Controll drone by a laptop

Thread Starter

smnksng

Joined May 3, 2021
3
Im currently building my own drone and I was wondering, if I could controll it with a laptop rather than an RC Transmitter, because I mainly want it to fly autonomously.
Could I f.ex. just buy an FrSky receiver and control it with a laptop?
And if I want to change the waypoints while the drone is in the air, do I use a telemetry module, an RC receiver or something different?
Thanks in advance
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,023
Drones can be quite dangerous.

You need to get a proper RC-Transmitter so that you can run a
Flight Simulator Program on your Computer and get used to controlling a Drone
with a Transmitter similar to, or the actual Transmitter, that you intend to use.

You NEED to have instant access to the Transmitter-Controls to "Kill" the Drone if necessary.

100% Autonomous-Flight is a BAD IDEA.

You have to have a proper RC-Transmitter to deliver even basic instructions to the Flight-Controller.
RC-Transmitters are not controllable via Lap-Top.

In many Locations it is specifically against the Law to do what you are proposing.

If you screw-up it makes ALL RC-Enthusiasts look bad, and
causes MORE stupid Laws to be written.

You know just enough to be dangerous.

Buy a RTF (Ready-to-Fly) Model and put in at least a hundred hours of learning how to fly it.
When you can fly it in "Acro-Mode" with no Auto-Stabilization features engaged,
then build your own,
so that you will have to learn what makes every function work,
and exactly why it's done that way.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Thread Starter

smnksng

Joined May 3, 2021
3
All right seems like buying a transmitter is a good idea. But how do I change waypoints during the flight or in general can access the data of my gps module like I can on my smartphone when I fly my dji mini 2? Because i reckon I cant just plug my phone into the transmitter
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,031
i reckon I cant just plug my phone into the transmitter
I have seen flight controls with a phone mount used to "fly by point of camera eye view from drone" instead of remote ground viewing or my son uses a virtual reality goggle to do so. As to control apps, dunno, do some googling... You will need a multichannel RC controller that has the ability to interface. What he flies are the small (not micro) scratch built acrobatic drones with cameras and limited range/flight time. I've tried to get him interested in the larger long range camera platforms, but he is autistic and has a mind of his own about how to do things. His does display a battery monitor bar and signal strength.
 
Last edited:
Top