QuadcopterBuild and customize your own flying drone!
Overview
A quadcopter is a remote-controlled helicopter-like device with four rotors. They come in all shapes and sizes and are made of all different types of materials. Quadcopters are everywhere these days, from kid's toys at the mall to Amazon's research on delivering packages straight to customers. Building your own quadcopter is no simple feat, but there's a huge support community to help you out. Whether you opt for using a kit or starting from scratch, you'll find plenty of resources to guide you on your way!
Parts of a Quadcopter
- Frame: Your frame should be sturdy enough to hold your components, yet lightweight enough to avoid extra weight. The most common materials are carbon fiber, aluminum, and plywood. You'll also have to decide between an 'x' and a '+' configuration - basically just determining which direction will be forward. If you use a '+', you can just have one motor controlling each direction. For 'x', you'll have two motors each way, which is more complicated to program but also provides more power.
- Roll, pitch, and yaw: You'll be hearing these words a lot, so here's a quick definition: Roll is rotation around the longitudinal (x) axis, or diagonally side to side (like tilting your head). Pitch is rotation around the latitudinal (y) axis, or forward and backward (like nodding your head). Yaw is rotation around the vertical (z) axis, or horizontally side to side (like turning your head).
- Brushless motors: A quadcopter uses four motors to drive the propellers that keep it aloft. They're very similar to DC motors, except that they lack a component called a brush that can switch the direction of rotation (hence the name brushless). This simplifies the motor and allows it to run faster on less energy. When choosing your motors, make sure they're both lightweight and powerful so your quadcopter has no trouble getting into the air. This guide has more information on choosing a motor.
- Propellers: Not all propellers are created equal. If all your propellers are exactly the same, your quadcopter will spin around out of control. Instead, you'll need both opposite spin and opposite tilt to stabilize. You can check this handy website or the link under the motors section for more information and to find the correct size and tilt of propellers for your quadcopter.
Rollpitchyawplain by NASA (Public Domain)
tinyCopter Revision C by Nathan Duprey (CC-BY-SA)
- Battery: In order to power all your electronic components, you'll need a lightweight battery pack. The most widely used type are LiPo packs with 3 cells in series and one in parallel (3SP1). This provides 12 volts when fully charged. You can use this calculator to determine the optimal batteries for your needs.
- Electronic speed controller: The ESC determines the speed of the motors by converting the DC signal from the battery into an AC signal that tells the motor how quickly to spin. It interfaces between your flight controller and your motors.
- Inertial measurement unit: The IMU is a sensor that combines and accelerometer and a gyroscope so your quadcopter can tell where it is in the air. This information is then used to re-orient your quadcopter as necessary. You can either buy a separate IMU or buy a flight controller that contains one already.
- RC transmitter: This sends radio signals between the quadcopter and your controller. There's a huge variety in cost, quality, and method of control. Check out this article for more information about choosing one.
- Flight controller: This is the brains of the operation. It takes in signals from the RC transmitter and the IMU to determine how best to travel in the desired direction while maintaining stability. It then translates these signals and sends them to the ESC to move the quadcopter. You can read this article for more information about the variety of different controllers and boards available.
Project Ideas
Hacking a Quadcopter:
This article covers how to take apart a toy quadcopter and repurpose it to control it yourself. You can read this page, which covers the purpose of the tutorial, to learn more about it. This is a great place to start if you don't want to build an entire quadcopter from scratch.
Image by Scout UAV Store
Scout UAV:
This site lays out a thorough tutorial for building a quadcopter nicknamed Scout. It uses the Ardupilot board rather than an Arduino board, but the programming platform is the same. The site also has a store so you can buy a kit or separate parts.
Aeroquad:
Rather than a single build tutorial, this site functions as a forum for a community of users building similar quadcopters with the Aeroquad platform. You'll find a plethora of articles, photos, videos, tutorials, etc. to help you along the way.
Image by Airwolf
Quaduino:
This project set out to build a low-cost Arduino quadcopter. Total parts list comes out to about $500. The instructions on the site are a little sparse, but you can email the user for more detailed information.
Image by paulr
Quadcopter by Michael B (CC-BY-NC-ND)
Tips and Tricks
- Adding sensors: If you'd like, you can improve your quadcopter by adding GPS, cameras, or ultrasonic sensors. Be careful to account for the extra weight, but any attachments will definitely increase your quadcopter's usefulness and impress your friends!
- Acrobatics: There are two methods of controlling your quadcopter - one, called Rate, allows your quadcopter to do acrobatics, while the other, called Stable, lets you change direction but not rotation. Stable is better for beginners because it's easier to control, but if you'd like, you can try out Rate to do fancy tricks.
- Starting out: Quadcopters are complicated to build and complicated to fly. If you're just getting introduced to the world of quadcopters, you might want to start out by buying a cheap toy to see how it flies. Using a kit rather than building from scratch can also be an easier way to make sure you're building something that will work.
- Forums: Quadcopters have become very popular in the online community, so no matter what problem you're having, someone else has doubtless had it before. The internet is your friend. Use forums like this one or this one to get support when you need it.
