Mini quad not small enough for you? I’ve got a project feature up on BoingBoing that shows you how to outfit a tiny micro quad for first person video piloting. I’ve been flying these micro FPV quads around the house and yard to keep my thumbs in shape.

Finkbuilt has been pretty much derelict for quite some time now. My last post 2 years ago celebrated my first successful FPV quadcopter flight. Success for me back then meant that I didn’t completely destroy the quad. Shortly after that post, I did destroy the quadcopter frame with a series of crashes, and put quadcopters […]

My first attempt at flying my quadcopter in FPV (First Person View) mode ended in disaster when I flew into the nozzle of a doppler radar tower, and the ship was completely destroyed. I rebuilt the quad on a new frame, with some upgraded electronics and made another couple of attempts at camera/goggles drone piloting. […]

I finished up the FPV quadcopter with only a few changes made to the original build plan: DJI Naza Flight Controller – The “Free Flight” FC that I originally purchased just didn’t work out for me. I couldn’t make it fly right. I don’t know if I got a bad board or what, but I […]

It’s most interesting to watch the HD version in full screen. I shot this time-lapse from the 10th floor at 4th and Madison downtown Seattle. On the right is the Seattle Public Library designed by Rem Koolhaas. Kool name! I made this with a goPro camera set to take 1 frame per second. The goPro […]

Bottom view of quad with motors and ESC’s mounted Hobby type RC electronic speed controllers usually have some degree of programability built into them to do things like set the battery type, motor timing, startup mode, etc. One of those features is a low voltage cut-off function which is designed to prevent the over-discharge of […]

Like everyone else, I wanted a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) UAV for aerial photography and all-around fun that I could fly FPV (first person view) via onboard camera and wireless video downlink to a head-mounted display at my ground station. Well, watching the great videos by Youtuber Juz70 pushed me over the edge, and […]

When I was a kid, my pinewood derby car was so terrible looking, the race marshal ran it backwards. I can’t say I could blame him though, there was no way to tell what it was supposed to be. Well, like they say, it’s never too late to have a happy childhood. This year, my […]

Please enjoy this cover of the classic Chuck Rio tune, Tequila! I’ve been teaching myself to play saxophone for about the last 4 months. Here is is my debut recording. I couldn’t finger the guitar chords, so my pal Eric graciously provided the excellent guitar work. I laid down the drums, handclap, and a temporary […]

Superheros, Evil Mad Scientists, Supervillains, Trilateralists, Bilderbergers, Meteorologists, Oligarchs, Generals, Demographers, Spymasters, Epidemiologists, and well, who couldn’t use a retro sci-fi command console to monitor and control their worldwide concerns? My son Harlan and his friend love to play “agents” and he asked me if we coud build “a panel that has a bunch of […]