Spin and Fly With the SpinnerDrone!

Spinners, whether you understand the appeal or not, are extremely popular at the moment, and multi-copters, or “drones” as they’re commonly known, have been entertaining people, as well as causing controversy, for several years. I’ve been flying and experimenting with the small Hubsan X4 drones for quite a while, and wondered if I could embed a bearing into one, turning it into what I believe to be the world’s first SpinnerDrone.

As seen in the project’s video, the new design started out making a new frame that could accommodate a bearing in its center. In order to compensate for the bearing’s weight, the an H107C drone, meant to carry a small camera, was used for parts. It has larger motors than some other models, and was able to handle the weight without a problem.

Once this frame was cut out of 1/8" polycarbonate using a CNC router, the central control board, batteries, and motors were removed from the “donor” quadcopter. After some initial debugging, including adjusting for fact that things don’t work correctly if the control board is on its side, the newly minted SpinnerDrone could finally fly! Spinning worked as one would expect, though it’s slightly too wide to use the “traditional” spinner grip between one’s thumb and index finger.