(iTers News) - The quadcopter kit – which retails for US$149 – comprises the tiny 19g quadcopter itself called Crazyflie and on-board control board and battery, plus a separate USB dongle (called Crazyradio) that is compatible with all major OS platforms (including Windows, Linux, and OS X) and any regular PC-compatible gaming controller.

The Crazyflie – which measures just 9cm rotor-to-rotor and is small enough to fly under tables and chairs – is highly controllable and maneuverable and includes an altimeter, automatic in-air electronic stabilization system to make it easier to pilot based on a 3-axis MEMS gyro and 3-axis accelerometer from Invensense (MPU-6050), plus optional barometer and magnetometer (additional US$24).

The development platform is completely open source which means firmware and source code can be downloaded from Bitcraze's website and any new user-developed firmware enhancements can be shared with other Crazyflie users within the open source community. Firmware updates can also be sent wirelessly to a bootloader on the Crazyflie which means no additional hardware is required.

In operation, a Nordic nRF24LU1+ transceiver embedded into a PC dongle sends set-point data – roll, pitch, yaw, and thrust – 100 times per second to an nRF24L01+ embedded into the Crazyflie. The PC dongle can also receive logging data such as telemetry from the Crazyflie.

The ultra low power characteristics of the Nordic nRF24L01+ enable the Crazyflie to operate from a tiny on-board lithium polymer 170mAh rechargeable battery that can be re-charged via a regular microUSB cable between flights.

"We re-developed the 8051 on-chip CPU firmware drivers in the nRF24LU1+ from scratch to make them completely open source and easy for the end user to access," comments Arnaud Taffanel, Co-Founder of Bitcraze AB. "And the entire quadcopter itself including mechanics, hardware, and software code, was developed using open source tools and technology."

Bitcraze says it has already sold over 1,300 kits and is planning to add a wide range of exciting new features and enhancements in the future, and has already adapted the Crazyflie to carry an on-board streaming video, LEDs, and a wireless inductive charger.

"Our kit is a lot smaller – and therefore safer – than the larger quadcopter kits out there and so a very good place for interested developers to start," adds Tobias Antonsson and Bitcraze Co-Founder. "And the success of this product to date has motivated us to start drawing up some very ambitious and even more exciting future plans for the Crazyflie – so watch this space."

The Crazyflie kit is available to order now direct from Bitcraze's Chinese open hardware manufacturing partner, Seeedstudio.