Discussions

My 14 year old son just got his hands on an Arduino Uno, and now he wants to build a quad rotor copter controlled by it.  Where do we even start? 

This will be his middle-school science fair project.  I am thinking we want the cheapest and simplest adds to the Uno board, and a simple frame setup.  Our goals are just to see if we can do this... get off the ground, hover, maybe move a little bit, then land without breaking anything.  We might even be tethered and powered from the ground.

I bought a cheap set of motors to play around with:

•  4x A2212 930Kv Brushless Outrunner Motor For Airplane Aircraft Quadcopter S

From what little discussion I have been able to find, it sounds like I cannot just power these straight off my Arduino Uno?  Are Electronic Speed Controllers required for a proof of principle quadrotor?

The lowest cost sensor board I see so far is this $15 model:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__28254__HobbyKing_Multi_Rotor_Control_Board_V2_1_Atmega168PA_USA_Warehouse_.html

"HobbyKing Multi-Rotor Control Board V2.1 (Atmega168PA) (USA Warehouse)"

I would like to hear opinions on this board vs. spending twice as much (~$30) for one like this:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__35682__MultiWii_328P_Flight_Controller_w_FTDI_DSM2_Port_USA_Warehouse_.html

"MultiWii 328P Flight Controller w/FTDI & DSM2 Port (USA Warehouse)"

...or, four times as much ($80) for the Arduimu-v3?

http://store.3drobotics.com/products/arduimu-v3

Again, my objective is to give my son a fair start into this project at minimal cost, and building it himself is half the fun.  We are OK doing it ourselves, but we are also noobs here.  I would not want to send him down a hopeless and frustrating path if a more expensive board would make life much easier.  Ojn the other hand, I have little interest in buying someone else's commercial "ready to fly" copter just to take it out of the box and go.

Any thoughts on where to start?

Thanks!