Book Image

Building Smart Drones with ESP8266 and Arduino

By : Syed Omar Faruk Towaha
Book Image

Building Smart Drones with ESP8266 and Arduino

By: Syed Omar Faruk Towaha

Overview of this book

With the use of drones, DIY projects have taken off. Programmers are rapidly moving from traditional application programming to developing exciting multi-utility projects. This book will teach you to build industry-level drones with Arduino and ESP8266 and their modified versions of hardware. With this book, you will explore techniques for leveraging the tiny WiFi chip to enhance your drone and control it over a mobile phone. This book will start with teaching you how to solve problems while building your own WiFi controlled Arduino based drone. You will also learn how to build a Quadcopter and a mission critical drone. Moving on you will learn how to build a prototype drone that will be given a mission to complete which it will do it itself. You will also learn to build various exciting projects such as gliding and racing drones. By the end of this book you will learn how to maintain and troubleshoot your drone. By the end of this book, you will have learned to build drones using ESP8266 and Arduino and leverage their functionalities to the fullest.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

GPS Tracker using ESP8266

We will use the following components:

  • NodeMCU (it has a built-in ESP8266)
  • GPS receiver (you can use the Ublox NEO-6M GPS Module)
  • A few cables
  • Power source
  • A smartphone (for the Blynk)

To make the connection, follow the pin configurations with NodeMCU and the GPS receiver:

NodeMCU

GPS receiver

D1

TX

D2

RX

GND

GND

VCC

3V

See the following circuit for clarification:

  1. Now, connect the NodeMCU to the computer and open the Arduino application to program the NodeMCU. Before uploading the code, let's open our Blynk app.
  2. Create a new project, as we discussed in Chapter 3, Preparing Your Drone for Flying.
  3. Remember the authentication code sent to the email address you registered with the app; this will be needed later. In my case, I have set my project name as MY GPS TRACKER, device type as NodeMCU, and connection type...