A new 3D-printed drone called the ELF VR Nano is available for pre-order on Indiegogo and for download on Thingiverse. That’s right: you can either buy the product and receive pre-printed parts or you can simply print it yourself. It’s one of the purest open source hardware plays I’ve seen in a long while and it just goes to show how cool it is to be able to print your own plastic parts at home.
ELF began as a design project last October and the quadcopter is now complete. You can pick up a kit now for $65 on Indiegogo or simply print out the parts yourself for free. DIYers will also have to buy the motors and electronics but with the ubiquity of DIY manufacturing tools that’s far easier than it sounds these days.
The company wrote:
We approached the ELF project with the mindset to build a completely open hardware and software platform, means it’s manufacturer ready pack and less cost in production. You can either modify the hardware to redefine new functionalities or personalize the app without approval or oversight hassles. Open source also means there’s no limitations (if still some) to what you can make from it. Anyone can learn and start building your own ELF with released files including main board design, electronics layout, schematics, etc.. We take open source seriously. It is where we started and hopefully, by being truly open, we can ultimately get more advanced developers involved to help move forward and make the cutting-edge technology accessible to ordinary people.
The drone is quite small but it can take and transmit video. The team hopes that users will stream the 720p video camera output to a VR device like Google Cardboard and the whole package snaps together without screws or glue.
The company plans to ship in July and it looks like they’ve completely beat their goal funding goal. I, for one, welcome our 3D-printed drone overlords.
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John Biggs is a writer, consultant, programmer, former East Coast Editor and current contributing writer for TechCrunch. He writes mainly about technology, cryptocurrency, security, gadgets, gear, wristwatches, and the internet. After spending his formative years as a programmer, he switched his profession and became a full-time entrepreneur andwriter. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Laptop, PC Upgrade, Surge, Gizmodo, Men’s Health, InSync, Linux Journal, Popular Science, Sync, and he has written a book called Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Scammers in the Internet Age.