Tello Control Program
Python program to control a Tello drone.
DJI Tello Drone Controller
Note: This project was developed with significant help from LLM agents (Claude and ChatGPT) for code generation, documentation, and problem-solving. It's been a great way to learn drone programming while leveraging AI assistance.
What This Is
I built this Python controller for my DJI Tello drone because the basic controls weren't cutting it. I wanted to do more complex flight patterns, capture photos automatically, and have better safety features than what comes out of the box.
The project started as a way to learn about drone programming, but it's turned into a pretty solid SDK that can handle everything from basic takeoff/landing to complex geometric flight patterns.
What It Does
- Flight Control: All the basic movements plus some fancy stuff like automated patterns
- Camera: Live video streaming and photo capture
- Safety Features: Battery monitoring, emergency stops, connection checks
- Complex Patterns: Pre-programmed flights like squares, circles, and flip sequences
- Computer Vision Ready: Set up to work with OpenCV for autonomous navigation (still working on this part)
Project Structure
The code is organized pretty simply:
tello_controller/
├── src/
│ ├── tello_controller.py # Main drone interface
│ ├── flight_control.py # The fun flight patterns
│ └── utils.py # Helper stuff
├── examples/
│ ├── basic_flight_demo.py # Simple demo to test everything works
│ └── advanced_patterns.py # The cool stuff
├── photos/ # Where captured photos go
└── tests/ # Unit tests (because crashes are expensive)
Getting Started
What You Need
- A DJI Tello or Tello EDU drone (obviously)
- Python 3.8+ on your computer
- WiFi connection
- Somewhere safe to fly (not your living room - learned that the hard way)
Setup
Clone the repo and install dependencies:
git clone https://github.com/curohn/tello_controller.git
cd tello_controller
pip install -r requirements.txt
Connect to your Tello: 1. Turn on the drone 2. Connect your computer to the Tello's WiFi network (something like TELLO-XXXXXX) 3. Wait for the connection light to go solid 4. Run one of the flight files:
Basic Usage
python src/flight_control.py
Available Commands
type help for a list of available commands
Safety Stuff (Important!)
Please don't crash your drone. I learned some of these the hard way:
- Fly outside or in a big space - drones are bigger than you think when they're spinning
- Check battery constantly - land when it gets to 20% or the drone will land itself wherever it is
- Keep a strong WiFi connection - if you lose connection, the drone will hover and land on its own
- Don't fly in wind, rain, or when you can't see well
- Know your local drone rules
What I Learned
This project was a great way to dive into drone programming and learn about: - Real-time communication with hardware over WiFi - Next up: Computer vision basics (still working on the advanced stuff) - Working with AI assistants for code generation and problem-solving
Future Plans
- Better autonomous navigation with OpenCV
- More complex flight patterns
- Maybe some basic AI for obstacle avoidance
Resources I Used
- DJI Tello SDK Documentation - The official docs
- djitellopy - Python library that does the heavy lifting
- OpenCV Tutorials - For computer vision stuff
- Various drone forums and Reddit threads when things broke
The AI assistants (Claude and ChatGPT) were incredibly helpful for generating boilerplate code, suggesting safety features I hadn't thought of, and debugging connection issues.
This has been one of my more fun projects - there's something really satisfying about writing code that makes a physical object fly around. If you build something similar, I'd love to see it!