PiWings 2.0 is a tiny drone based on Raspberry Pi Pico and ESP8266 WiFi module (Crowdfunding)
SB Components’ PiWings 2.0 is a small drone combining a Raspberry Pi Pico with an ESP8266 WiFi module (ESP-12E) for wireless connectivity, and designed for STEM education and drone enthusiasts.
The PiWings 2.0 board supports up to six motors and four servos, includes a 6-axis IMU for auto-leveling, and features I2C, SPI, UART, and GPIO expansion ports for custom sensor and/or actuator support. The drone itself is offered with three, four, or six rotors.
SB Components say they have developed an RP2040 SDK on Visual Studio and the Arduino IDE, with the API enabling a “simple programming style and basic math concepts” suitable for kids. They’ll also provide sample codes, but as usual, they won’t release anything until after shipping rewards. There’s also some gibberish about the drone being ideal for STEM education but nothing to show for it… The drone is controlled by an Android app (see video embedded below), but I could not identify it.
We’ve already seen it’s perfectly possible to create a drone with an ESP32 (or a Raspberry Pi Pico W), so the dual MCU design choice for the PiWings 2.0 may seem odd, and the company did not explain this choice. It’s often just a question of software support and the existing FlySky iBus Decoder Arduino library for the ESP8266 may explain it.
