As I mentioned earlier, we’ve got an AR Drone to play with. One of the common mods that popped up on the internet were ways of extending the range on the AR Drone. It normally uses a local Wi-Fi connection to your phone or tablet for control and video signals. Many found this quite restrictive and have gone pretty far in extending that range. The first and easiest was just to set up a higher power Wi-Fi Bridge where you’ll be flying. The Drone only has about 15db of wi-fi magic in it, so anything stronger than that is an improvement. There were too many variations on this to delve into the details, but as you see, there’s not much too it. The second method is to completely replace the Wi-Fi control system with a nice R/C controller. This will greatly increase your range as well as give you extra channels for triggering different attachments (usually lights).  I’ve seen two main methods used. One is called “MacGuyver mod”. This one is a plug and play kit that doesn’t seem to have much info along with it.

The other is called “MiruMod” and the creator has shared all the information they can.  You can find a parts breakdown as well as schematics, wiring diagrams, instructions, and software. [Miru] uses an Arduino Pro Mini or an Arduino Nano as a go-between from the receiver to the serial port on the AR Drone. You can see in the wiring diagram below that it is a fairly simple install, and all [miru] asks for is that maybe you donate some beer money if you appreciate his mod. This app uses the Gamepad API and the chrome.socket API to communicate with The SDK specifies that there are 4 socket connections: UDP 5554: Receiving navdata, i.e. battery, velocities, control state TCP 5555: Receiving H264 video [not implemented] UDP 5556: Sending AT commands for tilt, rotation and elevation UDP 5559: Sending Admin commands The app connects to port 5556 and sends commands to the Drone depending on which buttons are pressed on the gamepad. The commands themselves are AT commands, which

are essentially strings in a specific format. The command strings are concatenated and converted to an ArrayBuffer and sent over the socket connection. protocol in use is UDP there is no guarantee of packet delivery so all commands are sent approximately every 30ms. When data comes back in it is parsed according to the navdata specification in the Drone SDK documentation. The navdata comes back in as an ArrayBuffer from which numbers are read from fixed byte positions. This includes data on the control state of the drone (flying, hovering, landing, taking off), the battery percentage, its angles, altitudes and velcocities. Please note: this has only been tested with an Xbox 360 controller Thanks to felixge for the Node AR Drone lib, which served as a helpful reference. AR Drone 2.0 Packs LiPo 1800 11.1v AR Drone / Drone 2.0 RTR Kit Based on 11 ratings.Charger Upgrade Please Select... Hyperion 0720iNET3 AC/DC Charger Upgrade(save $10) (+$80.00)

Hitec X4 AC Plus 4-Port AC/DC Charger Upgrade(save $20) (+$140.00) Lipo Sack Upgrade Please Select...Lipo Sack 9" x 12"(standard) Lipo Sack Plus 13" x 18" Upgrade (+$10.00) LiPo 1300 11.1v AR Drone / Drone 2.0 RTR Kit Based on 23 ratings. LiPo 1800 3S 11.1v AR Drone / Drone 2.0 Battery Pack Based on 12 ratings.black ops 2 drone map LiPo 1300 3S 11.1v AR Drone / Drone 2.0 Battery Pack Based on 30 ratings.ar drone 2 propellersThere are dozens of cool accessories you can buy for your iPhone, but a flying robot spy with augmented reality has to be at the top of the list. parrot ar drone serviceParrot's AR Drone is a $300 quadrotor that you can control with your iPad, iPod, or iPhone. parrot ar drone power edition quadricopter

It comes equipped with two cameras (one facing forward, the other down) that send their video straight to the mobile device in your hands. Fire up one of its augmented reality apps, and the AR Drone will alter that camera feed so you can see superimposed digital graphics - your flying robot is now a real world video game. parrot ar drone battery extendedRecently, Parrot took their ultimate iPhone accessory to New York City and let the drone duck and weave through the concrete jungle. best ar drone hackCheck out that video below followed by two more great new looks at the device. parrot ar drone usBlending robotics with video games and mobile phones...AR Drone pushes all the right buttons in my technophilic heart. Here's Parrot's little jaunt through NYC...

...and a great look at what you see on the screen while flying the AR Drone. (This is the best footage of the AR Drone on an iPad I've seen). Oh, and in case you were wondering what those AR video games looked like, here's a newer commercial for the player vs. player dueling application. Parrot's been showing off the AR Drone for over a year now. Even just the few minutes I had to play with it at CES 2010 was more than enough to convince me that it was a damn nifty little flying robot. For a while I thought its 50 meter flying range, $300 price tag and iPhone synergy would be enough to make it the platform to bring AR and robotic gaming to the mainstream. It still could, especially if Parrot continues to make cool videos like one above. Supposedly there are several thousand more clips like this on YouTube, only shot by users, not Parrot itself. That's a pretty good sign that it has some staying power in the market. Still, a battery life of only 12 minutes is a severe limitation (takes 1.5 hours to recharge and extra batteries cost around $30), one that is fairly common among flying drones, and that make using these devices for anything beyond a quick demonstration fairly impractical.