There are a number of acronyms that you will see throughout this website, and it is important that you have at least a basic understanding of what they represent.
Amp (Ampere): is the base unit of electric current in the International System of Units.
ARF: Almost Ready to Fly – sometimes ARTF: A drone that requires some minor assembly (such as attaching the propellers).
ATT: Attitude – Orientation of the drone in roll, pitch, and yaw.
BNF: Blind and Fly: A drone that does not come with a controller.
CCD (Charge-coupled device): is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated.
CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor): is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other digital logic circuits; is also used for several analog circuits such as image sensors (CMOS sensor for Drone Camera).
CW/CCW (Clockwise or Counter Clockwise): refers to the rotation of the propellers as viewed from the top looking down at the multirotor.
DJI (Da Jiang Innovation): is a Chinese technology company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong with manufacturing facilities throughout the world. It is known as a manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
ESC (Electronic Speed Controller): is an electric circuit whose main responsibility is to monitor and vary the speed of the drone during flight (the motors to control movement). It is also responsible for the direction of flight and variations in brakes of the drone.
ELEV: Elevator also known as pitch.
FPV (First Person View): It refers to a style of drone flying where you view the world through a camera fitted onto the drone, and use that ‘first person’ perspective to fly the drone.
FC (Flight Controller): is the motherboard of the drone. It is responsible for all the commands that are issued to the drone by the pilot.
FOV (Field of View): is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment – usually measured in degrees.
Fps (Frame Per Second): is a unit that measures display device performance. This is the number of times the image on the screen is refreshed each second, or the rate at which an imaging device produces unique sequential images called frames.
FW: Firmware, software used onboard the drone.
GPS (Global Positioning System): is a satellite navigation system used to determine the ground position of an object.
GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System): is Russia’s version of GPS (Global Positioning System).
GHz (GigaHertz): is a frequency unit that measures the number of cycles per second. A gigahertz is equal to 1,000,000,000 Hz.
GYRO: Gyroscope measures – employed by the FC to help maintain craft orientation.
Inspire: One of the best drone of DJI Company
IMU (Inertial Measuring Unit): is the electronic sensor system of the quadcopter which measures velocity, orientation and gravitational forces of the quadcopter.
KV (motor): refers to the rpm constant of a motor – it is the number of revolutions per minute that the motor will turn when 1V (one Volt) is applied with no load attached to the motor – be sure not confuse it with kV which stands for a kilo-volt.
Kph: refer to Kilometers per hour (km/h) – a physical unit of speed or velocity.
LiPo (Lithium-ion Polymer Battery): is a rechargeable battery of lithium-ion technology using a polymer electrolyte instead of a liquid electrolyte.
LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging): method that measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor.
LOS: Line of Sight.
MDF: Medium-density fibreboard
mAh: stands for milliamps per hour
MAG: Magnetometer/compass.
NiMH: Nickel Metal Hydride.
OSD: On Screen Display.
PITCH: the rotation of the vehicle fixed between the side to side axis called the lateral or transverse axis.
PDB: Power distribution Power
Phantom: series of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) developed by Chinese technology company DJI.
PH: Position hold.
PID: Proportional Integral Derivative – a control loop.
ROLL: the rotation of the vehicle on the front to back axis (nose to tail) and is also called longitudinal axis.
RPM: Revolutions per Minute
RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging): is an object-detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, position or velocity of objects.
RTF: A drone that is ready to fly out of the box, and requires no assembly. However, the battery may need to be charged.
RTH: Return to home.
RX: Receiver which takes our “TX” commands and sends them to the “FC”.
TX: transmitter sends our commands to the “RX”.
Spark: one of the famous small drones on the market realized by DJI Company.
UAV (Unmanned Aerial vehicles): anything without a human pilot on board like aircraft, rockets, quadcopters.
VTOL: Vertical takeoff and landing.
YAW: the rotation around the vertical axis and lies perpendicular to the wings of an aircraft and in the center line.
