CircuitDigest Opens Crowdfunding for the Low-Cost Espressif ESP32-Powered LiteWing Drone

CircuitDigest has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a compact Espressif ESP32-powered drone, the LiteWing — after a knockoff version of the design took Kickstarter by storm earlier this year before being canceled in the face of a copyright notice.

"At CircuitDigest, we're passionate about making technology accessible and fun for everyone," the company claims. "With that in mind, we're thrilled to introduce LiteWing, a minimalistic, Wi-Fi-controlled drone designed to bring the joy of tinkering and creating to engineers, tech enthusiasts, and hobbyists alike. Inspired by Espressif's original design, we've reimagined the PCB, simplifying it to make this innovative drone more affordable and user-friendly."

That "original design" referenced by CircuitDigest is the ESP-Drone, a reference design from Espressif created to showcase the capabilities of an ESP32 microcontroller for basic quadcopter control over a Wi-Fi connection. Rather than the framework with a central PCB of Espressif's design, though, CircuitDigest's take on the concept opts for a single-PCB design — in which the rotors are mounted directly on PCB arms sticking out from the central part of the board.

"Although the original drone design was provided by Espressif, we found it lacked the support and improvements needed for a truly functional product," CircuitDigest claims. "That's why we're launching LiteWing on Kickstarter—to deliver a redesigned version that works seamlessly. With your help, we can manufacture LiteWing at scale, keeping costs low and quality high."

This isn't the first time this precise drone design has been up for crowdfunding: earlier this year someone calling themselves "Stack Thomas" launched a campaign for what they called the SkyByte, pulling in pledges totaling far in excess of the project's funding goal —before it was abruptly canceled in the face of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request from Semicon Media, the company behind CircuitDigest.

The new, official crowdfunding campaign puts a digital reward, including the Gerber files for production and "dedicated email support" for building the drone, at $25, with a complete kit available for $50. Those who want to get up and running as quickly as possible can buy an assembled version for $60 — though they'll still need to supply their own lithium-polymer battery.

The LiteWing crowdfunding campaign is now live on Kickstarter, with rewards expected to ship in November this year; designer Jobit Joseph's original tutorial is still available on the CircuitDigest website, with Gerbers, KiCad project files, and firmware source code published to GitHub under an unspecified license.