Make: Drones: Teach an Arduino to Fly

by David McGriffy

Drones will help the widest possible audience understand how drones work by providing several DIY drone projects based on the world's most popular robot controller--the Arduino. The information imparted in this book will show Makers how to build better drones and be better drone pilots, and incidentally it will have applications in almost any robotics project. Why Arduino? Makers know Arduinos and their accessories, they are widely available and inexpensive, and there is strong community support. Open source flight-control code is available for Arduino, and flying is the hook that makes it exciting, even magical, for so many people. Arduino is not only a powerful board in its own right, but it's used as the controller of most inexpensive 3d printers, many desktop CNCs, and the majority of open source drone platforms.

Genres: Nonfiction, Engineering

220 pages, Paperback

Published November 22, 2016

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Good:

This book is an interesting and approachable overview of building and modifying drones to get them up and flying. It should be great, but that gets us to...

The Bad:

Since being published in 2016, A LOT has changed. I won't say that the book is worthless, but it lacks a lot of info. Specific grievances include:

1. Recommending components that are no longer sold and do not have contemporaneous replacements.
2. Recommending software that is now completely different.
3. Using "crash kits" to modify drones. Essentially, you're not building a drone (or 3d printing them -- that'd be cool!) but buying off the shelf drones (that are no longer made).
4. Because directions are so specific, there's a lot you just throw out. It would have been SOOOO much better if they provided a 3d printed technique (because you could still print the STL code!) or showed how to choose motors and pair with software. Instead, by saying "solder this wire to this part of the PCB" or "Add this single line to your Arduino code that comes with the (now non-existent) controller"
5. When I say that components aren't available, I don't mean that you can buy version 5 instead of 2, I mean they just don't exist. Websites to source components from don't exist. Controller types exist.

Bottom Line: If you get this for free or heavily discounted it'd be worth skimming some sections (like how a drone flies). Otherwise look for a more modern book....

Very disappointing that it's still in print. It should either be pulled from print or updated to be relevant.