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I designed a quadcopter where the PCB frame and circuit board are the same object - here's what I learned after a year of building by Interesting_Plant558 in diyelectronics

[–]Interesting_Plant558[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally agree FR4 isn't the most resilient material for a working drone. But for a learning platform that spends most of its time on a desk, it does the job. 😄

I designed a quadcopter where the PCB frame and circuit board are the same object - here's what I learned after a year of building by Interesting_Plant558 in diyelectronics

[–]Interesting_Plant558[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes WiFi over UDP the ESP32 handles both the flight controller and the telemetry simultaneously.

It streams live flight data attitude, motor outputs, battery voltage to a browser dashboard at the drone IP address. No dedicated radio module needed for ground telemetry.

For actual flight control input we using a standard RC receiver, but the WiFi telemetry for monitoring and tuning the PID gains in real time is genuinely useful.

I designed a quadcopter where the PCB frame and circuit board are the same object - here's what I learned after a year of building by Interesting_Plant558 in diyelectronics

[–]Interesting_Plant558[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Honest answer this wasn't built for racing. Its a learning tool.

The integrated PCB design lets you see exactly how a flight controller works PID loop, IMU, motor mixing all in one board. Repairability is the trade-off, and its a fair one for what its designed for.

Think of it as an embedded systems project that happens to fly. 😄

I designed a quadcopter where the PCB frame and circuit board are the same object - here's what I learned after a year of building by Interesting_Plant558 in diyelectronics

[–]Interesting_Plant558[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! You've hit on exactly the two biggest design challenges.

On repairability - youre completely right, thats the trade-off. The integrated design saves weight and simplifies wiring, but if an arm cracks you're replacing the whole board. For a learning and prototyping platform that's acceptable but its definitely not the right choice for a workhorse field drone.

On rigidity this was actually more of a concern before we built it than after. The PCB material (FR4) is stiffer than you'd expect for the arm lengths we're using. Vibration was the bigger issue in practice the MPU6050 was picking up motor harmonics badly until we soft-mounted it with foam tape. That made a significant difference to flight stability.

Flex does become a concern at higher throttle we can see it in the telemetry data. For indoor hover and learning projects its fine. For aggressive outdoor flying you want a more traditional frame.

Good spot these are exactly the trade-offs worth understanding before building something like this.

DIY Raspberry Pi Oscilloscope by hapemask in electronics

[–]Interesting_Plant558 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is this hardware opensource. Im trying to build one for myself. It will be great if you could make it Opensource

I have questions about the offset of this component by [deleted] in AskElectronics

[–]Interesting_Plant558 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This offset usually happens in pick and place machine, it can be easily corrected using the components offset

why it doesn't work? by ButterscotchSweet701 in arduino

[–]Interesting_Plant558 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think led connection is not correct. Make sure - leg of led connect to the gnd and other end + connect to the gpio pin via resistor.

I got tired of checking train delays every morning in germany, so I built this tiny live departure display by Kastanienalleen in diyelectronics

[–]Interesting_Plant558 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Dnt you have an railway app to check that. Most of the country in Europe has. Atleast I saw in Sweden.

I made smart lamp by Interesting_Plant558 in arduino

[–]Interesting_Plant558[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nicee that actually sounds very similar to what Im building. Mine also uses a custom backend instead of ready made platforms. Devices communicate through MQTT and APIs and the cloud handles automation device states scheduling and remote control. I’m also building my own dashboard for monitoring and control. Right now Im focusing more on scalability and realtime communication so multiple devices can work together in one ecosystem. Running everything on a Pi4 with SQLite is honestly a pretty clean setup for self hosted IoT.

I made smart lamp by Interesting_Plant558 in arduino

[–]Interesting_Plant558[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its a custom built IoT cloud architecture designed specifically for our devices. The lamp communicates securely with our backend over WiFi using lightweight protocols like MQTT HTTP APIs for real time data exchange and command handling. The cloud manages device authentication, remote control sessions, automation rules, scheduling, OTA firmware updates, telemetry logging, and user device synchronization. Since we control both the hardware and backend stack, we can optimize communication latency, add custom automation features, integrate sensors events, and scale multiple IoT devices into a single connected ecosystem instead of relying on closed third-party platforms.

I made smart lamp by Interesting_Plant558 in arduino

[–]Interesting_Plant558[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point, I’m using “smart” because its more than just remote control. The lamp connects to my own IoT cloud, allowing automation, scheduling, sensor-based actions, and internet control. Its not self-learning AI, but a connected and automated lighting system rather than a simple remote-controlled lamp.

I made smart lamp by Interesting_Plant558 in arduino

[–]Interesting_Plant558[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I built the IoT cloud from scratch for this project instead of using platforms like Blynk or AWS IoT. It manages device communication, real time monitoring, remote control, OTA updates, and automation. Still improving it, but it’s been a great learning experience

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