1.8: Remote Control

Step 1

Getting Started

PRE-FLIGHT WARNING

Our drones are durable, yet not indestructible. Please exercise caution while piloting your drone. To prolong the longevity of your drone, avoid flying into walls or other objects. Prior to takeoff, please review lesson 0.2 “Before You Fly”.

Make sure that your drone is connected with Blockly before starting the lesson! If you are unsure of how to connect, go back to the first lesson to review!

Step 2

Keyboard Input

You may be wondering how to use the keyboard to control CoDrone EDU. In this activity, you will learn how to use conditionals to control your LED and flight movements. Start your program with the light off so you can turn it on later with the space bar.

Step 3

Forever Loop

Since you want your program to constantly check if you are pressing a key, you will need to implement a forever loop. For this example, use a repeat loop block and connect a code is running block from the “Status Checkers” menu.

Step 4

Conditional

Now it’s time to check for keyboard input! Remember that when a program needs to make a decision, you should use a conditional statement.

Go to the “Logic” menu and grab a conditional block.
In the “Events” menu, grab a when backspace key press block. From the drop-down menu, select “spacebar”.

If the space bar is pressed, turn on your drone LED to any color.

Step 5

More Keys

If you want to check for multiple key presses, you will need to include an else if statement for each new key. Add five new else if statements:

when up key press
when down key press
when left key press
when right key press
when “L” key press

Step 6

Adding Flight Commands

Now add flight commands! Add in the flight directions that correspond to the arrow keys. For “L”, land the drone.

Step 7

Add the Take-Off

Don’t forget the take off block! This block should go before the while loop. If it’s inside the while loop, the drone will keep sending the takeoff over and over again.

Step 8

Challenge

Challenge: Reverse Controller

For this challenge, let’s challenge your mind. Write a keyboard controller with all the controls reversed. For example, the up key will move the drone backward and the down key will move the drone forward.

Build an obstacle course and try to fly to the finish line using your reverse controller. If you need to, adjust the values of the delays and add more keys for more functionality!

Step 9

Lesson Complete

In this lesson, you learned how to program your very own remote using all the blocks you have learned about so far. You also had the chance to design your own obstacle course to test your flight skills with your custom controller!

This lesson works with:

Grade level:

Approx. time required:

CSTA

CCSS