Controller Recommendation for Autonomous Soaring

ArduPlane
1

I’m looking for a recommendation for a suitable fight controller to alllow me to experiment with autonomous soaring.

(I realize that this may not be the most politically correct question to ask here, but I am just getting started, the field is huge and so I hope you will excuse the question.)

A few factoids:

  • I have been involved with Unix/Linux for more years than I care to admit.

  • Nonetheless I am leaning towards a Pixhawk 4 mini microcontroller. I think that might get me into the game relatively painlessly.

  • I am a licensed glider pilot.

  • We have some nice thermals where I live. We routinely watch very large birds soaring and they appear to be very small.

  • I have fussed around with R/C for years and never really mastered it. I am hoping that between automous mode and basic gyro assist I can smooth out my control inputs and avoid losing the aircraft.

  • I have a R/C glider that could be retrofitted, but I am looking at a Volantex ASW-28.

  • I have done enough research over the last two days to figure out that the basic choice of controller software is ArduPilot or PX4. You can probably figure out which way I’ve decided to go by the fact that I am asking the question here. :wink:

  • I use Mac computers exclusively. Mission Planner is out. QGroundControl is “in”.

  • I’m not all that interested in FPV or video at the moment but will probably invest in telemetry.

Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

2

Good day, as flight controller i suggest mro control zero f7, it’s equipped with triple imu and updated sensors…, its a very tiny flight controller and it can ben easily mount on every frame keeping many space, another good option can the new pixracer pro… with h7 MCU and 8pwm

3

Hi Tom,

Personally I quite like the Matek Wing FC boards. They have built-in power conditioning for FC and servos, as well as an OSD in case you do want to try FPV. This makes a big difference when trying to fit in a smaller plane. You might also be interested in this thread Soaring/Gliding for Planes

Sam