How many microcontrollers does a quadcopter have on it?

I was sat on the floor last night, wiring up new bits and pieces to my quadcopter, and it dawned on me that there are an awful lot of microcontrollers on it.

  1. Each electronic speed control (ESC) has an ATmega328 onboard (4, total 4)
  2. The flight controller has an STM microcontroller, CP2102 serial->USB bridge, MPU-6050 3-axis gyro/accelerometer, HMC5883L compass, MS5611 barometer (5, total 9)
  3. The FrSky X8R receiver has at least one microcontroller in it (1, total 10)
  4. The SBUS to CPPM converter has at least one microcontroller in it (1, total 11)
  5. The FrSky Variometer has at least one microcontroller in it (1, total 12)
  6. The FrSky FLVSS voltage monitor has at least one microcontroller (1, total 13).
  7. The SimpleBGC gimbal controller has 2 microcontrollers (1 main, 1 for yaw), a serial to USB bridge, another accelerometer and gyro (4, total 17)
  8. The GoPro will have at least 3 microcontrollers inside it (2 for camera, 1 in SD card) (3, total 20)

That is a lot to potentially go wrong.

 

One thought on “How many microcontrollers does a quadcopter have on it?

  1. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    scopemc

    October 2, 2014 at 4:18pm

    Hello, interesting post about quads and microcontrollers. I have been examining my Naza and FrSky boards to identify the same. The FLVSS has 2 ICs bearing these numbers:

    (ST Microelectronics)
    F050K4A
    9HA139U
    MYS 2 42

    L151K6
    9HA16F6
    MYS 2 28 7

    I have not been able to locate these exact items online. Can you post a link showing which one (or both) you identified so I can get datasheets? Thanks.

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