Choosing a Flight Controller

[Kaelin]

Abstract:
I am building my first quadcopter and am having trouble deciding on a flight controller. I am a Computer Science student and would like to have the most versatile set of abilities possible, as far as programming the quadcopter (e.g. possibly respond to certain inputs, such as processing a point cloud using OpenCV in order to navigate an area).

Current Knowledge:
I'm looking at using the ArduPilot system and currently have the PX4, APM 2.6, and the Pixhawk in my sights. I am inclined to go with the PX4 because it is slightly more powerful (more RAM + ARM based) and seems to be better for bleeding edge projects, among other things. However, the APM 2.6 seems to have WAY more support, in terms of tutorials, setting it up, and using it with peripherals, right now. As for the Pixhawk, it seems like a very powerful system with a lower level of flexibility hardware-wise (although I may be fine with this).

Questions:
Do I really need the seemingly more powerful PX4 for longevity of my projects/usefulness? If so, can you guys point me towards some helpful tutorials for it so that I can find resources I'm comfortable with understanding before making the final purchase?

 

[dazzab]

If your requirements are programability and a like supportive community then in my experience your only choice would the Pixhawk. The PX4 is great for researchers as well but the Pixhawk is so close to it that I don't see any advantage to using it. I wouldn't consider the APM2.6 as it's 8 bit and a lot of the future developments simply will not run on it. It's a great flight controller and I think hitting it's limits will actually work in it's favour as a solid controller that will now go in to a phase of revisions only to make it better but not add any more functionality.

 

[Bartman]

Hi Kaelin,

I have to agree with Dazzab, the Pixhawk is the way to go. There are other open source flight control systems that you could get involved with such as Open Pilot and KK2 but the Pixhawk probably has the most active developer community and established collection of add-ons.

APM 2.6 runs the same software but like Dazzab said, the hardware is limited at this point.

 

[Kaelin]

Thank you both for your responses! This helped my decision a lot.

 

[Bartman]

Kaelin, We've got a 3D Robotics sub-forum here and it would be awesome if you'd post there with whatever progress you make as you get started with your project. i'm a light-weight when it comes to the software stuff so I rely on smarter people like yourself to 'splain stuff to me sometimes.

don't be a stranger and keep us up to date on your adventures!

 

[Kaelin]

Bartman, I'd be happy to contribute! I will definitely post an update once I get my project off the ground.

 

[Bartman]

i may have been wrong on what I said, I said the Pixhawk is the way to go but you said the PX4 has superior hardware....are you sure about that?

Here's a post from the DIYdrones.com community site (10/19/2013);

The APM 2.5 and 2.6 (nearly identical) are the most recent (and final) editions of the traditional ArduPilot Flight controller: http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-apm25-and-26-overview/

The PX4FMU and PX4IO is the initial 2 board version of what is becoming the new family of Flight controllers: http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-px4fmu-overview/ and the PX4IO: http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-px4io-overview/

The Pixhawk is the new special single board version of the PX4 system built specifically for our needs and it incorporates many enhancements from the PX4FMU / PX4IO board set: http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-pixhawk-overview/

The APM was a tried and true champion and it was exploited to the fullest to bring us the richness of capabilities that let us do so much. But that said it is out of both memory and CPU performance which are necessary for future enhancement. Recently some progress has been made in recovering a bit of memory, but the handwriting is on the wall and APM production will be coming to an end very soon if it hasn't already.

The PX4FMU / PX4IO was made as a University project by a Swiss team including Lorenz Meier and used next generation microcontrollers and distributed processing to greatly increase capabilities beyond the APM. DIYDrones and 3DRobotics adopted it as the basis for their next generation flight controller.

The Pixhawk actually is the DIYDrones next generation flight controller made by a collaboration of DIYDrones,3DR and the original Swiss team that made the PX4 to actually incorporate everything we wanted in a flight controller.

The Pixhawk is still getting the final polish on it's firmware and will have a ton of room for future firmware enhancements.

Basically, buy a Pixhawk, the APM is at end of life and the PX4 is just the intermediate step that got us to the Pixhawk.

 

[Kaelin]

I actually found that exact link shortly after your first response to me. Yeah I think misunderstood some things about the PX4 and Pixhawk. I am very new to all of these platforms and don't have a ton of hardware experience (only software). So, it looks like Pixhawk is indeed the way for me to go...?

 

[Bartman]

i'd agree with that. if you're going to dive into the software just keep in mind you can do a lot of testing and experimenting with a basic four or six motor heli using a frame/parts sourced locally (like from the Home Depot). the hardware is all secondary for testing software so don't go nuts as software testing can also result in some unexpected encounters with the ground.

 

[Eugene]

Hi,

I'd like to conduct some experiments with tilt rotor quadcopter configuration, and have been looking for a flight controller that would allow altitude hold, position hold, return home, waypoint navigation, and servo controls for retractable landing gear and other actuation. Would you recommend Pixhawk for my application?

Thanks.