Last week I posted an article on how to connect all the parts you need for a quadcopter. I used my KK2.0 flight board for a while. Last month I bought an MultiWii and MegaPirate AIO board and I use it now on my quadcopter. But today I wanted to test if I can use my Arduino Uno with a Chinese GY-86 IMU for my quadcopter-build. All you need are the essential quadcopter parts and: Arduino Uno, IMU (with MS5611, HMC5883L and MPU6050 sensors) and some cables. You can also use Arduino Nano or Arduino MEGA board, as well an IMU with only an MPU6050.

All you need to do: connect all the quadcopter parts as previously described without the flight board (you want to use the Arduino as flight board). Remove the propellers from the motors for safety reasons. Connect the receiver (RX) and IMU to the following pins on your Arduino Uno:

You also need to connect the tiny cables from your ESCs to the Arduino Uno. The cable from ESC Nr. 1 will provide the Arduino board with power. So you need to connect not only the signal cable (yellow) but also Ground (brown) and Positive (red).

Once you have done all these connections you need to install the MultiWii firmware on your Arduino Uno. To do this download the latest MultiWii firmware.

Unzip the file and open the MultiWii.ino file from the MultiWii folder. As stated in the MultiWii manual you need to define some lines in the config.h tab in your Arduino software. Then upload the sketch on your Arduino Uno (this must be connected to the USB port of your PC and not to the battery of your quadcopter).

Start the MultiWiiConf.exe from the MultiWiiConf folder. Select the right COM port, click connect and then start . If everything is connected right, you should see a graphic of your quadcopter moving, when you move your quadcopter. If you want to change some of the numbers, do this: move the mouse cursor over the number you want to change, click and slide. Once you have done this, disconnect from the USB port, turn on your transmitter, connect the battery and do some test without the propellers to check if all motors spin in the right way. That’s it!

If you need more information visit the official MultiWii website. You can find additional information, on how to install MultiWii on other Arduino boards. Have a fun with your copter and if you liked my article, feel free to share it :).

Update 09.06.2015: Although it is great fun using an 8bit Arduino with MultiWii as a flight controller, there are better and cheaper 32bit flight controllers using the MultiWii firmware too. The two big competitors for now are Naze32 and CC3D.