I've been working with fixed wing RC and UAVs for some time now, but since moving I don't have much space to fly these days so I'd like to try a quad.

It seems like everyone and their uncle has a controller board for quads these days and trying to get an opinion on any of them in the Multi-rotor forum always ends up in an arguments about who's board is better (hence the post in the UAV forum, and not the Multi-rotor forum).

I would like to have a low-cost "full autopilot" with position hold and waypoints, as opposed to just a stabiliation system, so I'm interested in Arducopter. However, I've noticed there isn't a lot of conversation/threads on RCG about Arducopter, so I'm wondering why?

Is there something wrong with it, or is it because DIYdrones has their own forum and there is no point duplicating info?

The new Ardupilot v2 board for $200 is awfully hard to pass up...

Ardulpilot get's you 80% there.....

You know the old saying about "the last 10% is always....."

Well, you get the last 20% to finish!

Aero: you're right that most of the discussion is over at DIY Drones. There are about 5,000 people flying with APM right now, and a good fraction of them are ArduCopter users. There are nearly 500 comments per day at DIY Drones, so you can get a good sense of how active the ArduCopter userbase is.

I think you'll find ArduCopter discussion in the multicopter forums here at RCG. This UAV forum started before there were multicopter UAVs and seems to have kept its fixed-wing focus. There isn't much discussion of any of the multicopter UAVs here at all, ArduCopter or otherwise.

Here's an example of the sort of waypoint performance ArduCopter is now delivering, in relatively strong wind:

Originally Posted by CenTexFlyer

Ardulpilot get's you 80% there.....

You know the old saying about "the last 10% is always....."

Well, you get the last 20% to finish!

Ardupilot is for tinkerers, (nothing wrong with that mind you) ArduPilotMega is for people that like to fly. I have a full house ArduPilotMega and it's about as turn key as they get. I love this thing. And the ground station software simply rocks. Several varieties to choose from.

Want to fly a mission and see your settings in action without leaving the room? Hook up the APM software with X-Plane 9 and get full blown "In-The-Loop" hardware testing too using a professional grade flight simulator. I'm working on digital models of my airframes to use with X-Plane and ArduPilotMega.

Give one a try, (APM) I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I know I was stunned at my perception vs. the reality of the system once I got my hands on one. Or maybe I'm easily impressed.

Have a Great Day,

Rob

Rob, Chris

Thanks for your input. That was my suspicion - most of the activity is over at diyDrones.
I'm glad to hear people are having so much success with it, it just didn't seem to be as popular in the multi-rotor forum so I wasn't sure if I was missing something.

I'm looking forward to the new purple boards being available and the bugs worked out. I'm also looking forward to xbees being available again...

I had one and used it on a Y-6 and it was very hard to get it to be smooth and stable. it was much more twichy than the Hoverfly Pro or even the multiwii Paris 4.0


the PID tuning alone was a bore to deal with.... compared to the hoverfly pro it is not even a choice for multicopter.


it looks like to me that the dragonOSD and RVOSD are better setups for FPV and RTH.... perhaps not full waypoint nav....

also DIY-Drones forum is dedicated to the APM so, little talk goes on here

Originally Posted by Adidas4275

I had one and used it on a Y-6 and it was very hard to get it to be smooth and stable. it was much more twichy than the Hoverfly Pro or even the multiwii Paris 4.0


the PID tuning alone was a bore to deal with.... compared to the hoverfly pro it is not even a choice for multicopter.


it looks like to me that the dragonOSD and RVOSD are better setups for FPV and RTH.... perhaps not full waypoint nav....

also DIY-Drones forum is dedicated to the APM so, little talk goes on here

Neither dosd or rvosd can operate multicopters atm

Yeah that part was comparing APM to other fixed wing options as well.

Sorry for the confusion

It is true that you have to tinker the settings a little with arducopter to get it flying realy nicely on a custom frame. But if you go ahead and buy an official arducopter frame, then it works great right out of the box as the gains are tuned for the frame, and motors.

The best part of getting an ardupilot board is that its always improving as many developers are working on it, so every couple of weeks a new version is released with new features/ improvements. And if you get bored of flying your multicopter, just put it into a fixed wing plane and you can have just as much fun.

There are also OSD options for arducopter/ardupilot like minimOSD so its great for FPV.

I have a shelf full of AP's and controllers... ranging from $15 to $25K... There are so many camps on which is best and which is the easiest to use... it's all really relative to what you want to do with it and how fat your wallet is.

The Arducopter is a great board and the one we use most often in our projects and development because you can program it to whatever vehicle is choosen, they are pretty much plug and play to start and the price is right. I have used them for over a year on custom ground, water and air vehicles alike, even a 50cc gasser heli, with a couple of different GCS's as well, which are customizable to boot.

If you want to just go right out of the box then you need to look a some of the retail options available. For that we use DJI. I know... someone is whooping foul right now... but you have to admit, out of the box they just work... period. And offer a range from around $200 to $15K, depending on what your needs are.

So decide what you want in the long run and choose your platform from there. It's only the best if it works for your application and budget.

Hope this helps...