Getting Started with Tello Drone Programming

In this series, I’ll be diving into various Tello drone projects, and in this post, I’ll walk through the basics of setting up a Tello drone programming environment and share my system setup.

Setting Up Your Project in PyCharm

I use PyCharm Community Edition 2024 as my IDE.

1. Create a New Project: Open PyCharm and create a new project.
2. Set Project Interpreter: Ensure your project interpreter is correctly set.
   • Navigate to File → Settings → Project → Project Interpreter.
   • Click the + button to add a new package.
   • Search for djitellopy and install it.

The djitellopy library is a wrapper for the Tello SDK. You can add any additional modules to your virtual environment from this page. Here are the packages I’ve installed for my project:

• djitellopy: 2.5.0
• numpy: 2.0.0
• opencv-python: 4.10.0.84
• pillow: 10.4.0
• pip: 23.2.1
• pygame: 2.6.0

These packages are installed within your virtual environment. If you start a new project, you’ll need to reinstall these packages. Alternatively, you can reuse the same project folder for different experiments before settling on a final setup.

Connecting to the Tello Drone

To control your Tello drone, connect your PC to the drone’s WiFi network:

1. Power on your Tello drone.
2. Go to your PC’s WiFi settings and connect to the network named something like “TELLO-XXXXXX”.

Basic Tello Commands

Here’s a simple script to make the Tello drone take off, hover, and land:

from djitellopy import Tello
import time

# Create a Tello object
tello = Tello()

# Connect to the Tello drone
tello.connect()

# Display the battery level
print(f"Battery: {tello.get_battery()}%")

# Take off
tello.takeoff()

# Move right with maximum speed for 2 seconds
tello.send_rc_control(100, 0, 0, 0)
time.sleep(2)

# Move forward at half speed for 3 seconds
tello.send_rc_control(0, 50, 0, 0)
time.sleep(3)

# Move up with maximum speed for 1 second
tello.send_rc_control(0, 0, 100, 0)
time.sleep(1)

# Rotate clockwise with maximum speed for 2 seconds
tello.send_rc_control(0, 0, 0, 100)
time.sleep(2)

# Stop all movement
tello.send_rc_control(0, 0, 0, 0)

# Land
tello.land()

Explanation of the Example

• Move right: The drone moves to the right at maximum speed (100 on the left/right channel) for 2 seconds.
• Move forward: The drone moves forward at half speed (50 on the forward/backward channel) for 3 seconds.
• Move up: The drone ascends at maximum speed (100 on the up/down channel) for 1 second.
• Rotate clockwise: The drone rotates clockwise at maximum speed (100 on the yaw channel) for 2 seconds.
• Stop all movement: The drone stops all movement by setting all velocity values to 0.
• Land: The drone lands safely.

These velocity commands provide precise control over the drone’s movements, allowing for smoother and more intricate flight patterns.