Using a Crazyflie with a Raspberry Pi Zero and the Thrust Upgrade Bundle?

[shreeram-murali]

Hi!

I’ve got my hands on the new thrust upgrade bundle and I am planning on adding a Raspberry Pi Zero (and a Raspicam) to the Crazyflie. I have a few questions, regarding the weight, and powering it up.

1. The Pi Zero requires 5V, but I’ve read that it can work at as low as 3.6V. But the single Li-Po cell would output anywhere between 3-4V which I think wouldn’t be as reliable. I’m assuming I’d need a DC/DC buck convertor here. What’s the best way to go about this? Should I use the prototyping deck and integrate the convertor and the Pi there?
2. Would the 20g of extra thrust from the thrust upgrade bundle work to fly this? The Pi is 9g, the camera is 3g, and the convertor might be another gram or two. I think this adds
3. If I somehow do all this, realistically, what’s the flight time I’d get from the Crazyflie? This isn’t a high-priority for me (I only need 30-60s flights) but it’d be good to have an idea.

Thanks!

[tobbeanton]

1. In 2018 we did play around a bit with flying a R-Pi-Zero. We made a "adapter" deck as described in this blog post. A prototype deck with a DC/DC converter should work just as well.
2. It will most likely work but if I remember correctly the Pi-Zero is a little bit to big and we made new and longer 3D printed motor mounts where we fitted 8x20 motors. This was enough to lift it and with a 500mAh battery I think it flew for ~3min.
3. You would need a bigger battery, E.g. the tattu 350mAh, but not too big which could add to much weight. Then you could get maybe around 2min hover time, if it mechanically works out...