Controller Boards

Minimum Controller Requirements

Board	ESP32 DevKitC	ESP32-S3 DevKitC	Raspberry Pi Pico (W)	Black Pill
Board Size	55 * 28 mm	69 * 26 mm	51 * 21 mm	53 * 21 mm
Board Weight	6.9 g (9.1 g with headers)	8.4 g (10.9 g with headers)	3.0 g	4.5 g
Board Pins	38 pins	44 pins	40 pins	40 pins
Available external GPIO pins	21 + 4 input only + 1 button: 0 Note: strap pin restrictions	25 + 7 external pins but used: Button: 0 OSPI: 35, 36, 37 RGB LED: 38 USB: 19, 20 Note: strap pin restrictions	26 Internal only: Power save: 23 VBUS monitor: 24 LED: 25 VSYS voltage: 29 ADC3	30 + 2 external but used: Button: PA0 LED: PC13
PWM	16 (8 LEDC timers each with 2 output pins)	8 (4 LEDC timers each with 2 output pins)	16 (8 timers each with 2 output pins)	25 (6 * 16bit + 2 * 32bit timers)
Available UART	3	3	6 (2 + 4*PIO) +USB Serial debug	3
Available SPI	2	2	2	5
Available I2C	2	2	2	2
Available ADC pins	16 (12bit)	20 (12bit)	3 (12bit)	10 (12bit)
On Board Peripherals	WIFI + BT + Button	WIFI + BT + Button + RGB LED	LED + WIFI/BT (W)	Button + LED (+ optional SPI flash)
MCU	ESP32	ESP32S3	RP2040	STM32F411CE/CC
MCU GPIO	34	45	30	32
Processor	2 * 240MHz LX6	2 * 240MHz LX7	2 * 133MHz M0+	1 * 100MHz M4
Coremark (single core)	351		228	172
FPU	FPU	FPU	no FPU	FPU
MFLOPS (*)	63	61	2.0	48
RAM	320K data 132K instruction 64K cache	320K data 128K instruction 64K cache	264K data/instr. 16K XIP cache	128K
Flash	2-16M QuadSPI	2-16M OctalSPI	2M QuadSPI	512K internal (CE) 256K internal (CC)
PSRAM	0-8M	0-8M	0	0
Board price single piece	$4	$5	$4	$3

(*) MFLOPS (million floating point operations per second) results with TestFLOPS program in tools folder

Board	MCU	Specs	IO	Size	Weight	Power Consumption	Price
Waveshare RP2040-Zero	RP2040	2MB flash, RESET+BOOT button, RGB LED	20 io + 9 via solder points	23 * 17 mm	1.7 gr		$3
WeMos LOLIN32-Lite	ESP32	4MB flash, 0MB PSRAM, 2*240MHz, RESET button, lipo charger, LED	23 io	50 * 25 mm	4.7 gr		$3
WeMos LOLIN S3 Mini	ESP32-S3	4MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, 2*240MHz, RESET+BOOT button, LED	27 io	34 * 25 mm	3 gr		$5
WeAct STM32F405 Core Board	STM32F405RGT6	1MB flash, 192kB RAM, 1*168MHz, 6 UART, RESET+BOOT+USER button, LED, SDCARD	45 io	42 * 25 mm			$8
WeAct STM32H743 Core Board	STM32H743VIT6	2MB flash, 1MB RAM, 1*480MHz, 8 UART, RESET+BOOT+USER button, LED, SDCARD, 8MB SPI Flash, LCD, DVP	77 io	67 * 41 mm	13.7 gr	0.5W	$16
Raspberry Pi Zero	ARM11	SDCARD, 512MB RAM, 1*1GHz, in production until at least jan 2030	26 io	65 * 30 mm	9.0 gr	0.4W (idle) to 1.0W (100% cpu)	$9 + SDCARD
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W	Arm Cortex-A53	SDCARD, 512MB RAM, 4*1GHz, WLAN, in production until at least jan 2030	26 io	65 * 30 mm	11.4 gr	0.8W to 3.0W (idle=0.8W + 0.55W per 100% core)	$15 + SDCARD

A list of STM32 microcontrollers used in flight controllers, in order of power, from least to most:

MCU	Clock	Flash	RAM	Flight Controller Firmware	Breakout Board Price
F411	100MHz	512K	128K	`-BI`	$4
F412	100MHz	512K	256K	`---`	$5
F446	180MHz	512K	128K	`---`	$5
G473	170MHz	512K	128K	`-B-`
G474	170MHz	512K	128K	`---`	$6
F722	216MHz	512K	256K	`-BI`
F745	216MHz	1M	256K	`AB-`
F405	168MHz	1M	128K	`ABI`	$7
F427	180MHz	2M	256K	`A-I`
H750	480MHz	128K + 8M QSPI	1M	`---`	$12
H723	550MHz	1M + 8M OSPI	564K	`---`	$13
H743	480MHz	2M + 8M QSPI	1M	`ABI`	$15
H753	480MHz	2M	1M	`A--`