--- title: Turning An Old Phone’s Motherboard Into An RC Plane... description: A maker repurposed an old Xiaomi Mi 8 phone's motherboard as a long-range LTE controller and FPV video link for an RC plane. The $23 used phone had LineageOS... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/turning-an-old-phone-s-motherboard-into-an-rc-plane-controller-tzlsseyup twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Turning An Old Phone’s Motherboard Into An RC Plane Controller | daily.dev og:description: A maker repurposed an old Xiaomi Mi 8 phone's motherboard as a long-range LTE controller and FPV video link for an RC plane. The $23 used phone had LineageOS... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/turning-an-old-phone-s-motherboard-into-an-rc-plane-controller-tzlsseyup og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/tzlssEyuP.png og:image:alt: Turning An Old Phone’s Motherboard Into An RC Plane Controller og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Turning An Old Phone’s Motherboard Into An RC Plane Controller **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A maker repurposed an old Xiaomi Mi 8 phone's motherboard as a long-range LTE controller and FPV video link for an RC plane. The $23 used phone had LineageOS flashed onto it for a lighter, updated Android build. Since the OS halts on boot without a display, the builder disabled the display in the device tree by editing boot.img. A custom USB-to-UART adapter with a CH340 chip connected the phone to the avionics, and a custom bracket mounted the board inside the plane. Local drone flight restrictions limited testing to taxiing ahead of a maiden flight at a local airstrip. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do you stop Android from hanging on boot when there's no display connected? You disable the display in the device tree by modifying the boot.img file. Without this change, the OS checks for a display at boot and times out, which can halt the boot process entirely when the screen has been removed, as happens when repurposing a phone motherboard for embedded use. _Builders stripping phones down to bare boards can track hacks like this one on daily.dev._ ### Can a phone's LTE connection be used to control an RC plane instead of a 2.4 GHz radio link? Yes, a Xiaomi Mi 8 motherboard running LineageOS was connected via a USB-to-UART adapter with a CH340 chip to a plane's flight controller, using the phone's LTE link for control and its camera for FPV video. This approach trades the short range of a typical 2.4 GHz RC link for LTE's much greater range, at the cost of a few milliseconds of added latency. _Anyone weighing LTE versus RF control links for long-range drones can follow builds like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A Hotspot Becomes A Handheld](https://daily.dev/posts/a-hotspot-becomes-a-handheld-qnurqm4p0) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Converting a $20 4G wireless hotspot into a texting device](https://daily.dev/posts/converting-a-20-4g-wireless-hotspot-into-a-texting-device-e0hns3ftf) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I turned an old Android phone into a home server, and it’s more useful than my Raspberry Pi](https://daily.dev/posts/i-turned-an-old-android-phone-into-a-home-server-and-it-s-more-useful-than-my-raspberry-pi-16vmcuak7) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [MAKERphone 2.0 Lets You Build a 4G Phone and Vibe-Code Its Apps](https://daily.dev/posts/makerphone-2-0-lets-you-build-a-4g-phone-and-vibe-code-its-apps-atnue2bz8) · It's Foss · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Building A Flying Drone With A Single Propeller](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-flying-drone-with-a-single-propeller-kssdu9q4s) · Hackaday · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/turning-an-old-phone-s-motherboard-into-an-rc-plane-controller-tzlsseyup) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Turning An Old Phone’s Motherboard Into An RC Plane Controller","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/turning-an-old-phone-s-motherboard-into-an-rc-plane-controller-tzlsseyup","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/turning-an-old-phone-s-motherboard-into-an-rc-plane-controller-tzlsseyup"},"datePublished":"2026-10-28T15:39:30.161Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T15:58:10.847Z","description":"A maker repurposed an old Xiaomi Mi 8 phone's motherboard as a long-range LTE controller and FPV video link for an RC plane. 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Without this change, the OS checks for a display at boot and times out, which can halt the boot process entirely when the screen has been removed, as happens when repurposing a phone motherboard for embedded use. Builders stripping phones down to bare boards can track hacks like this one on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Can a phone's LTE connection be used to control an RC plane instead of a 2.4 GHz radio link?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, a Xiaomi Mi 8 motherboard running LineageOS was connected via a USB-to-UART adapter with a CH340 chip to a plane's flight controller, using the phone's LTE link for control and its camera for FPV video. This approach trades the short range of a typical 2.4 GHz RC link for LTE's much greater range, at the cost of a few milliseconds of added latency. Anyone weighing LTE versus RF control links for long-range drones can follow builds like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```