K.C.'s Garage

A common question I get is:  "What MultiWii flight controller should I use?" There are a few determining factors involved in this decision.  The primary considerations are: What microcontroller (µC) do you need What integrated sensors do you want? What Microcontroller (µC) should you look for? MultiWii is based on the Atmel corporation's 8 bit "megaAVR" series of µCs.  All the MultiWii boards I've seen are based on one of three µCs, but you could certainly port the software to others if you're good at microcontroller integration. Below is a table of the three most common and their relevant specifications: µC flash ram eeprom serial uarts usb ports ATmega328p 32 kilobytes 2048 bytes 1024 bytes 1 0 ATmega32u4 32 kilobytes 2560 bytes 1024 bytes 1 1 ATmega2560 256 kilobytes 8192 bytes 4096 bytes 4 1 Those of you who are familiar with AVR µCs will notice I left off the number of digital, ...

Meet "Sharky", my first non-indoor quadcopter.   (Shown next to one of my brushed-motor nano quads for scale.) I wanted to graduate to a larger quad, but not something huge, so I decided this 345mm span "mini" quad was the way to go.  I liked the size and design of this quad. The "pseudo-airplane" shape on the frame looked more like a shark than an aircraft to me, hence the name. We'll start with what I initially built: Frame: Turnigy Integrated PCB Mini-Quad 345mm Flight Controller:  MultiWii MicroWii ATmega32U4 Flight Controller USB/BARO/ACC/MAG Receiver:  OrangeRx R100 Spektrum/JR DSM2 Compatible Satellite Receiver 4 x Motors:  Turnigy Park300 Brushless Outrunner 1380kv 4 x Speed Controllers (ESCs):  Afro ESC 12Amp (SimonK Firmware) Battery:  ZIPPY Compact 2200mAh 3S 25C Lipo Pack Props: GWS HD8040 3 blade (& their counter rotating counterparts ) I fly this with my existing OrangeRX T-Six DSM2 transmitter. I run MultiWii 2....

Anyone who knows me well knows that lately I've been playing with remote-controlled flying things.   This post provides information and links to the small (nano) indoor flyable quadcopters I've been playing with. I have built & modified a few quadcopters of various (small) sizes, from the tiny brushed-motor nano-quads like the HobbyKing Pocketquad & Syma X1 to a larger, more traditional brushless motor mini quad based on the Turnigy 345mm frame.  (More on that in a subsequent post.) Throughout this endeavor I've been using (and customizing) the MultiWii flight control software , with various Arduino / Atmel-based flight control boards.  It's becoming a FAQ what hardware and systems I'm using, so in this post I'll detail my current setup.  Future posts will cover updates, new hardware, and a couple of crazy projects I'm working on.  ;) Note: I buy a lot of parts made and sold by HobbyKing.com in China.  Their website is a bit... odd.. so I...