Mr Vullo – Alternative Education

Taking to the Skies: Learning to Fly and Troubleshoot the Air:bit 2 Programmable Micro:bit Drone

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the next stage of our Air:bit 2 journey: the eagerly anticipated first flight! As with any good DIY project, learning to fly your Micro:bit drone involves a bit of trial and error, but it’s a fantastic educational experience. Whilst the Air:bit 2 is brilliantly designed, the real learning comes from the troubleshooting, and we certainly encountered a few tricky moments that we needed to iron out to achieve stable flight.

This guide covers the simple control system, the vital importance of correct propeller placement, and the exciting outcome of our maiden flight attempts. Get ready to see how a little bit of perseverance (and a close look at the instructions!) helped us take to the skies.

Phase 1: Powering Up and Mastering the Controls

Before you can fly, you need to ensure both the drone and the controller are ready. The beauty of the Air:bit system is its reliance on the Micro:bit’s built-in radio feature to link the two devices.

Preparing the Drone and Controller

  1. Drone Power-Up: Simply plug the battery into the control board. The system then calibrates itself automatically. The excellent instructions on the Air:bit website will guide you through this process to confirm it’s ready.
  2. Controller Power-Up: Power up your handheld Micro:bit controller, and it will also calibrate and connect automatically via the radio signal.

Mastering the Flight Inputs

The Micro:bit is transformed into a highly responsive controller using its onboard sensors.

  • Start/Stop: Pressing both the A and B buttons simultaneously is the command to start the motors (or end the flight).
  • Throttle Control: The A button reduces power (to descend), whilst the B button increases power (for acceleration and climbing).
  • Directional Control: The red dot on the Micro:bit display acts as your direction indicator. To steer the drone, you simply tilt the controller in the direction you want to move.

Phase 2: Troubleshooting a Tricky Take-Off

Our first few attempts at taking off resulted in the drone immediately flipping to one side. This indicated an issue with uneven power distribution or incorrect motor thrust—a classic problem with any quadcopter build.

The Propeller Orientation Error

After recharging the battery (just in case), we soon realised the core problem was a fundamental assembly error: the propellers were in the wrong positions.

Propellers on a quadcopter must spin in alternating directions to balance the rotational forces (torque). The Air:bit kit includes two types:

  1. CW (Clockwise)
  2. CCW (Counter-Clockwise)

If the wrong propeller type is on the wrong motor, the drone will be fundamentally unbalanced and simply flip over. Our solution was to carefully re-examine the build instructions and switch the propellers around to ensure the correct CW/CCW type was on each arm. This crucial fix ensured the drone was finally balanced and ready to fly flat instead of flipping sideways.

Phase 3: Successful Flight and the Next DIY Adventure

With the propeller issue sorted, the Air:bit 2 was able to take to the skies! It was a rewarding moment, proving that the combination of a DIY build, a bit of coding, and some diligent troubleshooting can lead to success.

However, the nature of learning to fly is often crash-heavy, and after many attempts and a few too many bumps, the drone’s wooden frame sadly broke.

The Opportunity for Custom DIY Builds

This, however, is not the end of the journey—it’s an exciting new beginning! The beauty of a DIY kit is that the most valuable components are often reusable:

  • The motors
  • The battery
  • The Micro:bit brain and its code
  • The Air:bit control board

With these core electronics intact, we now have a unique opportunity to design and build our very own custom DIY drones! This will allow us to experiment with different frame materials and designs, all powered by the same great Micro:bit code.

Conclusion: Subscribe for the Next Stage!

Learning to fly the Air:bit 2 was a fantastic educational step, and troubleshooting the propeller issue was a brilliant lesson in the physics of flight.

If you’re keen to follow our next steps as we move from a kit build to creating our own bespoke DIY drone designs using the reusable Air:bit components, please do subscribe! We’ll be sharing the coding and building process for our next aerial adventure.

Thanks again for following along—we’ll see you next time for the start of our new build!