Building Your Own Drones: A Beginner’s Guide to Drones, UAVs, and ROVs

3. Overview of Commercial Drones and Kits

The easiest way to get a drone, as usual, is to buy one. There’s nothing wrong with buying a pre-made product because it gets you flying faster. However, you don’t really learn anything about electronics or robot building. A kit, by contrast, gives you the opportunity to plug in the various components. In doing so, you learn a little about the parts and how they fit together. It’s a nice middle ground between doing everything yourself and just buying a finished bird.

Parallax ELEV-8 Quadcopter

The ELEV-8 (P/N MKPX23) is the second version of Parallax’s entry into the world of quadcopters. Parallax makes microcontrollers, most noticeably the Propeller, which features the PBX32A chip. Not coincidentally, ...