Blog

Tips, deep-dives, and field reports from the FPV motor-music project. New posts every few weeks.

Understanding Bluejay's 128-byte melody budget

· bluejay · technical · deep dive · rtttl

Where does the "62 notes" figure come from? A look at how Bluejay actually stores a melody, why the limit exists, and how to spend those bytes wisely.

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BLHeli_32 vs AM32 — melody support compared

· blheli32 · am32 · firmware comparison

Both are 32-bit firmwares with bigger melody slots than BLHeli_S, but they differ in subtle ways. Quick comparison from a music-pilot's perspective.

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My quad won't play its melody — a troubleshooting checklist

· troubleshooting · debugging · bluejay

Flashed everything, wrote the melody, and your quad is silent on arm? Work through this list top to bottom — the cause is almost always one of these eight things.

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Common RTTTL syntax mistakes (and how to fix them)

· rtttl · syntax · debugging

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.

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10 songs that always get a reaction at the field

· songs · taste · field · recommendations

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.

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Polyphony tricks — how to simulate chords on a quadcopter

· polyphony · chords · arrangement · theory

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.

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Flashing Bluejay with esc-configurator — a step-by-step guide

· bluejay · tutorial · flashing · getting started

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.

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Picking the right tempo for ESC playback

· tempo · tips · workflow

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.

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Why short songs beat long songs in practice

· songwriting · taste · workflow

A 15-second hook beats a 45-second medley nine times out of ten. Here's why, and what to actually pick.

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How to record clean audio of your quad singing

· recording · audio · workflow

Phone-mic recordings sound like garbage. Here's how to capture motor music in a way that actually does the song justice.

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