Hello Tello Pilot!
Join our DJI Tello community & remove this banner.
Sign up

How do you power a Raspberry PI with the drone?

ExcellentBadger

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2021
Messages
25
Reaction score
0
I'm attempting to do autonomous flight with the Tello, and I want to use a Raspberry Pi W Zero with a LiDaR. For powering the Raspberry Pi, can I just connect the Tello EDU microUSB to the plug on-board the Raspberry Pi?

For the rest of my project, I am planning on using the Tello's camera input by connecting the Raspberry Pi to the Tello's network and getting data from the LiDaR to achieve autonomous flight. Does this plan seem to work, I am unsure if I am missing a component I need to buy
 
I thought, the answer was already given to you.

Nevertheless:
With the latest EDU firmware you can either power an external device but in that case Tello's own WiFi is disabled or you can use Tello's WiFi but have no power on the micro USB connector.

What you get, depends on the sequence of connecting and pressing the power button.

If you connect the Pi Zero before you switch on Tello, the only way of communication between Tello and Pi will be the serial USB, like the RMTT expansion module communicates with Tello, I don't know, how to get the video stream in that case...

Another approach could be to draw power directly from the battery connector as described in my lighting mod: Tello NeoPixel RGBW LED lights add-on, remote controllable, 5g
In that case you will need an additional boost-regulator to get 5V.
 
I thought, the answer was already given to you.

Nevertheless:
With the latest EDU firmware you can either power an external device but in that case Tello's own WiFi is disabled or you can use Tello's WiFi but have no power on the micro USB connector.

What you get, depends on the sequence of connecting and pressing the power button.

If you connect the Pi Zero before you switch on Tello, the only way of communication between Tello and Pi will be the serial USB, like the RMTT expansion module communicates with Tello, I don't know, how to get the video stream in that case...

Another approach could be to draw power directly from the battery connector as described in my lighting mod: Tello NeoPixel RGBW LED lights add-on, remote controllable, 5g
In that case you will need an additional boost-regulator to get 5V.
In that case, it seems easier to power the raspberry pi with an external battery
 
Easier, of course. But adds even more weight (you already have the Rpi Zero and the LiDar...) and also needs a voltage regulator.
 
Easier, of course. But adds even more weight (you already have the Rpi Zero and the LiDar...) and also needs a voltage regulator.
I would have guessed that would mess up the center of gravity a whole lot. I've tried to put some weight on the Tello before and it didn't seem to like it too much, but I haven't tried the "Calibration" button in the app yet.

Do you think adding something as heavy as a Pi is possible?
 
The Pi Zero alone weighs only 9g. That is ok and you can mount it on top so that it CG is still balanced.
 

New Posts

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
5,690
Messages
39,934
Members
17,023
Latest member
Repiv

New Posts