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

Pampa Energía, Argentina's largest independent energy company, specializes in the electricity, oil, and gas value chains. Headquartered in Buenos Aires, it engages in intense oil and gas exploration and production activities. It has a presence in 13 production areas and 5 exploration areas in the most significant basins of the nation. 

Through its power plants, the company has attained the capacity to generate about 5,000 barrels of oil and 9 million cubic meters of gas per day. In addition, it produces 4,970 MW of electricity through wind, hydroelectric, and thermal power plants. Listed on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange (BCBA) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), it thrives on the vision of becoming an emblematic company known for its commitment, growth, and operational excellence.

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In recent years, with the rapid popularity of drones, more and more agricultural drones have appeared in farmland. However, due to the high price of the finished drone, many people turn their attention to the assembled drone when purchasing.

For startups or DIY enthusiasts, there are currently two options to save money. The first option is to buy parts from traders, such as frames, flight control remotes, batteries, etc. You can choose different configuration models according to your budget.

This way is cheap, but you should study the configurations and find the proper components, as well as a long time to assemble and debug. You may also face the problems of scattered parts, single function, poor fit and much after-sale problems, which saves money but laborious.

The second option is to choose holistic system solution,which can refer EFT' Z series , It is full set with higher configuration ,but shipping…

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How Drone Autonomy and AI are Revolutionizing the Mining Industry: Advancements and Impact

Discover how autonomous drones and AI are transforming the mining industry with improved efficiency, safety, and accuracy. Learn about the latest technological advancements that are driving this revolution.

 
Last updated on
March 13, 2023…
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Advantages of using variable pitch compared to fixed pitch:
1. The flight speed range of the aircraft is larger compared with the fixed-pitch blades.
2. The aircraft can be adjusted to a higher power efficiency performance at the corresponding flight speed within a larger flight speed range

one study has shown that a variable pitch propeller design can increase the maximal takeoff weight of the aircraft and improve power efficiency in hover, especially if the load varies for different missions......

For more info please switch to T-MOTOR'S Linkedin article: …

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TF-Luna can be used with PixHawk1 for the purpose of obstacle avoidance and Altitude Hold. But because it’s a short range sensor so in most cases it is used for obstacle avoidance.

  1. TF-Luna Settings:
  2. Note: If there are any spikes while using the LiDAR as obstacle avoidance sensor then it is advised to change the frame rate to 250Hz, see the command details having command ID as 0x03 in the manual and for the sake of convenience configuring other parameters (like setting frame-rate, changing address etc.) in UART mode is recommended if you don’t have IIC-USB converter. A simple UART-USB adapter or board should work.

At the time of writing this document latest firmware was 3.3.0. For firmware upgrade please contact our technical support.

The default communication of TF-Luna is UART. LiDAR comes with a single cable. In order to use IIC, the cable needs a little modification, details are mentioned in the coming…

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TF03 standard version comes with CAN interface and can be interfaced with PixHawk1 CAN port or any flight controller which has Ardupilot firmware flashed and having CAN interface. Support for CAN protocol has been added to Ardupilot firmwares, starting from Copter 4.2.0 for the purpose of obstacle avoidance and Altitude Hold.

  1. 1.  TF03-CANSettings:

It should be noted that TF03 has two different hardware versions for 485/RS232 and UART/CAN. So when  buying  LiDAR,  please  pay  attention  to  buy  LiDAR  with  CAN  interface  (standard  version). Multiple LiDARs can be interfaced to a single CAN bus. We need to assign different CAN IDs to each LiDAR just like we do for IIC communication. The baud-rate of each LiDAR needs to be set to the same…

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Latest Activity

rahultopgun updated their profile
15 hours ago
MICAL DSOUZA updated their profile
18 hours ago
Vivek Dwivedi posted a blog post
Pampa Energía, Argentina's largest independent energy company, specializes in the electricity, oil, and gas value chains. Headquartered in Buenos Aires, it engages in intense oil and gas exploration and production activities. It has a presence in 13…
19 hours ago
More Cash For Test Strips updated their profile
20 hours ago
jeniferdaniels updated their profile
yesterday
OG replied to Ian Rosaaen's discussion DJI supports Russia
"who cares ? your being manipulated by matters that do not concern you has no effect on your day to day life! your complaining because you can not express your opinion? well no one cares about your opinion especially on a fake war ! all you need to…"
yesterday
IBuy Great updated their profile
Wednesday
EFT DRONE posted a blog post
In recent years, with the rapid popularity of drones, more and more agricultural drones have appeared in farmland. However, due to the high price of the finished drone, many people turn their attention to the assembled drone when purchasing.For…
Tuesday
Intivion Technologies updated their profile
Monday
reversecontact updated their profile
Monday
Steward Campbell replied to Jim Sci's discussion Dirt-cheap throwaway cargo drone
"I found your step-by-step instructions and accompanying photos to be incredibly helpful. I think what I appreciated most about your article was your emphasis on creating a drone that's not only functional but also affordable and accessible to people…"
Monday
Laptopneed updated their profile
Mar 18
Gustavo E Vargas, NisNoti, Rohith N and 3 more joined diydrones
Mar 18
Ian Rosaaen posted a discussion
When you buy DJI, you're supporting Russia's war against Ukraine. I've owned several DJI drones, but I will never own another. ... DJI, sent drone parts — like batteries and cameras — via the United Arab Emirates to a small Russian distributor in…
Mar 17
Randolph Testa replied to Ryan Perez's discussion Introducing the Splash Drone 3 + make easy money by sharing the campaign
"It's certainly a good way to make money. But there are even better ways. It's to get a job to begin with."
Mar 17
Ben Akhtar replied to Ryan Perez's discussion Introducing the Splash Drone 3 + make easy money by sharing the campaign
"not bad"
Mar 17
nbagency updated their profile
Mar 16
David updated their profile
Mar 16
Brian Heckle replied to Brian Heckle's discussion Building with arduino along with possibly a pi, and communicating with sbus.
"A couple of things I forgot to mention is that along with all the other that I mentioned these are the boards that I have on hand that I'm considering using on the ardu/pi plane. I have a raspberry pi 2b+, a raspberry pi zero, a standard arduino, an…"
Mar 16
Brian Heckle posted a discussion
Ok, so this will be my first arduino and raspberry pi build of a drone, although I am actually trying to figure out the best way to do this and I'm planning to start with a fixed wing first. I picked upma decent motor and esc and i have all the…
Mar 16
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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.

DJI supports Russia

When you buy DJI, you're supporting Russia's war against Ukraine. I've owned several DJI drones, but I will never own another. ... DJI, sent drone parts — like batteries and cameras — via the United Arab Emirates to a small Russian distributor in…

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1 Reply · Reply by OG yesterday

Pix4D Training Services

 Hello Everyone,I'm new to the field of photogrammetry and mapping and I'm trying to decide on a mapping software. One of the applications I'm considering is PIX4D, and whether or not to sign up for the companies training and certification courses.…

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