Flight Controller (ErayH743)

I'm designing my own flight controller for a 450 mm class quadcopter that can fly autonomously with GPS. The board runs ArduPilot (ArduCopter) and is designed to be assembled by hand (stencil + hot plate), without factory assembly.

Status: The design is complete. The schematic and the 4-layer PCB are done, with a clean DRC. Next step: manufacturing.

ErayH743 v1, top side (KiCad 3D view)

The board


MCU	STM32H743VIT6 (480 MHz, 2 MB flash)
IMU	ICM-42670-P (ICM-42688-P fits too) + optional BMI270, each on its own SPI bus
Barometer	MS5611
Firmware	ArduPilot; board definition (hwdef) written, bootloader and ArduCopter build
Connectors	Pixhawk-standard JST-GH pinouts: GPS ×2, telemetry ×2, RC, I2C, power module; 8 motor outputs; microSD; USB-C
PCB	70 × 70 mm, 4 layers (GND and 3V3 inner planes), ENIG, all parts on the top side
Mounting	Standard 30.5 × 30.5 mm holes

Design approach

The schematic and PCB aren't drawn by hand; they're generated from scripts using KiCad's Python API:

Schematic: built from a single design definition; ERC, shorts and pin plan consistency are checked automatically.
Placement: large parts go to fixed positions, passives to the nearest free spot by the pin they connect to.
Routing: GND and 3V3 connections drop to the inner planes first, then Freerouting routes the signals on the top and bottom layers.
Fabrication outputs (gerbers, drill files, BOM, assembly drawing) come out with a single command.

So after a change, the whole board can be regenerated in a few minutes and verified with DRC and a schematic-to-PCB match.

ErayH743 v1, bottom side

Roadmap

✅ Requirements and reference study (ArduPilot board definitions)
✅ Pin plan, BOM and ArduPilot board definition
✅ Schematic (clean ERC)
✅ PCB placement and routing (clean DRC)
⏳ Manufacturing
Assembly and bring-up
Firmware tuning and flight tests