Intro to DIY Drones

Torben Thomsen (t@pulilab.com)

Nicolò Mezzopera (nico@pulilab.com)

Fekete György (f@pulilab.com)

 

pulilab.com

https://slides.com/gyorgyfekete/diydrones

I got hooked on this:

Group of dedicated ( Nico, F, T )

 

 

Fits into IOT/Hardware strategy ( RemRea )


Pulilab and the drone-business. ( Agriculture )

Pulilab & Drones

Camera drones ( dji, gopro )
Delivery drones ( amazon, DHL )

"the dark side" ( chainsaw + gun + military )
and FPV drone racing

State of drones

Camera drones
DJI ( Phantom, Mavic pro ), GoPro, Parrot

State of drones

Delivery drones ( amazon, DHL )

State of drones

"The Dark Side"

State of drones

FPV drone racing

State of drones

It started with fixed wings

FPV drone racing

State of drones

Drone Racing explained:


- Quadcopter controlled in First Person View.

Getting started with your first Drone Racer

 

 

- Buy hubsan X4

- COMMIT ( or leave while you can )

- Research, research, research!

- Buy reusables. ( radio, goggles, charger... )
- Buy parts  ( always buy one extra of everything )

WARNING!!!!

Getting Started


Skills needed - soldering, fine mechanical flair...


Where to buy - banggood.com, hobbyking.com, eud.dx.com, n-factory.de

 

 

Where to look - https://www.rcgroups.com, youtube

Buying Reusables

 

- Goggles
- Radio
- Charger
- Soldering iron

 

(NICE TO HAVES )

- heatgun
- gluegun
- helping hand  / 3rd hand
- 3D printer

Goggles

 

 

5.8 GHz

Omni directional Antenna

RADIO

 

2.4 GHz (wifi)

Get one with telemetry

FrSky != FlySky

FrSky Taranis

CHARGER

Single/Dual/Quad

AC/DC in

Balance charge

Soldering Iron

Adjustable

60-80 watt

Weller never goes wrong

QUAD TIME

Main parts

  • Frame
  • Motors
  • ESC
  • PDB
  • FC
  • RX
  • TX
  • VTX
  • VRX
  • Goggles
  • Antenna
  • Camera
  • HD camera
  • Propellers
  • Batteries

Frames

  • Arm to Arm diagonal size
    • Micro (60, 70, 80, 90, 110)mm
    • Mini (190, 210, 250)mm
    • 450mm
  • Type
    • H-Frame
    • X-Frame
    • True X-Frame
  • Motor count
    • quadcopter
    • hexacopter
    • octocopter
    • helicopter
  • Purpose
    • BBQ parties
    • Racing
    • Freestyle
    • Photography/Video
    • Carry

Frames - micro

Frames - mini

Frames - Photo

Motors

 

  • Brushed / Brushless
  • Thrust (g)
  • Current (A)
  • Power (W)
  • Efficiency (g/W)
  • Weight
  • Thrust to weight ratio
  • KV
  • Stator width
  • Stator height

Motors

Frame Size => Prop Size => Motor Size and KV

Motors

ESC, PDB

Electronic Speed Controller

  • Amp rate
  • Firmware
  • Bit rate
  • Refresh rate

Power Distribution Board

  • copper thickness (3oz, ...)
  • regulators (RC filter, 12v linear, 5v, ...)
  • builtin functionality (OSD, ESC, ...)

Flight Controller

hardware features

  • Accelerometer
  • Gyroscope
  • GPS
  • Barometer
  • Sonar
  • SD card (blackbox)

Flight Controller

       Software features

  • PID loop frequency
  • ESC PWM rate & mode
    • OneShot125
    • OneShot42
    • Multishot
  • Gyro sampling frequency

Flight Controller

    AND THE FUTURE IS (mark my words)

  • DSHOT

Flight Controller

Controller features

  • RC rate
  • RC expo
  • Super rate
  • Max velocity (degree/sec)

Flight Controller

  • Firmware
    • OpenPilot
    • LibrePilot
    • Baseflight
    • Cleanflight
    • Betaflight
    • Raceflight
    • Kiss Firmware
  • Architecture (32bit)
    • STM F1 (24-72 MHz)
    • STM F3 (72 MHz)
    • STM F4 (180 MHz)
    • ATmegaX (Arduino)
    • ARM (RPi)

Props

eg: 5040 3-blade

  • Length
  • Pitch
  • Blade count
  • Direction (CW & CCW)
  • Material

Batts

 

  • Capacity (1300mAh...)
  • C-rating (75C)
  • Cell count (2S, 3S, 4S, 6S bonkers!!)
  • Weight (100-200 grams)
  • Type (NiMH, LiPo, LiFe)
max current = capacity * C-rating

Batts

Video

What you need on the aircraft:

  • Video transmitter (VTX)
    • 900MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz
    • analog / digital
  • Camera
  • OSD (optional)
  • antenna

What you need on the googles:

  • screen
  • Video receiver (VRX)
  • antenna

LATENCY

Video

Yays! and nopes!

A quick guide on how to survive this hobby

So what is a drone...

... let's ask my grandma!

  1. Four to eight powerful motors
  2. A sturdy and hard body
  3. A clueless guy issuing orders
  4. Four to eight blad..propellers

Grandma: "Easy, it's you using a BLENDER"

A flying blender...

Flying blender...

... My grandma blender properly used prepared tasty smoothies...

 

...Our flying blender properly used can provide hours of endless fun!

And soon used to deliver pizzas.. Mamma mia!

Common Nopes

Attitude nopes

Planning nopes

Building nopes

Configuration nopes

Planning nopes

  • Buying parts without checking their compatibility
  • Forgetting to buy spares
  • You will need accessories
  • Skip reading the manuals or ask for help... sempai! ( I meant drone daddy.. )

 

 

Building nopes

  • "No problem I am putting that thing outside of the frame"
  • "Let's connect the battery WITHOUT triple checking all the polarities!"
  • "It's just a quick indoor test.. I will not remove the propellers"
  • "Pst.. ehi kid.. ehi you! Carbon fiber is a conductor"
  • "Props direction.. ah! I know better, I put props on drone since 2 whole days!"

 

 

And yes, (I) we did all of those ;)

Configuration nopes

  • "Failsafe, wow cool I will turn it on without knowing what it does"
  • "Motor mix, sounds fun, let me fiddle with this a bit"
  • "I built the FC rotated, I was told that I needed to do something else.. whatever it will be fine"
  • "Wow look at all those switches in the configuration, AUTO LEVELLING, dang it should be ON"

 

 

Do one of this, and oopsie you have a fireball.. and you were trying it indoor weren't you ? 

Attitude nopes

  • "Let me hold the drone nearby the propellers, the arm switch is.. OUCH"
  • "My buddy is flying FPV, let me connect a new battery... "
  • "Oh look a river, lake, sea, It would be cool to fly over it! "
  • "Battery warning? Who need that!"

 

 

Crash and accidents are normal at some points, but let's always keep our brain on!

Yay time!

Fly with company

Build with company

Record your flights

Stay active and enjoy nature (with

 company!)

Fly with company

  • You will have a spotter
  • There will be somebody to watch after a bad crash
  • You will  give  and receive tips and help
  • Drones loves to play hide and seek in the grass after a not-conventional-landing, playing 'seek' with some buddies is much faster
  • Add booze and snack for added fun

Build with company

  • Remember? POLARITY TRIPLE CHECK!!!
  • Another set of hands can be really helpful
  • It's so fun to see your buddy's scared face when you do your first test flight indoor!
  • You will be either teaching or being teached, there is a lot to keep in mind and know and with two people it is much easier!
  • Your buddy may have a spare that you miss.. otherwise you can always raid Drone Daddy stash :D
  • Add booze and snack for added fun

Record your flights

  • It's hella fun to watch your flight after
  • Records will be really helpful to PID tune
  • You will be able to see how near slamming your drone to THAT tree you were
  • Actually rewatching yourself help in learning as well
  • You will be able to justify to your girlfriend / wife / mom / boyfriend why you got home all muddy, with torn clothes and with a smile that would suggest... outdoor fun ;)

Stay active!

  • According to my phone when I go flying I double my daily physical activity time
  • Exploring new places for flying spot is great
  • After hours of building in a lab - cave - room being out in the nature feels great
  • Nobody runs faster than a droner chasing a dog that decided to play fetch with his crashed quadcopter

Thank you!

 

 

instagram.com/drone.daddy/

 

 

instagram.com/monolow/

 

instagram.com/don_nic0/

 

instagram.com/pulilab/

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