Driving an brushless RC motor with a NetDuino

Hi, I want to prototype a concentric rotor craft that is a cross between a hovercraft and a helicopter (it will fly out of ground affect though).

So far my research leads me to expect using one to two 400 class electric RC motors.
All the netduino motor shields I've seen are only in the 5-10 amp range, so I think I'll need to also pickup a Electric Speed Controller (ESC). The main motor will be run as a pure throttle control so .NetMF timing will be fine here, but I'm consurned about the other servos.

I want to quickly prototype a two chanel directed airflow system for front/back and left/right sides to see if that is enough, or if I need to desing a more complex variable blade pitch system that varies the picth of the blade at different point in the rotation like a traditional helicopter rotor. I've read that the netduino doesn't have the timing resolution for things like quadricoptors. Let's assume that is true. Would the netdiuno have the timing resolution to control a standard RC helicopter? I'm assuming my design would be slightly more stable and have lower timing requirements than a standard helicopter.

Will the PWM pins have the best resolution/responce times. e.g. I'd be better off driving the RC ESC with a digital pin and software PWM, and hooking up the navigational servo to hardware clocked PWM pins? or the other way around?

Thanks in advance,

You're going to need an RC plane ESC, like a Hobbyking PLUSH. A 3 phase brushless motor needs a proper speed controller to work correctly, and you can not do that with an Arduino motor shield as controlling a brushless motor requires a feedback control loop. This isn't really the type of project for NETMF though. Aircraft control theory really isn't suited for NETMF on the current Netduino chip at all, and the chip doesn't have tight enough timing to fly an RC helicopter unless you do all controls in native, not managed. The Netduino is great for other things, like flight management and navigation, but NETMF is too slow for stabilization.

This isn't really the type of project for NETMF though. Aircraft control theory really isn't suited for NETMF on the current Netduino chip at all, and the chip doesn't have tight enough timing to fly an RC helicopter unless you do all controls in native, not managed.

The Netduino is great for other things, like flight management and navigation, but NETMF is too slow for stabilization.

Hi Chris,

I was planning to make a UAV helicopter using the netduino (servos controlled via netduino/gyro). Based on what you stated here, it doesn't look like the netduino is suited for this. I assumed it would be fine, since the Arduino seems to be able to handle it ( ArduPilot Mega ). Do you have any other suggestions on what you would use for this type of project ( Something multi-core and lower level - C/Assembly)? I have worked a bit with the Arduino, Basic Stamps, and a few others, but I was drawn into the netduino for .NET and especially the debugger.

thanks,
jsnmc