Andrew recommended that I look at pixfalcon as a smaller pixhawk for some of my RC planes, so I got one for a bixler 2 build (he did recommend pixracer too, but that one has 6 PWM outputs instead of 8).
Here's my blog post on a bixler2 rebuild with a pixfalcon and Brotronics PowerTowerRX with backup lipo and buzzer:
I have mixed feelings about the pixfalcon: It looks like good hardware in a small form factor, and I can live with the few limitations like missing I/O ports, but the choice of yet another set of incompatible plugs is just silly, not even using the same ordering for the 3 wires in I2C is beyond silly, and not providing ground and VCC on 7 of the 8 servo cables, is not a good idea if you expect people to use it in planes.
Sadly, those shortcomings combined (not counting some other ones detailed in the blog post, like wires so thin for the analog video on the OSD board that no enough current could reach my camera), make this board quite a pain in the rear to use to be honest (I spent probably 2 days finding and working all those issues, most were unnecessary and none of which are an issue with a real pixhawk). Then, if you add that the board does not get powered from the servo rail and seems to only rely on power from the power module which itself has a cheap and inaccurate current sensor, it's not all rosy.
Virtually all these problems are easily fixable, so I'm hopeful a pixfalcon v2 would fix this, but for my next plane build, I'll likely buy a different small pixhawk clone, that said the pixracer probably won't be an improvement there as far as cables are concerned, so are there others I could/should look at?
Power module:
Combined OSD + short range telemetry radio due to lack of external antenna (also it may be responsible for some OSD code freezes in flight):
Comments
It seems to fly my plane fine, but loiter on my plane is likely not the loiter on multirotor you're likely asking about, so if that's what you meant, can't help you there. GPS seemed to work ok though.
Interesting, I want to get a Pixfalcon too. Did you find any other issues while flying with this flight controller, besides the OSD issue? Also, did you manage to do a Loiter test? Thanks
Do you mean how well did the Bix2 work with this setup?
Well enough, the only problem is lack of power and the fact that I had to run after it while it was at full power in RTL mode trying to fly back towards me, but failing due to high winds. Well, also I'm having some failures of the OSD where the OSD just hangs, but I'm not sure if it's a hardware or software problem yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62arfo2pbIk
On the plus side I got 25mn of battery life with power almost at 100% the whole time.
How was the flight?