I was a happy user of my APM 2.8 for a few years, and it was serving me great on my RC car rover that was lying around earlier. However, recently, i started experiencing a bit of issues that i needed responses on, for example, regarding my 3DR power module not showing correct voltage values (they were oscillating a lot). Also, lots of settings didn’t work. Every time i tried to use some settings, the program would just freeze for a few seconds and then display an error. I sat days trying to find a solution, but no luck. The only responses i found were to “get a better, supported Flight Controller because APM is obsolete.” I was annoyed by this, because i bought my setup with telemetry, GPS, power module, and the APM itself for around 20$, what made my setup really cheap and fun at the same time, while other, supported boards itself cost way more than that, and seem to be a bit more complicated to connect to my RC car too. That’s where my question comes up, Are there any flight controllers that would work with my RC car (with regular rc car receiver and transmitter, brushed ESC, etc), that i wouldn’t have to spend all my money on? Or maybe should i try to revive my APM? I do this just for fun and some learning, while learning in a technical school, studying electronics.
Any supported Flight Controller will run your Rover. The cheapest option is ~35$. These inexpensive FC’s are board level so plenty of soldering to do if that’s a consideration. Boards that support all features, most of which you don’t need, start ~$100.
I liked the APM because of the ease of connection to servos and ESC. I saw a thread about cheap FC’s, wich mentioned models like Kakute F7 mini, or Omnibus F4 nano V6, which i see aren’t that expensive, but I am worried about possibility of connecting them to my gear (seems that they are really restricted because of their size, probably prepared for planes, helis and drones, not rovers), becuase of the lack of pins to connect my reciever and the rest of my gear to, just as i was doing on my APM. So I am wondering if I should look at other models, or am I doing something wrong looking for them?
There are no restrictions for what you want to do. As I said they will run your Rover just fine. Much more capability than those old APM’s
Nothing wrong looking at other models it will just cost you more.
alright, so i will look for the perfect one that is available, hopefully connect it correctly (terrified to solder this such small pins haha) and replace my APM with a better board. One more question, will old gear (like the power module, GPS (uBlox m8n), and telemetry fit on these newer boards too? or do i need to replace this too? i think they will fit but i just want to make sure, anyway thanks for help! (I am still open for opinion of others though)
What would be a good lower cost option that has connectors and servo pins is the Speedybee F405-Wing board: Speedybee F405-wing Don’t worry about the fact it says it’s for Planes it will run Rover no problem. You will have to use Beta firmware (today anyway) as it’s fairly new.
And you won’t need the power module, it has voltage and current sensing and can take direct battery voltage.
this one looks interesting, i will take that one into consideration, but will still try to look for one with faster shipping (I cant wait for it to arrive in 2 months (I am inpatient haha), but if there will be no other option, i will go for it anyway), Thanks for help Dave! I appreciate it!
