Make Terry kilby User manual

Build and Customize

Your Own Quadcopter

Terry Kilby & Belinda Kilby

Make:

Getting Started

with Drones

Terry Kilby & Belinda Kilby

Make: Getting Started with Drones

Technology & Engineering / Flight

Make: Getting Started

with Drones

In Getting Started with Drones, you’ll learn:

Drones, quadcopters, unmanned aerial vehicles: whatever they’re

called, remotely controlled aircraft have changed the way we see the

world, the way we manage crops, the way we sell real estate, and the

way we make war. To use them fully requires at least a passing familiarity

with aerodynamics, radio telemetry, electronics, programming,

mapreading, motors, video transmission, and 3D modeling.

This book gives you working knowledge of aerial robotics, by showing

you how to build a Little Dipper 300-class autonomous quadcopter as

an example. By reading and following the steps and advice contained in

this book, you’ll learn how quadcopters work and how to solve some of

the engineering challenges they present. Throughout the book, the

authors offer alternative options and comparable parts to suit your own

needs, whether you choose to build a quadcopter or an octocopter.

»The principles of flight and how they apply to robotic drones

»What kinds of airframes are available

»How to assemble a drone, following easy step-by-step instructions

»The basics of drone design and how to choose the right components

»How to integrate sensors, controllers, and custom behaviors

Make:

makezine.com

US $24.99 CAN $28.99

ISBN: 978-1-4571-8330-0

Make to the skies!

Since 2010, Belinda and Terry Kilby have been designing and building

small UAVs for artistic and practical aerial photography through their

company, Elevated Element. As early adopters, they have become

unofficial spokespeople for UAV technology.

Make:

Getting

Started with

Drones

Terry Kilby and Belinda Kilby

978-1-457-18330-0

[LSI]

Make: Getting Started with Drones

by Terry Kilby and Belinda Kilby

Printed in the United States of America.

Published by Maker Media, Inc., 1160 Battery Street East, Suite 125, San Francisco,

CA 94111.

Maker Media books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promo-

tional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safaribookson-

line.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales depart-

ment: 800-998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com.

Editor: Patrick Di Justo

Production Editor: Matthew Hacker

Copyeditor: Eileen Cohen

Proofreader: Jasmine Kwityn

Indexer: Angela Howard

Interior Designer: David Futato

Cover Designer: Brian Jepson

Illustrator: Rebecca Demarest

October 2015: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2015-10-02 First Release

See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781457183300 for release details.

Make:, Maker Shed, and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc.

The Maker Media logo is a trademark of Maker Media, Inc. Make: Getting Started with

Drones, and related trade dress are trademarks of Maker Media, Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their

products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book,

and Maker Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been

printed in caps or initial caps.

While the publisher and the authors have used good faith eorts to ensure that the

information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and

the authors disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limi-

tation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work.

Use of the information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If

any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to

open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsi-

bility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.

Contents

Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

1/Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

SomeDeﬁnitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

WhoIsThisBookFor?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

TheDroneUserCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

BriefHistoryofAutonomousFlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

RCModelAirplane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

TheAdventofMicrochips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

TheTechnologyofDrones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

TheLaunchofGPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

TheSmartphone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

SmallAutopilotFlightController. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

PrinciplesofFlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

WeightGravity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Lift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Drag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Thrust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

FlightManeuversAircraftMovementwithStickMapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Throttle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

YawRudder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Pitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Roll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2/Airframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

WhatIsanAirframe?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

ThrustVectoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

AircraftDesigns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

KeepingItBalanced. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

BuildingtheLittleDipperAirframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Step-by-StepBuildInstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

StepInstalltheStandos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

iii

StepCompletetheDirtyFrameAssembly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

StepAssembletheCleanFrame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

StepAttachtheTwoSubframesTogether. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

3/Power Train. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Propellers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

SizeandPitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

BalancingProps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Motors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Sizes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

kVRating. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

PairingwiththeRightProps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

TotalLift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

ElectronicSpeedControllers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

FlightBattery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Step-by-StepBuildInstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

StepMountthePowerDistributionBoardPDB. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

StepSolderontheBulletConnectors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

StepMounttheSpeedControllers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

StepSolderupthePowerSupply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

StepMountBrushlessMotors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

StepConnectBrushlessMotors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

StepCleanUp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

WrappingUp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

4/Flight Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

WhatIsaFlightController?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

OpenSourceVersusClosedSource. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Sensors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

FlightCharacteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

SoftwareAssistant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Step-by-StepBuildInstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

StepMounttheFlightController. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

StepWireuptheFlightControllerOutputs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

StepAttachtheTwoSubframestoEachOther. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

WrappingUp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

5/GPS, Compass, and Battery Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

GPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

FlightModes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Compass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

iv Contents

BatteryMonitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Step-by-StepBuildInstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

StepMounttheGPSPuck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

StepConnectGPSandCompasstotheAPM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

StepInstalltheBatteryMonitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

WrappingUp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

6/Transmitter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

WhatIsaTransmitter?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

MostCommonFrequencyBands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

DierentModesAroundtheWorld. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

PWMVersusPPM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Step-by-StepBuildInstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

StepIdentifyWhatYouNeed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

StepMounttheReceiver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

StepPlugintheReceiver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

7/Telemetry Radios. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

SoftwareMonitoringandControl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Step-by-StepBuildInstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

StepMounttheGroundStationRadio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

StepPreptheAircraftRadioforMounting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

StepPlugintheRadio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

StepMounttheAircraftRadio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

8/Camera and FPV Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

PopularDroneCameras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

MicroFourThirdsCameras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

TheMobiusActionCam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

FPVforaLiveStream. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Step-by-StepBuildInstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

StepFastentheCameraMount. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

StepAttachtheVibrationIsolationPlate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

StepPlacetheCameraintheQuick-ReleaseMount. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

9/ArduPilot Mega (APM) Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Step-by-StepBuildInstructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

StepUpdateFirmware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

StepConnectandCompleteMandatorySetup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

StepOptionalHardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Let’sExploretheRestofMissionPlanner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

FlightModes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Contents v

GeoFence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

BasicTuning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

ExtendedTuning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

StandardParams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

FlightData. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

FlightPlan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

PreparingforYourMaidenFlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

10/Safe and Responsible Flight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

AboveAllIsSafety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

TrainingandEducation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

ImportantLinks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

KeyFlightSafetyRules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

First-PersonView. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

WhereandWhentoFly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

PreﬂightChecklistandFlightLogInformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

AircraftInspection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

FlightandMaintenanceLogs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

LawsandRegulations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

11/Real-World Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

BeneﬁcialDrones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

AerialPhotography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

MappingandSurveying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

PrecisionAgriculture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

SearchandRescue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

InfrastructureInspection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Conservation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

12/Expanding Your Drone’s Abilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

AddaCameraandFirst-PersonView. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

CollectMoreDatawithOtherSensors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

AlteringSpeedReadySetRace!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

IncreasingFlightTimes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

TroubleshootingintheDroneCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

ThankYou!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

vi Contents

Preface

We are Belinda and Terry Kilby. We are drone enthusiasts, aerial

photographers, makers, trainers, and a husband–wife team. By

combining lives, we also combined our strengths and passions

for technology and art. Since 2010, we have been designing and

building small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for artistic and

practical aerial photography through our company, Elevated

Element. As early adopters, we became the unocial spokes-

people for UAV technology for the media in our region. We keep

up with the advancements in hardware, software, and drone

news stories, so we can represent drone builders and users in an

artistic and innovative light.

The First Book of Its Kind

In the fall of 2013, we released Drone Art: Baltimore, the ﬁrst

photo book shot entirely using small, custom-built UAVs. The

introduction describes how we got started and how our equip-

ment and work evolved. The images are presented in chronolog-

ical order to show progression in quality, as we came to under-

stand how to build, ﬂy, and take photographs with these drones.

The book launch, which we arranged through Baltimore’s Oce

of Promotions and the Arts, was held at an exhibition at the Bal-

timore World Trade Center, on the observation deck called “Top

of the World.” The location was perfect, because the perspective

looking out of the windows from the 27th ﬂoor was much like

the subject matter seen in our work: the bird’s-eye view.

The Book’s Goal

Our objective for this book is to give you that same working

knowledge of aerial robotics, by showing you how to build a Lit-

tle Dipper 300-class autonomous quadcopter as an example.

By reading and following the steps and advice contained in this

book, you’ll learn how quadcopters work and how to solve some

vii

of the engineering challenges a quadcopter presents. Where

applicable, we will also suggest alternative options you can try,

or comparable parts to suit your own preferences. Whether you

choose to build a quadcopter or an octocopter, the same con-

cepts will apply.

The Little Dipper design is open source, and the design ﬁles can

be downloaded from http://gettingstartedwithdrones.com/little-

dipper-build/. Alternatively, you can order a complete Little Dip-

per kit, with all the hardware, from www.MakerShed.com.

And don’t worry about failure. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s

only important that we continue to try, do, and make. Aerial

robotics is a hands-on experience, in which you solve real-world

problems through trial and error, and ultimately, hard-won wis-

dom. The smallest dierence in weight distribution or speed can

mean success or disaster.

How to Use This Book

Each chapter of this book is designed to cover a speciﬁc portion

of the overall technology of unmanned aircraft. One chapter

covers the intricacies of dierent airframe types, while another

dives into how the Global Positioning System (GPS) is used to

assist ﬂight. We made a conscious eort to touch on as many

topics as we could, but keep in mind that this is a Getting

Started with book, not the be-all-and-end-all encyclopedia of

UAVs. If you are a newcomer to this technology, there will be

plenty of meat here for you to chew on. If you are already famil-

iar with drones, we are sure there will still be some important

nuggets of info that you can add to your knowledge base.

Once you get past Chapter 1, you should start to see an impor-

tant pattern emerge: most chapters are broken down into a

section for background and theory followed by step-by-step

instructions for our build example. No matter if you are building

the same aircraft we show throughout the book, the theory por-

tion of each chapter will apply to almost any type of drone—

from a small 250-class quadcopter to a huge 1,000-class octo-

copter. If you are not following along with our demo build, feel

free to skip over the build instructions and consume as much of

the theory as you can.

viii Preface

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