Donald Norris - Build your own quadcopter power up your designs with the Parallax Elev-8

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To my wife Karen for her continuing and unwavering love and support despite the
onslaught of spontaneous lectures from yours truly.

To my children Shauna, Heath, and Derek who, while loving and supporting me,
would never put up with my lectures as adults.

Donald Norris has a degree in electrical engineering and an MBA specializing in production management. He is currently teaching undergrad and grad courses in the IT subject area at Southern New Hampshire University. He has also created and taught several robotics courses there. He has over 30 years of teaching experience as an adjunct professor at a variety of colleges and universities.

Mr. Norris retired from civilian government service with the U.S. Navy, where he specialized in acoustics related to nuclear submarines and associated advanced digital signal processing. Since then, he has spent more than 17 years as a professional software developer using C, C#, C++, Python, and Java, as well as 5 years as a certified IT security consultant.

Mr. Norris started a consultancy, Norris Embedded Software Solutions (dba NESS LLC), which specializes in developing application solutions using microprocessors and microcontrollers. He likes to think of himself as a perpetual hobbyist and geek, and is always trying out new approaches and out-of-the-box experiments. He is a licensed private pilot, active member of the Civil Air Patrol, photography buff, amateur radio operator, and avid runner.

Mr. Norris is also the author of the TAB McGraw-Hill book Raspberry Pi Projects for the Evil Genius.

I t was a bit of a surprise to me when my editor, Roger Stewart, asked me if I was interested in writing a book about building and flying quadcopters. It seems Roger had been interested in having a book written about this hot topic for some time. I remember mentioning to him that I had recently built a good-sized quadcopter, just because it was a fun thing to do, and I was quite interested in the technology that permitted these aircraft to not only fly but also be manually controlled precisely, or even be set to fly autonomously. I accepted his offer, and the book you now have in your hands or are viewing on an electronic device is the result of that chance discussion.

I must admit I am somewhat of a multirotor geek hobbyist, having two Parallax Elev-8 units, one octocopter and one micro-sized quadcopter. I must also warn you that this hobby is addictive and you will soon see yourself surrounded by quadcopters and, more likely, pieces and parts of quadcopters, which is just part of the price you pay to enjoy this hobby. But have no fear, it is perfectly possible to minimize damage yet thoroughly enjoy flying your quadcopter for many, many enjoyable hours.

I would like now to give you my high-level view (pun intended) of this book and what I hope you will gain from reading it. First, and most likely foremost, in the minds of readers is that you will be able to successfully build the Parallax Corporations Elev-8 quadcopter kit by following the instructions in this book, which are detailed in . I will honestly say that these instructions are mainly from the Parallax assembly instructions with plenty of additional information that I have provided to clarify and amplify the company-provided instructions. Having said that, I will emphasis that this book is a lot more than a missing manualtype book. As an educator, I feel somewhat responsible that my readers get not only what is needed to build a quadcopter but also a lot more in terms of an education about all the technologies that make up todays sophisticated quadcopters. With that in mind, I will explain all the principal components that constitute a modern quadcopter in sufficient detail so that you should feel comfortable deciding which components you can or should modify to suit your own needs and desires. I would also like to mention that the quadcopter that is being discussed in this book would likely be classified as professional or semiprofessional in nature so as to be distinguished from the flood of very cheap manufactured toy quadcopters. I am not being derisive toward the toys, as they have their place, but it is totally wrong to lump the two types together, as you will see as you progress through this book. Now, I will gently step down from my soapbox and proceed to tell you what to expect in this book.