Writing

Blog

Deep dives into the projects I'm building — embedded systems, web apps, and everything in between.

UAV Flight Controller

In Progress

Building a custom flight controller from scratch for a 1.2m MQ-9 Reaper RC plane - bare metal STM32, FreeRTOS, custom radio protocol, and a ground station app.

5 parts
1

Part 1: Why I'm Building a Flight Controller from Scratch

The motivation behind building a custom flight controller, the hardware I chose, and the plan for the entire project.

2

Part 2: Bare Metal Drivers

Writing UART, SPI, I2C, and PWM drivers from scratch on STM32F411. No HAL, no vendor libraries, just registers.

3

Part 3: The NRF24L01 Nightmare

Wrong pinout, long wires, a clone chip with broken registers, everything that went wrong getting the radio working.

4

Part 4: Gyro and Motor Control

MPU6500 sensor fusion with a complementary filter, ESC calibration, and the 9-state flight state machine.

5

Part 5: Ground Station App

Building a React ground station with PS5 controller input, live maps, and OpenAIP airspace overlay.