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Custom Quadcopter and Flight Computer
A ground-up build combining a custom quadcopter airframe and flight-control system with an independently designed flight-computer PCB — both engineered and built in-house.
PrototypeControl systemsCustom avionics
Overview
What was built and why it mattered.
This project involved designing, building, and programming a custom quadcopter from the ground up — its own flight-control hardware, firmware, CAD-modeled frame, and telemetry interface, rather than a commercial flight-controller kit. A companion 2-axis PID stabilization rig helped work out the control approach before it went into the quadcopter.
Alongside the airframe, we designed a custom 4-layer flight-computer PCB from the ground up: an STM32F407-based board integrating a 6-axis IMU, barometric and GPS sensing, 915 MHz LoRa telemetry, onboard data logging, and power management. The design was validated through independent power, sensor, and radio test modules before final integration.
Qualifications demonstrated
Technical capability, not just a finished part.
This project exercised the following engineering capabilities directly.
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Custom flight-control firmware and motor/ESC control
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IMU-based attitude sensing and sensor fusion
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Cascaded PID stabilization and control tuning
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Custom mechanical design and CAD-modeled airframe
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Custom 4-layer avionics PCB design around an STM32F407 MCU
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RF-aware layout for 915 MHz LoRa telemetry
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Power system design: LiPo charging, regulation, and low-EMI distribution
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Flight testing, telemetry visualization, and iterative tuning
Technical specifications
System details.
- Airframe
- Fully custom CAD-modeled frame, flight-control firmware, and telemetry interface (non-kit)
- Control approach
- Cascaded PID with real-time IMU feedback, validated on a dedicated 2-axis stabilization rig
- Flight computer MCU
- STM32F407VGT6, 100-pin LQFP
- Avionics board
- 4-layer PCB, approximately 35 × 80 mm
- Telemetry
- 915 MHz LoRa radio link
- Status
- Prototype
Have a similar problem to solve?
Bring the prototype, board, drawing, workflow, or technical bottleneck. We will help define the next useful step.
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