I am buying myself an APM 2.6 with GPS and the whole telemetry kit. What is the range of the telemetry kit with which it comes? 433MHz I believe.

1. How is it when compared to the DJI NAZA?

2. I am using a S500 frame, planning to spin Sunnysky 980kv motors, 30A SK ESC and 1045 props. What battery should I go for? I read that the APM can take up till 4S batteries fine.

3. Willing to do a bit of FPV flying with this. However this comes with Mavlink OSD. Is it same as MinimOSD? What's the difference?

4. APM 2.6 clones have problems when updated? Is it true?

Thanks folks.

1. The Naza is supposed to be easier to use and very stable out of the box. Especially now that you can upgrade the Naza Lite to the V2 firmware. However, the ArduCopter project is a vast one with a lot of features. Unfortunately, the APM has reached it's limit in terms of processing power and space and so AC versions 3.3 and above will only work on the PixHawk. Development for the APM has now ended. Despite this, I have still bought an APM since the Hawk is a bit too expensive and is also overkill for fun flying.

2. Depends on how much weight you can afford to lift. Your all up weight should ideally be half of the total thrust you have available. You also need to ensure the battery's max discharge is higher than your total maximum current draw. You could also look into lower kv motors like 900kv for greater thrust as well as endurance. The APM power module can take up to 4S but it is the motors and ESC you need to worry about. They should be able to handle it.

3. I am not sure what this OSD is, could you post a link to the set you want to buy.

4. The APM project is open source, so Chinese factories were able to make their own hardware at a much lower price. I don't know of any issues in updating but the quality can vary considerably - check the reviews before buying a board.

Go for APM as DJI Naza has fly away problems and you might not wanna run behind your copter trying to control it and finally finding it on pieces

Fly away is caused due to human error I havnt faced one with any dji products yet
It's way better then apm in stability

Quote from: chintal on July 03, 2015, 12:05:25 AM
It's way better then apm in stability.

I totally agree. I've used both and NAZA is much easier to set up and work with. However, only APM can satisfy your 'nerdy' needs.

Quote from: chintal on July 03, 2015, 12:05:25 AMIt's way better then apm in stability

I very strongly disagree that, if you tune APM properly and know how to use it and how to tune it. And you are ready to spent time and have patience then APM can beat NAZA or any other controller.

APM (if finely tuned) can give you the best performance.


Given the fact that we are not having patience with tuning we just go with min tuning in which case Naza is better.

Sir the suggestion was for a newbie I know that apm is better but you will require some experience before getting it that perfect
And now people are more interested in rtf or easy build setups

APM + GPS with (autotuned) is almost as stable as Naza, while Naza seems to fly right out of box. If you are interested in tinkering with electronics, ready to bear crashes, broken props, learning more in depth about multirotors, tuning etc got for APM. If it is just flying and fpv you are interested in Naza is the best bet albeit costly than APM provided you assemble it right (that goes for any build).

Remember every crash is a lesson on how to do things right.

That's their but newbies don't have patience
And tend to select naza lite over apm

Guys, thanks a ton on your views. Appreciate it all. I got myself an APM 2.6 kit. Definitely I'm not a plug and play guy, I'd like to mess up with the framework, tuning and learn more into it. Cheers.