Programming a mini quadcopter receiver board

karmaker

Hacker
I got this mini quadcopter which flies. But, I thought, I would program it to take some autonomous decision. Since, it has both gyro and 3 axis accelerometer built-in, it should be capable of auto correct few flight problems. It has an Atmega328p chip. Means there is possibility that I can connect it to my PC and upload my sketch.

But, there's one problem, there are no USB pins out on the board.

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JayArr

Member
Hi,

let me just say: Unfortunately it's not that easy.
First of all you have to consider that, yes, you can probably flash that thing with some sort of C code, BUT you'll need a firmware that knows how to talk to the single components of the chip. Now most firmwares are closed source. There are some others like Stevies Firmware which you can download, again BUT it is written in assembler I believe and I don't know about you, but I think coding an AI in assembler is close to impossible.
Having said all that I think the best way to do such a thing is to hook up an arduino nano or similarly small chip between the receiver and the flight controller. this way your inputs and outputs are very clear and standardized and you can write your logic in C and hook up all sorts of sensors to your arduino.

what types of decisions did you have in mind?
 

karmaker

Hacker
Hi Jay. Thanks a lot for your suggestion. I will look into Stevies Firmware. But, what about multiwii?

I want my quad to take autonomous decisions, like, when there is no pulse from transmitter, any drifting or loosing altitude is unwanted. So, while sitting idle, I want arduino to read accelerometer, measure g of the movement and get direction of the movement and then apply counter force. It won't be perfect without barometer and gps. But, it will give some stability during indoor flight.