I confirmed with DarwinFPV that this is the FC that they’re planning on adding an onboard ELRS receiver to:
https://darwinfpv.com/products/darwinfpv...-whoop-aio

Doesn’t sound like they’re planning any major redesign, just the addition of ELRS (but I’m just speculating). Regardless, it’s still something that I would be interested in.

I’m considering ordering the AIO they’ll be basing it on to try out, and the price is good, but I’m hesitant because I’m not familiar with the company or their quality at all. Most known brands have their lovers and haters, are known for quality or known for crap, or have enough boards out where some are known to be good and some are known to have serious issues. I haven’t really heard much about DarwinFPV except for a few references to their version of the Eachine Tyro series.

Any of y’all have any hands on experience with any of their gear?

If there are still 2 full UARTS with ELRS Then I would buy one for sure. 3 would be better though ( F405 )

Scott

First, MrSolo has used the Darwin board...reference Post #1  of the
2S Crux3 toothpick build thread ...and... Post #73 and  Post #85  of the
Alternative to EMAX TH2F AIO thread.

Best that I can tell from the wiring diagram (which is not very good quality)
on DarwinFPV's website there are pads that can be used for SoftSerial. If
it is not too hard to implement, that could be used for the SmartAudio and
still leave 2 free hard UARTS; one for the Rx receiver, one for GPS. That 
would work for me. Now, if ELRS does NOT use a UART, then you potentially
have 3 UARTS; 2 hard ones and 1 SoftSerial. That is pretty good on a $40
FC...good for smaller builds that don't pull too many amps.

NOTE to DarwinFPV: 

Put a better graphic of the wiring diagram on your website.
Plus, having a manual might be a good idea, too.

In my opinion, it would be worth the $40 even though the company is not
yet well known. Since it is cost effective, I would likely take a chance on it
anyway; if I was currently building due to a Real Life project. Anyway,
point is that it would be worth a try. By the time I am building again, the
ELRS board should be out and I will try that one. By then, I am hoping
that the documentation is better as well.

Maybe DarwinFPV will use a little higher rated FETS with the new board...
maybe have a board that is rated for 25 amps. Now that would be nice.
Then it could be used in just about every thing that I build.

Hi guys!
I am the founder of DarwinFPV. I worked for EMAX before. I have designed BabyHawk TinyHawk Bullet ESC and other products. Just like the meaning of our brand, our products will continue to evolve.
This is the new ELRS AIO PCB, we will solder and test it next week, it‘s really exciting！

Here is something to think about? We see new FCs being “DJI ready”…how about having a filtered high amp 5v. Pad suggested for Sharkbyte.
It hasn’t been done, your building a AIO, so these are for “light weight” rigs.. most likely sub 250? You could market it for all aspects..
Hey, just a thought.
Winter is coming, there are going to be a lot of “indoor flying” … smaller quads, pilots may want to go digital ..

Hi Clark,

Ok, call me a bit confused.    

Is there only one mounting hole     Is that all that secures the board to the frame 


Presumably, the orientation is with the mount hole at the back; 
the front would be opposite that "hole", correct 

Please clarify...the ELRS Rx receiver does or does NOT take a UART slot in Betaflight. 
Regardless of the physical interface, it seems that most of the boards that I have
seen with integrated receivers still use UART1. It was my interpretation of researched
material that the F411 only supports 2 hard UARTS plus SoftSerial and that the receiver 
still takes up a UART.

If you are going to use the F411, I would suggest that a set of pads be available and marked 
for SoftSerial and this feature already be set up in Betaflight. 

I pretty much run a GPS unit on everything except the tiniest of tiny whoops. Even bigger
whoops get a GPS. This requires a hard UART. I also run SmartAudio on everything which
takes a UART, but it will work with a SoftSerial UART. If the receiver takes a UART, then
having SoftSerial set up is a MUST HAVE. The pads should already be there and Betaflight 
already set up. Flywoo does this on some of their F411 FCs.

Also, please put a better graphic of the FC wiring diagram on your website.
The current one is very blurry and really not legible. Thanks.

(12-Nov-2021, 01:39 PM)Clark Wrote: Hi guys!
I am the founder of DarwinFPV. I worked for EMAX before. I have designed BabyHawk TinyHawk Bullet ESC and other products. Just like the meaning of our brand, our products will continue to evolve.
This is the new ELRS AIO PCB, we will solder and test it next week, it‘s really exciting！

again, what specs will the board have?

(12-Nov-2021, 05:04 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Regardless of the physical interface, it seems that most of the boards that I have
seen with integrated receivers still use UART1. It was my interpretation of researched
material that the F411 only supports 2 hard UARTS plus SoftSerial and that the receiver 
still takes up a UART.

There's an SPI implementation of ExpressLRS and this is what the AIO boards seem to implement. Of course, only DarwinFPV can confirm if they are using the SPI implementation on their own boards.

The only slight downside with the SPI version of ELRS is that it's apparently only currently being developed and supported by a single developer on the ELRS dev team who also has a day job, so the SPI version can sometimes lag behind the main ELRS firmware updates for other hardware devices meaning that you might have to wait around for the SPI firmware to be updated in line with the other non-SPI firmware before you can then update other ELRS hardware you have to the latest firmware if you want to avoid any compatibility issues.

Thanks Snow,
As you can tell, I am still a little fuzzy on how everything works.
I really appreciate your support and comments.
Thanks.

Welcome Clark! It's always good to have new manufacturers innovating and building quality products. 

How has the chip shortage affected you? How do the different commonly used FC chips vary in availability? That is, are F411 easier to get than F405? What about F722 and F745? Do you expect these legacy MCUs will be replaced by the H7 series as the manufacturers recover from the chip/silicon shortage?

(12-Nov-2021, 05:04 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Is there only one mounting hole     Is that all that secures the board to the frame 

I assume the ELRS FC will be mated to the same ESC PCB as in their 1-3S AIO board:


So, still an AIO "whoop" style board, but made of two PCBs layered together.

(12-Nov-2021, 05:04 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Please clarify...the ELRS Rx receiver does or does NOT take a UART slot in Betaflight. 
Regardless of the physical interface, it seems that most of the boards that I have
seen with integrated receivers still use UART1. It was my interpretation of researched
material that the F411 only supports 2 hard UARTS plus SoftSerial and that the receiver 
still takes up a UART.

If you are going to use the F411, I would suggest that a set of pads be available and marked 
for SoftSerial and this feature already be set up in Betaflight. 

On the HappyModel ELRS AIO FC (which uses SPI for the RX and I expect to be similar to this board), there are 2 UARTs and an additional LED_STRIP pad which can be used for SoftSerial. The F411 (and most F4/F7 MCUs) have three SPI bus, which are typically used for the gyro, OSD, and blackbox/flash. Since these boards have no blackbox, the third SPI bus is used for the RX. So I expect you will still have 2.5 UARTs open to add whatever peripherals you want.

Hi V-22,

Thanks for explanations. Greatly appreciated.

So, the DarwinFPV FC is actually two boards mated together. Well now, that makes sense.

As long as there are 2 UARTS available beyond what the Rx receiver needs, then it would
work for me...for smaller builds. So long as I get SmartAudio and GPS, then I am happy.
At least as for as peripherals go. Would still like 25 Amp rating, but I guess that is just
dreaming. Ha, Ha !!

Anyway, Thanks.

Welcome to the forum Clark !

I am also really interested in this new FC. It looks like it will work for most of my needs.
If there really 2.5 available UARTS that is great.
I am OK with the power rating I would most likely use 2-3 S with 12xx motors,
But more UARTS are always nice maybe 2 versions ? F405/F411

again welcome, and please keep us up to date on your progress this looks like a great FC for smaller builds


Scott

Sorry buddy. We have a lot of things to do recently. I responded late. Yes, this is an upgraded version of 15A AIO, and its ESC is the same. We added an ELRS receiver and reserved 2 complete UARTs.

(12-Nov-2021, 05:31 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: There's an SPI implementation of ExpressLRS and this is what the AIO boards seem to implement. Of course, only DarwinFPV can confirm if they are using the SPI implementation on their own boards.

The only slight downside with the SPI version of ELRS is that it's apparently only currently being developed and supported by a single developer on the ELRS dev team who also has a day job, so the SPI version can sometimes lag behind the main ELRS firmware updates for other hardware devices meaning that you might have to wait around for the SPI firmware to be updated in line with the other non-SPI firmware before you can then update other ELRS hardware you have to the latest firmware if you want to avoid any compatibility issues.

YES, ELRS is connected through SPi, and two complete UARTs are reserved for easy access to external devices.

(12-Nov-2021, 08:53 PM)V-22 Wrote: Welcome Clark! It's always good to have new manufacturers innovating and building quality products. 

How has the chip shortage affected you? How do the different commonly used FC chips vary in availability? That is, are F411 easier to get than F405? What about F722 and F745? Do you expect these legacy MCUs will be replaced by the H7 series as the manufacturers recover from the chip/silicon shortage?


I assume the ELRS FC will be mated to the same ESC PCB as in their 1-3S AIO board:


So, still an AIO "whoop" style board, but made of two PCBs layered together.



On the HappyModel ELRS AIO FC (which uses SPI for the RX and I expect to be similar to this board), there are 2 UARTs and an additional LED_STRIP pad which can be used for SoftSerial. The F411 (and most F4/F7 MCUs) have three SPI bus, which are typically used for the gyro, OSD, and blackbox/flash. Since these boards have no blackbox, the third SPI bus is used for the RX. So I expect you will still have 2.5 UARTs open to add whatever peripherals you want.

I have reviewed your questions and hope we use F405, or F7, H7MCU. Let me explain why we didn't use it. The supply of MCUs in the world is now tight, and the prices of F405, F7, and H7 are relatively high. This is not in line with DarwinFPV's current product positioning. With the sufficient supply of MCUs, we will launch higher-level MCUs. We have this ability, let us make him the most perfect together.