Making A Pole Balance Itself With Propellers

A hobbyist built a self-balancing pole by mounting a drone-like propeller rig on top, using a standard quadcopter control board and software to counteract tilt. Getting the reaction time right meant abandoning larger 10-inch propellers in favor of lighter, less inertia-heavy triple 5-inch blades. Challenges included oscillations and unexpected flex in the pole itself (repurposed from a pool fishing net), eventually solved by letting the pole lean into the wind rather than forcing it to stay perfectly vertical.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2026/09/04/making-a-pole-balance-itself-with-propellers. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.