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I made this small foam board frame. I attached 4 motors after taking care that diagonally opposite motors rotate in same direction and adjacent ones in opposite direction. I ensure I wired the coreless motors accordingly to cause this. Otherwise the 4 motors are wired in parallel. I have the L propeller fixed on the CW motors. The R on the CCW motor.

It looks like image shown below. I have it anchored to a drawing board using strings. When I connect it to a lipo battery it does rise up - image also shown for same. (It does look like the at least one of the motors is stronger than the others)

From what I understand I need a AIO controller or receiver board and remote now.

I need suggestions on what can be a compatible remote and receiver to take this further.

R

foam based initial effort it does rise up

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  • $\begingroup$ @Brydon Gibson. Thanks for the reply. What I am trying to do is a lot similar to this. deviceplus.com/others/diy-projects/… I will take care of getting the motor connections soldered to the controller with receiver. "brushed AIO whoop flight controller (AIO - all-in-one means there's a receiver usually) and a transmitter that uses the same protocol." Ok. I will go for that. $\endgroup$
    – Raster R
    Commented Sep 14, 2021 at 2:34
  • $\begingroup$ In this link he uses receiver/flight controller interchangeably. I'm not a fan of this but for strictly the scope of that article, it's fine to do since they are one board. The board he recommends does actually seem like a good (toy grade) choice for a first build $\endgroup$
    – Brydon Gibson
    Commented Sep 15, 2021 at 17:35
  • $\begingroup$ @Brydon Gibson in toy grade drones how do we bind a remote to the controller or the receiver board? $\endgroup$
    – Raster R
    Commented Sep 16, 2021 at 9:17
  • $\begingroup$ Or is that kind of binding not needed in toy grade drones? Also is it safe to say toy grade drones don't need any configuration? $\endgroup$
    – Raster R
    Commented Sep 16, 2021 at 12:58
  • $\begingroup$ Binding process differs for each board. Usually toy grade receivers will go into bind mode ~30 seconds after bootup if no connection is found, so it just involves turning on the drone without turning on the transmitter until a light starts flashing $\endgroup$
    – Brydon Gibson
    Commented Sep 16, 2021 at 13:11

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You need a flight controller to stabilize this machine. As you've found, motors are not exactly identical (nor is the air they are pushing, plus many other external factors).

The flight controller uses a gyroscope to detect when there is an abonormality, and compensates by accelerating/decelerating the appropriate motor.

Many flight controllers in this size have an embedded receiver. Often spektrum/frsky but nowadays some are ELRS as well. You will need a matching transmitter that can bind to the flight controller. (The radiomaster tx16s can bind to nearly everything except ELRS, and can even do that with an external module).

A whoop-style flight controller will probably suit you best based on size, power (I assume you're using a single lipo cell), and the fact that the receiver is already built-in. You will still need to solder the motors to the flight controller. Keep in mind this is small soldering and there is risk of short circuits. Test each circuit before powering the board so that you do not damage the motor controller on board.

tl;dr you need a brushed AIO whoop flight controller (AIO - all-in-one means there's a receiver usually) and a transmitter that uses the same protocol.

I've noticed you've been asking a lot of questions to try to get this off the ground. While flight controllers and associated components are expensive, they are essential to flight. You could absolutely make your own flight controller/motor controller without a gyroscope, using an arduino and a half-bridge chip for each motor, however you will find it quite difficult to control without electronic stabilization (and possibly even more expensive to source due to the silicon shortage). The reason for this can be explained by understanding the concepts outlined here: https://learn.parallax.com/tutorials/robot/elev-8/understanding-physics-multirotor-flight/using-lift-control-movement

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  • $\begingroup$ How did this one work youtu.be/rTMRraOOG3I . It looks like it used a receiver $\endgroup$
    – Raster R
    Commented Sep 15, 2021 at 3:50
  • $\begingroup$ He called it a receiver. Is it actually a flight controller? $\endgroup$
    – Raster R
    Commented Sep 15, 2021 at 4:14
  • $\begingroup$ I don't see anywhere in that video where the actual name of the parts is mentioned. The control board he used is a motor driver, receiver, and flight controller all-in-one. The receiver is what talks to the transmitter, the flight controller does the gyroscopic stabilization, and the motor controller(s) turn those signals into current from the battery that actually controls the motor. There's more to discuss/learn here but that's outside of the scope of a character limited comment $\endgroup$
    – Brydon Gibson
    Commented Sep 15, 2021 at 17:33
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks @Brydon Gibson $\endgroup$
    – Raster R
    Commented Sep 16, 2021 at 5:56

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