wifi controll small plane

it is wifi control plane which is control by mobile application. it is low cost project built under 15$. This plane is very slow and stable to fly there for it is safe for kids. It is bets way to start hobby with small amount of budget.

Talking about range of the plane... I have got around 60 meter LOS range using my LG K7 mobile acting as WiFi Hotspot and remote controller. Further real-time RSSI displayed on Android App and if plane about to go outside range (RSSI fall below -85 dBm ) than mobile phone starts vibrating. If plane goes outside range of Wi-Fi access point than motor stops to provide fail safe landing. Also battery voltage displayed on Android app and if battery voltage fall below 3.7V than mobile phone starts vibrating to provide feedback to pilot for land the plane before battery gets fully drained. Plane is fully gesture controlled means if you tilt mobile phone on left than plane turn left and opposite for right turn.

basically this project developed by my mentor prof. ravi butani and i upgrade it with build pcb.here below image is made by me and test it. it is very well.

here shows 2 layer design of pcb.

below model is testing model.

So here, I am sharing step by step build instruction of my ESP8266 based WiFi controlled tiny Plane.

Build time required for this plane is around 5-6 hours and requires basic soldering skill, little bit programming knowledge of ESP8266 using Arduino IDE and having Cup of hot coffee or chilled beer around will be great.

Electronics Parts :If you are electronics hobbyist than you will find many of the parts listed below in your inventory..

• 2 nos. Coreless DC motor with cw and ccw prop --> 5$
• 1 nos. ESP-12 or ESP-07 module --> 2$
• 1 nos. 3.7V 180mAH 20C LiPo battery -- > 5$
• 2 nos. SI2302DS A2SHB SOT23 MOSFET --> 0.05$
• 5 nos. 3.3kOhms 1/10 watt smd or 1/4 watt through hole resistors --> 0.05$ (3.3K to 10K any resistor will work)
• 1 nos. 1N4007 smd or through hole diode --> 0.02 $
• 1 nos. TP4056 1S 1A Lipo Charger module --> 0.06$
• 2 male and 1 female mini JST connector --> 0.05$

Total Cost--------> 13$ Approx

Other Parts:

• 2-3 nos. Barbecue stick
• 1 nos. 50cm x 50cm 3mm depron sheet or any rigid 3mm foam sheet
• Single core insulated jumper wire
• Nodemcu or cp2102 USB to USART converter as programmer for upload firmware to esp8266
• Scotch Tape
• Super Glue

Tools Required:

• Hobby grade Soldering Tools
• Surgical Blade with blade holder
• Hot glue gun
• Scale
• Computer having Arduino IDE with ESP8266 Arduino Core
• Android Mobile phone

That's it all we need... Now we are all set to build our crazy WiFi Controlled Plane.

so i change it by smd component and made 2 layer of pcb for it.

ESP12e (ESP8266) Based receiver cum control module Schematic:

Lets start with understanding function of each component in schematic,

• ESP12e : This ESP8266 WiFi SoC receives UDP control packets from Android App and controls RPM of Left and Right motor.It measures battery voltage and RSSI of WiFi signal and send it to Android App.
• D1: ESP8266 module safely operates between 1.8V~3.6V as per its data sheet, hence single cell LiPo battery cant be used directly for ESP8266 power supply so step down converter is required. Reduce circuit weight and complexity I have used 1N4007 Diode to drop battery voltage (4.2V ~ 3.7V) by 0.7V (cut in voltage of 1N4007) to get voltage in range of 3.5V~3.0V which is used as supply voltage of ESP8266. I know its ugly way to do so but its working just fine for this plane.
• R1, R2 and R3: these three resistors are minimum required for ESP8266 minimum setup. R1 pull-up CH_PD(EN) pin of ESP8266 to enable it. RST pin of ESP8266 is active low so R2 pull-up RST pin of ESP8266 and bring it out of reset mode. as per data sheet on power up, GPIO15 pin of ESP8266 must be low so R3 used to pull-down GPIO15 of ESP8266.
• R4 and R5: R4 and R5 used to pull-down gate of T1 and T2 to avoid any false trigger of mosfets (motor run) when ESP8266 power up. (Note: R1 to R5 values used in this project is 3.3Kohms, however any resistance between 1K to 10K will work seamlessly)
• T1 and T2: These are two Si2302DS N-channel power mosfets (2.5 Amp rating) controls RPM of Left and Right Motor by PWM coming from GPIO4 and GPIO5 of ESP8266.
• L_MOTOR and R_MOTOR: These are 7mmx20mm 35000 RPM Coreless DC motors provides differential thrust for fly and control plane. Each motor provides 30gram thrust at 3.7V and draws 700mA Current at speed.
• J1 and J2: These are mini JST connector used for ESP12e module and Battery connection. You can use any connector that can handles at least 2Amp current.

(Note : I completely understand importance of decoupling capacitor in mixed signal circuit design, but I have avoided decoupling capacitors in this project to avoid circuit complexity and part count as only WiFi part of ESP8266 is RF/Analog and ESP12e module itself having necessary decoupling capacitors on-board. BTW without any external decoupling capacitor circuit works just fine.)

ESP12e based receiver schematic with programming connection in pdf format is attached with this step..

more information of regarding this project for that i will suggest the link;

https://www.instructables.com/id/WIFI-CONTROLLED-RC-PLANE/

in this link ,no pcb is used directly all component solder on micro controller , here i made 2 layer pcb with SMD component.

i replace only resistor and diode as SMD component.

so the gerber file of pcb link :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11C3sMs0ws0CR0phKsRBU17zZNgZ2YVim/view?usp=sharing