Dataflash on NAZE32

The Acro NAZE32 flight controller ships without a dataflash chip, which is so shortsighted of the designer / manufacturer. Many users will not be at all interested in Baro or Magnetometer which come on the deluxe version, but the dataflash is so useful in tuning a copter.

Unfortunately, the designer put pads on the rev5 board for 150mil SOIC-8 chips (SOICN), but lots of dataflash chips are in 208mil packages (SOICW) and all the large capacity chips are SOICW. Rev6 boards appear to have pads that will suit both sizes… but then the Acro comes with dataflash, even if small.

If you are happy to install a 2Mb dataflash chip, buy a SOICN package and your job is easy.

I installed a 64Mb Winbond chip (W25Q64FVSIG), they are easy to find on eBay for a dollar or so. (You will also need a 10nF ceramic 0603 cap).

If you want to install a SOICW package…

Step is to bend the legs of the chip 90° downwards so they curl around under the package.

IMG_1650

This can be done with a pair of pliers gripping the legs at the outboard bend with a pair of pliers, and bending them hard against the body.

SOICWonNaze32

Above, the bent legs meet the pads at 90° forming a place where a fillet of solder can be applied for a sound connection to the pad. This takes a small soldering iron, small solder, and skill. A bit of good solder wick can be handy if you melt too much solder in there.

You will also need to install the 10nF power decoupling cap to the pads next to the chip (hidden in the pic above).

Do that properly and the dataflash should be found during startup and appear in Cleanflight Configurator for you to erase before its first use.

This is better solution than an off-board logger, less dataloss, less junk on the copter, but it is very slow to export to a file.

You will not want to run logging unless you want to review it, switch if off when not needed to avoid wear on the dataflash.