Your search for the best flight controller is over! I'm here to tell you that the best flight controller is ...
None of them! There’s presently no such issue as “the best flight controller” on the market. everybody you refer to goes to inform you that what “they use” is that the best, which can be the case for them, however everybody has totally different desires and private experiences that alter there opinion on what very is that the “best flight controller” out there.
In this article, I’ll attempt going over what all the simplest flight controllers area unit (in my opinion) for specific uses, since there isn’t nevertheless Associate in Nursing all-in-one resolution that may work for any quite flying. Please note that this can not be a specs comparison in any manner.
What quite Flying area unit You Doing?
Before viewing flight controllers, you must understand that there area unit 3 differing kinds of flying. once building a drone, the foremost relevant kind of flying is FPV athletics and race, however some individuals still build drones for aerial photography and even autonomous missions. most flight controllers area unit solely dedicated at one specific vogue, thus once shopping for a flight controller, you must check that you perceive what quite flying you’re attending to be doing the foremost of, then create you’re call off of that.
Prices and Links
Now that you just understand what kind of flying that you’re making an attempt to try to to, you must be able to decide a flight controller from the list below. There area unit lots of alternative flight controllers out there, however these area unit those that employment the simplest for every class of flying.
| Controller Name | Price & Links | Flying type |
|---|---|---|
| Flyduino KISS | $35 | Racing or Freestyle |
| Lumenier LUX | $40 | Racing or Freestyle |
| DJI NAZA-M V2 | $300 | General Use or Photography |
| DJI A3 | $829 | Pro Aerial Photography |
| 3DR PixHawk | $204 | DIY and Autonomous projects |
FPV Drone Racing
The most fun variety of flying (in my opinion) is FPV drone athletics and race. Any sensible flight controller for athletics or race ought to be able to endure in no time roll rates, hold any angle you place it in (regardless of how briskly or what direction it’s going) and may be totally tunable. It additionally shouldn’t price lots of cash, since it’s potential that it might break from bally usually.
KISS Flight Controller
The KISS FC (flight controller) from Flyduino is a tremendous very little board for any tiny sized quadcopter. I’m attending to take off by locution that the KISS FC doesn’t have as several options as a number of the opposite standard flight controllers out there, however that isn’t essentially a foul issue. thanks to it’s lack of options, you’re able to navigate through the programme for the primary time while not lots of confusion, and there’s no random or useless settings birth around that take up area.
Other than the essential configuration settings and observance tools, the sole alternative issue that you’ll notice within the GUI (graphical user interface) is that the inflammatory disease settings for standardization your drone. within the inflammatory disease section, you'll prefer to tune each a part of the inflammatory disease loop yourself, or if all of this is often unaccustomed you, merely choose one in every of the user presets uploaded from many real pilots UN agency already understand what they’re doing.
All of this is often nice, however none of it matters if the flight controller doesn’t fly well. the great news is, it flies great! Out of all the flight controllers out there, this one is my favorite, and it’s wide called the simplest flight controller you'll purchase (Even if it doesn’t have each single feature far-famed to man.
Lux Flight Controller (Cleanflight)
If you wish additional flexibility than what the KISS FC can give (things like semiconductor diode controls, ESC flashing, OSD integration, recording machine logs etc…) then you must get a flight controller that runs the code called Cleanflight. The Lumenier illumination unit flight controller could be a nice selection as a result of it's all of the hardware options that area unit required to require advantage of Cleanflight, Betaflight and Raceflight.
By now, you would possibly be asking “what precisely is “Cleanflight, Betaflight and Raceflight?”. this is often wherever things get confusing. With the KISS flight controller, the hardware, code and package area unit all created by identical company. On the opposite hand, with Cleanflight the hardware, code and package is all created severally. for instance, The flight controller can be created by lumenier, the package for configuring it'd be Cleanflight, however the code can be referred to as Betaflight and are available from an individual in his garage. the explanation for this is often as a result of it’s Associate in Nursing open supply platform, thus everything is usually dynamical and folks can’t simply continue one system that works and keep up it.
To understand things a little additional, here’s a lesson. within the starting of your time, there was a crazy project referred to as Multiwii that began victimization sensors from Nintendo Wii remotes and Arduino small controllers that created quadcopters stable enough to fly. Then individuals started creating dedicated flight controllers that ran the Multiwii code. when a couple of years elapsed, there have been a scores of evolving comes that started from Multiwii. one in every of those comes was referred to as Baseflight. it absolutely was created to require advantage of recent 32bit processors rather than the normal 8bit processors found in Arduino hardware. Baseflight was nice, however the code was mussy and unorganized. Thats once the Cleanflight code and configuration package was created.
Cleanflight remains the foremost standard code these days for open supply flight controllers, however lots of individuals right away flash their boards with Betaflight to induce even larger performance. The Betaflight code still uses the Cleanflight configurator package, however the inflammatory disease loops area unit higher. Some like Betaflight even over the proprietary code found on KISS flight controllers, however that subject is debatable. If you wish to get on the leading edge, there’s an excellent newer Cleanflight based mostly code referred to as Raceflight, however I won’t get into that as a result of it’s not one thing that you just ought to even be worrying regarding immediately.
Cinéma winged
When doing aerial photography and video, you’ll desire a flight controller that may turn out the smoothest video potential. this sort of flying sometimes needs a flight controller with terribly dampened flight characteristics and tiny stick rates (slow maneuverability).
If you wish to try to to Aerial Photography, the DJI NAZA M V2 is that the best flight controller for the task. The flight characteristics area unit sleek, it’s straightforward to fly with, and it's lots of options like intelligent-orientation-control and return-to-home. This makes it sensible for beginners, or cinematographers UN agency don’t need to stress regarding a way to fly dead so as to induce the shot they require. The NAZA M V2 is additionally one in every of the sole flight controllers that may work with the DJI H4-3D GoPro gimbal (the best gimbal for the GoPro in my opinion).
Autonome volante
Autonomous flying is clearly once you fly a model while not having to the touch any of the controls. If you wish to try to to lots of autonomous flying, It’s vital to own a flight controller that has options like motor vehicle embark and landing, waypoint flying and knowledge measure. It ought to even have ASCII text file code so you'll presently add or improve options.
The bad thing about the NAZA flight controller is that the firmware can not be modified in any way, so there is no future extension or additional features unless DJI comes up with a firmware update for it. This is where something like the 3 Pixhawk comes into play. The Pixhawk of 3d Robotics is a flight controller designed specifically for stand-alone flight. The Pixhawk has more features then the NAZA Flight controller, but the most important aspect about this is that all the software/firmware of the 3d robotics is open-source, so you can add things on it and do what you want. So if you're trying to do cutting-edge research projects, getting something from 3d robotics is probably the way to go.
The best flight controllers and why