So as we all know, it is impossible for man to soar through the heavens as a bird does. Any attempt will lead one to be struck down from the skies for their hubris. It can’t be done, Boeing is proof of this. So what if I wanted to do the next best thing?
I’ve heard the words “Learn to hack, learn to drone” echoed around these parts a few times. I’ve tried learning programming again and again, but it seems I’m just not that Type of trans woman. Instead I got really into CAD and 3d printing and remote control vehicles, so the “learn to drone” part really appeals to me. Problem is, I don’t know where to start. Do I just buy a $300 DJI drone before they get banned? Do I learn how simulators work and practice a bunch first? Do fpv and bigger camera drones share a skillset? How do I not fuck up when I’m living in a big city? If I already have a transmitter, is that a cost I can save or do drones generally come with their own?
I’m also interested in reading about the ways people use drones for revolutionary purposes, for lack of a better term. I know local orgs have a need for good protest footage, but flying a drone downtown is probably super duper illegal and the new Remote ID rules would make me copbait if I were to say, sit in the bed of a leading truck and follow a march from above. Drones are super cool, but less so if a cop just shoots it down with his scifi radio gun and then tracks me down and arrests me.
By the way, has anyone ever built a drone? I already have a 3d printer and a transmitter I use for robot combat. And I’m pretty familiar with drone parts - motors made to spin propellers can also spin blades, and tiny receivers and batteries made for weight-limited flying vehicles are great for weight-limited fighting vehicles. I just don’t understand flight controllers or cameras or propellers or how to pick parts or anything. It would also (with dubious legality) avoid the Remote ID issue and my homebrew drones wouldn’t be banned for being Chinese spies.
So hey sickos, how do I learn to drone?
There are many overlapping disciplines involved here. CAD/CAM and 3D printing will go a long way towards customization and specialization, but the components of an off-the-shelf model will probably be made using superior techniques and materials for the most part. I would choose something which is affordable and use these skills to try and augment its capabilities.
A more general grasp on flight and navigation could be quite useful. Planes, helicopters, and quad-copters behave quite differently. Quad-copters are incredibly maneuverable (with the aid of gyro sensors and complex stability-assist motor control firmware right on the drone), but they are also incredibly power-hungry compared to a more conventional RC airplane design. Spend some time thinking about what you are trying to accomplish, and choose an appropriate vehicle. Consider spending some time in a flight simulator (FlightGear is free software) to learn basic VFR/IFR navigation techniques, in addition to getting an idea of what causes a class of aircraft to stall and lose control in general.
Definitely study ham radio. If I were planning on using a drone to do ANYTHING cool, I would be highly motivated to gut the electronics. By starting from scratch, you know it won’t have any snitchware in it, and you can make more fundamental choices about RF bands, antenna design, and transmission power. Choosing an appropriate band and antenna design are key if you are trying to control the thing from range. Even if you do not modify anything electronically from an off-the-shelf drone, a general understanding of ham radio will still give you many insights about how RF interference, control station position, RF frequency, and terrestrial obstructions will impact the signals, as well as an understanding about how RF triangulation and other countermeasures might be used to identify you. If you are doing anything super sketch, you don’t want to be holding the controller and you don’t want the controller to be located anywhere near you. I would try to set up a control station which relays controls across the internet and find a way to send it commands anonymously through the internet. Some Mr. Robot shit.
Start small. Mess around with the technology in completely benign ways. Learn the capabilities and limitations, and in the back of your mind, think about ways it can be applied.
If you are trying to construct a quad-copter drone from scratch, I am no expert, but I do have some experience with robotics from working with CNC machinery for a decade. PID controllers are they key to any closed-loop servo mechanism, and are used throughout navigation, avionics, and autopilot systems as well. They are used to target a setpoint (altitude, airspeed, angle of attack, heading, etc) and integrate historical sensor inputs to determine the correct amount of force to be applied to reach that setpoint as efficiently as possible. These are the basis of most industrial robotics as well as the cruise control in your car and the flight control systems you’ll find in a modern airliner or a quadcopter drone. There are a lot of examples on Youtube and across the internet of people using Arduino boards to design various PID controllers.