Here is the link to my Semester 1 video.

Today in class we had beautiful weather with blue skies and relatively light winds for a day like this. We were missing Chris and Ilan, and Daniel spent his time working on building the drone. I had to leave early, but for the time that I was in class, I took the Mavic and flew it around Anna's field. I was focusing on Perry-Fiske Hall and Robertson Hall because we are lacking any footage from the dorms, and I thought it would be a step forward in our process to get some quality clips of those two locations. I got one clip of Perry-Fiske that I'm proud of, starting right in front of the dorm and pulling back to high altitude and panning down. I got some cool motion in that one because I flew backwards over a tree and got the branches whizzing by the camera in the shot.

We only had one class this week, but there were some interesting ideas brought up by Dr. Bill that the drone team and I may want to capitalize on. We talked for a while about getting our weblogs done, but what really grabbed my attention was the idea of monitoring vog levels in the air using one of the drones. This sounds really cool because it wouldn't just give us a flat reading of the vog levels at ground level, it would give us multiple readings at varying altitudes.

Today was the only class of the week, but it was definitely a productive one. Dr. Bill led a conversation about our weblogs and getting them done on time, not only so that he can grade them right away, but also because doing them the day of class ensures that that day's class is still fresh in our minds and that we won't miss any important details in our weblogs. After this, Dr. Bill talked about expanding our repertoires and possibly adding a new project. One thing that he brought up that I thought was interesting was the possibility of doing a dog detection project and implementing the drones in that process. Since our drones can fly up to around 1600 ft (don't tell the FAA), we could theoretically install a vog reader onto the one of the drones and test the vog levels a different altitudes.

I was only present for the last two classes of the week, but I think it's safe to say that it was a very uplifting week. The first class I was there for, we talked about the upcoming parents' day, but also got to get some work done on our projects. The next class after that was parents' day and that had to be one of the most entertaining classes of the year. Not only did we get to talk about our projects with the parents, but we also had some good laughs in between and definitely some interesting conversation. My dad walked away from that class knowing that ISR is a very good environment for me, and it can only be beneficial to be surrounded by the smartest kids at our school.

Today was parents' day and, even though my classes leading up to ISR averaged about 3 parents per class, our F period ISR was overflowing with parents. Since we had so many people, Dr. Bill decided to move class over to the middle room so we would have enough space. When we moved over there, we had more space, but there were so many parents that some had to sit on their son or daughter's lap. We only had 35 minutes of class, so we spent the time talking about all of our projects and how they connect in some way or another. All of the parents seemed really intrigued by our projects, and I could tell my dad was having a great time.

Today at the beginning of class we had a short conversation about parents' day and how it would most likely play out. After this we were able to get going on our projects for a decent chunk of time. Unfortunately, it was raining outside so flying any drones was an automatic no-go. Since I couldn't fly, I once again worked with Daniel on the build-a-drone.

I was not present for today's class.

Today was definitely not the day to fly, with very heavy rains, thunderstorms, and high winds. Daniel wasn't in class today either, so I wasn't able to tag along with him. Eventually I ended up learning some tips and tricks about Premiere Pro with Chris.

Today in class we had a visit from an employee of the Keck Observatory. At first we all went around and talked to him about our current projects, and he was very eager to relate each and every one of our projects in some way to Keck. After that, he sort of workshopped with us about the fundamentals of being in a meeting within a professional context (i.e. problem solving, breaking the ice, etc.). This ended up taking the entire class period, so we were not able to do any work on our projects.

Today most of the class period was spent talking amongst ourselves, but I will say that the subject matter was very interesting. At the beginning of class, we all sat in the MonLab and listened to our peers who presented at the Waimea community event at the ELab talk to us about their experiences. Overall, it seemed like they knocked it out of the park. Specifically, Evil Oliver's presentation sounded like it really drew in the audience, especially when he handed Raspberry Pis out for everyone to take a look at. After this conversation, we all moved over to the middle room to talk about the Moon Base Summit that took place last week.

Just as the last was, this week wasn't very good in terms of actually flying, but we definitely got a good amount of work done on the drone, and it's actually shaping up to be functional sometime soon. Despite the lack of flying, Chris got some great shots this morning and that had us all stoked during today's class. The angles that are possible when shooting surfing from the air are absolutely unlimited and it's really cool to see Chris getting some quality footage, especially since he hasn't been flying for all that long.

We had Aunty Tina for a sub for this morning's class. Chris, Daniel, and I all went to Lighthouse in Kohala this morning to surf and Chris had taken some drone videos right as the sun was rising over the valleys in the distance. The lighting was really dramatic and Chris definitely got some clips worthy of using, most notably one of Daniel that had a really cool angle following him from right behind the wave. Chris and I used pretty much all of the class time to go through the footage and select clips that had potential to be used in an edit.

Today we spent the first part of class moving tables and chairs to set up for the Waimea community event tonight at the Energy Lab. After that, we didn't have much time left in class, but Chris and I checked out some drone videos made by past Drone Project students of the ELab and of the HPA campus. We have always had the concept of a renewed campus video in the back of our heads, but after watching a few edits, Chris and I also thought it might be nice to make a new Energy Lab edit.

Today I worked with Daniel again on the drone. We actually got a lot done and Daniel seemed to really be in the zone. In all, we attached the LED plug-in, the USB plug-in, and the flight controller. Surprisingly, even after adding so many components to the drone, there still seems to be plenty of room left, not to mention the whole thing is still much lighter than the Inspire. Considering that the top of the drone is pretty cluttered with attachments, Daniel and I figured that the most logical place to place a battery would be on the bottom of the frame.

Unfortunately, this week we weren't able to get any flying done due to some pretty bad conditions all week. Instead, we directed our time to keep pushing forward on building the drone. I spent all of this week's classes shadowing Daniel and working with him on the drone. We are really excited about this drone and were able to attach the Naza GPS unit and the power distribution board, and also cleaned up the wiring on the drone to make some more room on the surface of the frame.

Today I tagged along with Daniel as we continued work on the drone. For the first part of class, he rearranged a lot of the wiring on the drone so that it was better organized and left more room for other attachments. After that, we took off the motors and turned them to face the out rather than in. The purpose of this was to wrap the ESC wires around the bottom, and also just to keep them further away from the propellers.

Today Chris, Ilan, and I worked on the drone some more, with the help of the old racing drone. We took apart the racing drone for parts to potentially use on the drone that we are building. We were able to scavenge some screws that fit with the frame and attached the platform to the bottom of the drone. After getting the platform attached, we fastened the Naza GPS unit to the top of the drone using double-sided 3M stickies.

Today Dr. Bill shared some information with us for the first chunk of class time, as well as had us go around the room and talk about our projects and the progress that we have made recently. Though we haven't been flying too much lately, we have advanced in the drone building and keep getting closer and closer to having a fully functional drone. This group conversation took up a lot of class, but I tagged along with Chris and Ilan afterwards as they officially attached and screwed on the power distribution board to the drone.