Drones?

[DyroZang]

Alright, I have a basic level of knowledge with hardware, I have built my own desktop and worked with a few other pieces of hardware. Recently I have been looking into making a drone. Sort of a helicopter type drone, it would connect to some kind of receiver  or something of the sort. I have some programming experience but i'm not too familiar with how hardware works in the area of red wires and black ones, how they connect to one another. Powering things, giving voltages and all things of that sort. I'm not sure if I want to do this project with a Pi or how but I was hoping somebody could give me some kind of guidance for the idea. Thanks!

[Aaronius_Leonius]

take a look at arduino and raspberry pi zero. That should help you out a lot.

[DyroZang]

@AA-RonRosen any suggestions on a way that I can learn how to put everything together, supply power and things of that sort?

[werto165]

well welcome to the world of quadcopters there's many things you'll need if you want to build it. power distribution board for your Lipo to your ESC's (Electronic speed controllers) from there you'll need the motors I would recommend something like 2300kv 2204 motor for starting off. Theres more stuff you'll need but there's plenty of good videos online that'll go through the build process you would rarely need to do your own programming, I mean PID control is such a pain in the ass I'm in my second year at uni trying to understand it granted it's taught by a teacher who expects too much but still. Most flight controllers are pretty easy to set up I run a cc3d flight controller but there's multiwii and others that'll probably do fine. 

 

http://www.flitetest.com/get-started/multirotors this could be a good resource for starting off. I got most of my parts from ready to fly quads I'll try and find what I bought the more research you do the better as with any hobby I guess

[Enderman]

6 minutes ago, DyroZang said:

@AA-RonRosen any suggestions on a way that I can learn how to put everything together, supply power and things of that sort?

A drone is not a computer.

There is no power supply other than a battery.

You also do not use a pi or an arduino.

If you don't even know how wires work then you should probably buy a premade drone or a kit that you assemble.

[DyroZang]

1 minute ago, werto165 said:

well welcome to the world of quadcopters there's many things you'll need if you want to build it. power distribution board for your Lipo to your ESC's (Electronic speed controllers) from there you'll need the motors I would recommend something like 2300kv 2204 motor for starting off. Theres more stuff you'll need but there's plenty of good videos online that'll go through the build process you would rarely need to do your own programming, I mean PID control is such a pain in the ass I'm in my second year at uni trying to understand it granted it's taught by a teacher who expects too much but still. Most flight controllers are pretty easy to set up I run a cc3d flight controller but there's multiwii and others that'll probably do fine. 

 

http://www.flitetest.com/get-started/multirotors this could be a good resource for starting off. I got most of my parts from ready to fly quads I'll try and find what I bought 

Thanks! This was a huge help!

 

[Guest]

Just now, Enderman said:

A drone is not a computer.

There is no power supply other than a battery.

You also do not use a pi or an arduino.

If you don't even know how wires work then you should probably buy a premade drone or a kit that you assemble.

Well you can use a pi, just doesn't make much sense to use one imo 

[DyroZang]

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

A drone is not a computer.

There is no power supply other than a battery.

You also do not use a pi or an arduino.

If you don't even know how wires work then you should probably buy a premade drone or a kit that you assemble.

The plan for this project is to learn how wires work, and things of that sort. That's the reason that I would rather not buy a premade kit, my goal is to make it on my own.

[werto165]

1 minute ago, DyroZang said:

Thanks! This was a huge help!

 

https://twit.tv/shows/know-how/episodes/142

 

https://twit.tv/shows/know-how/episodes/149?autostart=false

 

You'll have to do some scrubbing through that but it's a good start and there's even a parts list here: 

 

http://www.readytoflyquads.com/know-how-250-kit

 

I'd watch those twice just to make sure you don't miss anything you need. 

[werto165]

Just now, DyroZang said:

The plan for this project is to learn how wires work, and things of that sort. That's the reason that I would rather not buy a premade kit, my goal is to make it on my own.

It might look like this for a while but once you've got your head around it it's not too bad, instructions tend to be quite helpful 

[Enderman]

2 minutes ago, DyroZang said:

The plan for this project is to learn how wires work, and things of that sort. That's the reason that I would rather not buy a premade kit, my goal is to make it on my own.

Maybe spend a few years learning about basic electronics before trying to build a drone from scratch.

[Hackentosher]

I have to agree with @Enderman's sentiments, you should get some basic knowledge of electronics and soldering before diving into multirotors. I wrote a guide linked in my description that goes over all the parts you'll need, some basics of how they work and what they do. I recommend reading that and doing lots of research before buying any parts. 

[LittleCarrot]

On 3/21/2017 at 5:10 PM, Abyss Gaming said:

Well you can use a pi, just doesn't make much sense to use one imo 

You can't it's too big.

 

Building a quad is very simple. You have a couple of parts:

• Flight Controller 
• Power Distrubtion Board
• ESC
• Motors
• Reciever 
• Transmitter 
• Frame

(Keep in mind that's the bare minimum.)

 

You need to know how to solder. I learned how to solder on my first drone. It wasn't difficult at all.

 

But, if your starting out and don't know how to fly acro. I recommend getting a small brushed to practice on. Here is a good play to start with mini quads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Q2KdhtmFA