Confused About Flight Controllers

M

miketuite

Member
Two questions:

1. Let's say I want to buy a new flight controller for a quad I already own. How do I figure out whether a controller is compatible with my drone?
2. When I search for flight controllers what comes up are mostly motherboards. I'm looking for a complete unit, joysticks and all. Where can I find them?

Mike

Thanks
 
Hi I don't think you will
A good transmitter like spectrum ,freesky etc work either through the FCB via a satellite receiver or through a matched receiver hard wired to the FCB
You can look for a crashed dji phantom with transmitter and reuse the naza m FCB
This depends a lot on what quad you have to start with , toy quads won't take these sort of FCB
 
The second one would actually be better ripped apart & rebuilt properly.
Judging by the reviews.
Apparently it has decent components & is a demon on 4s but needed a bit of attention. Some vibration issues & if you look on the pictures the protective sleeve is short on the motor wires, & are next to a sharp edge.
Loose screws & no loctite on any bolts. Hence the rebuild. Unless they have tidied things up, be prepared to atleast tighten all the screws. It's a good price, it's about the same if I sourced the parts.
Only I'd go with a turnigy evolution.
 
Easier to mod, better size, same components. Infinite memory with A8S rx, excellent range. Just the size alone is a winner for me. = more Lipo's in bag.
I had a walk upto the flying club near us it's in a country park & it's a members club. So I went for a nosey & got chatting to some guy who had one. Had to fly Los as his fatsharks ipd was to small.
Just as good as my i6.. & lighter.
 
Enough switches for acro.
Antenna mod I meant. No hydro dipping or anything. I ain't knocking any flysky or turnigy hardware. I've only had good experience, with battery's also.
So knowing that it's purely space in the bag.
 
miketuite said:
Two questions:

1. Let's say I want to buy a new flight controller for a quad I already own. How do I figure out whether a controller is compatible with my drone?
Click to expand...


Depends what quad you have. You can't just stick any flight controller in any quad.

a custom racing/freestyle type of build can work with many FC's. Alot of them are very similar by design and share the same open source software. This category has the most FC's available. And they are the most widely compatible and configurable and open. They are to be used with brushless motors which need ESC's (brushed motor FC's do exist also). All these FC's are compatible with all of the aftermarket transmitters - along with it's matching receiver, on the market.

A prebuilt off the shelf model (a toy or hobby grade) from a brand could have a more 'closed' proprietary setup, and not open to any customisation. Typically this might be an all-in-one type FC board with everything on it - the FC, receiver, esc's, pdb. And would only be compatible with a like-for-like swap. The model's transmitter (joysticks) would also likely be proprietary and not compatible with any other receiver.

But some models can use off the shelf branded parts,transmitters/receivers and repurpose them, meaning they are open to customisation. So it just depends on the model.


miketuite said:
2. When I search for flight controllers what comes up are mostly motherboards. I'm looking for a complete unit, joysticks and all. Where can I find them?
Click to expand...

Hobbyist transmitters (joysticks) are not sold as complete units with a FC board included because that would create a closed system and it would be unpractical. And the manufacturers wouldn't be able to provide the FC's with every feature that people want so makes no sense to combine them into a bundled unit. If anything, it would create more problems than it solves.

The flight controller board is the 'computer' for the quad. All the flight mathematics and calculations are done by the FC. And it is a seperate component from the physical controller (joysticks) which only provide input control signals. Those signals are nothing special and can be generated by any typical multi model RC transmitter.

The controller aka transmitter (joysticks) connects via radio to the receiver unit, which needs to be plugged (or soldered) into flight controller board.
The transmitter and receiver are typically the same brand. You can find transmitters which are bundled with a receiver.

You just need to connect the receiver to the flight controller.
And configure the input signals in the software that is flashed onto the FC board.
The most popular brands of transmitters (and receivers) are FrSky, Flysky, Turnigy, Spektrum, Futaba to name a few.
 
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Thanks for all the help, folks. I've learned a lot. And there's a lot that's over my head too. I'm the newest of newbies. One of those things I didn't know is that what I've been calling a "flight controller" is actually a transmitter. Guess I'll stick with the factory unit until I know more.

Thanks again,

Mike
 
I came across a video on YouTube & some guy had a meter of some sort. It showed the flysky ix10 had much better response times than the FRSKY tatanis.
And were talking 100's of milliseconds on multiple tests. Does a standard unmodded taranis have more range than an ix10. Probably better penetration.
 
Hi Mike this what the forum is about if we get to techno just say and the guys will explain so your get your head round it ,most hobby grade quads are only different as they have FCB ( flight control board) a PDB ( power distribution board) a receiver which now days a lot of the time comes in the FCB , ESC( electronic speed controller) brushless motors , and a good grade transmitter
Toy quads are normally all in one board( FCB receiver and power board all in one ) and
Coreless motors and a very cheap transmitter
 
holtneil,

Thanks so much, that's a big help. Let me ask a question: Have you folks learned what you know solely through experience, or is there a resource (a book or something) I can use to speed up the learning curve?

Thanks,

Mike
 
You can ask questions on here or watch rcmodlereviews Bruce does lots of basic videos on what things are and how they work also Brian at painless360 both on youtube
I started with CP Helicopters so quads are a bit easier to fly set up and build
 
miketuite said:
Have you folks learned what you know solely through experience, or is there a resource (a book or something) I can use to speed up the learning curve?
Click to expand...

Like holtneil, I come from RC helicopters (and planes & 4WD trucks & boats ... lol) so the learning curve wasn't too bad when getting into quadcopters.
Yes, there IS a lot to learn BUT as a beginner you'll not need to worry about getting too technical nor worry about the slight differences in specs for motors, transmitters, etc, etc, because until your flying skills are sharply honed those slight differences will not really be appreciable anyway. :)

The main thing is just to HAVE FUN. Fly as often as you can and watch A LOT of YouTube videos on whatever topics you want to learn more about. ;)
 
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