Can anyone provide me some guidance in the realm of buying a Control transmitter for my UAV project? Just looking at the different radios is giving me a brain ache. What features are important and which can I do without? It seems that prices vary widely!
Help!
Thanks
Dean
Replies
Generally 2.4Ghz is the most popular to go with, as it offers good control and robustness to interference. As far as the different brands go, they are all quite decent (Spektrum, Futaba), but then again if you dont want to spend loads on a radio then some china options are also great such as Wfly, or turnigy 9x.
If you are only going to use a transmitter for manual mode for a UAV project, then I would go with one of the cheaper Chinese radios, since you will by flying in auto mode most of the time anyways. And dont bother about extra features like telemetry. For Ardupilot use, something with many channels is useful so you can program multiple flight modes, but anything over 7 CH is perfect. We sell the Wfly 2.4Ghz units at our store. Which is an ideal radio that has solid performance compared to other Chinese brands
If you are looking for a long-range open-source solution, please check out my project!
http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/new-long-range-telemetry-shield-f...
It is an open-source, arduino shield that will interface dnt900 radio's (40km capable w/ high gain antenna's) that will allow you to connect up to 16 servos to the receiver, and control it with a USB device. Native support of the PS3 controller is included, but it can be programmed to accept other controllers with USB/UART/I2C connections. Thanks !