A discussion with Erik, CTO of Modovolo, and another shameless pitch for the Modovolo Lift. “I’m a commercial drone pilot myself and it was frustrating to me that flight time was so low for all the drones I was using. I wanted something that would give me at least an hour of flight with any…
Skinny Propellers versus Beefy Propellers. It’s one of our favorite debates, and, yes, we’ve written about it extensively here and here, but as a quick recap our view of the world is this: We thought that this debate started when we came out of stealth-mode and publicly launched Modovolo in March 2024. But it turns…
In a previous post entitled, “The Problem with Skinny Propellers,” we talked about how the vast majority of drone manufacturers have made the most unhappy trade-off with their propellers and electric motors: (i) propellers can only spin so fast before there is “boundary layer separation” (i.e., the propeller stops producing lift) but (ii) electric motors…
Moneyball. It’s a movie about statistics. And baseball. And neither of these is a recipe for a thriller or action-packed adventure. And truth be told: Moneyball isn’t. But it is improbably one of the more interesting films of the 21st century. Based on a 2003 book written by Michael Lewis, the movie recounts the true…
First, as a quick recap of “How To Tune A Drone: Part 1,” we learned about Control Systems and the super-awesome acronym, PID. You can re-read that article here. This article is all about how we applied PID control systems and “bisectional algorithms” to the Modovolo Lift. Because as you read in “How To Tune…
We admittedly try to come up with nice click-bait titles all the time (mostly to prove that we are more clever than ChatGPT) but “How To Tune A Drone” is actually not a click-bait title. Tuning a drone is a real thing, and, if you’re like me, you immediately wonder if it is like tuning…
We’re big fans of creating crazy click-bait titles – and the title for this post is no exception. Sure, bacon has nothing to do with drones whatsoever but at least you know that this wasn’t written by ChatGPT. Yet perhaps this title isn’t as crazy or click-bait-y as it first appears. First, bacon is tasty.…
If you’re like me, you often think about skinny drone propellers. Things like: All of these are important and compelling questions for sure, but let’s get serious here with some science and math…and Victorians. And that means we need to first talk about the “Reynolds Number” – which has nothing to do with aluminum foil,…