A year ago I built an ultra light 5" long range drone (read about it here) which in the end didn’t quite meet my expectations. My main conclusion was that size really matters when building long range quads and this winter I will be working on a 10" drone.

For a long time Li-ion battery discharge current capabilities where unsuitable for high current applications like drones. However Li-ion chemistry advanced enough where they become viable for certain types of flying.

I’ve had AirGradient air quality monitors for a couple years now. My first AirGradient device was built with their DIY PCB v2 and it worked great. I liked it so much that I eventually upgraded to AirGradient One and expanded to 2 devices in my home. I would like to have more but they are quite expensive to build. I also realized that I don’t need all of the sensors in each room and I was only interested in more CO2 measurements so I went to create a stripped down version with only the CO2 sensor.

Last year I went on a quest to find some cheap and easy to use toy drones for 4-8 year old kids in my family. Kids can get very excited about drones but even a tiny whoop in an angle mode is a bit too much as a first drone. I tried a few and I’d like to share which ones were the best hit.

This week I’ve been preparing my tiny whoop fleet for the winter season. I currently have 4 tiny whoops built up but over the years I went through much more. I’ve tried various different frames and I thought it would be useful to share my experience as well as collect some basic information in one place.

The FPV season is over and I’m starting a new build for the winter. I discovered that I enjoy pushing the limits of my quadcopter range more than doing any kind of tricks so I decided to build a quad dedicated to long range flying.

Flsun recently released a new delta printer called V400, and it got me interested. Flsun claims it can print at speeds of 400mm/s in the stock configuration. It took me a lot of tuning to reach that speed on my Voron 2.4, and I know it’s a pretty high target. I decided to order one and I’m going to share my reasons (full review will come when I receive the printer).

Recently, it has become a lot easier to run your Voron on 48V: the latest controller boards support voltages up to 60V and high voltage stepper drivers like TMC5160 are readily available. Does it mean the future of 3D printing is in 48V systems? Should you use 48V in your next build? I will push my 24V printer to find its limit and then test how much faster it can go on 48V.

If you want to use Klipper firmware on your 3D printer, you typically add a single board computer (SBC) like Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is great, and it used to be affordable, but nowadays, due to chip shortage and supply chain issues, its price has skyrocketed, and even if you’re willing to pay it, they are out of stock most of the time. I got my hands on an alternative board called Orange Pi Zero 2, and I’m going to test how it compares to Raspberry Pi Zero 2 and Raspberry Pi 4.

Rapido is one of the best high flow hot-ends, but it comes with a premium price tag. Trianglelab recently announced CHC series hot-ends that feature a similar ceramic heater (and similar performance?) at 1/3 of the price. I will compare both hot-ends and tell you how they stack up.