Greetings...I'm interested getting started with DIY Drones, ArduCopters in particular. I have very limited experience. Can anyone recommend a good starter vehicl (rc helicopter, rc multicopter, etc.). I want to build up to an ArduCopter, but I kind of need a basic place to start. I'm a teacher, and I'm might bring students into the fold as well, but I reckon they'd need to start small as well. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
--Matt
PS: I did read the Getting Started page of this website, but think I need flight time with something easier than full blown UAV.
Replies
I'm fairly new too and will echo some of the other comments here.
I started with a little HobbyKing MicroQuad with a KK2 board:
http://jzawodn.com/blog/2012/12/02/getting-in-to-quadcopters-dot-do...
But I killed it and transfered the pieces to a new frame:
http://jzawodn.com/blog/2012/12/16/death-of-a-quadcopter/
And then I killed that one and am waiting for some replacement props. (Hint: always buy extas.)
In the meantime, I'm building up a DJI 450 kit that will eventually fly my GoPro camera and use APM 2.5+ as the control board. But I wanna break the little one a few more times before I start flying more expensive gear.
I have been flying an Arducopter quad and a KK2.0 quad for about one year now. Before that, I never flew any RC aircraft successfully.So I still remember what it was like to be where you are right now.
It is useful to recognize the difference between a multirotor like an Arducopter and one like the KK. Anybody can learn to steer an Arducopter (it is easy to fly) but flying a simpler, cheaper multitorotor like a KK has to be learned. However, KK multirotors can be made cheaply. Less than $120 (not including TX/RX). Trashing a $27 KK2 flight controller doesn't hurt as much as losing a $150/180 APM1/APM2. Thankfully, I've only trashed a KK2 flight controller so far.
And you will crash. Have plenty of propellers on hand. I hand built some of my frames - it is not hard - and it insures that replacement parts are as close as the Home Depot.
To reduce the incidence of crashing, practice on a simulator. I have AeroSIM-RC. It has saved me lot of money and time re-building crashed multirotors. You use your actual RC transmitter with the simulator so the experience is pretty realistic.
Good luck.
-Tom
Full disclosure: I am also a newbie to quad copters, however I have three helicopters so I am used to flying.
Helicopters take hundreds (if not thousands) hours to master. Quads with stabilization features like the APM make flying easy.
You need a frame, motors, ESCs, Props, a controller, and a TX/RX at a minimum. After that, you can go further in with more sensing equipment, on up to full FPV flying, and HD video.
The place I would start would be the controller research. In the end, I chose the APM because of the open source, the community, the arduino platform (Which I was familiar with) and the tools
Then the frame. You have loads of options here. There's even a guy who built the entire frame out of glued legos. Not a bad idea, as the replacement parts are cheap when you crash :) and you will crash. Stay away from Carbon fiber. Looks cool, breaks easily. I bought a delrin / aluminum sandwich frame. Extremely durable.
Don't know what you were looking to get out of a response, but hopefully this gets you started. You have a long way to go... If you've built other flying vehicles, you're quite a ways along in things like prop balancing, using loctite, center of gravity balancing, etc.