CleanFlight Blackbox setup

Blackbox is a nice feature in the CleanFlight firmware, which allows you to log your flight data information. You can store the data either on an external OpenLog Data Logger or on the onboard dataflash storage of your flight controller. Here I will show you how to setup the Blackbox feature for use with your flight controller dataflash storage.

Compatible flight controllers:

  • Naze32 Full
  • CC3D
  • SPRacingF3
  • Sparky2
  • Seriously Dodo

Cleanflight_Blackbox_Setup

All of these flight controllers have a dataflash chip onboard. For example the Naze32 Full and the CC3D have the 16Mbit (2MB) 25P16VP flash chip. If you have a Naze32 Acro, you can buy the dataflash chip and solder it on your own too. I haven’t done this yet, but it is the same as soldering a barometer or a compass on it. Check the pictures for more information about that.

If you need more than 2MB, you can also take one of the following supported dataflash chips:

  • Micron N25Q064 – 64 Mbit (8 MB)
  • Winbond W25Q64 – 64 Mbit (8 MB)
  • Micron N25Q0128 – 128 Mbit (16 MB)
  • Winbond W25Q128 – 128 Mbit (16 MB)

Enable Blackbox in CleanFlight

Cleanflight_Blackbox_Setup_Enable

Once you have enabled it, go to the “CLI”-Tab in CleanFlight to configure Blackbox. First you need to tell the flight controller to save the flight data on the internal flash chip by typing following line:

set blackbox_device=1

Cleanflight_Blackbox_CLI

Next you should configure at which rate the Blackbox will record your flight data. The following two settings define this:

set blackbox_rate_num=1
set blackbox_rate_denom=16

Save

Every sixteenth flight controller’s loop iteration will be recorded. The amount of the logged data depends on the looptime too. The lower the looptime, the more the recorded data will be.

For example: on the 2MB flash chip, with a rate of 1/16 and a looptime of 2500, you should be able to record flight data for about 25min.

That’s it. Now you flight data will be recorded to the data flash chip. You can then download it on your computer and analyze it.

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