Looking for a consult on hardware for a custom drone design

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1

I attempted to build a custom drone a few years back using a MultiWii board, an Arduino, and a Pololu servo controller. I was able to get it to initiate flight but it wasn’t stable. I also have a few unique requirements, which I will outline below.

I came across Ardupilot and the Pixhawk / Kakute series of boards and they seem to offer all of the functionality of the three separate boards I was using (and then some).

However, I’m having a hard time determining which of the boards would be best for my project.

Ultimately, this is the list of requirements:

  • Autonomous flight (take off and land without user input)
  • Accept serial communications from a third-party sensor
  • Control up to 8 micro servos (up to four simultaneously)
  • I/O for an ultrasonic range sensor
  • I/O for a capacitive touch sensor

If anyone can provide recommendations or connect to discuss the project in more detail, please let me know!

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Hello Ryan, welcome to the community,

Any of the autopilots listed in Choosing an Autopilot — Copter documentation fullfils all of your requirements.

Choose one from the list, but to be on the safe side choose one with a H7 processor.

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Thanks @amilcarlucas ! I have reviewed that list pretty extensively and see a pretty big price difference between the PixHawk 6C (for example) and Kakute H7 V2 - is it just the baseboard for the PixHawk that brings up the price?

The example wiring diagram for the PixHawk is actually really helpful for a novice like me, but if I can shave off some of the cost by going with the Kakute, I’d rather do that. I’m just not as confident with connecting all of the peripherals without those examples.

Any interest in assisting with that portion of the project? :smiley:

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Use this forum, everybody helps out.

5

Check out mRo they are pricey but high quality.

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