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What is a good learning and hackable drone today?
My under-ten-year-old and I want to start learning how to use drones. We'd like a GPS and option for camera. I don't know much about the drone space -- any suggestions? What's your favorite and why?
- activiation 3y agoWhy not build your own and avoid restrictions commercial drones come with?
- schwartzworld 3y agoWhat's the barrier to entry for something like this? Can you link to some sort of guide?
- speedylight 3y agoIt’s a bad idea to build a drone if you don’t know the answer to that question. To give you an analogy, DJI drones are like automatic cars-> easy enough to operate with some guidance and a day or two of practice. A custom built drone is like a manual sports car with the added bonus of more complicated controls because they are completely, manual which means you have to be able to fly it in all 6 degrees of freedom. But you can definitely get the hang of it, you just have to crash a lot of them first. I don’t mean to discourage you from trying because once you do learn it’s really rewarding and you can do absolutely insane maneuvers at really high speed. Good luck! The keyword you’re looking for is “FPV drones”
- tomrod 3y ago> A custom built drone is like a manual sports car with the added bonus of more complicated controls because they are completely, manual which means you have to be able to fly it in all 6 degrees of freedom. But you can definitely get the hang of it, you just have to crash a lot of them first. Depending on price point, we might be okay with this. Great to be informed, however!
- tomrod 3y agoAny guides you can recommend? Like I said, we're both just getting started! :)
- GravitasFailure 3y agohttps://www.tinywhoop.com/pages/tutorials https://www.tinywhoop.com/pages/tutorials for small FPV racer-type drones. https://diydrones.com/ https://diydrones.com/ for bigger and more complex drones, especially semi-autonomous. https://dronenodes.com/how-to-build-a-drone/ https://dronenodes.com/how-to-build-a-drone/ for an overview of what's involved in building a drone. https://www.eclipson-airplanes.com/ https://www.eclipson-airplanes.com/ is about 3D printed airplanes, some paid models and some free, with info on choosing radios/motors/batteries/etc. https://www.3daeroventures.com/designs https://www.3daeroventures.com/designs also 3D printed, less informative, but the infinity wing is just cool. You can also look into local R/C Flying clubs, local hobby shops, and online forums. It's generally a very DIY hobby so there's lots of support for almost anything you could want.
- GravitasFailure 3y agoSome flavor of TinyWhoop seems right up your alley. You can buy a bunch of independent components and build it up to your specs, or you can buy an off-the-shelf system, plus they're small enough to avoid FAA registration and you can fly them indoors. What did you have in mind for hacking them?
- tomrod 3y ago> What did you have in mind for hacking them? Everything a young child can imagine before constraints of reality prevent us :) Would love to use it to learn and teach about controllers, embedded software, GPS, and more object lessons.