Ok, so the more I've been thinking about it, the more I've realized that the current Ardupilot software would take more effort to change for my particular needs than just patching together my own code. Maybe I'll integrate the two at some point, but that's down the road.I do plan on sticking with the Arduino IDE for simplicity. That leaves me with a toss-up between using an Ardupilot board and something like the Arduino Pro Mini. The failsafe system wont do me much good as the UAV wont have a traditional RC setup onboard. The only real advantage I can see is that the Ardupilot board has power and ground conveniently placed next to output pins for attaching to servos and escs. But perhaps there's some aspect to it that I'm missing. Any thoughts?Thanks!
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Don't underestimate the advantages of the failsafe system. Having a way to cut power to the motor controllers will save you some propellors. (We use the pro mini at school for our IARC project, and have had a few runaways due to programming errors.) It would be wise to have some sort of datalink, and learn how to use both the hardware watchdog timer and software timeouts on critical functions.
Cost, flexibility, and performance. At least one of these is lacking from every available quad board I've come across. Perhaps I'm being cocky, but I think I can do better, and I enjoy the challenge.
The price tags in particular irk me. Some of those boards cost $500 or more for basic stability control. I can do that for about $60. It's not so much about a lack of funds, just the principal of the thing.
In my opinion, the only important thing you are missing at this point starting a discussion is being a little more explicit about your project goals. How could we else contribute? Unless I am missing some aspect, though.
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The price tags in particular irk me. Some of those boards cost $500 or more for basic stability control. I can do that for about $60. It's not so much about a lack of funds, just the principal of the thing.