PrincipIoT has begun promoting an STMicroelectronics STM32F7-based drone flight controller that, it says, is compliant with the necessities of the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA): the PrincipIoT F7.
“The PrincipIoT F7 is a strong and versatile flight controller designed for FPV [First-Person View] UAS [Uncrewed Aerial Systems], that includes a strong [STMicro] STM32F7 Arm Cortex-M7 processor and a [TDK InvenSense] ICM-42688-P IMU [Inertial Measurement Unit] for exact stabilization and flight management. With a compact 38×38mm [around 1.5×1.5″] design, the controller is light-weight, weighing solely 7g [around 0.25oz], and helps 3-6S energy enter, making it supreme for a variety of drone configurations.”
The PrincipIoT F7 is a feature-packed but compact flight controller for FPV drones, and is now NDAA compliant. (📷: PrincipIoT)
Designed, manufactured, and examined within the US, the F7 options STMicro’s STM32F722, with a single Arm Cortex-M7 core working at as much as 216MHz, linked to an TDK InvenSense ICM-42688-P six-axis MEMS inertial measurement unit and an Infineon DPS310 barometric strain and temperature sensor plus 16MB of “black-box” reminiscence. It is designed as a platform for Betaflight software program, with INAV assist promised to be “coming quickly” — and regardless of its small dimension consists of connectors for an digital pace controller (ESC), receiver, exterior World Satellite tv for pc Navigation System (GNSS) receiver, analog digicam, and a video transmitter — the latter two options being key to its positioning as supreme for first-person view (FPV) drones.
Different connections on the board embody a USB Sort-C for programming and bench-testing and an growth header with two UART buses, I2C, 4 further motor outputs bringing to the entire to eight, a beeper, two servo connections, an LED strip, and two spare general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) pins. The design can also be now absolutely compliant with the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA) — or, reasonably, drone-specific sections thereof, launched within the FY2020, FY2023, and FY2024 Acts, the latter also called the American Safety Drone Act.
Extra info on the F7 is on the market on the PrincipIoT web site, whereas the {hardware} could be bought on the corporate’s Tindie retailer for $120.