This week’s selection is “DIY Drones for the Evil Genius” by Ian Cinnamon, Romi S. Kadri, and Fitz Tepper.

Drones are becoming increasingly popular in many applications, fun and work, throughout the world. Enabled by the now easily accessible software, processors, sensors and lightweight motors, it’s a technology that anyone can now attempt.

One can purchase drones easily enough, but the other possibility is to build one yourself. That is, if you know how. That’s what this book is about: building a drone from scratch.

Drone Basics

The authors begin the book by explaining the basics of drones, including not only basic flying techniques but also the legal aspects, such as licensing and decisions about types of flying vehicles.

But then it goes deep into the weeds of developing a drone, asking key questions like “How big should the drone be?” and “What kind of processing will be required?” These fundamental decisions must be made before any drone can be properly designed.

At that point the book explores the details of actually building a drone, including mundane work requirements such as soldering. Once built, the book explains the initial calibrations required to make the drone successful.

Finally, the book closes with applications one can apply to a functioning drone, including live broadcasting, filming, illumination and much more.

3D Printing Drones and Drone Parts

I’m thinking this book could be of interest to Fabbaloo readers because many of you are constantly building projects using 3D printing technology. Drones are a particularly good subject for this technology, as those who can perform 3D CAD design can experiment with differently shaped parts that could provide various advantages, most notably being of lighter weight.

But 3D printing and drones is not merely limited to the production of parts that make up the drone itself. There is also the possibility of 3D printing accessories that can attach to the drone to perform a variety of functions.

For example, in the foreword of this book, Shane Wall, CTO and Global Head of HP Labs, says:

“The weekend before I read DIY Drones for the Evil Genius, I was off-roading in my Jeep toward a favorite fly-fishing spot in the Rocky Mountains. We came to a stream. Before the trip I had designed and 3D printed a special mounting device, which now anchored my favorite quadcopter drone to the Jeep via an electronically controlled magnet. As we approached the stream I release the magnet and launched the drone. They payload on this adventure was a high-resolution video camera, and I sent the drone aloft to record what would either be successful traverse of a rushing mountain stream, or a spectacular aerial video record of my final moments on Earth.

We made it.”

We’re quite glad that Wall made it through the stream, thanks to 3D printing. I’m not certain your drone project will be quite as adventurous, but perhaps it might be just as fun.

Via Amazon