Community

The RCGroups.com forum can be found here.

The Facebook AlienWii Fan Club can be found here.

The Facebook FC Builders group can be found here.

The AlienFlight Classic Narrow interactive manual can be found here.

The Open source AlienFlight FC forum can be found here.

Firmware Flashing

Before we begin, Please download, unpack and install the following;

  • DfuSe demo package.
  • STMicro Virtual Com Port driver.
  • Zadig for replacing the ST driver.
  • BetaFlight or CleanFlight.

Now that we are done downloading and installing, Let's begin.

  • In Windows explorer, browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\STMicroelectronics\Software\DfuSe\Driver
  • Browse to the folder relevant to your version of Windows.
  • Browse to the folder relevent to your variant of Windows, x86-32bit or x64-64bit.
  • Double click dpinst_x##.exe to install the driver.

We now need to replace the ST driver with the WinUSB driver.

  • Slide the BOOT dipswitch on the FC to the on position and plug into pc via USB cable.
  • Launch Zadig.

 

  • Select Options>List all Devices.
  • Use the drop down and select STM32 Bootloader.
  • Select WinUSB as the replacement driver.
  • Click Replace Driver.

Now we can install theSTMicro VCP driver.

  • In Windows explorer, brows to C:\Program Files(x86)\STMicroelectronics\Software\Virtual comport driver\
  • Brows to the folder relevant to your version of Windows.
  • Double click dpinst_x##.exe to install the driver relevant to your variant of Windows, x86-32bit or x64-64bit.

Open BetaFlight/CleanFlight Configurator and you should be good to go.

 

More information with regard to Firmware flashing can be found on the BetaFlight and CleanFlight Git pages.

 

History

After Lance created the initial AlienWii classic designs, Michael (MJ666) got in contact back in November 2014, and began working with him on the STM32 based flight controllers. This started with some F1 versions and continued with the F3 and F4 designs. Michael was intensely involved in the hardware design which finally resulted in a complete new design for the F4. For quite some time Lance and Michael worked as a team and had regular reviews and tested the new board designs together. Lance was really amazing. It was impressive to see how fast he could create an initial proof of concept on homemade boards and bring it to fly in a really short space of time.

The F1 was based on the Naze32 pin out and the F3 on the Sparky pin out. The F3 V2 was a major update to this design. The introduction of buck boost converters and the use of SPI connected gyros were done during this time. The hardware bind plug was a significant idea envisioned by Lance and Michael prepared the software implementation for this on the 32bit controllers.

Initially the firmware (BaseFlight, CleanFlight and BetaFlight) did not perform well with the small copters. And so, Michael worked hard at porting the three different PID controllers, and together with software filters and other important developments created by BorisB for BetaFlight, we can now experience really locked in flight characteristics for our micro sized copters.

The BaseFlight port only worked on the F1 boards and was abandoned for this reason later on. During this phase the name of the project changed from AlienWii to AlienFlight since the 32bit flight controllers were becoming the new focus. The F4 development started with RaceFlight but since the source was moved to a partially closed development, the focus for the F4 is now on BetaFlight. There are only a few F1 prototypes in the field. The F3 V1 is now relatively common as there have been great initiatives from the community. The F3 V2 is now on sale through microfpv.eu as many of you know. This is an initiative which was started by Lance, Rob and Michael. There are brushed and brushless controllers in the field from all these generations done by Lance and other people.

 

Lance has decided to pursue other interests and has left the AlienFlight project. Gary has stepped in on the hardware design, and together we are working to bring the F4 controllers to the community.

 

 

Our focus has been, and always will be, very small brushed and brushless multi copters for our designs. All legacy AlienFlight designs are still available at https://github.com/MJ666/Flight-Controllers and on Lance's web site Alienflight.com.