November 23, 2019

DIY Drone Update #1 - Starting from the Very Beginning

I have always been interested in aviation and Remote Control technology, and when I recently visited the World Science Week festival in Brisbane and saw the racing drones military personnel use, I was instantly intrigued.
Over the last couple of months, I have been attempting to build an FPV (First person view) racing drone for myself. I have not completed it yet, after almost 3 months, due to slow shipping and broken parts. I should have posted this a while ago, but here is what I have done so far:

After a few weeks of researching, I came up with my final parts list:
Frame: Link
Flight Controller: Link
Motors: Link
Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs): Link
Video Transmitter (VTX): Link
Camera: Link
Video Receiver/ Headset: Link
Transmitter and receiver: Link
Battery: Link

This is most of the stuff I needed to get started. I also needed a battery charger (Link) and a power supply for the charger, which I made out of an old desktop power supply (PSU). To plug the battery into the charger, I needed a special cable (Link). I also needed a cable to plug the battery into the flight controller (Link)
The DIY Power Supply and Charger (not as dangerous as you think)

I first received the flight controller, frame, VTX and camera, which I assembled by soldering the wires to the flight controller and VTX. I then plugged it into my laptop, turned on my headset and checked to see if it was transmitting video. Once I found the right channel, I got an image. Then, I opened Betaflight Configurator (Link) and added some more information to the On Screen Display (OSD), which allowed me to see altitude, speed, direction and battery voltage.
Betaflight Configurator
As of writing, I have received all the parts except for the replacement for my broken motor.

New posts will be written as parts arrive and are assembled.

Please leave a comment if you have any feedback or questions.
My other personal updates can be found here, and DIY Drone updates can be found here.

Ad