The latest project underway at McCloud Aero Corp is an Electric Variable Pitch Rotor (EVPR). This concept uses electric servos inside the the rotor hub to drive the rotor blades. Power and data are provided wirelessly, making the design self-contained. The concept is in the early stages of development, but you can follow the progress on Hackday.io. The EVPR has been entered for the 2017 Hackaday Prize, so you can support the project by going to Hackday.io and giving it a Like.

Over Labor Day weekend the assembly of the Mk. II vehicle was completed. The new vehicle was weighed and the current weight is 170 lbs, 50 lbs lighter than the previous vehicle. The first couple of tests were conducted and Goliath has hovered for the first time!

McCloud Aero had a booth at this year’s Maker Faire. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and checked out Goliath.  Below are a link to our pictures from the event.  If you have a picture of Goliath that’d you’d like to share, please let us know at info@mccloudaero.com

Houston Mini Maker Faire 2014

Tomorrow is the Houston Mini Maker Faire and we’ll be bringing Goliath to show off.  Stop by our booth and say hi!

Houston Mini Maker Faire

Find out more at http://www.houstonmakerfaire.com/

Last week, while gearing up to do the first hover test with Goliath, the vehicle was damaged.  Hackaday.com wrote an article about the test here.  Two new props are in the process of being made and I’m researching how to fix the belt issues that was the cause of the damage.  Below is a video of the test where the damage occurs.

On Monday, Hackaday selected 50 semifinalists for The Hackaday Prize and Goliath was chosen as one of the projects to move on!  If you haven’t seen the submission video you can view it here:

Inputs for the next round are due by 9/28.

For those of you in the Houston area, next Tuesday July 15th at 6PM,  I’ll be presenting at the local maker group, Creatorspace.  I’ll be talking about Goliath as well as showing the hardware I’ve built thus far.  Creatorspace is a Houston Hacker space near NASA Johnson Space Center.  Tuesday’s meeting will be at Odyssey Hobbies,  (100 E Nasa Road One #45 Webster, TX 77598 )  Hope to see you there!

Goliath has been featured on the Hackaday blog! Check it out at:

http://hackaday.com/2014/06/20/goliath-one-drone-to-rule-them-all/

Thank you to everyone who has skulled and/or followed Goliath on Hackday!  So far, the project has 43 skulls, placing it 8th out of 132 submissions, in number of skulls.

Hackaday has also started community voting for members! (If you were able to give me a skull, you are considered a member.)  The results of these voting rounds may also affect finalist determinations. Go to http://hackaday.io/prize/vote to participate.  Each time you pull up this page, two random projects will be paired up for you to vote between.  Every week they are going to have different judging criteria.  This week, they’re asking you to vote for the project you think has the “Best Project Concept”.  Each member gets 30 votes for the week.

Click the above voting link and two random projects appear. Out of the two presented to you,vote for the project you think fits that week’s criteria the best. After you vote, a second random pair of projects will appear. You can sit there and continue to vote between the pairs up to 30 times, if you wish (hopefully at some point, one of the paired projects will be Goliath). If you do wish to vote more but don’t have time in one sitting, you can visit the same voting link at any point and more random pairs will be generated for your vote.

Today we’ve added the Goliath as a project on Hackaday Projects.  While very simplistic for right now, we’ll be adding more information.  If you like this project follow us or give us a skull on Hackaday Projects!