1/23/2026 - Drone

I've always wanted to make a Drone but never made one but i now want to make one myself with as much custom made components as possible, but since i've never made one myself i want to start small, to get a good understanding of how a drone works and then later make a bigger one.
For the small one i want to make a ESP based Drone im going to use a Seeed studio Xiao ESP32 S3 since this one has build in battery charching which makes it so the drone can be smaller and lighter.
and im going to use a MPU 6050 as a gyroscope for the drone so it will be able to fly smooth.

1/24/2026 4 PM - Made the schematic

I made the schematic for the drone, it got the esp32 s3 and MPU-6050 in it with 4 ESC's which are very simpel since im going to use brushed motors and i added some lights to see whatthe front is and whats the back.

1/24/2026 6 PM - Started the PCB

I started laying out the PCB, i first made a sketch in onshape with the edge cut which i wanted since i could export this as a DXF and then import this into kiCAD as the edge cut i made it in onShape since its way easyer to model it there then in kiCAD i then added a ESC to every arm so the weight balance is good.

1/25/2026 11 AM - Finished routing the PCB

I finished routing the PCB, going to have to make a case for it in which the motors fit but dont know how i want it to be completly so i might change the PCB shape a bit later but for now this is it.

1/25/2026 2 PM - made the frame for the drone

I modeled a case for the drone, and made an assembly with all the parts:

The frame is two different parts the "legs" and the frame it self i made it this way since its easyer to print like this and because i can then replace a "leg" if it breaks instead of having to print a complete new frame.
Frame:

Leg:

1/25/2026 3 PM - deciding on parts

I started looking on parts to order unfortuantly i cant get it under $50 which is the max for tier 4 what this project is going to be so im going to have to change something.



right now the total is 44.7 euro which is about 53 dollar so im just over the 50 dollar im going to try to get it cheaper

1/25/2026 4 PM - part optimitation

I looked at a othe MCU since this is the place where it would be easyer to save some money but i couldnt find one which would work i looked at the ESP S3 super mini but this doesnt have a good enough wifi signal so it wont work. so i decided to look at other parts and saw that the MPU-6050 is quit expensive on LCSC so im going to get it from ali, and im going to get the Seeed esp32s3 from a local seller since its cheaper that way. the total is now 40 euro which is about 47 dollar

2/1/2026 10 AM - found the cheapest parts

Ordering with aliexpress is cheaper if i buy my parts in a deal so this is without a deal:

and this with a deal: (had to add a third thing to be able to buy so i added the cheapest thing i could find)

LCSC:

XIAO seeed esp32s3 (local shop)

PCB:

cheapest shipping:

that is a total of € 37 which is about $ 44

2/1/2026 11 AM - Firmware

As the firmware for my drone i was planning on using ESP-Drone since this looks too work good, unfortuantly after i downloaded this form github my virus protection activated and it found Trojan:Win32/Leonem which is a spy software to steal passwords so im going to run a full scan on my computer to make sure nothing is left behind. I did find a esp drone project which has the software in a google drive so i can only get the firmware where the malware wasnt located.

As a controller im going to use ESP drone app on my phone.