UAV Drones for the Hobbyist

Techpods in stock. orders yours now!
Introducing the Techpod

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A Small Unmanned aerial vehicle designed with the hobbyist in mind. Its long wing span and light weight foam and composite structure giving it unmatched endurance performance in its weight class. With light weight and durable EPO foam construction the techpod is not only resistant to damage but also comparatively inexpensive to replace.

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  • Cruise Speed: 32knots
  • Max speed – 55knots
  • stall speed @4.5lbs about 11 knots
  • Climb Rate – 2000 ft/min
  • Wingspan = 102 in
  • wing area =  605 sq in
  • Wing loading = 1.191 lbs per sq ft @ 5 lbs
  • Fuselage Length = 45 in
  • Dry weight = 2.75 lbs*
  • loaded weight =5.0lbs (2.25 lbs of battery/payload)
  • EPO Wings and fusalage contruction
  • Carbon Fiber Tail Boom and wing spars
  • flight times well in excess of 1 hour. make that 2 hours!
  • assembly time 5 hours

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Required for flight, not included:

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78 thoughts on “UAV Drones for the Hobbyist”

  1. what kind of clear dome do you get with the kit? glass, acrylic, polycarbonate? How thick is it?

      1. would you be willing to sell one now? The only place on the web that sells clear domes is microdomes.com
        Is that you’re source? I hope not, because they surely take a huge chunk of the profit margin away!

      2. Yes that is my source. The factory in China attempted several times to reproduce them but nothing made the grade. I was able to cut a deal for $15 each because of the high quantity. Was not willing to comprise. Cost me a bunch of $ I don’t really have but what’s a guy to do? Searched high and low on alibaba no luck.

      3. Did you mean sell you a dome or a techpod? If dome the answer is no for the time. And in the future only techpod owners will get replacements at $15 as promised.

  4. From the drawing it appears that the motor shaft is near horizontal and considerably above the center of mass. Past experience with pushers in this configuration shows that the thrust vector needs to be angled down a lot more to avoid pushing the nose down. How are you addressing that issue?

    1. I have 2.5 degrees of down thrust dialed in to the motor. yes not having the thrust line centered on the drag line is non optimal however some of my design goals lead to compromises. things like pusher prop to get the prop out from in front of the camera, having the prop protected on landing as well as allowing clearance for a large prop for efficiency all lead me to this set up. I have the plane dialed in pretty good and it is highly stable given different throttle setting.

  6. Is it still possible to order this airframe? The kickstarter project is finished and fully funded, or I didn’t find an option there. Are you planning to manufacture these planes after you ship all airframes funded through kickstarter? Where can I buy one now? It is so frustrating that this plane went under my radar and now there are no left((

  8. Will you be posting an updated list of components or are you fully satisfied with those you’ve listed so far? And is the recommended E-Flite Power 10 an inrunner or outrunner? The motor your link goes to is an outrunner.

    1. I do have some different set ups I recommend. for high endurance you have motor running a 6 cell lipo. yes the power 10 is an outrunner.

  9. Is it possible to have a assemble version with Metal Serovs, Motor, ESC ?

    How hard will it be to install FPV gear if Ordered Assembled from you guys?

  10. Is it possible to buy it directly from you and deliver it to Germany? rctech.se is out of supply and it cost really a lot of money. 270€ is 360$. This is quite much compared to your price.

  11. Can I order the kit directly from you, if I live in Germany? The Kit from http://www.rctech.se is out of supply and it is quite expensive. 270€ = 360$. In your shop it’s just 230$. That is really a difference.

  12. I want to mount a down looking GoPro on board, will it fit in the nose dome, or would significant modification be required to look down thru the belly?

    Will spare parts be available?

  13. Hi,

    With a 250g camera for mapping, what’s the expected Flight Time?

    Is it possible to fit a Maxamps 3S 11000mah? 158mm x 59mm x 30mm, 620g

    I could’nt find your e-mail, can you please post it here so I can ask some questions directly?

    Thanks

    1. Yes the techpod can handle the 250 gram camera. You can get 2 hours flight times with the right battery. As for the battery you specify, it may not fit with that camera at the same time. You may want to look at two smaller batteries to give you more flexibility. You will need to consider the CG when designing your layout.

  16. Wayne,

    I’d like to order, and noticed the icon for Google wallet as an accepted form of payment. I could not see where I could select this during checkout. I’d like to use Google wallet or Amazon Payments. (Basically, anything but Paypal)

    Thanks,

    Jeff

  17. Sir, I absolutely love this model and am considering it for a long-range FPV application.

    One question:

    What is the range of motion of the camera and pan/tilt you are using with the TechPod? Can it turn 90 degrees to look directly to the left or right?

      1. Awesome, I’ll be placing an order for one shortly. The specs on this model beats anything else I can find.

  19. Hi everyone. I was a backer and put funds on kickstarter for your project. Since news update 32 no news at all.
    Have you sent tech pod already to me?
    Thank you for feedback
    Kind regards
    Alexander

    1. alexander,
      sorry for the delay in getting your order out to you. I had some unexpected medical problems which made it impossible to build your ready to fly techpod for a while. I have been doing much better, You happen to be in the last batch of 5. I expect to be able to ship yours by next weekend.
      thank you for your patience
      wayne

  23. I was reading about the fire in Arizona that killed 19 fire fighters. If they have a few of these up there giving them visual aid. I think it will have saved their lives. Because they can see if they will be trapped with an up to the minute data. The Fire Chief can gauge the situation with more visual data and he can give orders to pull back etc.

    1. we are all pushing for the use of these types of UAVs. everyone knows they can save lives. There is supposed to be something by 2015 from the FAA.

      1. Some think they cost millions or hundreds of thousands. Maybe you can donate a few to Arizona Hotshots. And get great publicity and awareness. Then the other departments will order a whole fleet of them from you.

  24. hello wayne
    very good plane! l love it ! i’ve read all you post and your blog but i couldn’t see more pictures about the possibility of mount camera for mapping?
    can you put an example like the picture with the gopro?
    i saw a windows under the fuselage ? is it here ? is it possible to take a picture with a camera under the fuselagef or simulated the position?
    and what is the windows size ?
    if it’s ok l’ll buy it !
    thank you wayne sorry about my english..

  25. Really neat FPV plane. I am just getting into FPV flying I will be getting one of these once I advance a bit more! Just getting my Bixler outfitted for now. Will be back to get one of these since you local!

  29. Can the techpod handle a 13″ propeller? Or is it absolutely hard limited at 11″ or 12″ (not sure which).

  30. Mine was missing parts. I sent Wayne an email about the missing parts he said he would send and never did.

  31. Hi, I would like to do the following: I would like to use a Canon CY410 Camcorder hiwhch is incredibly sharp, has a build in antivib-gimbal for smooth Videos and has 330gr. That one would sit behind the glass / Center if possible.

    Additionally, I would like to use a mini-ccd with pan/tilt to navigate the plan and ideally to connect this one to a head tracker.

    Is this possible or will this ruin your concept in Terms of flight Duration / stability etc ?

    Best Regards

  34. Just unboxed my techpod kit, was missing a few small parts but otherwise it looks very good. The way these are packaged and bagged in the box makes it pretty much impossible to break during shipping. once I get my missing pieces I will assemble this into a RUBY autopilot platform.

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