About

Welcome to the largest community for amateur Unmanned Aerial Vehicles! 

This community is the birthplace of ArduPilot, the world's first universal autopilot platform (planes, multicopters of all sorts and ground rovers). Today the Pixhawk autopilot runs a variety of powerful free and open UAV software systems, including:

  • PX4, a pro-quality open source copter, plane, rover and VTOL software stack from the Linux Foundation's Dronecode Project
  • ArduCopter, open source multicopter and heli UAV software
  • ArduPlane, open source software for planes of all types
  • ArduRover, open source software for ground-based vehicles

The application of smart agricultural drones for spraying and spreading has boosted farming efficiency,which vividly shows that modern agricultural technology is revolutionizing the way of agricultural protection in Colombia.

Compared to traditional pest control methods, drone spraying significantly enhances efficiency and precision. The Z50P agricultural drone, equipped with a large payload tank, can easily spray orange orchards with a high flow rate. The fine atomizing tech enables the fluid to cover each leaf of the trees, achieving precise and even spraying while reducing pesticide waste. Moreover, this application is beneficial to the environment and promotes green and sustainable agriculture.

Besides, the drone plays more crucial roles than that.According to the pilot team in the video, a Z50P can spray over 100 hectares per day. This high efficiency enables an easier way for farming management and even increases incomes by serving other farms.…

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Hi there,

Agri drone spraying not only reduces the usage of pesticide, but also protects the crops from trampling by big machines.

For example, the vast field farming in Romania usually employs heavy agri machines to carry out land preparation, sowing and harvest.

And the introduction of agri drones drives precision agriculture to a new level. Equipped with advanced aerial spraying technology, it delivers precise, measured applications, protecting the soil and promoting sustainable crop growth.It ensures that the fertilizer is absorbed precisely by leaves and safeguards healthier growth.

Tap the pics and see Z50P working in maize field.…

13051730473?profile=RESIZE_584x

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my self-made tracking drone


This video describes shortly the hardware and software aspects of my self-made tracking drone. The major parts are: a holybro frame, a pixhaxk 6c flight controller, a raspberry pi 4, a oak-d camera and 8 sensors (gps, lidar, compass, ...). The tracking relies on a fine-tuned YOLOv8 object detector and a custom python tracking code. The yaw and the pitch of the drone are derived form the height and center of the detected object. A simple obstacle detection…

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As we know, Turkey is one of important international grain exporter. To enhance agricultural productivity and promote green farming, it is actively adopting agricultural drone technology and supporting local production. EFT, as a global drone solution provider, develop with local Turkish drone companies, offering comprehensive agri drone solutions and component support to advance agricultural drone technology and promotes the drone applications for local fields. 

 

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PX4 has its own unique advantages; it is preferred and liked by the majority of users. The TF series is a highly cost-effective LiDAR launched by Benewake, which is sought after by the majority of drone users. This tutorial introduces the connection method of TF series PixHawk and configuring over the PX4 firmware. The same procedure can be followed for other flight controllers as long as the right physical port is used. This document is based on QGroundControl v4.0.6 and firmware PX4 v1.11.0. If the ground station or firmware is not fully functional, please upgrade。

Hardware Connection

This article uses Pixhawk as an example to illustrate the connection, as shown below:

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Please install the TF Series LiDAR on the multi-rotor, vertically downwards, and ensure that there are no obstacles in front of the lens. Then…

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Latest Activity

Malachi Case updated their profile
Tuesday
Ali Sarmad updated their profile
Tuesday
Eric Matyas replied to Eric Matyas's discussion Free Music / SFX Resource for Drone Videos - Over 1800 Tracks
"Happy November!

To kick off the new month, I've created some new music tracks on my Action 4 page. As always, they're 100% free to use in your projects with attribution, just like my thousands of other music tracks and sound effects. They are:…"
Monday
Felix Andrea replied to Ian Rosaaen's discussion DJI supports Russia
"It is sad to see a company like DJI supporting this war. The silence and censorship on the forum only proves that they do not want users to know the truth. We need to speak up and choose products that are not complicit in violence!…"
Monday
massimino casadei posted a discussion in ArduCopter Italian Group
salve a tutti , di recente ho avuto un poroblema col mission planner,quando mi collego tramite la telemetrria, 10 secondi dopo il link e dopo aver scaricato i dati l HUD del planner e i dati di volo si frizzano, probabilmente è un problema del…
Sunday
İlker Öz, Jack Blaq and Jorgen Nielsen joined diydrones
Saturday
Assembly Dronenthusiast posted a blog post
It is crucial to take pre-flight and APP inspection before using an agri drone. Check these key tips and make sure each flight is safe and stable!
Saturday
Peter Kenny, Muhammed Zahid K C, Surya M and 3 more joined diydrones
Oct 31
Assembly Dronenthusiast posted a blog post
The application of smart agricultural drones for spraying and spreading has boosted farming efficiency,which vividly shows that modern agricultural technology is revolutionizing the way of agricultural protection in Colombia.Compared to traditional…
Oct 31
Surya M updated their profile
Oct 30
Gus, Sajed, Leonardo Davinci and 2 more joined diydrones
Oct 29
Eric Matyas replied to Eric Matyas's discussion Free Music / SFX Resource for Drone Videos - Over 1800 Tracks
"Hi Everyone,

To celebrate Halloween this week, I've released more creepy tracks on my Dark/Ominous 2 page:

"Night Things" - LoFi
"Haunted Dreams" - LoFi
"The Haunted Deep" - LoFi
"Creepy Hollow" - LoFi
"Midnight Mist" - LoFi
"More Sewer Creepers"…"
Oct 28
stone, Mohsen Fathizade, Pervez and 3 more joined diydrones
Oct 26
Assembly Dronenthusiast posted a blog post
Hi there,Agri drone spraying not only reduces the usage of pesticide, but also protects the crops from trampling by big machines.For example, the vast field farming in Romania usually employs heavy agri machines to carry out land preparation, sowing…
Oct 24
Ramon Natal updated their profile
Oct 21
colin is now a member of diydrones
Oct 19
amatsoekir theodore, Bongani Langa Kubheka, Joseph Dalughut and 3 more joined diydrones
Oct 18
Eric Matyas replied to Eric Matyas's discussion Free Music / SFX Resource for Drone Videos - Over 1800 Tracks
"Hey Everyone,

Please don't forget about my Ogg music packs. These packs enable you to bulk-download all of my music tracks at once.

You can download them by genre here:
https://soundimage.org/ogg-music-packs-2/

...Or all of my game music (over…"
Oct 15
tbones555 updated their profile
Oct 15
Sidharth Gurusamy and Angelika Hoitink Schoneveld are now friends
Oct 12
More…

Site Rules

"Because $10,000 $5,000 $1,000 is too much to pay for an autopilot, especially one that doesn't do exactly what you want."

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, colloquially known as a "drone") is basically an aerial robot. As we define it, it is capable of both remotely controlled flight (like a regular RC aircraft) and fully-autonomous flight, controlled by sensors, GPS, and onboard computers performing the functions of an autopilot. Our UAVs include airplanes, helicopters, quadcopters and blimps. Most of them are under five pounds, and some of them (especially the blimps) can be used indoors.

We are focused on non-commercial ("recreational") projects by amateurs, although pros are always welcome too. Reasons to make your own UAV range from a fun technical challenge, student contests, aerial photography and mapping (what we call "GeoCrawling"), and scientific sensing. We are primarily interested in civilian, not military, UAV uses here.

If you're new to all this, start here.

DIY Drones is a community based on the Ning social networking platform, and anybody who registers (it's free and easy) can post their own blog entries like this one on the front page, along with starting discussions in the sidebar at left or uploading videos below that. Your registration gives you the ability to do a lot on the site--so feel free to post anything you think will be of interest to this community!

There are other amateur sites out there, from the discussion forums of RC Groups to individual blogs, but DIY Drones is explicitly built as a social network, which means that the community is as important as the content. We're also focused on the most accessible end of the amateur UAV world, with the aim of potentially including high school students.

This means we emphasize amateur UAV projects that are:

  1. Simple: The aim of this project is to create new amateur UAV platforms, including those that could be used for a FIRST-like contest appropriate for students. While we're at it, we'll make amateur UAV development easier for everyone.
  2. Cheap: The target cost of all of our platforms is less than $1,000. You can buy a very good autopilot system for $10,000, but that's not our approach. Cheaper is better, especially with students and schools.
  3. Safe: We follow the current interpretation of the FAA guidelines on small UAVs. Recreational use (non-commercial), under 400 ft altitude, line of sight, "pilot in the loop" and onboard safety systems that always allow for manual control in the case of malfunction. We're building experimental platforms that demonstrate autonomy and the capacity to do real useful UAV work, but we test them in controlled settings. If you want to fly miles out of sight or map cities, we're going to assume you've got the proper FAA clearance or we don't want to know about it.
  4. Participatory: Share and others will share with you. That means that whenever possible, we open source our code and post it online. Everything on this site is published under a Creative Commons "attribution" license, which means that anyone can use or repost it, as long as they give credit to the original author.
  5. Civil: This is a community site of peers helping each other. Bad behavior, from rudeness to foul language, will be deleted. Generosity and kindness is often rewarded with reciprocal behavior and help.

Here are the full set of Site Policies:
 
  1. Civility is paramount. Treat others with respect, kindness and generosity. Some of our most expert members are people who were once total n00bz but were helped and encouraged by others, and are now repaying the favor with the next generation. Remember the Golden Rule. Don't be a jerk to anyone, be they other members, moderators or the owners. This is not a public park, and you have no constitutionally-mandated right to free speech. If you're creating a hostile or unpleasant environment, you'll be warned, then if it continues you'll be suspended.
  2. No discussion of politics or religion. This is not the place to discuss your views on the wisdom of military use of UAVs, any nation's foreign policy, your feelings about war, or anything else that is inclined to turn into a political debate. It is our experience that the rules for good dinner party conversation--no discussion of politics and religion--apply to online communities, too. DIY Drones aims to bring people together, and we find that discussions of politics and religion tend to polarize and drive people apart. There are plenty of other places to discuss those topics online, just not here.
  3. Ask questions in the discussion forum; inform others in blog posts. Submitted blog posts that are just questions and should have been posted in the discussion forum will not be approved. The moderators may or may not message you with the text so you can repost in the right area. To avoid losing your post, put it in the right place from the start.
  4. Blog posts are for informative topics of broad interest to the community. They must start with a picture or video, so the image appears on the front page on the site and gives a sense of the topic as well as inviting people to click in for more. Videos should be embedded (paste the embed code in the HTML tab, not the Rich Text tab). The post should also include links where appropriate. Don't make people do a Google search for what you're talking about if you can provide a link. 
  5. The Discussion Forum is for questions and tech support. We prefer to do all tech support in public, so that others can follow along. If you have a problem, please describe your particular system setup completely, ideally with a photograph, and pick the right forum tags so that others can find the thread later.
  6. No discussion of military or weaponized applications of UAVs. This site is just about amateur and civilian use.
  7. No discussion of illegal or harmful use of UAVs will be tolerated. Responsible use of UAVs is at the core of our mission. That means conforming with all laws in the United States, where this site is based, and insisting that our members elsewhere follow the laws of their own countries. In addition, we feel that part of our responsibility it to help the relevant authorities understand what's possible with amateur UAVs, so they can make better-informed policies and laws. So we have encouraged all relevant regulators, defense agencies and law enforcement agencies to become members here and even participate to help them do that, and many have. In addition, if we see any discussion of UAV use that we feel is potentially illegal or intended to do harm, we will bring it to the attention to the relevant authorities, and will comply with any legal request they make for information about users (although we don't know much that isn't public; see the next item).
  8. Promote safe flying. Moderators may delete postings that they decide are unsafe or promote unsafe activity. This is a judgement call, since it is also healthy to have public discussion about why certain activities are unsafe, but the decision as to whether to leave a post or edit/delete it is at the moderators' discretion. 
  9. Your privacy is protected, up to a point: This is a social network, so everything you write and post here is public, with certain exceptions: 1) Your private messages are private. Administrators are unable to see them, nor can anyone else other than the recipient. Members must not make private messages public without the explicit permission of everyone involved. 2) Your IP address is private. We are hosted on Ning, which controls the server logs. DIY Drones administrators can only see your username and email address; they cannot see your password and do not have access to your account.
  10. Do not publish personal emails or PMs without permission. This is a violation of expected confidentiality (that's why they're called "personal messages") and is grounds for banning.
  11. Do not type in ALL CAPS. It's considered SHOUTING. Posts in all caps will be deleted by the moderators.
  12. Absolutely no personal attacks. It's fine to disagree, but never okay to criticize another member personally.
  13. Share. Although we are not limited to open source projects, the ones that tend to get the most participation tend to be open source. Don't wait until your code or design is "finished"--post it as it is, and you may find that others will help you finish it faster. The best way to contribute is with your creativity--we love data, code, aircraft designs, photos of UAV projects, videos of flights and build logs. Post early and often!
  14. Keep comments open: Authors of blog posts and discussion threads technically have the option to close their comments or approve them before they appear, but we ask members not to do that. We want to encourage a free flow of conversation and blocking or delaying comments only interferes with that. The Moderators are standing by to ensure the conversation remains on-topic and civil, so please leave your comments open and let them do their job.

Hobbies?

Hello everyone! Recently caught myself thinking that time is merciless, it's consumed by tasks, work, family. And I have no hobbies left. Absolutely none, except PC and mobile games, Aviator of smth like from this. Can you suggest what you do in…

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1 Reply · Reply by Megan Fox Sep 19