I recently came across Ardupilot and wanted to try it out. My initial goal is to have a plane circle autonomously with a ground station that displays telemetry data. I have a good amount of experience with RC electronics, programming and flying. However I am having trouble finding Ardupilot hardware that is compatible and actually in stock. From the Vendors listed on Ardupilot docs only a handful are sold in German shops, and from those it feels like the majority of items is out of stock.
What I can find in stock is a Holybro Pixhawk 6C Mini with Holybro Telemetry and GPS for 470€, which seems quite excessive for this hobby application. A similar set from Holybro directly would cost around $320, not sure how much it would be with shipping and customs.
Does anybody have a recommendation for a combo that would be compatible and available, ideally in the EU?
We often buy from Premium Modellbau in Germany, they have quite a selection.
The Matek boards are usually not bad, if you don’t mind soldering; although they exploded in price over the last two to three years. I remember buying a H743-Slim for ~70€, now it’s twice that.
I would probably go with any Matek H7 variant that is available (~140€), select any GPS from them which is not overly expensive (~50€) and a Holybro Telemetry set (~100€). Which would set you back ~300€ which is not very cheap, but the performance to price ratio should be good.
If you are adventurous, you could order a Telemetry set from Ebay to save some money.
Thanks for the input, I have also been looking in the Premium Modellbau store. I saw that they had some Matek flight controllers in stock, but I was hesitant because it’s hard to find any information about what hardware is intercompatible. If it’s just connectors I don’t mind soldering them instead.
There are also some second hand Speedybee F405 Wing controllers on the market for around 50-80€, which seems like a good deal compared to the other options. They are listed as compatible on the Ardupilot docs, but I don’t know what telemetry and GPS I am going to need for it. Is a Holybro telemetry set and Matek or Holybro GPS going to be compatible with it?
Matek makes that quite easy with a “Ardupilot Compatible” page on their website. Matek Ardupilot
The H743-Wing boards are a good choice for any craft but they have some handy features for Planes. As do all the Wing, or VTOL, boards.
If you’re already using Crossfire (or ELRS I guess) and an Open/EdgeTX radio, you can use its telemetry with the famous Yaapu script and might not even need the separate telemetry radios.