The Racer 2, one of the the drones that started it all here at DRL... This Drone is a Legend, and here is a listing of the components on a DRL Racer 2 and what they do.
**Although we can go into huge detail on every aspect of this topic, we're going to stick to the basic explanation of things.
**See the picture below to match with the number for each part.
13. 
- Frame. Made of Carbon Fiber to be very strong and durable yet still light weight. Holds all the drones components.
- Flight Control Board. Think of this as the brain of the drone. Its job is to adjust the RPM to the motors from the pilots control on the Radio Controller through the receiver.
- ESC's (Electronic Speed Controllers). 4 in total. These are electronic circuit boards which vary the electric motors speed.
- Motors. There are 4 of them on a "quad copter" or "DRL Drone", which spin the propellers to allow the drone to become airborne.
- Propellers. There are 4 of these to go with the 4 motors. They spin while essentially pushing the air to give the drone lift and movement. They are made of different sizes and pitch to give more or less responsiveness, speed, efficiency etc.
- PDB (Power Distribution Board). This is an electronic circuit board which the battery connects to and distributes power to the ESC's, Flight Controller, and video transmitter, etc. Some drones may route the power differently through other components. There are many ways to route power.
- Battery. Powers the drone. (pretty basic huh?)
- Receiver. This is an electronic circuit board which receives a wireless signal from the pilots inputs on the Radio controller and communicates to the Flight Control Board to control the drone.
- Video Transmitter. This is an electronic circuit board which connects to a camera, and antenna. It captures the video from the camera and wirelessly sends the video signal to the pilots goggles.
- FPV Camera. FPV stands for "First Person View". This camera sits on the front of the drone in an angle to allow the pilot to see where the drone is flying. It connects to the Video Transmitter as stated above.
- FPV Antenna. This is typically a "clover leaf" style antenna which sends the video from the camera from the video transmitter to the pilots FPV goggles.
- LED's. These are the colored lights illuminating the drone with different colors to determine which pilot is operating which drone.
- Radio Controller. This is a handheld controller that the pilot holds to wirelessly control the drone.
- FPV Goggles. FPV stands for First Person View. The pilots operate these drones in FPV rather than Line of Sight. So its like the are in the cockpit of the drone looking out in front to control which way the drone moves. The goggles have a "Video Receiver" in them that receives the video feed from the drones camera and video transmitter.
Here's another look at some of the parts on both the Racer 2 and Racer 1. Click here.
Wanna learn more about EVERYTHING Drones??? We've got you covered! This link will show you the ropes and help you learn it all! Click here for FPV 101!