So, I’ve been reading up on how to build a Raspberry Pi drone, and I gotta say, it sounds super cool! You can use a Raspberry Pi as the flight controller instead of just buying a pre-made one, which seems like a fun challenge. There’s this online course that covers everything from the basics of setting up your Raspberry Pi to building and flying your own drone. Anyone tried it? I’m thinking about diving into it, but would love to hear from others who’ve done it first.
I’ve done something similar! The course is pretty solid if you want to learn the ins and outs. The 36-minute video is a quick intro, but the full 5-hour course is way more detailed. Totally worth it if you want to dive deeper into coding and flight control.
@Corey
That sounds awesome. Is it hard to follow, though? Like, do you need a lot of prior experience with drones or programming?
Willoughby said:
@Corey
That sounds awesome. Is it hard to follow, though? Like, do you need a lot of prior experience with drones or programming?
It’s manageable, but yeah, a little background in programming helps. The course starts with the basics though, so if you’re new, you won’t feel lost. Just be ready to spend some time getting the hardware and software right.
I’ve been wanting to do this! I already have a Raspberry Pi from another project, so this seems like a good way to use it. How much does everything cost in total, though?
Marley said:
I’ve been wanting to do this! I already have a Raspberry Pi from another project, so this seems like a good way to use it. How much does everything cost in total, though?
If you go the course route, it’s $99 for that. But for the drone stuff, you’ll need to spend about $400 on the drone-specific parts, and maybe more if you don’t have tools like a soldering iron.
I’ve seen the Pixhawk flight controller mentioned a lot. Is that what most people use, or can I try other stuff like Navio2?
Micah said:
I’ve seen the Pixhawk flight controller mentioned a lot. Is that what most people use, or can I try other stuff like Navio2?
You can definitely go with Navio2! It’s another great option. It’s basically a shield that turns your Raspberry Pi into a flight controller, so it’s a bit different from Pixhawk, but still works well.
I’m kinda confused about what MAVProxy and Dronekit are. Do I need to learn that too for the project?
Kade said:
I’m kinda confused about what MAVProxy and Dronekit are. Do I need to learn that too for the project?
Yeah, MAVProxy and Dronekit are pretty important if you want to control the drone from your Raspberry Pi. MAVProxy is like the software that communicates with your drone’s hardware, and Dronekit lets you write code to automate things. You don’t have to dive super deep, but it’s cool to learn.
Kade said:
I’m kinda confused about what MAVProxy and Dronekit are. Do I need to learn that too for the project?
Ah, okay, that clears things up! Sounds like I need to brush up on some coding first then.
How long did it take you guys to actually build and get the drone flying? I’m curious how much time this whole process takes.
Molly12 said:
How long did it take you guys to actually build and get the drone flying? I’m curious how much time this whole process takes.
Honestly, it’s a few days’ work if you’ve got all the parts ready. If you’re super focused, you could probably get it flying in a weekend, but expect to spend more time on the software side, especially if you’re new to Raspberry Pi.
Molly12 said:
How long did it take you guys to actually build and get the drone flying? I’m curious how much time this whole process takes.
Yeah, building the physical drone is the easy part, but setting up the software and getting the Pi to talk to everything takes a while. Be patient with that part.