goore_e
What is my project?
My project was to build an FPV (first person view) racing drone from a kit. FPV drones differ from camera drones in that FPV drones are built for fast flying and agility rather than smooth flying and stability. Another difference between FPV drones and camera drones is that camera drones come preassembled while FPV drones come with only their basic components. This allows FPV drones to be extremely customizable, but the assembly can be difficult because one must solder together all the components.
Why is this interesting to me?
I have been working with camera drones (drones for cinematography and photography) for a long time and I thought it would be exciting to venture in the world of racing drones. Not only are racing drones fun to fly, but they provide me with an opportunity to learn about how drones function and how one is built. Building a drone also helps me fine tune my soldering skills and electronics skills.
I have been working with camera drones (drones for cinematography and photography) for a long time and I thought it would be exciting to venture in the world of racing drones. Not only are racing drones fun to fly, but they provide me with an opportunity to learn about how drones function and how one is built. Building a drone also helps me fine tune my soldering skills and electronics skills.
Why might this be interesting to someone else?
Building a racing drone might be interesting to anyone who has an interest in electronics and/or wants to touch up their soldering skills. Not only is building a drone a good electronics/circuits learning opportunity, but you get the reward of having a fun drone to race at the end.
Building a racing drone might be interesting to anyone who has an interest in electronics and/or wants to touch up their soldering skills. Not only is building a drone a good electronics/circuits learning opportunity, but you get the reward of having a fun drone to race at the end.
What was hard about exploring it?
Unfortunately, the drone racing community is on the smaller side and it can be tough to find answers to questions that pop up. In many cases, it took me a long time to research a simple yes or no question. The instructional assembly videos provided with the kit were not very helpful and it was hard to find clear tutorials.
Unfortunately, the drone racing community is on the smaller side and it can be tough to find answers to questions that pop up. In many cases, it took me a long time to research a simple yes or no question. The instructional assembly videos provided with the kit were not very helpful and it was hard to find clear tutorials.
What did I learn while exploring it?
While building my drone, I learned a lot about electronics and circuits. I learned how to connect different components to each other and to a main power distribution board and a processing board to make the components all function as a whole. This knowledge is the basic knowledge needed to build any circuit and can be used to make many simple machines. I also learned how to test different components to isolate a faulty connection which helped me solve many connection problems that arose.
While building my drone, I learned a lot about electronics and circuits. I learned how to connect different components to each other and to a main power distribution board and a processing board to make the components all function as a whole. This knowledge is the basic knowledge needed to build any circuit and can be used to make many simple machines. I also learned how to test different components to isolate a faulty connection which helped me solve many connection problems that arose.
What am I leaving behind?
Unfortunately, I was not able to finish my drone project because of school being closed for the fourth quarter. I am leaving behind a nearly finished drone and a step-by-step building process in my weblogs. In my weblogs, I talk about a lot of the problems I faced, how I solved them, and how to avoid them in the future.
Unfortunately, I was not able to finish my drone project because of school being closed for the fourth quarter. I am leaving behind a nearly finished drone and a step-by-step building process in my weblogs. In my weblogs, I talk about a lot of the problems I faced, how I solved them, and how to avoid them in the future.
For Who?
I plan on continuing this project next year, but the information from my experience is still available for anyone who is interested in building a drone. It would be fun to have people to race against and building a drone would be great for anyone who wants to more deeply understand circuits.
I plan on continuing this project next year, but the information from my experience is still available for anyone who is interested in building a drone. It would be fun to have people to race against and building a drone would be great for anyone who wants to more deeply understand circuits.
Next steps?
My next steps for this project are to finish my drone and to get other people interested in building their own drones. I would love to form a group of people to fly and build drones together. We could help each other solve assembly problems and help other people get interested in drone building. We would also have fun flying together and upgrading components on our drones. We could even turn drone racing into an after-school sport! Wow, I'm getting excited!
Here I will talk about some of the drone's main components and how they work. I will use the attached photo as a guide. I have also outlined some of the components I will talk about in the photo in different colors. Looking at the picture, it is easy to pick out the frame and the motors. The frame is made of carbon fiber because carbon fiber is both lightweight and strong. Outlined in green in the middle of the drone we see the power distribution board (pdb). As its name suggests, the pdb is responsible for distributing power to the drone's various components. It has a bunch of positive and negative (ground) terminals to connect components. Most of the positive terminals are 5v with the exception of a 12v terminal for the camera. To connect components to these terminals, I had to solder the components' wires to the terminals. It is important to be neat with the soldering to avoid a short. The circuit board outlined in blue is called the flight controller board (fcb). The fcb takes the input from the receiver (not shown) and controls the speed of the motors to respond to the operator's commands. The receiver is wirelessly connected to the operator's controller. You can think of the fcb as the control center/brain of the drone. The fcb tells the motors what to do through components called the electronic speed controllers (ESCs). The ESCs, outlined in yellow, take the instructions from the fcb and vary the speed of a motor accordingly. There is a separate ESC controlling each motor. The ESCs are powered by the big red and black wires that are connected to the pdb's large terminals. The twisted black and white wires are connected from the ESCs to the fcb. The black wire is simply a grounding wire and the white wire is called the signal wire. These signal wires carry the fcb's instructions to each ESC. The ESCs connect to the motors with the three black wires you see coming out of the motors. The direction of each motor's rotation is determined by the order with which these wires are attached to their respective ESC. I have attached a diagram showing how to control the rotation of the motors this way.
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