Good job. I wonder how fast these can go. A pro should be able to make a wind driven water speed record.

He could have saved some weight by using expanding foam instead of wood as the core and using molds to form the pieces. Then the foam supplies both the pressure and heat to cure the resin, so no vacuum bags needed.

Howdy - sorry for the delay, was traveling on business. The issue you are referring to below with regards to reusable water bottles is I believe related to the type of liner (thin coating of polymer based material that is coated on the inside of some but not all of these bottles). In most cases when polymers come in contact with food (incl. water) the concerns are usually not in the polymer itself, but in some of the additives (processing aids, plasticizers, anti-oxidants, UV stabilizers, pigments etc) that in some cases have negative impacts on some human metabolic processes. I would emphasize 'some'. The recent outrage over BPA is not supported unequivocally by scientific evidence, but there is enough uncertainty to move away from it as a plasticizer in PET bottles. If one was to use a food grade polyethylene or polypropylene water bottle, requiring no liner, and totally suitable as a water bottle, then there is no concern at all with the long term use of this material in water bottles. Next time you go through the grocery store, have a look at all the packaging - films on processed meets, stretch wrap on fresh meat cuts, all of your cold dairy products - the vast majority of these are made from one of either polyethylene or polypropylene, with a smattering of polystyrene and polyvinylidene chloride thrown in. All perfectly safe.

As for how the balls are made - these are blow molded. If you have a look at the plastic baseballs made for kids that come with a big fat plastic bat (or really any hard plastic ball that you might find at Wal Mart or Toys'R'Us, you'll see the small ridge that runs equatorially around the circumference of the ball (that's the parting line where the two mold halves come together) and somewhere on that line there will be either a little tiny hole or a small protruding knob that used to be the parison where the air was injected into the small plastic glob forcing it to the walls of the mold like an expanding balloon. This is the same type of molding that makes your liquid dishwashing detergent bottle, plastic ketchup and mustard containers, and plastic milk jugs. Hope this helps a bit. cheers

I admit this is something I know little about so I have a couple of questions if you don't mind... There seems to be a concern about what reusable water bottles are made of. So you're supposed to use a certain type or the plastic (and this may be the wrong term) leeches into your water and then I don't know exactly what, but you probably die some horrible death maybe like in the toxic avenger. So one question is... Is that true (or maybe a less exaggerated version)? The second one I think you may have answered is... Are these injection molded? I can't comprehend how these would be made. I think I need a How it's Made to wrap my mind around this. Thanks.

Plastic particles? Leeching? You've obviously drank the Kool Aid. Over time if the polymer (in this case polyethylene) degrades and becomes reduced in physical size, sure you get little pieces of plastic. Plastic particles don't leech from molded plastic parts, like these balls, as they are formed while the polymer is in a homogeneous continuous melt.

Your video, stingray vs molting spider crab, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

It will always be hilarious. And when we genetically remove the necessity to shit and piss -- it will STILL be funny. It may even become fashion to reinstall rectums and genitalia. And, we'll have become so far removed from the human experience of toilet activity, poop will become like playdoh and children will mold feces statues in school for fun and education. And only the fuddy dudds who travel from the past to judge society will ever give a shit. We must fight them and ANNIHILATE the past.

I have been saying this for years.
I remember at my grad exhibition in Art School, I did this one painting, which took my about 150 hours to create, (http://www3.telus.net/Nickel/links/400/paintings/lynettandjoanne_400.jpg).
or: http://www3.telus.net/Nickel/links/400/paintings/lynetteandjoanne_detail_400.jpg

And this other classmate, made wax molds of toast, laid a few in the center of the floor in a room, and called it an "Installation.

Now, I was supposed to "OOOO" and "AHHH" over her work, but her and her friends, were rallying against my painting, calling it trash and no point. If had wanted to make something realistic, then I should have been a photographer..., I was wasting my time.

Moral of the story: My piece sold, hers didn't.

Prototyping or even making a master from which to make a mold from. With both types of printer, there is a level of finishing needed.

The resin types will have an area of unwanted structure at the top to adhere the model to the raising arm. That needs to be cut off and cleaned. One of the biggest advantages to the resin printers is that your layers can be incredibly thin, leaving you with an almost flawless model surface.

The filament and powder types can get a decent surface, but due to the thicker layers, you will still have to spend some time smoothing the entire model before making a mold.

While I will say this guy is talented and makes great art...in my mind he's not doing "drywall sculpture", he's making "3d plaster wall art".
I totally expected to see a video of a guy taking a sheet of drywall and sculpting/carving his art by removing material. Instead he just glops some plaster on the drywall and molds it into shape. Totally different process with different results.
...but maybe I'm just nit picking.

EDIT: I was interested because we are about to start using stencils to create a fossil bed pattern on some of our walls, much like his art, but made with a stencil.

Love and miss this guy. The only thing that really ever irked me about him was how legitimately he likes to break the mold, but he had the same formula for every guest: man or woman, compliment them on how they look. It always seemed too pedestrian for someone who otherwise seemed legitimately authentic.

I found it odd/funny when the guy unloads the hoods which have been automated to that point, from the robots onto a pallet, where it goes back to full automation again. I'd think that step would be just as easy to automate.

Also like how the line seems to stop to let robots to their work while the humans are on a moving line. Like when the robots drop the windshields in, full stop, all human work the line keeps going. Lol.

I agree the thumbnail is odd. I could see it if it was a tube chop and the part about design and mold making was cut out. Not upset it wasn't there, but odd thumbnail when you start much later in the process. Also sad we see the engine go up, but don't see the process of it actually being assembled or the next few steps like wheels and the like all going on, just skip from the engine going up to final screws and testing.

The slap bands don't work because the arms are at angles to each other. Slap bands can only rotate in a straight direction (They are basically tape measure metal), so they wouldn't be able to come back to meet in the center like they illustrate. Also they have the motors all prettily lined up and facing directly off the wrist, that would require the material to be able to twist.

For the rotor size, these are fixed pitch rotors. You can change the pitch of the rotor to give you different flight characteristics and in general you have to match the pitch to the motor to be the most efficient. I may have this reversed, but a lower pitch prop gives you more torque and less overall speed, but a higher pitch prop gives more top speed, less torque. Making a prop that can be injection molded at that size that even works is difficult, making one that is super efficient would be even more so. QC would have to be incredibly exacting. As a gauge, the 2" x 2" quad has 1" props. They can lift it and buzz it around pretty well. Those things were a pain to get correct and I have a hard time imagining anyone making them more efficient than they are. In the case of the 2" quad, we didn't even paint the body because we want to limit the impact on flight time from added weight. All molded in color. That's how sensitive these things can be. There are better motors if you are willing to pay, but even then it may not be enough.
Go Pro records in HD, but doesn't actually broadcast anything (plus it is big enough to keep this thing from flying anywhere). If you want to broadcast video you have to do it in 640x480 tops. To do that you need something like an FPV system that broadcasts on a spread spectrum. If you went bluetooth you have an effect range that is pretty small. Wifi requires more power to get a longer range. A video transmitter system would require a separate device to attach to your phone to receive the signal and translate it to a PPM signal for through the headphone jack. But a VTX is pretty heavy as well.
And things may drain just a little bit of power, but it stacks up. At most you have a 250mAh Lipo battery that can fit in there. That isn't going to buy you a bunch of flight/video time.
Video on the phone is going to be subject to interference, so you would want to record on the quad. this would get you HD quality, but also adds weight, which means more battery draw, which means less flight time.
-B

Yeah there are slap bands out there, but they don't work like this is presented to work. The arms would have to bend in multiple dimensions, and then straighten out and be able to provide a stable flying platform. The closest thing I think of for doing something like that is the "bendy" character toys where the metal wire is co-molded inside the body. That is a very heavy solution.
I misspoke on the 2" square, it is 2" x 2", so 4" square. I'm not sure that I agree that theirs is 6" x 3", but even if it is that would mean that the prop size would have to be about 1.25" and that doesn't work for a 6" x 3" vehicle. There isn't enough thrust and the motors at that size don't provide enough RPM's for that kind of weight.
On the electronic side, they show it connecting to a smart phone with video feedback. That means you have to have bluetooth at least, or a 5.4ghz video system if you want more than 30' range. or it has to have a Wifi TX on it. All of those thing require power. Sure it could analyze the video signal to determine subject matter, and provide guidance but you have some very serious issues there. If you do it on board it requires some processor power (More drain), if you do it on the smart phone app it will create lag.
Your phone has over 1,000 mAh in it (1440 in Iphone 5), that is a TON (4-10x) more than what this thing would have. Battery technology may be a big research project right now, but there isn't anything on the horizon that will get them to where they need to be. Most of the tech research is in sub 1C rated batteries for things like full size cars. Something like this needs a 10C rating minimum if not a 20C rating. Unfortunately most of the upcoming technology can not handle drains that fast. Things tend to go "Boom!". When you do something small, and even 6" x 3" is small, you have very serious power vs weight issues. It all comes down to issues of power density, and nothing exists today that will give it to them as they would need..

So right now these guys need to figure out:
1) A new light weight material that can lock rigid but also bend as needed in multiple directions.
2) A new battery technology that allows them to get the power they need, for a 6 axis gyro, 4 motors, control board,a RX, a HD camera and some sort of VTX while reducing weight. How long it powers all of that would be open, but if it is under 10 minutes I think people would be a little disgruntled. Right now people are wanting the video quads to get about 30-45 minutes of flight time on the 5200+mAh batteries.
3) Write code that allows them to analyze video in real time so as to provide object tracking and avoidance without lag while capable of running on a smartphone. It would also need to return to home when the battery runs low. That would be a little tricky on a cliff face, or if you are riding a bike through a forest. Another issue is that they tilt the camera down, they don't say if this is actuated, or done by hand, but it could lead to serious issues with programming object avoidance if you can't see anything above you.
4) Since they show the image as HD on the phone screen, they would also need to come up with a new way to broadcast HD video wirelessly. Right now that system costs $40K and is rather large.

All in all it is a dream product that people are going to get suckered into funding it. Some tech may come out of it that could be monetized, but I don't see the item coming out in this format, at least not in the next 3-5 years. You'd be better off going with AirDog.

They talk about it so infrequently that they don't even know what a vagina is. That is a mold of her labia; getting a mold of her vagina would be a little more invasive!

Not that Europeans and Americans use the word correctly, either.

Schuko all the way, best plug on the planet (at the moment). Ground always attaches first, the socket forms a protective casing and pins can not be touched long before contact happens, is protected from elements better, latched inlets (both pins need to push on them to allow the plug thru), can be plugged in two orientations.. Seems counterintuitive that it would be the safest to have neutral and live be allowed to switch places but it prevents highly dangerous practice of connecting earth and neutral inside the appliance, 50% of the time that would short and trip the fuses. Appliance manufacturers HAS to follow basic safety quidelines. Also means onnecting a plug is easy, just breen-yellow to ground, rest is up to you which way you want them. In fact, most of use can't remembers which color is neutral and which is live as they are BOTH treated as live.

Also they don't have fuses in the plug. Again, seems counterintuitive but the fuse is meant to protect individual parts of the circuit. The fuse in the appliances them selves protect the appliance, not it's cord. The fuses on the wall sockets have to be built to protect all cabling, both in and out of the wall.

Small details but it forces buildings to be built with higher standards, less shortcuts can be made.

One feature on Schuko is that when pulled from the cable, the plug leaves the socket first. In UK plugs, you can have a situation where someone trips on a wire and the wire will leave the plug, plug stays in the wall (or wall socket is damaged too) Making the weak point the plug-socket connection, the wire will stay firmly screwed inside the plug, socket and plug will be undamaged. There are L shape plugs too with Shcuko so this is not always the case but most often, those are incased and molded: your appliance will take the hit instead and fly off the desk. Also stops dangerous cable pulling with long cables with extensions for ex in construction sites. You have to actually go and move it yourself. Safer, more work but safer (yes, there are few cases where we knot the wires to stop it happening but when done by a professional, we know how to knot them so that the force is not pulling or bending the plugs at all, otherwise they can disconnect by them selves, often modus operandi when rigging lights)

Also, the pins are round, making bent pins something that just wont happen unless you drive a truck over them. Damaged, bent pins will be destroyed in the process, preventing someone to just bend them back in shape: the tube will not be round again.. It's a genius design.

Only thing that it is horrible at is transformers, small PSUs that takes up sometimes three sockets as Shcuko is more compact, the extensions are smaller then too.. So sometimes two wall sockets can take one PSU and we end up with lots of extensions chained with half of the sockets filled (i got 600 led lights in my living room, takes 4 extensions to get them all running, half of the sockets are used....)