Hello,
I was designing a new FC for educational purposes but with a 64 pin STM32 chip so its a bit constrained. I would like to do a small survey on the following:
6 UARTs and 1 I2C vs 5 UARTs and 2 I2Cs vs 5 UARTs, 1 I2C, 1 SPI. (There’s a dedicated SPI for the IMU already)
How many external ADC pins other than three for battery voltage, battery current, 5V rail monitoring would you need?
How many extra GPIOs after accounting for Buzzer, Switch, Switch’s internal LED?
How many PWM capable GPIOs at a very minimum?
Does anyone really need flow control? I have managed to add RTS/CTS to one UART anyway.
I also have a couple of questions:
ArduPilot can use a WS2812 LED as the status indicator LED on the board, right?
I think 6 UARTs and 1 I2C is the best as I find UART the most useful and most users usually dont have more than a 2 compasses, maybe a baro on the i2c. maybe some rangefinders.
Add 1 ADC for the analog airspeeds, some users probably use that.
i think 8 outputs which can be pwm/gpio/etc from fmu is enough for most people. 10 should cover allmost all user cases.
Flow control is mostly for telem1, so one uart with RTS/CTS is probably enough.
others might have possibly better suggestions but this is my opinion.
btw which stm32 are using? what imus, baros and what internal sensors?
yes ws2812b can be used as the status indicator and i think it will show colors same as the main rgb led on the Pixhawk 2.4.8s.
It is FPV-style or more like cube-style? you could consider IMU heaters if GPIOs allow.
Yes, that’s the current setup unless I change my mind.
If you mean 8 exposed to the user, sorry, no, too constrained.
STM32H5, BMP280, BMI160 or BMI270.
The difference is FMU boards use an I2C controller to control three individual LEDs
Definitely not a Cube style.
Just for your information, it should be possible to design a hardware based heater for a fixed temperature that can be changed using a potentiometer, for example. But not adding a heater. The goal is just general autonomous and casual flying.