PrincipIoT's F7 Is an STMicro STM32F7-Powered NDAA-Compliant Flight Controller for FPV and More

PrincipIoT has begun selling an STMicroelectronics STM32F7-based drone flight controller that, it says, is compliant with the requirements of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA): the PrincipIoT F7.

"The PrincipIoT F7 is a robust and versatile flight controller designed for FPV [First-Person View] UAS [Uncrewed Aerial Systems], featuring a powerful [STMicro] STM32F7 Arm Cortex-M7 processor and a [TDK InvenSense] ICM-42688-P IMU [Inertial Measurement Unit] for precise stabilization and flight control. With a compact 38×38mm [around 1.5×1.5"] design, the controller is lightweight, weighing only 7g [around 0.25oz], and supports 3-6S power input, making it ideal for a wide range of drone configurations."

Designed, manufactured, and tested in the US, the F7 features STMicro's STM32F722, with a single Arm Cortex-M7 core running at up to 216MHz, linked to an TDK InvenSense ICM-42688-P six-axis MEMS inertial measurement unit and an Infineon DPS310 barometric pressure and temperature sensor plus 16MB of "black-box" memory. It's designed as a platform for Betaflight software, with INAV support promised to be "coming soon" — and despite its small size includes connectors for an electronic speed controller (ESC), receiver, external Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) receiver, analog camera, and a video transmitter — the latter two features being key to its positioning as ideal for first-person view (FPV) drones.

Other connections on the board include a USB Type-C for programming and bench-testing and an expansion header with two UART buses, I2C, four additional motor outputs bringing to the total to eight, a beeper, two servo connections, an LED strip, and two spare general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins. The design is also now fully compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — or, rather, drone-specific sections thereof, introduced in the FY2020, FY2023, and FY2024 Acts, the latter also known as the American Security Drone Act.

More information on the F7 is available on the PrincipIoT website, while the hardware can be purchased on the company's Tindie store for $120.