Micro:bit - Building a Drone Using Airbit

This is an instructable about how to make your own drone by using the makekit air:bit.

I had actuelly not planned to write this instructable.

The makekit air:bit is a kit for making a specific drone. We started making our own drones with the kit last year and I did not write an instructable for it, since it was more about modding a kit, than making something new.

A few weeks ago I shared some of our drones on facebook and a lot of people asked me how we build them and if I could write an instruction for it.

Supplies:

2 x micro:bit

4 mm plywood or 3 mm acrylic sheet

1 x air:bit kit

Tool:

Lasercutter

First you want to design the drone in your favorite design program. My students usually use Fusion360 and that is also what have been used here.

Remember to have 4 x 3 mm holes for the landing spacers and 2 x 3 mm holes to mount the air:bit on.

The hardest part to make is the hole for the motors, which should be made like a circle with a rectangle on. The circle should have a radius of 5 mm and the rectangle should be 4,5 mm x the thickness of your material.

I have uploaded the file for our drone in 3 different formats.

Now cut out the drone parts and we can start assembling.

Use 2 of the smallest screws and 2 nuts. Screw one of the micro:bit onto the small plywood that came in the kit.

Then attach the battery pack with one of the rubberbands.

The battery pack isn't that staple, so a lot of our students instead choose to use one of the many coin battery boards. We often use the kitronik power board.

We then start working on assembling the air:bit.

First we mount the two see-through screws. We will latter use them to mount the air:bit on the drone frame.

Now use the 4 longest screws. Put them in the two first and last holes of the airbit and screw the braze tubes on. You should screw them on very tight, since the power will be going through the tubes and not the screws.

Afterwards you use 4 nuts and screw on the micro:bit. They also need to be rather tight. The most common problem when my students assemble drones is that they haven't tightened these nuts or the braze tubes well enough.

That is also why many students choose to instead use metal screws and nuts, together with 4 hollow plastic assemblers for this step. It is much easier, but will increase the weight of the drone with a few grams.

First we mount the motors with the motor-mounters. It can be a bit hard.

Remember that there is two different kind of motors and that the same types should be mount diagonal opposite of each other.

Then put the propellers on. Again there is two types. CW and CCW. Each propeller have a small mark that tells you what type it is. CCW go on the motor with black and white wire, while CW go on the motor with blue and red wire.

Take the last 4 screw and the 4 nylon dividers. Screw them onto the drone frame.

Put the last rubberband onto the drone frame asseen on the picture.

Put the wires through the two holes closest to the middle.

Now mount the air:bit onto the drone frame.

Put wire up the motors to the air:bit as shown on the picture.

Mount the battery onto the drone with the rubberband.

The drone is now finished.

To program the airbit you need to get theairbit exention for makecode. The only way to get access to that extension seem to be through an airbit project. So instead of writting the code from scratch I suggest that you use the code that makekit have made avaible.

I have uploaded it to makecode for convenience.

You can find the code for the sender here.

You can find the code for the drone here.

Now test your drone and enjoy.

First turn on the controller and the drone. The drone should be on a stabel horizontal surface.

Press a+b to arm the drone. The propellers should start spinning. A and B controlles power.You often need to increase power many times before the drone will start lifting.

The most common problem if the drone doesn't work is that either the braze tube or the nuts isn't tight enough.