My grandson, C14, wants to build a quadcopter drone from scratch this summer. By scratch, he means sketching out a design, hand-selecting components (this is not a kit), and assembling everything by hand. Since weight is a big factor, a few calculations may also be necessary. For example, if a camera will be attached, you'd want to make sure the motors have enough thrust to handle the camera's weight.
See this site for the basic anatomy of a quadcopter drone.
I've been reading up on drones and below is what I've learned. I'll update this article periodically:
- There are two main types of drones: those for freestyle flying (or racing), and those for aerial photography.
- Quadcopters (4 motors) are the most popular, but drones can have 3 (tricopter), 6 (hexacopter), or 8 (octocopter) motors.
- The main components are:
- flight control board (FCB)
- electronic speed controller (ESC, 1/motor)
- electric motors (4)
- power distribution board (PDB)
- matched transmitter/receiver pair
- frame
- battery (Lithium Polymer, or Li-Po, is standard)
- propellers (either 2 or 3 blade)
- miscellaneous hardware
- You have to match (same company) the transmitter to the receiver. Be sure to know the pros and cons of each before buying.
- Transmitters must have at least 4 channels to control the 4 basic drone movements:
- yaw (right-left rotation)
- pitch (forward-backward leaning)
- roll (left and right)
- throttle (motor speed)
- Transmitter frequencies include 900 MHz, 433 MHz, and 2.4 GHz (most common).
- Receiver protocols include PWM, PPM, and SBUS (best).
- Some receivers have telemetry support (they send information back to the pilot, such as battery voltage, current draw, etc).
- You'll need miscellaneous tools such as pliers and screwdriver, and a soldering iron.
- Cost: Anywhere from $100 on up.
- It might be best to go cheap for your first drone; that way any mistakes you make will be cheap ones. As you become more knowledgeable (and you decide to stick with the hobby), you can always upgrade from there.