Best Arduino to Build a Quadcopter
Quadcopter is equipped with several different kinds of systems that are integrated together like the frame, propellers, gyroscope, radio receivers and main controller or brain of quadcopter to control them all. Different kinds of Arduino boards are available like Nano, UNO and Mega. All of these have their own use according to the needs of the project. Considering all the input and outputs a drone receives and transmits so it can fly, it needs a complex brain that can handle all these easily. So, keeping in mind all these requirements we recommend using Arduino Mega board for quadcopter projects.
Why Arduino Mega
Arduino Mega can be used as the controller for the main avionics system of quadcopter. It can process all the information and coding essentials needed to fly a drone, thanks to the ATmega2560 microcontroller that comes with more advanced memory capacity than other boards like Nano and UNO.
Here are some technical advantages of the Mega board over the other Arduino family.
More Advanced Microcontroller
Arduino Mega is based upon the Atmega2560 microcontroller chip which provides us with more memory space to store inputs and outputs coming from motors and sensors equipped with quadcopter. It comes with 8kb of SRAM which can store large sketches. It has lower power consumption. Another advantage over UNO and Nano is it has more cycles to read and write flash memory.
Offers Future Upgradation
Arduino Mega based quadcopter can be optimized for the future. Thanks to the Atmel microcontroller it can add many features such as self-balancing and collision omitting ability without any human interference. We just must install some sensor, GPS module to quadcopter. Integrating these sensors is only possible due to multiple I/O pins available in Arduino Mega.
Multiple I/O Pins
Arduino Mega is specifically designed for projects that require many I/O pins. Arduino Mega with 16 analog pins and 54 digital I/O pins is best for making quadcopter. To run a quadcopter, we must deal with 4 brushless motors, GPS sensor, gyro sensor and a lot more input output pins that take data to the microcontroller. Only Mega boards have that many pins to handle all these components.
Arduino Mega Shield
Arduino has developed a variety of shields that can integrate with Arduino boards and reduces overall project cost. One of the main concerns while building a quadcopter is space and weight of our flying machine. To solve this problem Arduino Mega shields are a good choice. It can combine devices together without the need of extra wires. Prototyping shield can be directly mounted over an Arduino Mega board. This allows integration of IMU, GPS module, SD card and the servo motors input, output pins to be easily installed on. By doing this we can eliminate excess use of wiring and connect hardware modules easily with microcontrollers maintaining optimum weight of our quadcopter.
Fast Serial Communication
Arduino Mega board has serial communication pins through which it can communicate between different hardware installed on quadcopter. It can communicate using UART (hardware serial), I2C (two Pins) and SPI (4 Pins). Among these I2C requires a minimum number of wires to communicate with Arduino microcontrollers and it’s also suitable for Arduino libraries.
Quadcopter uses an SD card to store data like pictures and videos from the camera. An interface called serial peripheral interface (SPI) is most used to send data between microcontroller and SD card. Using the Mega board all the data coming from the SD card can easily be managed and stored.
Conclusion
Quadcopter is a multipurpose electronic device used for images, videos, crop assessment, land survey and more. Quadcopter needs to be controlled using a controller that sends instructions to fly and Arduino is one of the best controller platforms for quadcopter projects. Among multiple Arduino boards Arduino Mega is the best choice and it can be used in the next quadcopter project.
