Custom Flight Controller

I am a beginner, i want to add an RFID to my drone. After a long search, i did not find a kit having the drone with a flight controller that can communicate with an RFID.

So i thought about getting a drone kit without a flight controller, the kit that i thought about was DJI flame wheel F450, and then adding an Arduino board to be a flight controller, because I know that Arduino can read an RFID chip.

But before I put my plan into action, i wanted to check if an Arduino Uno board can control any ESC, and more specifically the ESC that come with the DJI flame wheel F450 kit.

Summary: I want to know if an Arduino board can control a DJI flame wheel F450 drone.

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  • I just want to confirm my shopping list so i don't miss anything:

    1)Arduino

    2)M6e

    3)Ardupilot

    4)DJI f450

    if i missed something please tell me

  • I dont want to create a new flight controller, i want to use an Arduino board.

    What I want to do is when the reader reads a certain tag, it signals to the arduino then the arduino will stop moving forward and just floats on top of the tag

    • Ah, got it.

      Since the copter will need to hover about a meter over the tag to be able to read it, I'm not seeing the point, but I'll play along.

      You'll have to program the Arduino to send a Mavlink command to the APM to change flight mode to Loiter when it reads the tag.

      I guess you could create a mission to fly to the general vicinity of the tag and then go into a tight "search" pattern until the arduino reads the tag. Then it could send the Mavlink command to do have the APM do something else or just go to Loiter mode.

      One problem I can see is keeping the copter to a tight enough altitude tolerance to be able to read the tag without either being too high, or hitting the ground. Sonar might help, but I keep reading how flaky it is.

      • I was thinking of using a M6e micro reader so I can get more range(around 1-3 meters)

        I am sorry but I am a little confused about what you are saying. The problem is I am still a beginner.

        As I know, APM is Ardupilot, and Mavlink is a type of information decoding that APM can read/use.

        The only thing i do not know is 1)how to connect Arduino to APM and send the decoded info.

        One last thing, if could explain 2)how to connect a M6e to Arduino, or even if it possible.

        Sorry for all the trouble

        • Also another question.
          Is is better/easier to connect an RFID reader to arduino then send the info coming from the reader to the APM then let the APM controll it

          Or to let Arduino handel all of this stuff
          • Well, the M6e has TTL level asynchronous data interface, so it should be easy enough to get it talking to an Arduino. As for exactly how to do that, you'll have to do some homework. Same for sending Mavlink commands to an APM.

            Since I have never built such an animal,  I can't say for certain, but it would seem to be a lot easier to program an Arduino to do the RFID decoding than it would be to hack the Ardupilot code to do that.

            • Thank you for your help. What I will do is I'm going to try to connect the M6e to the Arduino so it can decode it and then send it to the APM. I'm fine doing homework,but I just don't want to buy something that I won't use, epically the stuff are little expensive
  • Does the RFID info NEED to be sent to the flight controller? Unless the RFID data will be changing the flight plan in some way, let the flight controller do what it does and put another board in to collect the RFID info. Even then, the second board could send instructions to the APM.

    Creating your own custom flight controller would be like re-inventing the wheel. Reading RFID data is easy. Why add magnitudes of complexity to your project?

    To directly answer your question, yes. An Ardunio can control an ESC. More than a couple of established flight controllers are Ardunio based.

  • if someone is sure whether or not an Arduino board can control ANY ESC?

    also, want to check if a RFID sensor added to an Arducopter board?

  • Thank you Chris Anderson, but if you could illustrate more on how to actually use the code. I am sorry, still a beginner and I want to get the hang of some stuff

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