What it is
A quadcopter prototype built around four brushless motors, four ESCs, and a flight-control loop that mixes pilot input with IMU readings. The goal is stable lift first, then controlled movement.
Why I built it
Cars and planes are difficult in different ways, but a quadcopter is brutally honest: if the sensors, frame, ESCs, and tuning do not agree, it will not hover. That makes it a perfect project for learning flight control as a whole system.
What's inside
- Four motor and ESC pairs mounted on a lightweight frame.
- A receiver taking stick input from the transmitter.
- IMU readings for roll, pitch, and yaw correction.
- A mixer that calculates how much each motor should speed up or slow down.
Where it's at
The current stage is bench testing: confirming motor direction, calibrating ESCs, checking gyro output, and making sure the frame is balanced before any real lift test. This is the slow part, but skipping it is how parts break.
What I'm learning as I go
Small differences matter. A slightly twisted frame, a motor spinning the wrong direction, or one ESC with different calibration can make the whole aircraft unstable. The project is teaching patience more than anything else.