Noob curious about DIY drones
Hi,
I sort of ran across this site by accident and it really caught my attention. I can't say that I'm interested in building one myself, but am curious to know if its realistic for me to build one. I've browsed through the site but am very confused on the entire process. I think it might be worth the effort to give a beginner outline of how these DIY drones work, and if I get the answers I am seeking maybe I can create the outline for others to see. MY questions may seem a bit scattered but as a complete noob I'm just trying to get as much info that can point me in the right direction.
MY first question is related to the autopilot features. Say I built or bought an RC helicoptor. obviously the goal here would be to convert it into a drone that could take off, hover, fly from point to point, and land autonomously.
Let's say the first feature I want to give it is autonomous hover. What real world information is required for it to hover autonomously? In other words what is the microcontroller reacting to in order to hover, and what is it doing in reaction to that information? I imagine its simply changing propeller speeds based on some real world infromation. So what is that real world information, and am I correct to thing that all it is doing is changing propeller speeds? what else is it doing?
Thanks in advance for any replies
I sort of ran across this site by accident and it really caught my attention. I can't say that I'm interested in building one myself, but am curious to know if its realistic for me to build one. I've browsed through the site but am very confused on the entire process. I think it might be worth the effort to give a beginner outline of how these DIY drones work, and if I get the answers I am seeking maybe I can create the outline for others to see. MY questions may seem a bit scattered but as a complete noob I'm just trying to get as much info that can point me in the right direction.
MY first question is related to the autopilot features. Say I built or bought an RC helicoptor. obviously the goal here would be to convert it into a drone that could take off, hover, fly from point to point, and land autonomously.
Let's say the first feature I want to give it is autonomous hover. What real world information is required for it to hover autonomously? In other words what is the microcontroller reacting to in order to hover, and what is it doing in reaction to that information? I imagine its simply changing propeller speeds based on some real world infromation. So what is that real world information, and am I correct to thing that all it is doing is changing propeller speeds? what else is it doing?
Thanks in advance for any replies
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Howard Gordon on -
If you want to consider how to make a helicopter hover on its own, you need to first understand how to make a helicopter hover under manual remote control. Until you have this experience, no amount of theorizing or explanation will benefit you.
A good starting point is a coaxial rotor helicopter such as Blade CX2, as this is considerably more stable than a single blade copter. If you can manage to hold position and/or altitude under manual remote control, you may be ready to proceed to the next step of how to approach the autonomy challenge.
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Permalink Reply by Sgt Ric on -
The "outline" which you ask for does exist in the form of the many tutorials and project blogs at this site.
It does require that you spend some time getting to know the site and visiting the many areas, such as the FAQs, the safety/regulation area, and the archives.
The experiences of many, many very brilliant people is contained within this site.
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