3. Overview of Commercial Drones and Kits

The easiest way to get a drone, as usual, is to buy one. There’s nothing wrong with buying a pre-made product because it gets you flying faster. However, you don’t really learn anything about electronics or robot building. A kit, by contrast, gives you the opportunity to plug in the various components. In doing so, you learn a little about the parts and how they fit together. It’s a nice middle ground between doing everything yourself and just buying a finished bird.

The ELEV-8 is cleanly designed (you can see this in Figure 3.1), and it conceals the usual ugly wires and zip ties by hiding them inside the hollow booms, while the ESCs are tucked between the two central mounting plates (see Figure 3.2).

FIGURE 3.1 The ELEV-8 stands out with its clean looks, with far fewer visible wires than is average (credit: Parallax).

FIGURE 3.2 The ELEV-8 is a difficult bird to fly (credit: Parallax).

Be aware that Parallax doesn’t include a battery pack, an RC transmitter, or an RC receiver. Obviously you’ll need to buy your own in order to fly. The company suggests a specific lithium polymer (LiPo) battery, mentioned later, and claims that nearly any RC transmitter and receiver combo will work with the hardware.

Finally, Parallax describes the quadcopter as requiring advanced-level skills to fly it, and it’s suggested for experienced RC airplane operators.

The ELEV-8 has the following features. Feel free to check out the parts that make up the kit in Figure 3.3.

FIGURE 3.3 The ELEV-8 is a challenging but rewarding kit to build (credit: Parallax).

Frame: Aluminum tubes with plastic plates and connectors.

Landing struts: Plastic.

Motors: Four 1000kV.

ESCs: GemFan 30A.

Flight control: The kit comes with a Hoverfly Open flight control board.

Power: No batteries come with the kit, although a 3300 mAh, three-cell lithium polymer (LiPo) battery is recommended.

Cost: $400–$550

URL: http://www.parallax.com/product/elev-8

FIGURE 3.4 The DJI Phantom is good looking and ready to fly (credit: DJI).

FIGURE 3.5 The Vision+, true to its name, has a gimbal-mounted camera that comes with it (credit: DJI).

The Phantom has far more control options than most quadcopters. The Vision+ comes with a 5.8GHz controller. This unit also has a smartphone holder so you can use a phone application to control the Phantom, or you can use the joysticks on the hand unit.

Finally, the Vision+ is very attractive, with a beautiful shell and LED strips on the booms, as shown in Figure 3.6.

FIGURE 3.6 The Phantom’s distinctive LEDs not only illuminate the quadcopter, but also tell the operator which way is forward (credit: DJI).

DJI’s Phantom 2 Vision+ has the following specs:

Frame: Metal and plastic

Motors: Four T-Motor MN2214 920kV brushless outrunners

ESCs: Custom DGI controllers

Flight control: DJI NAZA Autopilot

Power: 5200 mAh LiPo battery

Cost: $579–$1,229

URL: http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/quadcopters/dji-phantom-2-vision-plus

FIGURE 3.7 An OpenROV is a small submersible that explores underwater while the operator remains on the surface (credit: OpenROV).

OpenROV consists of three motors, with the control electronics sealed against the moisture. Because of the poor transmission of radio waves through water, operators must connect a laptop to the ROV with long wires (visible in Figure 3.8), which trail behind the craft as it explores underwater.

FIGURE 3.8 The Open ROV’s wire tether transmits instructions to the robot (credit: OpenROV).

The operator looks through the attached webcam and moves the craft by interacting with a browser application. Additionally, because underwater tends to be dark, the ROV has a pair of LED matrices that it uses as headlights.

The OpenROV kit (shown in Figure 3.9) comes with the following parts:

Frame: Laser-cut acrylic.

Motors: Three brushless DC motors with Graupner high-efficiency marine propellers.

ESCs: Three FalconSEKIDO brushless motor controllers.

Control: OpenROV uses a BeagleBone Black that plugs into a custom Arduino Mega; an Ethernet add-on board handles communication with the surface.

Power: Batteries not included, but it takes six “C” lithium cells.

Cost: $899 kit, $1,450 assembled.

URL: openrov.com.

FIGURE 3.9 Put these parts together to make a submersible (credit: OpenROV).

FIGURE 3.10 The Nomad is a chassis and motors—just add microcontroller and battery pack!

The wheels are robust for a small robot. The largest chassis elements are a foot long. Each wheel is 5” in diameter and over 2” thick—just the ticket for clearing those obstacles. Check them out in Figure 3.11.

FIGURE 3.11 The Nomad features an intriguing “off-road” chassis.

That said, you will have to source your own battery packs, motor controllers, and so on. Do not buy the Nomad expecting it to roll right out of the kit, unless you have those extra parts! It’s a great start for a rover, however, and the construction promises to be durable enough (see Figure 3.12) to explore any terrain your backyard has to offer.

FIGURE 3.12 The knobby tires are a boon when traversing rough terrain.

The Nomad offers the following specs:

Frame: Extruded aluminum frame with an ABS enclosure

Motor: Four 12V, 313-RPM DC motors

Wheels: All-terrain tires

ESCs: None included

Control systems: None

Power: None

Cost: $280

URL: https://www.sparkfun.com/actobotics or https://www.servocity.com/html/actoboticstm.html

FIGURE 3.13 The Brooklyn Aerodrome Flack is an inexpensive RC plane anyone can build.

The Flack started off as a $100 kit, but now it’s about twice that, with somewhat better electronics as well as a great book in which the group details what they’ve learned. If you’re just getting into making inexpensive RC projects, this book will definitely help you along.

The kit (a partially-built Flack may be seen in Figure 3.14) provides everything you need to fly, including batteries, a base-model controller and receiver, motors, and enough insulation to rebuild the plane if it is wrecked. It makes adept use of lightweight materials like zip-ties (shown in Figure 3.15) but is sturdy enough to take a hit.

FIGURE 3.14 Available as a kit, the Flack must be assembled by the buyer.

FIGURE 3.15 The Flack makes adept use of lightweight materials like double-sided tape and zip ties.

The Flack features the following specs:

Frame: Coroplast flight deck and foam insulation wings. You get a bunch of extra wings in the kit, or you can source your own.

Motors: One 1800kV HiModel brushless outrunner; two TG9E micro-servos.

ESC: No-name 18A ESC.

Props: 9×9 slow flyer propeller.

Flight control: Hobby King HK-T6A controller and receiver.

Power: Turnigy 1800 mAh LiPo battery.

Cost: $199 from brooklynaero.com or $249 from makershed.com.

URL: http://www.brooklynaerodrome.com/.