About OSRC

Behind each product there is a story. Find out how it all begun, how the project was initiated, who is involved as well as who else helped out and what does the future hold for the OSRC community.

The Idea and Who is involved

For over 5 years i have developed and maintained Open Source and Commercial projects through a company i established in 2008, rdGizmo For You LTD. Most of the time the projects that i created didn''t really match my personal likes and hobbies and weren''t very interesting, other times ideas i had were too complex and required too many resources to develop. The initial idea about OSRC was born while flying a Multi-Rotor platform and doing some video recordings for a personal project. I have been an RC flyer for a long time and always enjoyed a get together to fly my favorite model (Raptor 90 at the time of this article). The ability to create any device imaginable, gave me an idea about a remote control system that would surpass any already available product on the market.

With the idea in mind it became clear that my full attention shall be needed to bring the project to life and devote all my energy towards its development and growth. So i decided to finalize any outstanding projects and create a community for the future Open Source project and a site which would be able to host all its activities, archives and other resources.

In today''s society where more and more electronic enthusiasts are starting to tinker with electronics, one thing always was a setback and that was the control of a robot or a custom RC model. In most cases creators would build custom devices with their own configurations in order to be able to control their creation. It was immediately clear that there must be a device that could do everything imaginable by any user and even more.

With help from Vios GmbH, a very generous and enthusiastic organization that took interest in OSRC and is based in Switzerland, the means for prototyping OSRC became available. Vios has been around for quite some time and supports the Open Source effort just as strongly as i do so it was a perfect match from the start. The RC as well as Open Source communities played a very significant role in bringing OSRC to life as well, since some ideas and suggestions derived from responses which were gathered while OSRC was being formulated.

During initial development, ideas and features gathered quickly, filling my notebook with things i my self would like to see and use. Due to my Open Source nature and the need to share my work with others as well as gain knowledge from other contributors, the entire project was decided to be as open as it possibly can, sharing the knowledge as well as opening the device to any developer for further updates and improvements that even i could not foresee. The initial prototype was developed by me, working day after day on the mechanics, schematics and many other aspects of the device. It took more than 6 months to complete the designs and initial software. After the first two prototypes were made, the final software corrections were made and the refined design of the complete system was created. Since Vios played a great role in bringing OSRC to life during its development cycle, it provided lots of help in organizing OSRC activities, consulting, implementation services as well as form future plans for the Control System and prepare OSRC for new fields of application.

Development and R&D

Following the history of the first RC system until today, many new and innovative technologies have emerged and it was only reasonable to take advantage of those ideas and integrate them into OSRC for current as well as future development. Things such as Actuated Gimbals, Cloud Communication, up to date processing power and many other solutions went into the Remote Control System. Producing a stunning result and capabilities.

Due to my previous knowledge and experience in Product and System design, complex electronic designs as well as mechanical constructions were not as difficult as finding new and surprisingly effective ways for controlling devices as well as vehicles in the modern society. Many applications that OSRC is capable of covering, came from real world requests from future users in the professional as well as hobby fields.

A good example of an application for OSRC is a Sport Event. One community member suggested that "It would be cool to be able to control a plane or a Multi-Copter by several pilots, spread over the course of a race track while handing over the vehicle from one pilot to the other, thus following the object at hand through the entire course." An application like this is only one example out of hundreds which could achieve stunning results without additional hardware or a large team.

Open Source

After almost a Year of development, debugging and sleepless nights, not once did i think of concealing or not sharing the work as well as expertise acquired. As always, i supported the Open Source effort and helped in many cases the community in various different fields and applications, just like i required help from others in my own designs. OSRC is no different from any other project when it comes to openness, giving the absolute freedom to anyone who chooses it, to create and add new features or applications for the system while achieving personal goals. During the development of many project for my self as well as others, it became clear that sharing a project with the community only benefits it and opens new ways for applying existing designs as well as software. Since i designed, manufactured as well as programmed the system, some Open Source licensing rules must be covered regarding Hardware as well as Software. The OSRC project therefor is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

I welcome you to join the OSRC community and experience all the wonders it has to offer. New features and updates are created constantly by me as well as other members of the community, building a rich set of new and innovative applications. It doesn''t matter if you are a professional or a hobby flyer, OSRC will help you overcome any obstacle in your way and give you the tools that will make any mission you can think of, simple as well as fun. So stop thinking about what you can do with what you have and start thinking about what you could do if you had the OSRC Control System.