ACwing – open drone platform

Flight controller, power and expansion boards, firmware, tools and mechanics for small multirotors
by Andrea Cirillo

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This is the system repository of ACwing. Apart from the shared brand files it holds no design files: it pins one commit of each part of the project, so that a commit (or a tag) of this repository names a set of firmware, hardware and mechanics that belong together.

Folder	Repository	What
fw/	ACwing_FW	flight-controller firmware (STM32WB55), Flow bridge firmware (STM32C011), PC tools in MATLAB and Python, ACwing Pilot app. Documentation: acwing-uav.github.io/ACwing_FW
hw/	ACwing_HW	KiCad projects and manufacturing files: FC, ESC 1S, GPS, Flow; system and stack documents
mech/	ACwing_Mechs	frames, mounts, printed parts
brand/	(this repository)	logos (SVG/PNG), KiCad logo footprints ACwing_Logo.pretty, brand and silkscreen tools

Which versions work together, and what was tested: COMPATIBILITY.md.

Getting the whole project

git lfs install                       # once: the mechanics use Git LFS
git clone --recursive https://github.com/ACwing-UAV/ACwing.git

Already cloned without --recursive, or after a pull that moved the pins:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Each folder is then a normal clone of its repository, checked out at the pinned commit (detached HEAD). To work in one of them, check out a branch first: cd fw && git switch main.

Working on the project

Day-to-day work happens in the individual repositories, not here. This repository moves only when a combination of versions is worth recording:

1. Commit and push in fw/, hw/ or mech/ (or work in a separate clone of that repository).
2. When the new combination has been checked, record it here:

   git submodule update --remote fw    # or hw, mech: moves to the tip of main
   git add fw
   git commit -m "fw: <what changed>"
   

3. Update COMPATIBILITY.md in the same commit, and tag the milestones (git tag proto-0.2).

Dependabot opens a pull request here every week when one of the three repositories has moved ahead (.github/dependabot.yml): merge it when the combination has been checked, close it otherwise.

Interfaces between the parts

Each interface has one owner, the repository that produces it; the others link to it and never keep a copy.

Interface	Owner	File
FC pin map (MCU pins ↔ connectors)	hw → used by fw	hw/00 - Docs/00 - FC_Docs/ACwing_FC_A_pinmap.md
FC outline and holes (DXF)	hw → used by mech	hw/00 - Docs/00 - FC_Docs/ACwing_FC_A_outline.dxf
Flow board outline (DXF)	hw → used by mech	hw/00 - Docs/03 - FLOW_Docs/ACwing_Flow_A_mech_outline.dxf
Board 3D models (STEP)	hw → used by mech	hw/00 - Docs/<board>_Docs/<board>.step
Stack, mechanical handoff, frame answers	hw ↔ mech	hw/00 - Docs/04 - System_Docs
ACwing Pilot protocol v2	fw → used by the app	fw/03 - Docs/firmware/protocol-v2.md
Logos and logo footprints	system → used by hw, fw, mech	brand/: the boards copy the footprints they use into their own library; READMEs and the documentation site load the PNGs from raw.githubusercontent.com/ACwing-UAV/ACwing/main/brand/

The links point to main of each repository; after a recursive clone the same files are under hw/ and fw/ at the pinned commit.

License

MIT for this repository; each submodule carries its own license.