

Ask HN: DIY quadcopter tutorial? - frik

I am searching for a good and up-to-date DIY quadcopter tutorial incl. shopping list (up to 2000$). I would favor a project based around an Arduino Mega&#x2F;Due for the flight logic and motor controller.<p>Something like this: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=qNrovqSp3CU (but with more details in english)
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dirktheman
Whoa… 2 grand? That’s really a lot! If this is your First build, I guarantee
you will crash it at some point. You will break stuff. I’d much, much rather
crash my 150-bucks quad than a 2000-bucks video drone.

You can build a nice entry-level quadcopter for around $250,-: You actually
don't need that much: \- Frame (F330 clone $8.90) \- Motors x4 (Turnigy
1000kv, $18.20) \- ESC's x4 (Turnigy 30A, $9.99, flash them with SimonK) \-
Flight Controller (KK2.1, € 29.99) \- Transmitter + receiver (Turnigy 9x, €
59.99) \- Props (2CW, 2CCW, $2.46 per 2. Do get extras!) \- Battery (2200Mah
3S 25C, $10.57) \- Charger (Turnigy Balance charger, $22.95) Total cost: a
couple cents over $250. You can do even cheaper when shopping around Chinese
webshops, but this should give you a pretty good idea. All of these parts are
from Hobbyking, by the way. (Edit: formatting)

Having built and flown a couple of them, I highly recommend the APM flight
controller. It’s highly configurable, but flies very well from the start. As
opposed to (my experience) the MultiWii, for instance.

I order everything from Chinese webshops (dx.com and banggood.com) and they
are faultless. Quality is okay, prices are rock bottom and customer service is
surprisingly good.

This was a great article when I started out:
[http://fpvcentral.net/2013/03/high-performance-quadcopter-
fo...](http://fpvcentral.net/2013/03/high-performance-quadcopter-
for-120-step-1-the-shopping-list/)

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uberneo
Below sites have really good info on DIY drones --

[http://wiki.paparazziuav.org/wiki/Main_Page](http://wiki.paparazziuav.org/wiki/Main_Page)
\-- Open source -- Hardware n software for DRONES

[http://1bitsquared.com/](http://1bitsquared.com/) \-- really tiny miny
hardware for drones

[http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/](http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/arduino/)
\--- Useful libraries for RF on Arduino

[http://story.glass/uav](http://story.glass/uav) \-- Good explanation of
buiding your own drones -- more material on
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8566641](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8566641)

[http://www.exmaps.com/](http://www.exmaps.com/) \-- Share your drone data

[http://ardupilot.com/](http://ardupilot.com/) \-- Auto pilot stuff

[http://diydrones.com/](http://diydrones.com/) \-- good drones material for
starters

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sk2code
That's a pretty good info for starting the project. I have promised my 8 year
old to build one for him. I will surely start checking out all these websites
and visit the store (dx.com & bangood.com).

So we should be able to get all these different components from these 2 stores
or there are some other online stores anyone is willing to share.

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LukeFitzpatrick
I know a group of cool guys building a quad copter. It seems like a few of
these projects are popping up.

DIY quadcopter tutorial, sorry I don't know of one, but you could try going to
the closest University to your house and chat to the mechanical engineering
department.

