Flight Events

Blockly for Robolink requires Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) on your laptop. That means your Mac must be 2012 or newer. For Windows machines, it varies more widely depending on the brand.

You should also have the latest version of Chrome installed. Blockly for Robolink is meant to run on the Chrome browser, so make sure you have that installed. 

If you encounter any issues, please post them to our forum so we can continue to improve this version.

Out of all of the menus in Blockly, the one you will be using the most is Flight Commands. This is where you will find blocks to have your CoDrone fly in different directions and, probably most important, take off and land! To find the take off and land blocks, click on the dark blue flight commands menu. The take off and land blocks should be at the top!

Any code that has your CoDrone in the air will start with the take off block. This will make your drone launch from the ground and fly vertically in the air. Your CoDrone should then hover for about three seconds before moving on to the next block in your code. 

Let’s make your CoDrone take off now! Drag the take off block from the flight commands menu to your workspace.

If you want your CoDrone to hover for more than three seconds, there is a way to do that! Find the hover for _ seconds block in the flight commands menu and connect it to the bottom of the take off block. Next, type in the number of seconds you would like your CoDrone to hover for.

The land block brings your CoDrone to the ground gently. When you’re finished with everything else in your code, attach the land block to the bottom of your program.

There might be times when your CoDrone is about to crash into something and you need to have it make an emergency stop before it does serious damage. If you want your CoDrone’s motors to stop without crashing into the ceiling first, program a kill switch by dragging a rounded when _ key press block from the gray keyboard inputs menu into the workspace. This should be the block that doesn’t have a connector on the side! Pick the key you would like to use to stop your drone from the block’s drop-down menu, but as a warning, using the backspace key can sometimes delete blocks of code! 

Next, go to the flight commands menu, find the emergency stop block, and drag it into the when _ key press block. 

Note: this will be a separate program but will be in the same workspace!

Your workspace should look something like this: 

Challenge: CoDrone Pushups 

Try to make your CoDrone take off and land 5 times in a row with one code! Currently, your CoDrone can do one pushup with the code you have. 

Rules: 

1. The CoDrone must completely leave the ground on takeoff. 
2. The CoDrone must be completely back on the ground on landing. 
3. Don’t forget an emergency stop! 

Hint: For the best results, include a wait command after a landing and before a takeoff.