FC V5a

flight_controller_board

This is the repo for the main Flight Controller (FC) Board for the PROVES Kit.

For detailed documentation on the Flight Controller Board, check out the docs here.

Quick Start

If you have just received a flight controller board, getting started with developing on one is quick and easy! V4 Flight Controller Boards require the soldering of the JP1 solder jumper to enable powering via USB (it is in the bottom right). V5 Flight Controller Boards have a nifty switch! Once the board is powered up you can refer to our quick start guide for notes on how to get code loaded and the board running.

Flight Heritage and Version History

V0 through V3 Flight Controller Boards were the cornerstone of the 2023 Release V1 PROVES Kit. With the 2024 V2 PROVES Kit we introduced the V4 Flight Controller board and changed the version scheme to have a, b, c, etc varients of a single version rather than ascending the version ladder in record time (we'd be on V9 now if we did that!). This change was primarily based on the idea that a revisions on a major version number would be similar enough to each other to not require completely different firmware to be compiled for operation.

For V5d we added a "Pro" for "Production" version!

Current Features

The Latest (V5d) FC board implements the following components:

• RP2350A Microcontroller
• 128M-Bit W25Q128JVSIQ Flash Memory
• HopeRF RFM9X UHF Radio Module Slot
• Ebyte E28-2G4M27S S-Band Radio
• OreSat Derived Radiation Tolerant Watchdog Circuit!
• SD Card Emulating NAND Flash
• TCA9548ARGER(Q1) I2C Multiplexer
• RV3028 Real Time Clock
• LSM6DSOTR Accelerometer and Gyroscope
• LSM303AGRTR Magnetometer
• MCP23017T-E/SS I2C GPIO Expander
• AP22652W6-7 Load Switches
• MCP9808T-E/MS I2C Temperature Sensor
• LT3652IMSE MPP Solar Charge Controller
• INA260 I2C Power Monitor
• TPS54225PWPR 3.3V Switching Voltage Regulator
• TPS54225PWPR 5V Switching Voltage Regulator

Current Status and Upcoming Plans

The latest V5 generation of Flight Controller boards takes in lessons learned from Orpheus and InspireFly to create a 2025 Release V3 of the PROVES Kit. Both V5dev and V5a will not be distributed beyond the PROVES developer community due to significant design errata that make them tricky to work with. The incoming V5b is intended to be the stable release for this version of the kit.

Lessons learned from V3 PROVES Kit will be directly applied to the creation of a V6 Flight Controller Board generation for V4 PROVES Kit. We plan to continually support the latest and previous PROVES Kit Versions starting with the V3 Release. This means that V2 Kits will continue to receive updates until V4 is officially released.

The Plan From 2024

Currently we are in production for V1.5 PROVES Kits, which are an interesting middle step between the V1 Kits (which flew on all the Yearling satellites) and V2 (which we are hoping to fly on all the Pleiades Five satellites). One of the main changes between V1 and V2 will be transitioning the flight controller from being mounted to the Z+ face of the satellite to an internal board. This move is intended to improve the thermal performance and radiation tolerance of the avionics stack.

Legacy Support

As of May 2025 we are officially no longer supporting any FC boards prior to V4. If you happen to have a PROVES Kit (usually a V1 PROVES Kit manufactured in 2023) that still uses a V1, V2, or V3 Flight Controller board and need support, please open an issue on this GitHub repo and ping @mikefly123 for help!

(LEGACY) Internal FC Boards

1. If you do not plan on connecting a battery board, ensure that the JP1 solder jumper is connected to enable powering the board via USB.
2. Solder on the Radio Module and an antenna or SMA connect as needed.
3. Plug in a USB Cable!
4. If a CircuitPython file system does not appear, you may have to flash the board with firmware. This firmware can be found here
5. Continue to the PROVES Quick Start Guide for more!

Note: If you are using USB power for the radio it may not perform as expected due to a lack of 5V power.

NOTE: The V1 and V2 boards are not recommended for flight due to a high suspectibility to thermal and radiation effects. These boards are still perfectly fine for ground testing and educational use. Bronco Space is currently conducting testing to flush out these issues and will be mitigating these potential issues in V3. If you would like to receive eval hardware of the new version please contact Michael Pham: mlpham@cpp.edu