Which controller to buy for an autonomous drone?

Good morning, 

 This is just a quick question. For a school project my group is building an autonomous drone that will perform certain tasks. Right now we're in the process of building the drone and getting it flying. We haven't yet purchased a remote control because we're not sure what we should be buying. We understand that we need the remote control initially to set up the drone and to get it flying properly. Our drone won't be flying much more than 20 feet away from our base station for this project. I guess the question is how much should we spend on a controller? I imagine we won't be using it much but I also don't want to cheap out and really screw ourselves later down the road. Will any somewhat inexpensive controller work for our situation?

Thank you in advance!

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  • Lots of choice here. I have found I more and more use my Taranis rather than say my Futaba. It also has the advantage of having the Tx inbuilt, the 9xr does not. If you decide after the project its not for you I guess it would be easier to sell the Taranis on!

    As for controller why not try the Pix racer for a small capable unit or move from APM / PixHawk and go with the Libre (Open) pilot "Revolution". I have had fun with both.

    If you can be more specific with your requirements we may be able to give more appropriate advice!

    For instance do you need Loiter / position hold. If not a cheap CC3D may suffice (no GPS for position control).

  • HobbyKing ships the Turnigy worldwide from any one of it's distribution centres in USA, Europe, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, . . .
  • Thank you for the response!

    Right now we are torn between either the Turnigy 9xr Pro or the Spektrum DX6. We might be leaning towards the Spektrum only because it seems to be the only one of the two controllers we can get in town. 

  • The Turnigy 9XR Pro is a good inexpensive radio. You will also need a transmitter module that plugs in the back of the radio and a compatible receiver that mounts on the drone.
    Check out the RC groups forum for loads of info and help

    https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2019298-Turnigy-9XR-...
    RC Groups
    RC Groups - the most active Radio Control model community: electric and fuel rc airplanes,rc helis,rc boats and rc cars. Features discussion forums,…
  • 1) Taranis+

    2) Turnigy 9x

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