Random Posts (An alternate to side discussions)

[Ray.R]

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@JÞB wrote:
Um... that IS random. any French speakers care to help point out that a different thread may help more?

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Those sentences make no sense at all..  Just gibberish.

Quoi??  Hein!!??!!   Rien.....  😛

[JÞB]

We all know about programmers that have a warped sense of humor.  I just ran across one trying to move some code local to remote via Gotomeeting.  (Easy, snippet uploaded to albums in my profile)

Of course for ease of browsing I named the png bang-nil "!0.png"

Nowhere near platform independant but windows is happy with it.  Some java weenie renamed my file during upload.

Spoiler

"true.png"    There actually has to be a special case for that!

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

What the HELI?

Seems more of an intimidating offensive weapon to me. Excellent skills on the controls combined with an awesome power/weight ratio:

http://www.engineering.com/Videos/VideoPlayer/tabid/4627/VideoId/3245/High-Intensity-RC-Helicopter-F...

-AK2DM

[RavensFan]

Is there any proof that video is real?

My opinion?  That video is faked.

No way a person could control a helicopter considering the extreme moves it appears to be doing.  Even if the helicopter could have such rapid control changes, I don't think human reaction times would be able to control it.  It would have wrecked.  How come the grass doesn't seem to be moving when he is hovering upside down almost touching the grass?

[Todd_Lesher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYxxEzJ9EZw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adp0H8lorHg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhdyt5VIgzQ

youtube: 3d helicopter

Based on 3d heli flight from just a few years ago, I assume there must be at least a little gyro on yaw.

[RavensFan]

Those videos I can believe.  I still think the first one is faked.

The other videos show much more erratic motion.  They actually bounce the helicopters off the ground at times.  Also, you see smoke in at least 2 of the videos.

Why don't you see smoke in the first posted video?  How did they get such "precise" control on every single move he does in that video, never any mistakes?  And the grass doesn't move.  Even some of the things they say while doing the maneuvers seems a little contrived.

[altenbach]

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@RavensFan wrote:

I still think the first one is faked.

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It is definitely not controlled directly in the classic sense. With a powerful FPGA, servos, gyros, accelerometers, motors and software all the operator needs to do is control tilt and position indirectly and the code does the rest. Most of the acrobatic moves might even be pre-programmed macros. If you would play it back at 20% of the speed, it seems plausible, and since FPGA are orders of magnitude faster than our brain, it should be doable, given enough power and smart coding. It seems fully electric, so there should be no smoke.

Just guessing. I am no expert in the details involved. 😉

[tst]

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@RavensFan wrote:

My opinion?  That video is faked. 

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I have no experience with RC helicopters (except that the small cheap ones break REALLY easily) and I was pretty bored with the video, so I didn't even watch it all the way through, but it doesn't seem to me to be significantly different from what's shown here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdEWzqsfeHM

That's from a series on helicopter physics videos on a highly recommended and interesting channel called Smarter Every Day. I don't remember if the videos went into detail about why RC helicopters can do these maneuvers, but I'm assuming they did at some point (my guess would be the lack of G force on the pilot and a better power/weight/structural integrity ratio).

[Todd_Lesher]

Smoke comes from nitro-methane powered helis.

The short grass moves at 1:12, 1:37, 2:04, 4:18, etc, when he goes hard towards it then reverses.

This guy does many of the same moves, but at altitude, so it doesn't look as impressive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=674fRhGcUto

Or this guy in slightly higher wind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuljrfVVUM4

[Todd_Lesher]

20 IR cameras, flood of IR light, processing done off-board:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvRTALJp8DM