I've been working on improving serial communication between the Arduino and Python components. Previously, they just threw data at each other and hoped for the best. It now operates on a call and response model with a ~35Hz refresh rate. There's room for improvement if I reduce the API key lengths or compress the data somehow.

I also upped the baud from 9600 to 250000 to improve speeds.

I also improved the script to display some stats on exit:

 $ ./arduino.py 
Telemetry...Go
Arduino...Go
Calibration...Go
Fly by wire...Go
All stations are go.

Waiting for input:
{u'rcs': u'None'}
{u'action_group_1': u'None'}
{u'action_group_1': u'None'}
{u'rcs': u'None'}
{u'rcs': u'None'}
{u'rcs': u'None'}
{u'rcs': u'None'}
^C

=======[ Stats ]=======
Updates:       465
Retransmits:   1
Percentage:    0.22%

Rate:          28.87ms
Frequency:     34.64Hz

Really pleased with out this came out. I had some misgivings for a bit when I was really in the weeds with this. I even started looking at alternatives like the Pi and Edison. I like the Edison a lot actually, but it doesn't have the pin density I'm looking for. Anyway, it's working great now. I can't wait to move on to the next big thing.