**Show HN: Tacocopter – A Custom Flight Controller Programmed in Rust**
In a remarkable feat of engineering and programming prowess, a skilled developer has created a custom flight controller for drones from scratch using the Rust programming language. The project, affectionately dubbed "Tacocopter," is the culmination of a personal goal set at the beginning of 2025 to design and build a drone in its entirety.
The Tacocopter project consists of two primary components: the firmware directory, which contains the code flashed onto the drone's microcontroller, and the configurator application – a desktop program used to configure and monitor the drone. With this ambitious undertaking, the developer has tackled numerous complexities, including writing custom PIO assembly programs for efficient I/O access on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller.
Unfortunately, due to space constraints, the developer notes that they can only share a glimpse of the impressive implementation details, hinting at future videos to delve deeper into topics such as custom flash programming and overcoming hardware caveats. While this project is still in its early stages, with no precompiled applications or fully functional features available, it has already garnered significant attention within the development community.
For those eager to dive in and explore the codebase, the first step is to clone the Tacocopter repository into a convenient folder. To compile the drone's firmware and flash it onto the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller, follow these steps:
- Connect the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 to your computer while holding the BOOTSEL button to enter flashing mode.
- Run the following commands in your terminal:
To run the configurator application, you have two options: either launch it in development mode or compile and build it. Once the app is open, ensure that a USB cable is connected between your computer and the drone (without holding the BOOTSEL button). This setup will allow you to configure and monitor the Tacocopter system.
Keep in mind that this project is not yet designed for widespread use, and users should be aware of its limitations. Nonetheless, the developer's dedication to creating an open-source flight controller using Rust has already sparked excitement within the development community, with many eagerly awaiting further updates on this ambitious project.