Taking the Egg Drop to the Next Level

In this project, we are going to use a drone to lift your egg drop to previously inconceivable hights.

Step 1: The Drone

First we are going to make the drone, here is the overview of its components.

Step 2: Start With the Motherboard

The motherboard is known as an f4 flight controller. This board directs all the voltage and signals from the different components. It is very important that you don't leave this plugged in when soldering. Refer to the diagram in step one and what you are going to do is pre solder the board. Wires melt easier together when each has solder on them so if you pre solder the necessary spots your job will be easier. A good pre solder should be like a hearsay kiss as exemplified by 2/3 pictured above.

Step 3: Power Adapter

The first thing you want to connect to your flight controller is your power adapter. This is what you will plug you 4s battery into.

Step 4: Motors and ESCs

When you order your motors they will come with long wires so you want to trim those down and solder them to the ESC. Each motor should simply correspond to the parallel pad on the ESC. It is good practice but not necessary to put heat shrink wrap around the ESCs.

Step 5: Connecting Motors to FC (Flight Controller)

Each motor comes with a direction on its top align these directions with the diagram feature above otherwise it is unlikely that your drone gets off the ground. Solder the Red (Voltage) Black (ground) and White (signal) to the appropriate spots on the board you can also refer back to the diagram in step 2.

Step 6: Camera and VTX (Optional)

If your goal is to just get the end product you can skip this step. If you want to be able to stream fpv video of your drone to goggles you want to use these. For the VTX you only want the set of wire with the 3 different colors you can solder off the other set. Refer back to the diagram on slide 2 on where to solder these. Remember to pre solder your spots to make your jobs easier.

Step 7: Receiver

The receiver is a crucial part of your drone as it connects your remote to your flight controller. You should use the red (voltage) black (ground) and green (signal) wires out of the five different ones. This specific receiver pairs with the flysky Taranis series. Different remotes may require a different receiver.

Step 8: Completion of the Drone

That is all the components of the drone. Assemble the frame and zip-tie all the different components down as to not have them cut by the wings.

Step 9: The Raspberry Pi

I used the model 3b which came with the noobs program

Step 10: Plugging in the Servo

The servo draws little power so we are going to take its power from the Pi. The servo has 3 wires which correspond to 5V (red) ground (black) and signal (orange). You want to connect your wires of the servo (with wire extenders to the 5v, ground, and port 17 (it can be a different port but the code I am using uses 17).

Step 11: The Code for the Dropper

I have set up the code so the servo will drop the egg drop 150 seconds after you hit run on the code. The code is attached in the picture above. I wrote it on python 3 which came preinstalled on the noobs card.

Step 12: Making the Attachment to the Drone.

For the attachment i used the box as the holster. I cut a hole in the side of the box to wrap the wires down below the box. For the power source I am going to use a rechargeable battery. I poked holes in the top to attach the drone via zip-ties. I taped the side of the box so it does not open. Finally, I cut holes in the side of the box so I can have access to the USB ports.

Step 13: The Servo Dropper

For the servo dropper, I hot glued the servo onto the box next to a taped together folded cardboard piece which I also hot glued. When the code activates the servo will rotate 180 degrees 2 times the first will drop the egg drop contraption.

Step 14: A Look at What It Will Do

A close-up video of what my project would do when in the air.