Ardupilot vs Betaflight and INAV

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If you want to build a FPV drone or RC airplane, you need a flight controller board, and a flight controller software. But, which one should you use? Currently, there are 3 major competitors: Ardupilot, Betaflight and INAV. Each has strong and weak sides. Ardupilot, for example, has fantastic navigation capabilities, but to set it up you need a PhD. Betaflight works great with miniquads, but it’s not for airplanes at all. And INAV misses some features of both.
Let’s break it down to 8 separate categories and assign each flight controller software with up to 3 stars in each category.

0:00 Ardupilot, Betaflight and INAV
0:48 Which flight controller software is the best?
1:16 Easy start
1:54 Hardware support
2:33 Freestyle and FPV Racing
3:31 Airplanes
4:17 Cinematography
5:29 Navigation
6:13 Boats & rovers
6:46 VTOL
7:31 Global results
8:49 Which one is really the best?

#fpvuniversity #betaflight #inav #ardupilot

[Alen.]

Its nice to see non biased reviews and videos from your perspective.

[AB-skkz]

I've started with ardupilot for my first build, it was nice, I've learned a lots, after i decided to get into Betaflight and INAV, the important is to enjoy the hobby
Happy flying 🎉

[padcom]

Next year a new, console-based configurator for Ardupilot, based on node-mavlink, is coming. It won't be as beautiful and as feature rich as the clean flight-based ancient configurators that BF and INAV use, but it will be on a whole new level from what the current mission planner provides, especially in the scope of configuring your drone. It will never support mission planning the way mission planner (or qgroundcontrol for that matter) does, it will be just for configuring your drone, but it finally will be something that works cross-platform, because people deserve it. Let's face it: if you're willing to tinker with Ardupilot, there is a good chance you're OK with Linux and running mission planner currently on mono just sucks. Stay tuned because it will be awesome!

[Willy_Tepes]

I was very happy to discover that the SpeedyBee F405 can run all three.

[guytas]

Loved the whole explaination. Thanks a lot. I just one of my quads to Inav and so far I like it. I'm tempted to try ardupilot now. Good video.

[wf]

Excellent video! I'm just getting back into FPV after a 4 year layoff and a lot has changed. I was using Eagletree Vector flight controllers but Eagletree is no more. So for the type of flying I like to do you've shown me that INav is the way to go. Thank you very much.

[johnchandler]

I have them all, a large multi-rotor on ArduCopter, mid-sized multi-rotors and fixed wing cruisers on INAV, a few micro quads on Betaflight. ArduCopter on a PixHawk was a steep learning curve and I've chosen not to go there again. INAV and Betaflight Configurators both have a very nice user interface. My preferred F/C software is INAV, mainly because of the GPS assisted flight modes, especially the brilliant Return to Home mode. Also, looking forward to trying VTOL in INAV 7.

[CP-zieg]

Knowing both Ardupilot and Inav I agree with you review..even if my ideal would be Ardupilot with the interface of Inav 😃

[ayoaina_fpv]

Thanks @Pawel 👍 Very good points made. I suspect that like me, most people who subscribe to your channel fly all three firmwares or at least two of them, i.e. Betaflight and INAV, and they appreciate all these sentiments.

[lalbabugupta]

I tried multivii, baseflight then currently on inav, seriously inav pulls all your knowledge about how everything works. It's great.

[PansRocks]

I do like the locked in feeling of arduplane, I live in a windy coastal area and it flys really well. I started using INAV again during the summer after a few years on Arduplane, it still has that loose feeling but for tutorials, community support and hardware compatability it's ahead of the rest - Ardupilot feels a bit like a chess club at times where INAV its more that dodgy bunch of guys in hoodies in a park trying to sell you some 18650's.

[dronauticaltech-fun]

For payload and mapping drone I will use and recommend Ardupilot with any PX4 FC.
For pure racing I will use Beta flight.
For long range freestyle and Cinematic I would recommend INAV ❤🔥

[witblitsfpv]

Looks like it depends what you will use it for, the right tool for the job. The common denominator is you will learn and have to learn - a lot...

[Videolinquency]

My sole focus is waypoint flights, but I still prefer INAV over Ardupilot these days; I feel INAV gives me better control over things like climb throttle, and the terrain clearance readout in Mission Control is a great tool. When I do use Ardupilot, it's mostly to avoid recurrent driver issues I have with INAV, but those are probably not INAV's fault at all.

[MCsCreations]

Excellent video, Pawel! Thanks! 😊
In my case... Some 5" and smaller, Betaflight. Some other 5" and bigger, iNav. Airplanes, I'd use only iNav. ArduPilot I'd use only for vtol, but I guess it won't be for long.
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
And happy holidays!

[RubyS.]

Pretty accurate to what I've experienced using the 3

[robtomben]

My first FC wing was running Ardupilot. Once I had it tuned that thing was locked in. When i switched into waypoint or rth it was always reliable. I kinda miss that using Inav now but I love the UI and autolaunch features of Inav.

[allwrightadventures]

Inav in my opinion is the best all rounder it is the only software that can do everything and it gets the most updates too. Inav for the win.

[pastorhudson]

For planes I use iNav. For quads Betafoight. I have loaded Ardupilot, but it’s complicated to use and the extra features that it provides are not things I need. The only reason I consider ardupilot is because I want to built a sick ground station because building stuff is part of my hobby. I don’t need ground station but I want to build one and Ardupilot Mission Planner is cool for ground station.

[rctom]

that´s a realy fair and neutral comparison where the usecase makes the choice.
After tons of quads with BF i´m starting now with inav for a new
fpv Wing and it´s not as hard cause inav and bf Gui´s look quiet similar and logical.