Hello! Does anyone have any suggestions for someone that is an absolute beginner at building a drone and using Ardupilot?
Thank you!
Yes, build something cheap and easy to fly and repair, try to find someone with experience to help you with first flights, an Rc club is a good idea to start visiting first to buy nothing, read a lot, read, read, you know flying? what is your preference? copter, multicopter or airplane?
If you’re not already good with RC control, get a cheap RC car and practice with the “sticks” to get that whole orientation thing right when the car is coming towards you or going away from you.
Expect crashes: either get something cheap with spare parts available (replacement copter arms) or maybe a basic quadcopter with aluminium arms and strong base plates that will probably survive through many crashes and several rounds of reconstruction.
Start with cheap props and spare sets of them, graduate to more expensive props once you’ve finished breaking them so frequently.
Wait for a good GPS fix, learn to takeoff, fly and land in stabilise mode or Alt Hold - they will be your go-to mode when things are going bad.
What resources do you recommend for becoming familiar? Any readings? Also thank you!
Read up on the local regulations too, that will give you pointers about distances from people, objects, property, where you can and cant fly, if you need any permits.
This is the Australian version, which is probably fairly similar to most countries. keep in mind it’s only for “flying in the air” and doesn’t cover radios, privacy and property laws and numerous other aspects.
I read up on the PX4 docs plus the Arducopter docs, although these days I just stick with Arducopter.
Also there’s numerous other sites: RCGroups, DIY Drones, sUAS News just to mention a few.
Find a friendly local operator and ask a few questions or ask to tag along on a job, or as cala2 said, find a local RC club.
I find RC clubs vary: some like everyone who flies anything, multirotors and autopilots included; some only like people with perfect scale models driven by steam and gears, Electricity!!!?? Are you crazy??
If you want to see how it SHOULDNT be done, there’s almost infinite youtube videos of people flying backwards into trees, powerlines, themselves, flying where they shouldnt be…