My quad won't play its melody — a troubleshooting checklist
Flashed everything, wrote the melody, plugged in the battery — and nothing? Work through this list top to bottom. The cause is almost always one of these eight things.
Blog
Tips, deep-dives, and field reports from the FPV motor-music project. New posts every few weeks.
Common RTTTL syntax mistakes (and how to fix them)
If you hand-edit RTTTL strings, you'll trip on the same quirks over and over. Here are the seven most common mistakes I see in user submissions, and what they should look like instead.
10 songs that always get a reaction at the field
After a year of arming quads in front of other pilots, these are the ten tunes that reliably make people stop and grin. With notes on why each one works.
Polyphony tricks — how to simulate chords on a quadcopter
Each motor plays one note at a time. A standard chord has three or four notes. Here's how to fake them, voice them well, and pick chord types that work.
Flashing Bluejay with esc-configurator — a step-by-step guide
The whole flashing process takes about five minutes once you've done it once. Here's the complete walkthrough, including the gotchas nobody warns you about.
Picking the right tempo for ESC playback
The default BPM from your MIDI file is rarely the best one for motor playback. Here's how to think about tempo when you're scoring for ESCs.
Why short songs beat long songs in practice
A 15-second hook beats a 45-second medley nine times out of ten. Here's why, and what to actually pick.
How to record clean audio of your quad singing
Phone-mic recordings sound like garbage. Here's how to capture motor music in a way that actually does the song justice.
The Mario theme on 8 motors — an octocopter case study
A friend brought their octocopter to a meetup and asked if we could put a song on it. Eight voices changes the game in ways I didn't expect.
Tinywhoop motor music — what works, what doesn't
Tinywhoops have tiny motors, tiny stators, and a plastic ducted body that swallows sound. Here's the honest report after a week of trying to make a 1S whoop sing.