I realize this topic is slightly old but I have some thoughts…
Over the past few years, I’ve been going to some local parks to test my homemade frames. I generally don’t fly around in these parks because there are too many objects, trees, people, etc. I’m not building racing drones, I’m building lightweight, endurance ships for photography or film production. So my drones are usually hovering in Loiter at 10-12 feet, doing a battery test or gimbal test or PID adjustment.
Countless people have approached me to ask a million questions and I always try to answer them and promote drones in a positive light. Many older people will seem annoyed at first but as soon as I tell them that I design and build drones and that my experimental drone is registered with the FAA (which it is), they almost always smile and relax. Suddenly I am no longer some nuisance flying a drone in “their” park. Once they’ve relaxed, they ask me things like- how much did it cost to build? am I starting a company? am I going to sell them? etc.
If younger people are around (younger as in, not elderly) I get even more questions. I really should keep a journal, but I get the same questions over and over, so I’ll just list some of them…
- How long did it take you to build it?
- How much did it cost?
- Was it easy to build?
- Was it a kit?
- Could I build one like that?
- Can you show me how to build one?
- How high can it go?
- How fast can it go?
- How long does the battery last?
- Is that a regular Android tablet?
- So you can just put a GoPro on it?
- Do you have a YouTube channel where I can see how you built it?
- Do you have a web site where I can learn how to build one?
When I ask why they want to build their own drone, the most common answers are:
- I crashed my [commercial brand] drone and I can’t fix it. I wanna build my own so I can fix it.
- I wanna put my GoPro on a drone but I heard the GoPro drone sucks. (I laugh every time!)
- I think it would be really cool to build a drone.
I believe those people are your target audience! If there were some easy to follow guides on how to build your own drone, and they were here on Ardupilot.org people would come here for that information and then end up using the Ardupilot software.
So, with that in mind, I’ve been writing a blog on how to build a better drone frame, on a budget, using commonly available materials, and without special tools. People who’ve never heard of Ardupilot asked me to write this blog and I want to bring those people here.
EDIT:
My blog is here: Building a Better Quad Frame