I just reviewed the Pixhawk LITE a low cost small form factor Pixhawk clone offering from GoodLuckBuy. It seems like it will serve well as a replacement for APM.

But for my big multicopters I am more and more looking for reliability. I have learned a few things from my first builds and the top three are:
1. The quality control on the common parts we buy is poor.
2. You are going to crash and break things.
3. Because of #1 & 2 you better be able to fix your aircraft without tearing it down to bare bones because you will be doing it often.

If you don't want to be frustrated think reliability from the start of your build.



That is where the Pixraptor comes in for me. You might think why do we need another Pixhawk clone, especially one that is more expensive than other clones? Well this new Pixraptor is not your take-a-picture-and- copy-it-exactly type board. Somebody really took a look at what could be improved and tried to make a better product. I won't know if they met those lofty goals until the build is finished but the attempt was definitely made.



First thing I notice is the connectors all come out the sides. I like this. It is hard to make a build with clean wiring if all the connectors are pointing straight up. Next they used molex connectors instead of Df13. Some people hate DF13 connectors. The deal is the DF13 connectors require you to tilt the connect on edge and kind of rotate into the socket. If you don't do that installing and removing you risk...Continue Reading