0.5: Getting to Know Your Controller

You are about to take your first flight with CoDrone EDU! Before you do, there are a few important notes to ensure a safe flight.

• CoDrone EDU is meant to be an indoor drone only. If flown outdoors, you may lose it!
• Make sure you have enough space to fly comfortably.
• Beware of ceiling fans and breakable items. You wouldn’t want to knock anything over.
• If at home, keep pets out of the room so CoDrone EDU does not become a chew toy.
• If you are somewhere with high ceilings or ledges that are difficult to reach, have something ready that can help you bring it down.
• When picking up the drone, protect your fingers by holding the drone from the guards at all times.
• If you have long hair, you may want to tie it up.

Now that you’ve read the procedures, read on to get started!

Take a moment to look at all the buttons on your controller. You will be learning how to use the controls to take your first flight with CoDrone EDU.

Before you fly, it’s important to remember a few notes about controller maintenance. It may look like a video game controller, but don’t treat it like one.

• Dropping it on the floor or hitting the controller forcefully can cause damage to the circuitry.
• Always remove the USB cable when not actively powering or programming the controller. Disconnected it gently without bending the connector.
• Be gentle when folding out the antenna and the handlebars.
• Do not excessively twist back and forth any of the movable pieces.
• When inserting batteries, do not insert them backwards or allow any pieces to fall inside the controller.

Follow along with the video tutorial below to become an expert on your CoDrone EDU controller. Make sure you have enough room! Then, keep reading below to review what you learned.

To get the best connection between the CoDrone EDU and your controller, fold out the antenna on top of your CoDrone EDU controller. Point the antenna directly at the drone while it is in flight. Make sure that the line of sight between your controller’s antenna and the CoDrone EDU is not obstructed. This could cause connection issues between the drone and the controller.

Practice a takeoff and landing. To takeoff, press and hold L1 for at least 3 seconds. You can let go when the drone takes off. To land, press and hold L1 again. Observe how CoDrone EDU hovers in the air. Is it stable?

Activity: Take off and hover for 3 seconds before landing. Do not move any of the joysticks while hovering.

Using L1 to take off can take a few seconds. If you need to take off more quickly, you can use this alternative method. To start the motors, push the left joystick downward, angling it toward the middle. Then, push up on the left joystick to take off.

Sometimes while flying you may find that something has gone wrong with your drone, like one of the motors has stopped working, or your drone has flown in a way you did not anticipate. In order to stop the drone in an emergency situation, the CoDrone EDU has a command that will stop the drone’s motors immediately without landing.

If you must use the emergency stop, try to catch the drone whenever possible.

Activity: Press L1 to takeoff. Wait 4 seconds. Hold L1 while simultaneously pulling down the left joystick to shut the motors off immediately. What is different between emergency stopping and landing?

CoDrone EDU has three speed settings: S1, S2, and S3. Changing the speed setting will increase the max speed of your drone. The current speed setting is indicated on the top left of your controller screen. Try out all the speeds. Make sure you have enough room around you and never fly toward people, pets, or other objects.

To flip the drone, the drone battery has to be at least 50%.

1. Press and hold R1 until you hear a sound from your controller.
2. When you hear the sound, use the right joystick to select a direction (forward, backward, left, or right flip)

Press R1 to cycle between the LED colors for the drone and remote. This is also a great way to check which drone the controller is connected to without needing to fly. Set your drone and controller to your favorite color.

Use the “S” button to switch the status screen. The different screens show sensor data as well as crash data and firmware versions. Keep pressing “S” to return to the main screen, with the arrow displaying the heading.

The CoDrone EDU has a “Return Home” feature that allows the drone to fly back to its takeoff position on its own! This can be helpful if you want an easy way to get your drone back to it’s starting position without flying it yourself.

Find an area for your CoDrone EDU to take off from. Make sure that this takeoff zone has plenty of space around it. We will be using the “return home” feature, and we don’t want to accidentally crash into anything!

Let’s practice returning home! Make sure that your CoDrone EDU and CoDrone EDU remote are both powered on.

1. Press and hold L1 to take off.
2. Fly forward using the right stick. Try to get at least 6 feet away from your takeoff zone.
3. Press and hold the “H” button on your remote until you hear a noise. Once you hear the remote beeping, let go of the “H” button.
4. Your drone will now return to its takeoff zone
5. Press and hold L1 to land, or hold down on the left stick and manually land.

Challenge 1

Use your joysticks to fly CoDrone EDU in the shape of the letters in the alphabet! Let’s start with an easy one. “D” for drone!

1. Press and hold L1 to take off.
2. Using the right stick, make your CoDrone EDU fly in a “D” shape.
3.  Press and hold L1 to land.

Next, try the whole alphabet! Or spell each letter in your name.

Challenge 2

What happens when you fly CoDrone EDU forward while throttling up and down? You get a wave!

1. Press and hold L1 to takeoff.
2. Fly forward by pressing up on the right joystick.
3. While flying forward, move your left joystick up and down.
4. Press and hold L1 to land.

Here are some more examples of flight challenges. Try out some of these challenging shapes.