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flight_controller_board

This is the repo for the main flight controller (FC) board for the PROVES Kit.

For detailed documentation on the Flight Controller Board, check out the docs here.

Quick Start

If you have just received a flight controller board, getting started with developing on one is quick and easy! First you'll need to identify where your FC board is an external or internal varient.

Internal FC Boards

  1. If you do not plan on connecting a battery board, ensure that the JP1 solder jumper is connected to enable powering the board via USB.
  2. Solder on the Radio Module and an antenna or SMA connect as needed.
  3. Plug in a USB Cable!
  4. If a CircuitPython file system does not appear, you may have to flash the board with firmware. This firmware can be found here
  5. Continue to the PROVES Quick Start Guide for more!

Note: If you are using USB power for the radio it may not perform as expected due to a lack of 5V power.

External FC Boards

The main difference between the internal and external FC board quick start is that the external FC board has its USB power jumper as two through holes right next to the USB port rather than a solder jumper. Just go ahead and connect those two holes with any conductive material and your board should power up!

Features

The FC board implements the following components:

  • RP2040 Microcontroller
  • 128M-Bit W25Q128JVSIQ Flash Memory
  • HopeRF RFM9X Radio Module Slot
  • MAX706RESA+T External Watchdog Timer
  • Micro SD Card Slot
  • VL6180 LiDAR
  • 12-Pin Molex Picolock Connector to the Battery Board
  • Bent Dipole Antenna

Flight Heritage

Version Flights Status
V0 Unflown Not Supported
V1 Pleiades - Yearling, Pleiades - Squared Not Supported
V2 Unflown Not Supported
V3 Unflown Legacy Support
V4a (aka V1a Internal) Unflown Supported
V4b Unflown In Development

NOTE: The currently supported V1 and V2 boards are not recommended for flight due to a high suspectibility to thermal and radiation effects. These boards are still perfectly fine for ground testing and educational use. Bronco Space is currently conducting testing to flush out these issues and will be mitigating these potential issues in V3. If you would like to receive eval hardware of the new version please contact Michael Pham: [email protected]

Plans

Currently we are in production for V1.5 PROVES Kits, which are an interesting middle step between the V1 Kits (which flew on all the Yearling satellites) and V2 (which we are hoping to fly on all the Pleiades Five satellites). One of the main changes between V1 and V2 will be transitioning the flight controller from being mounted to the Z+ face of the satellite to an internal board. This move is intended to improve the thermal performance and radiation tolerance of the avionics stack.