Custom drone electronics: flight controller, ESC and sensor boards.
Custom drone electronics for teams whose airframe, payload or sensors do not suit off-the-shelf boards. We would design the stack around your vehicle and choose the firmware target to match the hardware. Our own matched three-board stack for an indoor quad is at v0 design stage.
The problem
Standard flight stacks are sized for common airframes, and teams building something less common typically end up adapting their vehicle to the boards. The mounting pattern may not match the frame, the payload may need power rails or sensor connections a standard board does not offer, and boards bought from different makers do not always agree on connectors, supply voltages or firmware targets. Each mismatch is usually solved with an adapter plate, extra wiring or a compromise in where a sensor sits.
We would typically design the boards together on a shared mounting pattern, with the firmware target chosen to match the hardware, so that the flight controller, the motor drive and the sensing are sized for your vehicle rather than adapted to it. How we size each board against its parts list is covered on our robotics prototyping page.
What we've built
A matched three-board stack for an indoor quad
A flight controller, a 4-in-1 ESC and a downward sensor board, designed together on one mounting pattern: four M3 holes on a 30.5 × 30.5 mm square, with 4.0 mm grommet holes for soft mounting. Weight was not a constraint on this stack. The outlines differ from board to board, because each was sized against its own parts list, while the hole pattern stays the same.
v0 boards designed in KiCad. None has been fabricated, powered or flown yet.
| Layer | What we did | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Flight controller | STM32F405RGT6 on a 36 × 36 mm, 1.6 mm board with 0402 passives. The pin and DMA map comes from an open-source flight-firmware target. | Schematic complete · PCB layout under way by hand |
| 4-in-1 ESC | One board for four motors on 2 to 4S packs, targeting the third-party AM32 ESC firmware. 24 N-channel MOSFETs, NSG2065Q gate drivers and TPS70933 regulators. | 40 × 40 mm on the 30.5 mm M3 pattern · 4 layers, 0.2 / 0.2 mm track and space, 0.3 / 0.6 mm vias · schematic passes ERC, power copper done and DRC clean, signals being routed by hand |
| Downward sensor | A PAA3905 optical flow sensor, a VL53L1X time-of-flight sensor and an LED, on a 1.6 mm board 36 mm square. | Schematic and board generated · LED drive untested · sensor and lens still to be sourced, with a fallback flow sensor identified |
How working with us goes
- 01 Scope We would typically start with the airframe, the payload, the flight envelope, and what has to be custom against what can be bought in.
- 02 Prototype We would design the boards and agree the mounting pattern, power budget and board sizes before layout starts.
- 03 Pilot Testing on your vehicle, with what we find folded into the next board revision.
- 04 Production Production design and a manufacturing run, where the project needs one.
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