Reverse Engineering the Parrot Disco – 4G Mod, Firmware Rewrite, and a New Airframe

The Parrot Disco was never meant to fly the way I pushed it — but that’s exactly why this project exists. This post kicks off my portfolio with one of my favorite builds: taking a fixed-wing consumer drone, ripping out its limitations, and rebuilding it into a long-range UAV with real autonomy, 4G connectivity, and a completely new airframe.

What I Started With

The stock Parrot Disco is a fun platform, but it comes with hard ceilings:

• Short range
• Weak bidirectional radio link
• Closed firmware
• Limited flight controller behavior
• Locked-down hardware integrations

Good for casual flying – not good enough for me.

What I Did

I broke the system open and rebuilt it the way it should have been designed:

• Reverse engineered the firmware and removed the restrictions
• Implemented a full 4G softmod, turning the aircraft into a network-connected UAV
• Transplanted the flight controller into an entirely different airframe
• Integrated custom wiring, power distribution, and sensor layout
• Re-tuned stabilization and navigation behavior for the new platform
• Optimized its long-range performance far beyond what Parrot intended

What started as a toy became a reliable long-distance aircraft with:

• real-time telemetry over LTE
• extended endurance
• cleaner aerodynamics
• better performance in wind
• full manual and assisted flight capability

Why This Build Matters

This project is where I sharpened a lot of the skills I use today:

• firmware modification
• RF systems
• long-range connectivity
• avionics integration
• sensor fusion tuning
• flight controller behavior analysis
• hardware re-platforming
• custom wiring + EMI management

And it cemented my love for engineering UAV systems from the ground up – not just flying them, but understanding every layer that makes them work.

More builds are coming, but this one is a perfect introduction to the kind of engineering I enjoy:
breaking boundaries, modifying systems, and pushing hardware far past what it was designed for.

– Charles Pyrce

Parrot Disco with a 4G Softmod, High-Capacity Battery, and Redundant Standalone GPS Tracker:

Crashed due to a mistuned PID controller:

Post crash flight controller transplant:

Replaced crashed disco, and rewrote firmware with a custom PID tune to support the Disco’s modified ArduPlane flight stack:

Videos of Flight:

1: Timelapse – parrot disco flight 02-11-2024 (4g mod)

2: Color Corrected Timelapse – Parrot Disco Flight 2-18-2024

3: Long Flight pt.1 – Disco 20240210155017 0800 (FIRST)

4: Long Flight pt.2 – Disco 20240210160806 0800