How to Fly a Drone with Your Android Smartphone

You can really do everything with your Android device. Today, you can even use it to run a small motorized robot or drone. You would become drone pilot within minutes! Follow the guide.

They roll, they fly or they swim, no doubt you’ve already heard about the drones. Your Android devices are gradually replacing the venerable remote control cars (you know remote antenna). Provided photo / video sensor and more or less advanced features, they are all associated with an Android app. The principle is simple: you have to connect the drone to your smartphone (or tablet, even if in this case the size of the screen makes them less easy controls) or Wi-Fi Direct or Bluetooth, then display the control interface directly on the mobile screen. Smartphone obliges all go through the touch. The advantage is that it allows you to offer sub-menus with more features than on a physical remote control. The downside is that the driving experience will be proportional to the size of the smartphone screen and responsiveness.

As fun as they are, drones suffer from a lack of size: the life of their batteries. Allow 5 to 20 minutes of use before needing to recharge via USB, for 30 minutes to an hour on average for a full charge.

In the following paragraphs, we use the drone Jumping Sumo at Parrot, but the basic principles remain the same.

Take the controls of a drone:

Connecting Your Drone

Make sure that the drone is loaded and turn it on. Turn on Wi-Fi on your smartphone and connect to the network followed by a sequence of letters and numbers. The drone will sound when the connection becomes effective. You just have to open the application FreeFlightPro (or one associated with your drone).

Make Updates

It is possible that the driver of your drone will not be updated. Skip the Home screen by pressing Remind me later, and tap Check for updates. Wait a few seconds to see a window open and offer the SHIFT. Confirm OK. Your drone will be offline during the operation and it will go through step one if necessary.

Check the Drone

The navigation interface depends of course of the drone you fly. Here, the left slider to go forward / back as tilting the smartphone while rotating the craft. To record a video or take a picture, press the corresponding button (the red circle and the camera respectively). Warning: here it will connect a micro USB to the drone, the latter having no internal memory.

Emma is the Article writer at Done Dissertation, and she writes articles about relate science and technology. Other interests include literature, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there’s no tomorrow.