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Optimized layout + proportional controls

A project log for Remote Control Mini Blimp!

Mini blimp flies through hoops! Features 3 DC motors/ propellers, battery charging, and wireless communication.

sophi-kravitzSophi Kravitz 10/06/2018 at 00:100 Comments

When I last left this project the great things were:

  1. It flies and the weight issues are over
  2. Up/ Down/ forward controls perfectly and the blimp moves clean
  3. It flies! It flies It flies!

The bad things were:

  1. There's a power issue. When the motors turn on, they suck power, causing the regulator's output to sag. This should be fine, because regulators are supposed to REGULATE, but this one takes too long to recover (like 5 uS) and the ESP loses connection. I had added a large capacitor at the regulator input which helped a lot, but didn't cure the problem entirely.
  2.  Left/ right do not control nicely at all, and after a number of experiments with          rudders, I think it's because of the overshoot with on/off controls.

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I made a new board, changing the layout slightly so that the power traces are closer to the source (battery). I'm hoping that this results in more stability. 

I also added a PWM output on GPIO0 and GPIO2. For those unfamiliar with the ESP8266, GPIO0, 2, and 15 need to be in a high or low state on boot in order for the program to run. It's actually really easy to make these GPIO work and on the bench this works very well. I anticipate challenges when rebooting while in the air.

Motors can now move more slowly with PWM.

This weekend's task is to test out these cute proportional joysticks I got from Adafruit. 

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