4 ms·

I just went to the PX4 website and found a lot of broken links. Do you have any experience with fully open source drones that you can recommend?

saidinesh5 3y ago
I think they meant this page: https://px4.io/ecosystem/commercial-systems/ https://px4.io/ecosystem/commercial-systems/ But it depends on your budget/use case really (just to fly around with a camera like payload, drone racing, autonomous missions using gps). A lot of the drones out there use a lot of open source software for one thing or another. Ardupilot, PX4, Betaflight, iNav etc.. are open source drone flight control software which run on drone flight controllers. flight controller = a little microcontroller + gyro/accelerometer + connections to some peripherals like radio receivers , GPS, sensors like sonar etc. Blheli_S, AM32 etc.. are Open Source ESC firmware. ESC = Electronic Speed Controller. The component that is responsible to spin the motors as the flight controller wants it to. Sik Radio, ExpressLRS, mLRS etc.. are Open Source RC control link software that let you send control messages from your ground station to your drone. As for Video Transmission, you can use anything from OpenHD/wifibroadcast(doesn't use Wifi. just Wifi hardware in monitor mode.) to webrtc over 4g to transmit video from quad to your ground station. And optionally record it on the drone side too. Mix and match these open source components to build your own drone as per your needs. I mostly fly racing drones and every single component on my quads is open source to one extent or another.
- mcculley 3y ago
  That’s the page I went to that led me to some 404s I appreciate all of the info you have supplied. I would very much like to buy a complete multicopter to which I can add payloads and program routes/waypoints and otherwise customize. Do you or anyone else reading this have good experience with any vendors of open source drones?
  - saidinesh5 3y ago
    How about this? https://newbeedrone.com/products/holybro-px4-development-kit-x500-v2 https://newbeedrone.com/products/holybro-px4-development-kit... Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27rbxCeCq4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27rbxCeCq4Y I have used some holybro products and they work well. Seems like a lot of "ready to fly" kits/models have disappeared these days. I am guessing the new drone regulations have something to do with it. If you are a little more adventurous (i.e dont mind soldering/assembling your own drone), you'd be able to build a quad for a LOT smaller/cheaper.
    - mcculley 3y ago
      Wow. That looks great. Thanks.
      - saidinesh5 3y ago
        If you're ordering this one, Dont forget to order a lipo battery or two and battery charger. That is not included in this kit. Also a transmitter like Radiomaster pocket and a receiver would be very handy. Iirc you can use a regular joystick with QGroundControl but I prefer to have a separate strong control link that will let you recover the quad if the connection to ground station is lost.

saidinesh5 3y ago

I think they meant this page: https://px4.io/ecosystem/commercial-systems/ https://px4.io/ecosystem/commercial-systems/ But it depends on your budget/use case really (just to fly around with a camera like payload, drone racing, autonomous missions using gps). A lot of the drones out there use a lot of open source software for one thing or another. Ardupilot, PX4, Betaflight, iNav etc.. are open source drone flight control software which run on drone flight controllers. flight controller = a little microcontroller + gyro/accelerometer + connections to some peripherals like radio receivers , GPS, sensors like sonar etc. Blheli_S, AM32 etc.. are Open Source ESC firmware. ESC = Electronic Speed Controller. The component that is responsible to spin the motors as the flight controller wants it to. Sik Radio, ExpressLRS, mLRS etc.. are Open Source RC control link software that let you send control messages from your ground station to your drone. As for Video Transmission, you can use anything from OpenHD/wifibroadcast(doesn't use Wifi. just Wifi hardware in monitor mode.) to webrtc over 4g to transmit video from quad to your ground station. And optionally record it on the drone side too. Mix and match these open source components to build your own drone as per your needs. I mostly fly racing drones and every single component on my quads is open source to one extent or another.

mcculley 3y ago
That’s the page I went to that led me to some 404s I appreciate all of the info you have supplied. I would very much like to buy a complete multicopter to which I can add payloads and program routes/waypoints and otherwise customize. Do you or anyone else reading this have good experience with any vendors of open source drones?
- saidinesh5 3y ago
  How about this? https://newbeedrone.com/products/holybro-px4-development-kit-x500-v2 https://newbeedrone.com/products/holybro-px4-development-kit... Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27rbxCeCq4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27rbxCeCq4Y I have used some holybro products and they work well. Seems like a lot of "ready to fly" kits/models have disappeared these days. I am guessing the new drone regulations have something to do with it. If you are a little more adventurous (i.e dont mind soldering/assembling your own drone), you'd be able to build a quad for a LOT smaller/cheaper.
  - mcculley 3y ago
    Wow. That looks great. Thanks.
    - saidinesh5 3y ago
      If you're ordering this one, Dont forget to order a lipo battery or two and battery charger. That is not included in this kit. Also a transmitter like Radiomaster pocket and a receiver would be very handy. Iirc you can use a regular joystick with QGroundControl but I prefer to have a separate strong control link that will let you recover the quad if the connection to ground station is lost.