How To Use A Bluetooth Game Controller With Ryze Tello Drone

Comments off | Drone Reviews / Tutorials By Air Photography · April 1, 2018

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In this video, I go over all the steps on how to connect, pair and use a Bluetooth game controller with the Ryze Tello drone. Ryze does not make a dedicated controller for the Tello, you can, however, use various game controllers to fly the Tello. These Bluetooth controllers for iOS are normally used to play games on your iPhone or iPad but they also work quite well to control some drones. Now one thing I would like to point out is that these Bluetooth controllers will not give you any extra range for your drone unlike other drones such as the DJI Spark. A Bluetooth controller is different in the fact that it does not connect directly to the drone. The controller connects to your iPhone and then the iPhone to the drone.

The controller I opted to go with is the Speedy controller by PXN. Setup is quick and easy and the controller has a nice quality build. Whatever brand you go with make sure it comes with a phone mount. This is important so you can mount your phone while flying.

To set up your Bluetooth remote with your Tello Drone you will need to do the following steps.

The first thing you need to do is power on and put your controller into pairing mode. You do so by long pressing the power button for 4 seconds until the battery lights start to blink slowly. Then press the “wireless” icon beside the lights to enter into pairing mode. The lights will now blink fast to signify it has entered pairing mode.
Now you will need to pair the controller to your iPhone/iPad via Bluetooth. Open up the Bluetooth options in the settings app on your iPhone. Find the listing for the “Speedy Controller” or whatever brand you are using and click on connect. Your phone will now be paired with your Bluetooth controller. This step only needs to be done once.
At this point, you can connect the Tello drone to your iPhone via WiFi as you normally do.
Launch the Tello app and that is it. The Tello app will automatically detect that there is a Bluetooth remote connected. You can go to the settings within the Tello app to view a diagram of what buttons can be used for shortcuts (see Below).