Disagree completely there.
CubePilot, Drotek, Holybro, QioTek, CUAV, mRo, and probably a few others offer solutions that require zero soldering (and usually the same pinouts as the old Pixhawk stuff).
3 Likes
I was meaning to say cheap controller, as the cheapest one of those is around £170 most are closer to £250 for just the controller. Sure for commercial applications I would recommend one of those but its not something I would recommend building your first ever machine with.
I think this is why the APM still shows up a lot because a lot of people will have probably never soldered anything before so they are never going to buy a controller that they have to solder rows of pins.
more more char
Add the SK500 to this list, it’s another one that shows up a lot with issues. The original had carbon reinforced arms so were rigid, later clones never bothered with the carbon so have the rigidity of rubber.
Again, disagree. Why should a new user suffer with shite hardware?
If you can afford $69 on Ali Express today, only to face a 1-2 month delay for your garbage to arrive, perhaps spend those same months saving another $69 and purchasing decent hardware from a reputable supplier (or learn to solder!).
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with them, no one has actually shown any practical difference between a clone and an original, if you read the original thread there are people posting that the reason they got a pixhawk is it came with connectors.
@dkemxr as far as i know there hasn’t been a 1m pixhawk since 3dr was selling dud chips, for some reason some clones come flashed as 1m or fmuv3 but they can all be flashed to the standard pixhawk firmware.
That’s what I thought too. But just this week a user with 2.4.8 problems (he said it was labeled clearly as such) when directed to flash fmuv3 or Pixhawk1 from fmuv2 came back with the 1mb board error message. I told him to flash Pixhawk1-1M and all was well and he advanced. Perhaps someone bought a bunch of old boards and put them in new cases… Another mystery 2.4.8? There is also some variability with barometers. But, there is a parameter for that.
Perhaps more board level FC’s like the Kakute H743-Wing that can be ordered with pins soldered will be available. Nice option.
ahahaha hahahaha
There needs to be more ardupilot compatible controllers sold as working sets that can be plugged together with minimal soldering.
it’s a different opinion ?
no opinion to each their own!! just a comical thread hahahaha.
Yeas ago used Pixhawk with zero issues along with the included GPS. At the time it was the licenece fee that the was in quiestion so in kind I started to buy the same unit at mRo. The Cube was a little big for my designs. New users tend to buy the FC becouse of low income enviroments for that there should be no shame. I am a tester for mRo so naturaly I love the PRP.
I agree it’s inportaint to have plugins litke VTOLquick tune. However not a lot of tuning is needed with this FC.
1 Like
The one main downside of the pixhawk is a lack of integrated OSD, so if you want to use analogue video with an OSD it’s probably better looking at something else as minimOSD is crap.
[quote=“geofrancis, post:22, topic:114014”]
minimOSD is crap.
Good point. It works if you know how to set it up but dated. I been looking for a replacement for the PRP yesterday flashing SP h7 extreme was a very bad trip.
The ICM 20602 in that Flight Controller is problematic and there are 2 of them. It’s why with the older Cube Orange that had them it was dropped to the secondary IMU in a firmware release.
ICM20602
2 Likes
Thanks Dave good to know my friend…
I agree to warn users against these 2.4.8 “Pixhawk” labeled clones.
The biggest problem is that these clones are cost-cutting versions, missing key redundancy and protection circuitry. They all miss the power monitoring and switching circuitry, replaced by some cheap diodes. They tend to release smoke when powered by the power connector and usb simultaneously.
Not to mention, since the chip shortage the processor and imu chips are usually “reclaimed”.
So avoid them, save money and time.
1 Like
can you give some information on the specific issues your talking about? the pixhawk never had any kind of power switching functionality. its just some diodes isolating the 5v inputs And all the pixhawks I have looked at gave hwvoltage and servovoltage. Something I dont get on any of the other F4 controllers I have looked at.
This is still missing the point that there is nothing else close to this price point that you can buy as a set that plugs together.
1 Like
“I agree to warn users against these 2.4.8 “Pixhawk” labeled clones.”
Not to disagree but this is not my experience. Years ago made a bad ass X8 with Gopro gimbal pan and tilt, folding legs, osd. and Ski radio. also a octo, y6 and quads. shipping was fast from US Ebay.
Had to go back to 2016 for this. It’s not my photo or my comments:
The missing components seem to be the ideal diode controller and its mosfet group highlighted in red that allows pixhawk to utilize triple redundant power supply and protect it in case of overvoltage. Be careful with this one if you decide to power it from multiple sources at a time.
The missing chips highlighted in blue are the logic level translators that tie 3.3v logic levels of the pixhawk MCU to 5v logic that is common for servos and ESCs. They also shield the MCU from possible interference coming from servos and ESCs and protect against voltage spikes. A regular pixhawk has those chips on all its serial ports as well.
Note: But as I said there are several versions of these so who knows what you will get.