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Hackhawk II: An Arduino-compatible brushless flight controller

Posted by Simon D. Levy on January 6, 2019 at 2:06pm


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What could be more fun than hacking an RTF quadcopter to fly with your own custom firmware? How about hacking with your own DIY Arduino-compatible 32-bit flight controller?  This tutorial shows how I did it. Advantages of using this controller include:

  1. Access to the huge selection of Arduino-compatible add-on sensors (distance, optical flow, ...)
  2. Use of the high-accuarcy SENtral Sensor Fusion IMU, freeing up computation cycles for other tasks.
  3. 3.3V signal levels, for adapter-free interfacing with Raspberry Pi and other single-board computers.
Tags: arduino, pi, raspberry, brushless, fusion, motors, quadcopter, sensor
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Comments

  • Simon D. Levy January 20, 2019 at 12:19am

    Excellent points, Thomas!  I am indeed aware of the obsolescence of the MPU9250/AK8963 through my conversations with Kris, but I was unaware of his new motion coprocessor (he's so productive that I find it difficult to keep up!)  For the first issue (avoiding MPU9250/AK8963), you may know that Pesky offers an EM7180 unit using STM sensors; my cross-platform EM7180 library also works  with that unit.  For the second issue (avoiding EM7180), I will certainly keep an eye on the project, and will likely offer a similarly easy-to use cross-platform library for it when it becomes available.

    Ultimate Sensor Fusion Solution - LSM6DSM + LIS2MD by Pesky Products on Tindie
    EM7180 Sensor Hub coupled with the LSM6DSM + LIS2MDL IMUs provides < 2 degree heading accuracy!
  • Thomas Butler January 19, 2019 at 7:38pm

    The MPU9250 is obsolete as is the integral AK8963 mag; has been for quite some time!.

    You might want to take a look at Pesky's latest here. They acknowledge the limitations of the proprietary Swiss EL7180 CPU (10mhz CPU) (in addition to limitations of the firmware used), and they have migrated/evolved to using a Maxim MAX32660 (ARM M4F CPU core) in their latest sensor fusion module...

    Sometimes a little bit of investigating can save a lot of headache! It is always good practice in electronics development to investigate End-Of-Life (EOL) on any and all components in a project...

    Happy flying!

    A Motion Coprocessor Without The Proprietary Layer
    When you have a complex task that would sap the time and energy of your microprocessor, it makes sense to offload it to another piece of hardware. We…
  • Daniel January 9, 2019 at 11:04pm
    It looks like you could almost adapt a small servo tilt on the cam.
  • Simon D. Levy January 9, 2019 at 2:11pm

    3702451253?profile=originalA match made in machine-vision heaven ;^D

  • Simon D. Levy January 9, 2019 at 2:09pm

    I've added mounts for an OpenMV camera and a BlueSMiRF unit (for telemetry and eventually mobile-app control). Looking forward to getting my pre-ordered OpenMV H7!

    Blackhawk DIY Component Plates by simondlevy
    This is a mount that can be used to attach a flight controller and power distribution board to an Altair Aerial Blackhawk quadcopter using E6000 adh…
  • Simon D. Levy January 7, 2019 at 2:34pm

    The USFS IMU is about the same price as the Adafruit BN0-055, but the USFS fits right on a Teensy (or similar board like the Butterfly dev board) and comes with a barometer too ;^)

    Ultimate Sensor Fusion Solution - MPU9250 by Pesky Products on Tindie
    EM7180 Sensor Hub coupled with the MPU9250 IMU provides 2 degree heading accuracy!
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson January 6, 2019 at 2:32pm

    Good tip on the IMU. I've been using both the Sparkfun 9250 and the Adafruit BN0-055. Will be interesting to compare

    Adafruit 9-DOF Absolute Orientation IMU Fusion Breakout - BNO055
    If you&#39;ve ever ordered and wire up a 9-DOF sensor, chances are you&#39;ve also realized the challenge of turning the sensor data from an accelero…
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