The FPV
Fancy finding out what goes on between a flight controller's solder pads? OpenDrone's published electronics designs give curious pilots a way to follow the circuit and ask why it's built that way. The soldering iron can have the afternoon off.
OpenDrone leaves room for the curious
The appealing bit of OpenDrone is getting to look beyond the spec sheet. Its OpenFC-Lite flight controller and OpenESC-30x30 motor-controller board have published KiCad schematics and PCB files: the circuit diagrams and board layouts, not just a picture of the finished thing.
The contributor guide says asking why a pull-up resistor is 10k counts as a contribution. OpenDrone also welcomes reports on early boards and firmware, and proposals for changes.
A little practical context, all in one place: the motors are OEM products, not open motor designs, and the frame's released exports aren't available yet. The shop sells separate parts, not a complete drone kit. Its current preorder terms require full payment upfront; the UK-facing page puts orders in the March 2027 batch, with shipping by 31 March 2027 conditional on the target being reached by 15 December 2026. OpenDrone says that if the target is missed, you can choose a refund or wait for the new date.
Start with the FC repository and find something you'd like explained. One small question could become a rather nice afternoon's rabbit hole.
Before we put the old ideas in a museum…
Oscar Liang's forgotten FPV trends is worth reading for the problems people were trying to solve, not just the odd-looking hardware.
His examples include individual ESC modules that assembled into a 4-in-1, letting you replace one failed module rather than the whole board. Then there are wedges that tilted the motors forward: a quad looking keen to get going before it has even taken off.
Oscar also revisits the open-source Chickadee Polystack and its plug-together add-on boards. OpenDrone isn't the first invitation to look inside. The pleasure here is seeing earlier attempts at making a quad more adaptable—and deciding which ideas deserve another turn, rather than a polite retirement.
Give the whoop a course
Fancy a flying project instead? RaceGOW6 has registration open and Track 1 posted, with video submissions used to track pilots' times. Head to the organiser's page for the track, submission link and current deadline.
Joshua Bardwell's RaceGOW6 introduction is a video starting point if you'd like a look before joining in. And racing isn't the only way to help: the registration form asks for volunteers to review videos and verify times. A shared course needs people on both sides of the stopwatch.
Which old FPV idea would you bring back? A name and one sentence is plenty—hit reply.
Published by Unmanned Tech
