Hello @RCGuys,

I have been in this hobby since last year and during this time I have burned many board VTX and flight controllers are top in this list but, learning this hobby was not that much hard for me because I am working as a computer engineer and I have good experience in software development for embedded devices (learning flying was too hard for me ).

I have noticed that there are many active members here who are talking about manufacturing/design parts in india instead of china due to some conflict and high custom charge + limited options of RC sellers (with high prices due to again custom).

So, I have started doing some research to create own PCB design and manufacture for us and make it publicly available so that anyone can just download files and get their job done by just printing PCB.
Once designs are done I will write firmware for it based on design and make pull request to betaflight,cleanflight and I-Nav and I am sure about this part to be done easily as I am an active contributor in github.

I got some PCB designs from github but, I don't want to just copy and paste those schematic diagram I want to make some modification based on requirement and this is bit complex for me as I am not a professional in electronics so for this part I really need help from someone who know microcontrollers and PCB designs.

let me know if anyone from this community can help me any reference link also useful, e.g : PCB designs print company websites in india,raw materials websites in india or any reference if you want to share.


Regards,
Anant 

I'm currently learning electronics and embedded systems so I might not be very useful but I'd like to contribute anyway I can.

I've actually thought about this before, if we can design a flight controller in India and get some of the LHS it would be great for the Hobbyist community and the general make in India theme that exists on the forum.

There's an excellent tutorial series by dronemesh on YouTube where he designs a flight controller from scratch, I think the design files are available on PCBWay website.

In India there are a couple of PCB manufacturers PCBPower, LionCircuits, Vishal International (they only take bulk orders I think), etc. Getting a PCB manufactured will not be that difficult, the difficult parts is to design the boards in a way to keep costs competitive.
I did a very crude BOM cost analysis recently and the volumes would've to be pretty high to compete with Chinese built boards. It is doable though.

PM me.

Hey Asperised,

Thanks for reply I've seen that all videos posted by dronemesh and he explained almost everything about pcb and all and reviewed those pcb designed by dronemesh.
I have found only one issue in his designs is that he created pcb with only single layer.

Let me know your thoughts.

Yeah, he intended it for complete beginners. I think that's the reason for the single layer.

There's also another great tutorial by Phil S on YouTube. He designed his own controller for his own specified task and he went through his design choices in one video. In another video he spent more than 2 hours designing and STM32 board. I am not sure but I don't think it was the flight controller.

Hi Asperised,
I'm just starting to design a Flight controller. I was putting this off for a long time since cheap flight controllers were available in the market.
https://www.rcchennai.in/designing-rc-transmitter-electronics-in-india/
take a look at my blog and let me know if you can contribute with your programming skills.

Hello RCChennai,

Thanks for reply,
I have gone thru your blog and it seems interesting but it use PPM input which has some limitations (channel input and delay due to signal width)
however it can be upgraded with S-bus or I-bus (betaflight).

for F.C.  I have already started board designing and I will share here once it finalized.

lets connect in PM.

Hi anantdabhi,
Yes PPM has its limitations but it can also take in inverted s-bus which is uart when it is working in XJT mode.
I have also nearly completed the Flight controller design i have to do DRC before i give it for Fab.
which mcu and IMU sensor you are using?

I have a f4 flight controller designed and ready, I've even modified betaflight to work with it, but I have trouble sourcing the max7456/AT7456 for the OSD to work, I cant program for shit. So I cant do any modifications where I could integrate a MCU controlled OSD

Hello @RCChennai
I have cheked price and there is not that much price diffrence between F7 and F4 MCU.
for IMU we can go with popular MPU6000 which procive 8k freq.

Hello @RCfreak

What issues are you facing ?
share your default config (hex) with schematic if I can help you on that.

betaflight seems more easy compare to other isnt it ?

Hi RCfreak,
Awesome. do you have a picture of the board? the one im designing im gonna use it with ardupilot firmware and im not integrating the OSD as im going to stream the video over 300m wifi.

Although I'm not involved in anyway with any of this. I'm weirdly excited at the prospect of made in india flight controllers and radios.

All the best guys!!!

If y'all need the help of a student who is still learning let me know!

Hi @anantdabhi,
yes, F722RET6 is 4.2USD and F405VGT6 is 5.3USD it is cheaper and for IMU im considering ICM-20689 due to in couple of years MPU6000 might go obsolete.

@Ananth Well The primary problem is sourcing the AT7456/MAX7456 OSD chip in india as it is quite outdated and Maxim integrated have stopped the production of the chip. the image of the pcb is attached. and yes i love the fact that betaflight is so easy to understand and to port it to a different MCU.

@RCChennai would love to see your work too, ive seen some kid on instagram design a F722 flight controller.

Oh I just googled those AT7456/MAX7456 and correct its not available in india.
check this link below its interesting :

https://github.com/ModdQuad/ModdOSD/tree/ec707b6e68ace855e5337278014157b078a2345b/Firmware/docs

this guy made OSD using "STM32G071GBU6" and its avaialbe on element14.

@RCfreak Just couple of more DRC issues to solve and i will put it up here. Meanwhile i have designed a ESC and ordered and im waiting for it to be delivered. I have got the RC transmitter PCB today and i have started assembling the STM32 dev board.

I have created group on Telegram :
https://t.me/gaganChakra 

Lets discuss there ... (Y)

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