Need advice: Is Holybro Pixhawk Mini still a good FC? How about CUAV Pixhawk 2.4.6?

Hardware Pixhawk family
1

Good day. I am building my first drone which will be sponsored by my company. I am a helicopter guy so I have some experience on the build process. I also have one sport drone so I am familiar on basic setup.

It is a Proof of Concept for my company. The drone will be using a S500 frame with 920kv motors, 1045 props, HW Skywalker or XRotor ESCs, separate PDB and a 3S 5000mah lipo. The payload I can only say is an onboard computer with some sensors.

My problem is I will be operating on a restricted budget and most of it will be concentrated on the payload. So my dillema now is to get a good FC which is not expensive but will still be reliable and has good community support.

Holybro Pixhawk Mini - I know that this is already discontinued but there are a lot still lying around. It already has a GPS on the package. I know it is based on the older FMUv2 but I am hoping if it can still support the latest Arducopter firmware?

CUAV Pixhawk 2.4.6 - Another FMUv2 board but it is within budget and can support latest Arducopter firmware I suppose?

Another one I am considering is the CUAV Pixhack Nano but I am unsure if the manufacturer is still supporting it. (I am disappointed for they have not responded to my queries).

My only main concern is if the manufacturers can guarantee a fast turnaround time in case I need a replacement.

Also I live in Malaysia, so getting the other known brands might give a longer processing time as well as adding up additional importation costs.

Any advice is appreciated.

2

Pixhawk mini or Pixfalcon are similar and work with the latest versions, 3.5.7 stable or 3.6 RC (beta). The good thing is those kits come with everything you’ll need.
Get a piece of lead (an old fishing sinker) and beat it into a “+” shape, stick it to the underside and then mount the FC on the foam blocks it comes with, one on each corner. This will minimize vibrations since these FC’s are so small and light.
The only downside really is the Pixfalcon only has one telemetry port, so you can set it for mavlink and use an OSD and telem radio, or set it to Frsky and use the frsky telemetry - but not both. I’m guessing your companion computer may need the telemetry (serial) port, if so you might not be able to use the telem port for normal telemetry.

There’s a few all in one FC’s now supported by copter 3.6, but they could be more setup and learning if you need fast turn-around - or they could bethe best compact option. Chech the supported hardware section of copter docs.

3

Thanks Shawn. I got the CUAV Pixhawk 2.4.6. instead and it is a nice FC.

Good thing that the vendor told me that there was a national holiday that was why they did not respond immediately.

Maiden was smooth but needs more tuning.