Well me and Fishy, over here, got together today and decided to think of a project to do. And boy did we think of a doozy! We made up some ruff (yes there were dogs there ^^) sketches of what it could look like. We wen't from balloon format, to disc format, and finally settled on a doughnut shape. This tantalized us more than a little. With thoughts of fear and terror raining from above, we set out to investigate this wonderful material called "Mylar". In addition to discovering that Mylar is actually a trade name, we found out that it's quite inexpensive. A 100' roll of 55" long is about $50 plus shipping. It was quick thinking that found us at the local Ralph's looking at birthday balloons in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head. We noticed that the Mylar was bonded together with what looked like heat, not unlike a shrink-wrap machine (For those of you unfamiliar with a shrink-wrap machine: it's basically a heated wire on a lever that comes down on plastic or whatever you want to melt. So it basically seals off the end of whatever it comes in contact with.). After that we were about to head home when we realized that another common object shared this blessed material; emergency blankets! We humped it over to Wallgreens only to be let down. Not only did they not have emergency blankets, I was pretty sure that the worker there thought that Jake was speaking some foreign language. Target? Closed. It was Sunday around 9 o'clock and stores were shutting down all around us. Our one saving grace (and something tells me, not the last time we will have need of their services), 24hr Kmart! So we went over to the 24hr Kmart and not only found emergency blankets at low, low, prices, but we also discovered our integrity. So we walked around a bit, mulling over R/C's and such. We headed home and unwraped this huge rectangle of thin metallic plastic. Now this next part got us quite riled up; Jake's landlady came down and basically kicked me out. Amazing, I know. It's like Jake's not paying rent, and in fact her pre-teen kid. It's not like it was 3 in the morning and we were partying and laughing loudly. Either way, we decided to reconvien at a later date (and place) and go over each of our parts: Jake is to sketch out some ideas of the shape of the aircraft, and I was to experiment with the Mylar and see how to bond it together.
One point I failed to mention was that we were going with an inner ribbed idea with the Mylar around, and scrapped it in favor of a stronger and more durable exoskeleton type of design. Drawings to come.
The Dirigible
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An accurate and concise summary, Sam. Ben, we're fixing to have this in the testing phases by the time you get here. Seriously, we made a LOT of progress during the few hours we were hanging out. I'm gonna talk to my landlady about that, because it was seriously disconcerting. I wouldn't take that from my mom, much less from someone who I'm actually paying for the privilege to live in her Nazi regime.
A couple addenda though, we're thinking that the final control system will be based on a G1 or similar Android-based phone, so that we'll be able to control the thing via Java. Naturally, the first revisions will just be standard RC, but the ultimate goal is to have a sophisticated control system where we can stream video over the cell network to a remote controller, with accelerometers, an altimeter and an artificial horizon. Another, later goal is to get it autonomous enough to go from one place to another using GPS and an autopilot.
There are some other considerations and ideas, like a remote-controlled cartridge and valve to add and release helium from the balloon, as well as sub-balloons that inflate to compensate for additional weight. The example we thought of is if we had a cat-picking claw, and picked up a cat, the balloons would inflate to compensate for the cat's weight.
Do you know anything about getting compressed helium into those tiny cannisters? You know the type, the ones that look a little like shell casings for soft air pistols and such.
Of course, any ideas on your part would be much appreciated. Though you may be away at the moment, I hope we can consider you a full partner in this endeavour.
Oh yeah! one more thing: It's not really a dirigible, though that's how we're referring to it. The goal is to make it weight-neutral, so that it sits in place where we put it, and only needs the slightest push to rise and maneuver. Ideally negative lift will be provided solely by the propellers, so that it won't float away.
Oh, and we're gonna try and make the exoskeleton out of carbon fiber, for maximum strength to weight ratio.
Oh man I am so jealous, I wish I was able to be there to help, I cant wait for spring break, also summer break im sure we can get stuff like this rolling hard. Very Nice
Well then, we'll be able to brainstorm on this blog, at least, and then when you get back we can work on all this stuff. The tedious part will be out of the way! So post all your ideas and shit, so we can do that. Wish you were here too though. Summer break is going to be incredibly, unbelievably awesome.
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