Enter the Tello

Mark Pors

2025-04-20

  • Combined interests in hiking, coding, and new tech led to a drone project idea
  • Goal: build an autonomous scouting drone for hiking adventures
  • Started with no drone or computer vision experience
  • Resisted the urge to over-invest at first (just bought the domain dronelab.dev)
  • Chose the DJI RoboMaster TT as a beginner-friendly, programmable drone
  • Next steps: experiment with the RoboMaster TT, both manually and with code

Combine the stuff you like

“Combine the stuff you like” is good advice when looking for a new project to work on. I like to follow good advice and so I brainstormed a bit with ChatGPT to find interesting intersections between my interests. Some of my favorite activities — like sex, meditation, and reading — didn’t quite lend themselves to computer vision projects. Others had more potential: hiking in nature, coding, learning about new tech.

Autonomous scouting drone

Having a drone accompany us on hikes to do some scouting ahead hits the mark for me. It includes hiking and coding, and most important: I need to learn a lot to make a drone do what I want. I have zero experience with drones and very limited experience with computer vision models.

Getting ready big time

Like any self-respecting tech nerd, I decided to kick things off in style:

  1. Buy a domain name (most important!)
  2. Get a logo (as important!)
  3. Buy the best dev/DIY drone out there
  4. Buy a top line PC to train models
  5. Buy another PC to run simulation environments

OK, guilty — I bought the domain (hello dronelab.dev), but tried to stop myself there 1 2. I don’t know anything about drones, and might get bored with the project after a couple of weeks, so better start small.

Enter the Tello

I stumbled upon a modest little drone from way back in 2018 3 — the DJI Tello — and it was perfect for my first steps. It can fly indoors, is programmable and has a camera.

There is an even better version of it with some extra goodies that might come in handy:

  • an onboard processor
  • a matrix display
  • a distance sensor

So I bought the DJI RoboMaster TT. TT stands for Tello Talent — basically smart kids coding drones at an age I was still figuring out crayons.

Look at that beauty!

DJI RoboMaster TT

What’s next?

In the next episode I will play with the RoboMaster TT, both with and without code to control it. It includes different ways to crash it. Read on…

Footnotes

  1. I always buy the domain first, even before I know what I’m doing.↩︎

  2. I didn’t really stop myself there, I also created a logo. Technically ChatGPT did: dronelab↩︎

  3. 2018, also the last time I blogged something: decentralized.blog.↩︎