Building Your Own Drones: A Beginners' Guide to Drones, UAVs, and ROVs

by John Baichtal

Overview

Absolutely no experience needed!
Build your drone, step-by-step, with this full-color, hands-on guide!

 

You’ve heard about drones. You’ve seen drones. Now, build your own—it’s a lot easier than you think!

 

Drones are the newest frontier for the DIY/maker community, and you don’t need to be a technical expert to build one. John Baichtal, the #1 author of hardware hacking books for beginners, will teach you all the skills you need.

 

First, Baichtal shows you the amazing drones others have built. Then, he walks you through several complete projects: quadcopters, UAVs, ROVs, and more. Not ready to start from scratch? No problem: Baichtal helps you choose from today’s best new kits.

 

Hundreds of full-color step-by-step photos teach you every step, every skill. When you’re ready for more advanced concepts, Baichtal explains them in plain English.

• Discover what drones are and why they’re so exciting
• Explore today’s most imaginative projects, from 3D-printed mini quadcopters to floating robot armies
• Compare kits, from $200 up: Parallax ELEV-8, DJI Phantom 2 Vision+, OpenROV, Actobotics Nomad, Brooklyn Aerodrome Flack, and more
• Create your own practical Drone Builder’s Workbench
• Build complete rocket, blimp, waterborne, and automotive drones
• Construct both fully autonomous and radio-controlled drones
• Choose and assemble your chassis (airframe), motor, props, flight control, power system, accessories, and software
• Integrate Arduino to make radio-controlled drones operate autonomously
• Teach a drone to navigate via RFID tags
• Learn all the basic electronics and programming you’ll need

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780134000152
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	08/25/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	29 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Baichtal has written or edited over a dozen books, including the award-winning Cult of LEGO (No Starch Press, 2011), LEGO hacker bible Make: LEGO and Arduino Projects (Maker Media, 2012) with Adam Wolf and Matthew Beckler, Robot Builder (Que, 2014), and Basic Robot Building with LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (Que, 2012). His most recent book is Maker Pro (Maker Media, 2014), a collection of essays and interviews describing life as a professional maker. John lives in Minneapolis with his wife and three children.

Table of Contents

Introduction     xiii
Who This Book Is For     xiii
How This Book Is Organized     xiii

Chapter 1 A History of Drones     1
What Is a Drone?     2
    Three Terrrains     3
    Anatomy of a Drone     5
Summary     7

Chapter 2 Showcase of Cool DIY Drones     9
Bicycle Rim Quadcopter     9
3D-Printed Mini Quadcopter     9
Clothesline Racer     11
Vessels     11
Radio-Controlled Blimp     12
FPV Quadcopter     12
Open RC Trike     14
Foldable Quadcopter     14
Mini-Quadcopter     15
3D-Printed RC Boat     16
Tricopter     17
Mecanum Wheel Rover     18
Summary     19

Chapter 3 Overview of Commercial Drones and Kits     21
Parallax ELEV-8 Quadcopter     21
DJI Phantom 2 Vision+     24
OpenROV     26
Actobotics Nomad     29
Brooklyn Aerodrome Flack     31
Summary     34

Chapter 4 Building a Quadcopter I: Choosing an Airframe     35
Which Airframe?     35
    Choosing Between Commercial Options     37
    Making Your Own Airframe     38
Project #1: MakerBeam Airframe     41
    MakerBeam     41
    Parts     43
    Steps     44
Summary     50

Chapter 5 Rocket Drone Project     51
Amateur Model Rocketry     51
Quick-and-Dirty Arduino Guide     54
Project #2: Data-Gathering Rocket     60
    Parts for Building the Data-Gathering Rocket     60
    Steps for Building the Data-Gathering Rocket     61
    Programming the Payload     65
Summary     67

Chapter 6 Building a Quadcopter II: Motors and Props     69
Choose Your Motors     70
    Outrunner Versus Inrunner     70
    Brushed Versus Brushless     71
    AC Versus DC     72
Choose Your Propellers     73
    Prop Adapters     74
Project #3: Attach the Props and Motors     75
    Parts     76
    Steps for Attaching the Props and Motors     77
Summary     80

Chapter 7 Blimp Drone Project     81
Radio Control     81
    Transmitters     82
    Receivers     83
ESC (Electronic Speed Controller)     83
Project #4: Blimp Drone     84
    Parts     85
    Arduino Parts&