Lebanese OCTO Copter built by Mounir Zoorob

A few days ago, I bumped into Mounir Zoorob's OCTO copter project. It is a very impressive flying monster that Mounir designed entirely by himself. It is 1m in diameter and it has a 3 axis camera Gimbal, all designed from scratch. Apparently he has spent over 4 months very hard at work to finish it on time. I must say he did a pretty amazing job. So I invited Mounir on DepotBassam to write a small review of his OCTO copter flying machine, and here is his post:

Before starting, I would like to mention that the materials used are not the best choice. However, since there was nothing available in this part of the world and shipping carbon fiber parts was not possible I had to go with aluminum and Plexi glass instead. (on that subject, review DepotBassam's post on Lebanese electronics shops for more info)
I used 2cm * 2cm * 1 mm aluminum square tubes and the motors are from DIY drones with 35cm wires 2836/9. Each engine has a thrust of 1300g approximately.

I'm using Ardumega from DIY Drones as the main controller with magnetometer + sonar. So far it has proven to be the best thing I have ever bought for this hobby. i enjoyed it so much i bought it as a kit and soldered everything together

I designed and laser cut the case from a 3mm black plexiglass to hold both the Ardumega and the receiver.

As for the motor controllers, I bought 8 25AMP Turnigy ESC's from HobbyKing.
I am currently using 11*4.7 props but will go with the 12 later on down the road. All well balanced

Ardumega will be responsible for the compensation on the roll/pitch axis at the moment. Later on, I will upgrade it to control all three axis.

This is my camera gimbal. It currently has 2 active axis , but later on I will upgrade it to 3 axis. Currently I'm working on finalizing roll and pitch, but I am still waiting for the right parts to arrive.   

Wires were also taken into consideration during the design phase :) very neat :) 

Wires from the ESC's  to main power source are all well soldered and added heat shrink.

Here's the OCTO almost ready for a test flight :)

Here is the OCTO after couple of flights. I modified the design of the Gimbal and I integrated a new landing gear design on it

I promise the next design will be more elegant. With the cash at hand and the time this is the best I was able to come up with.

Here is a sample picture from the video I'm taking from the OCTO

Here is the first video from the OCTO, of course it looks better now but this is just a sample.

For those who love beer, here's one for you :) Note: I got rid of that beard

Feel free to ask me anything, your feedback is important to me. It better be a good one though!

DIY smartphone headphone adapter (with MIC & control button)

• Do you happen to own a very expensive and personal set of headphones?
• Do you have a special connection with your personal headphones such that you cannot listen to music without them?
• Do you wish your personal headphones have the feature of the remote control (buttons) and MIC that smartphone earphones usually have? 
• Do you have an AUX line in your car's radio and you like to listen to your smartphone's music in your car?
• Are you bothered when you receive a phone call while driving because you'll have to unhook your phone from the AUX input to answer, which can get you into an accident?
• Are you like me and you prefer not paying tens of dollars for something that you can build yourself and will only cost you time (and a few dollars). There is nothing more rewarding then DIY!  

Ja3far had the same problems mentioned above and in the video below he will show you the solution he came up with. (This is my first time shooting a DIY video, and I think I am a bad illustrator, so excuse my sloppy technique)

In the video, Ja3far decided to make an adapter which he can hook up to his expensive headphones (or any other earphone/headphone). This connector has a microphone and a button. Ja3far can use the button to play/pause/move to the next track/answer phone calls (the features of the button depends really on the operating system of your smartphone). And the MIC is obviously used to communicate during a phone call without having to bother (very useful while driving).

This project requires little knowledge of electronics and soldering. You just need the following items:

1- Solder and Soldering Iron

2- Wires*

3- Electret MIC*

4- Push Button*

5- TRRS (Tip-Ring-Ring-Sleeve) audio Jack*

6- Multimeter (not necessary, but it is good to be able to perform continuity testing to follow the connections of the Jack)

*total cost is about 2$

All these items can be found at your local electronics shop.

The TRRS jack goes into the smartphone audio input, while it is important to note that regular earphones and headphones have a TRS type of jack as shown below:

A TRRS audio jack

Headphones TRS jack

For a headphone jack: TIP is connected to Left channel, RING is connected to the Right channel, and Sleeve is connected to the Ground.
Oh and this is a final image of the adapter.

I know it doesn't look great but hey it does the job, and trust me wearing your headphones with this geeky looking gadget will definitely make you stand out.
So I leave the aesthetics for the aesthetic minded.