just use the server for data collection, and read data points directly from the server into your own UI. conversely, you could use the server/UI to point at a ROS instance and just use the UI as a UI layer for dashboards.

Overall, I'm really excited because I think that building a ready-to-use server and a powerful UI into a single package represents a real step forwards. There's a real need for this type of system that I've seen time and time again in the field from makers, researchers, and anyone else building hardware systems.

That's really exciting! Marine projects can be a lot of fun. The feeling of being out on the water on a craft that you built/repaired yourself is really great, and makes all the hard work worth it.

What size/model is the boat? Depending on your interests, you could even explore a more powerful electric motor and try to get it up on plane. There are lots of people out there building powerful DIY electric drivetrains (eg. https://efoil.builders/ for e-foils). Have fun!

If you haven't seen Joe Barnard's BPS.space videos, give them a try! He's doing a lot of fun control systems engineering on rockets and electric vehicles. The production value of his videos is really standout among other similar RC project channels (For example, see his recent TVC test project, Sprite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VvCIbDdbKg). His channel feels like a real space program, which makes it a lot of fun to watch.

The last 10 years has seen a huge influx in powerful, cheap RC components: better/smaller receivers, brushless motors, autopilot systems like ArduPilot, etc. It's more accessible than ever to experiment with control systems in RC craft, which is really exciting.

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