Computer Control of Off The Shelf "Cheap" Quadcopters

Basics

• This page goes over potential methods for controlling cheap (80-200USD) quadcopter camera "drones" with a PC rather than the included remote and/or mobile app
• Many work via an unsecured 5ghz wifi connection, and thus are quite "hackable"
• Despite not being as user maintainable / capable as a custom built Quadcopter , they are heavily accessable, and quite cost effective, and thus may be of use

External Links

• An article by "Medium" Titled "Hacking a Toy Drone to Put Artificial Intelligence on It, Part 1: The Hack!"
• A Video by the Youtube Channel "Adam Savage's Tested Titled "Hacking a $20 Toy Helicopter into an Autonomous Drone" (Used a 20 USD "Micro Helicopter (no onboard camera 1 counterotor) ", an arduino mega connected to the gutted ir remote, and a program using the arduino mega as a Logic Analyser (via an open source project (which project) ), then custom code for the hid devices they added in
• An Article by "Computer World" Titled "A cheap quadcopter, computer vision techniques and thousands of plastic ducks prove drones’ value in ecology" Seems like they are just using the OTS software, and a photo/video processor, intresting article nonetheless
• An Article by "Hackaday" Titled "HACKING A CHEAP TOY QUADCOPTER TO WORK WITH ARDUINO"