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I am fairly new to electronics and am trying to build a drone from scratch as a hobby project. I want a setup where I can control all the motors individually through the software. Through some research I found that ESCs are the way to go for BLDC motors, and I am planning on getting this one. I also came across this post which is almost identical to the thing that I am trying to do, except that I am using a Raspberry Pi. After multiple failed purchases due to not knowing what would work with my setup, I am reluctant to buy this and want to know how to connect it before the purchase.

This is the diagram of the ESC: diagram

My biggest worry is that the Raspberry Pi's diagram only has 2 PWM (pulse width modulation) pins (32, 33):

raspberry pi pin diagram

How would I connect these 2 to have access to the speeds of all the motors individually?

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    Without a specification of the device you may get speculation. A picture is meaningless.
    – Milliways
    Commented Mar 6, 2023 at 7:26
  • Please edit your question and add a specification of the required PWM signals and the resolution required for your project. Software PWM might be an option.
    – Bodo
    Commented Mar 6, 2023 at 15:09
  • Whoops the link didn't stick. It's there now.
    – ArjunSahlot
    Commented Mar 8, 2023 at 4:30

1 Answer 1

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The general consensus appears to be that because it is not a Real Time system, a Raspberry Pi is not a suitable device to use directly as a Flight Controller. While it is technically possible, an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi Pico (or a dedicated FC) would be better choice for use as a Flight Controller and then use the Raspberry Pi to talk to the Flight Controller/

Here are some sites to review:

https://www.reddit.com/r/diydrones/comments/t254dc/pwm_and_raspberry_pi_as_fc_how_to_communicate/

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=306388

https://www.instructables.com/The-Drone-Pi/

https://all3dp.com/2/raspbery-pi-drone-simply-explained/

or just google "raspberry pi as a flight controller"

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  • Thanks! Seems like if I want to run anything like machine learning on the drone, I am going to need to connect the pi to an arduino (or some other flight controller) to do so. Thanks for the links!
    – ArjunSahlot
    Commented Mar 10, 2023 at 17:11

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