Newbie here. Any recommeded First time Copters i should get?

Hi there. I am an experienced Software Developer. I am a software engineer. Most of my Experience ranges between C, C++ and C#. I am ready to begin my ArduCopter journey. Is there a hardware combination that anyone would recommend? If you can recommend a hardware that has a lot of documentation, that would be great. I have developed on Texas Instruments CC3220SF hardware before and it was unpleasant. The documentation for that piece of hardware was extremely rare.

Regards,
E.D

Definitely do NOT get anything with an APM flight controller - always use Pixhawk or later.
There’s a list of supported hardware in the docs
https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-autopilots.html
Be aware that there’s even a zillion cheap copy “Pixhawks” out there too, see if you can by something reviewed and from a reputable source. Even though pixhawk hardware is open-source the name has been overused and much of the cheap hardware is made with 2nd rate parts so it’s easy to find unreliable flight controllers.

You wont have to do any actual programming right away - first get used to putting the hardware all together and getting it working - there’s endless hours reading in the docs to get those initial stages correct.
Then practice some test flights, tuning, more adventurous flights, more tuning…

Always start with a known Remote Control receiver and transmitter combination - dont believe that you can start you multirotor life just using a groundstation and gaming joystick, that may come later.
If you’re not good with RC go and get a cheap RC car and go practice all that orientation and stick/muscle memory stuff in 2D on the ground.
If you start with a cheap RC system with only 5 or 6 channels, you’ll be throwing it away before you get very far - start with 8 channels if possible. The go-to RC system is a Taranis X9D+ with X8R receiver - they’re not incredibly expensive and will last. Runs OpenTX too :slight_smile:

As for actual hardware combinations that work:
There’s the Hexsoon EDU450


And a couple of Holibro kits:
https://shop.holybro.com/s500-v2-kitmotor2216-880kv-propeller1045_p1153.html
https://shop.holybro.com/x500-kit_p1180.html
You will notice they’re sort of expensive - this is because they work, the motor, prop,size and weight all go together.

There are infinity+1 cheap kits on bangood, aliexpress and numerous other online shopping sites - most are barely flyable if it all and usually come with cheap copy parts that you’ll be replacing before you even get it off the ground. A lot of these kits are false economy, but a learning experience anyway.

Once you’re up and running and got some (crashes) experience under your belt, start checking out the Ardupilot code, contributing if possible, adding your companion computer and doing computer vision experiments and so on. All your efforts will be appreciated.