Can y’all help get me started with open source drone stuff? Ideally sub 250g. I’m looking to get into the hobby, and don’t have anything. Recommendations for controllers, SIMs etc would also be nice.
Very short answer: Get any of the opentx/edgetx transmitters (like radiomaster, jumper). go for expressLRS as a protocol for transmitter/receivers (2.4g). The default firmware for flying yourself is betaflight (racing, acro, some camera drones like cinewhoops). If you want the drone to fly itself (gps missions) it’s probably ardupilot, but check legality in your area first. I have no direct recommendation for video for you, sorry.
I wouldn’t mind the slightly longer answer if you can spare the time
Without more information what exactly you want to do/learn, that’s kinda hard. Racing? Acrobatics? Micros/Woops (flying in your home/garage)? Drone as a cinematic camera (DJI-style) or faster camera work (chasing motocross riders for video for example)?
Also specific recommendations for hardware heavily depend on this and just personal preference, and what else you might want to do with the radio and/or video equipment. As an introduction and overview, like someone else has already commented, check out Joshua Bardewell on youtube. He literally makes everything from introduction, basic tutorial, to advanced guides and deep dives into anything drone-related as his full time job.
I was looking into this recently, but didn’t have any first hand information.
https://ardupilot.org/ardupilot/docs/common-rtf.html#common-rtf
I was looking at these too a couple days ago but cheapest option is like $500USD without batteries, camera, radio controller, etc. Half of them are so expensive you have to call for a price and shit.
Not exactly beginner pricing IMO when you may just crash it anyways
No matter which kind you pick, you always start with a simulator unless you have more money than sense. There are free ones, and good ones aren’t expensive either. Radios these days can just be plugged into a computer so you’re using your actual controller for the simulator, too.
Any recommendations? Ideally for SIMs/radios that work on Linux
All of the OpenTX/EdgeTX radios work on Linux as a controller, and generally most radios that support this probably will, because they just appear as a joystick (HID profile). There are also ways of connecting them other than just plugging the radio into usb and selecting “controller mode”, but even those usually result in a joystick device I think? So which radio in particular mostly depends on what kind of drone you want to fly, if you want to fly other things (plane, helicopter, scale models), or drive other things (cars/boats/crawling/scale models). Also ergonomics (size of hands, similar to a classic radio or similar to a game controller?) and just personal preference, mostly.
As for the Sim, I think Liftoff has a native Linux port, but these days most of the sims should just work anyway with the recent developments of valve for the steamdeck.
Check out Joshua Bardwell on youtube if you want to build a racing/fpv drone. He has a website too.
There’s a lot to unpack in the drone world so if you decide to go open source be prepared for an adventure.
