Eachine E011 Mods - Cheap Tiny Whoop!

The Eachine E011 is a toy micro quad that works great on its own, but wouldn't it be nice if it was better? Thanks to Silverware, a replacement firmware for various micro quads, the E011 can be turned into an acro flying drone for just the price of your drone, an ST Link V2, some solder, and a little bit of time. If you want the FPV experience, a micro camera can also be added.

This is my first Instructable, so I hope that it is helpful. If you enjoy it, please consider voting for it in the Make it Fly challenge.

Feel free to ask questions in to comments. I will get back to you with an answer as soon as possible.

Tools you will need -

• Soldering Iron - any will work
• ST Link V2 - Can be purchased for just a few dollars from eBay, such as this one. You may need to get some female jumper wires. My module came with them, some may not.
• Solder and any other soldering tools that you like- I like a pairs of tweezers for holding wires during soldering.
• Small Screwdriver

Supplies -

• Eachine E011 - Can be found on Banggood and other stores.

WARNING - Some recent E011s have shipped
with a flight controller that cannot be flashed.
You may want to look into a Boldclash
BWhoop Pro, which as far as I know can still
be flashed. Check this page to see all of the
compatable quads.

The quad is all you really need to get started, but other things that you may want to consider are -

• An FPV camera - I am using the Wolfwhoop Combo 3, which can be found on Amazon.
• If you choose to get the camera, you will also need a receiver. I use an RC832, which can plug into the RCA input on a TV. It is also available on Amazon.
• I also recommend getting more batteries. I got these. However, they do require a slight modification to the battery tray. You can also search "eo11 battery" and there will be multiple options that should fit and include a charger. The battery that came with my E011 also came puffed out of the box, so this may end up being mandatory if you want to fly.
• If you get more batteries, you may also need a different connector for the drone. For mine, I needed one of these.
• Rubber bands for mounting the camera and batteries.

Downloads -

• Keil MDK
• ST Link Utility
• SIlverware Firmware - There are mulitple versions of Silverware. I am using the NotFastEnuf (NFE) version.

You will need to download all of these and install them. Put the firmware where you can find it later. This tutorial is for Windows only.

Stock, the E011 auto levels itself and has an auto flip function. With the new firmware, you can have full acro mode, as well as an auto level mode that has a higher possible angle, allowing you to go faster.

The ST Link V2 is what allows the computer to flash the new firmware. There are four pads on the bottom of the flight control board. They are labeled - CLK, DAT, +3v, and GND. You need to solder a female jumper wire to each one. The +3v pad is not required. If you choose not to use it, you must connect the battery prior to flashing. I chose to use it.

The wires are then connected to the ST Link as follows -

• GND > GND
• +3V > 3.3V
• DAT > SWCLK
• CLK > SWDIO

There are many available options that you can choose within the firmware. Some of them can be kind of confusing as to what they do. That was the hardest part for me setting up the firmware.

First, you navigate to where ever you saved the firmware folder. Open the Silverware sub-folder. If Keil was installed properly, there will be an option with a green icon next to it. Open it.

It should ask you to install device support. Install it.

There are a bunch of separate files inside of the project. Find "config.h". The first six images show the settings that need to be changed. Next find "rx_bayang_ble_app.c". The last image shows the settings that need to be changed in that file.

See the pictures for all of the settings that need to be changed. If it isn't shown in the picture, then you don't need to worry about changing it.

There are many options inside of the firmware that I won't go over here. Feel free to experiment and do your own research about what the rest do.

Using my settings, you will using the right side trim buttons to arm/disarm, and switch between acro and level mode.

• Left > Disarm
• Right > Arm
• Up > Level Mode
• Down > Acro Mode

Currently, it starts out in level mode, you push the button to switch to acro.

The first step is to unlock and erase the chip using the ST Link Utility. With the board connected to the ST Link tool, go to Target > Option Bytes and change Read Out Protection to Level 0. This is all that you need to do with the Utility.

Using Keil, click Project > Build Target. When this finishes, go to Flash > Download.

Your Eachine E011 should now be flashed. Disconnect from the computer and fly!

You are now to the fun part. Flying your drone! Steps to get flying are the following -

• Connect battery to drone and place on flat surface
• Power on controller
• Move throttle all the way to the down. Wait for the two beeps, and the lights should start flashing rapidly.
• Press the disarm button.
• Press the Down (Acro) button if you want to fly in acro mode.
• Press the Arm button and fly.

This part is optional. It allows you to view your battery voltage and PID settings on your phone. You can download it from here.

The voltage will most likely be different from the actual voltage. This can be changed in the config file, but I found it easier to just know how far the voltage was offset, so for me, I would land when it showed 3.6 volts, which was actually closer to 3.8 volts.

PID tuning allows you to change how the quad flies. You can change the PIDs using stick gestures as seen here. There are also a few guides on that website that show different methods of tuning the quad to feel perfect for you. I didn't change any of the PIDs, but the option is there if you want it.

Now that it is flying, you can add a camera!.

Mounting the camera is fairly simple. I chose to use the connector that came with the camera to make it easily removable. I cut off the one end of the adapter and soldered it to the top of the battery pads. I then drilled a hole in the canopy for it to go through. The camera is held on with just a rubber band wrapped underneath the canopy. You can use a thin piece of foam under the camera, but I found that it wasn't necessary. Direct soldering the camera can save some weight, but I want the be able to remove the camera and put it on different things.

Later, I want to get a Flysky Fs-i6x and make a multiprotocol module. The larger transmitter will make it much easier to control the quad. I can the also get a monitor and mount the attach to the i6, which will make it so I can fly FPV everywhere, and not have to be tethered to a TV.