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Comment by ijhuygft776 | Hacker News Reader

> I can't wait until smaller mass-produced versions are sold on Amazon for $50, however many years from now that is!

This is old as fuck btw..... checkout youtube for 10year+ examples...

But in 10 years nobody has built a low-cost design right? Since OP has open sourced the build and software, that may change now.

It will take a bit more engineering than some optimistic sign-flipping to bring it down to $50 retail (~$10 BOM).

> In my case, the BOM was close to €2500, so be prepared for that.

EDIT: someone pointed out that there are actually some designs available on AliExpress, e.g. https://a.aliexpress.com/_EzMRNIv €250 for one axis (edge) and €500 for a 3-axis (single point).

On TaoBao here in Beijing I can get one for around 95USD…. No strong indication whether it’ll work tho! https://m.tb.cn/h.5Hbc2x0sHhXTXZG?tk=nl7YW9gh6MR

I think what it needs is simple direct neural network controller quickly trained and tested for cheap motors and high tolerances so it can sort of work if done cheaply.

Recently there was a post here about researchers training NN to fly a chepish very small drone. No messing with PID adjustment.

A similar design (although it balances on the reaction wheel rather than corner after the initial startup jump) has been made for less than 1000 euros and open-sourced:

https://sites.google.com/view/wheelbot

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