Back when I first did drones in 2016-18, documentation for pretty much everything (Betaflight, INav, Ardupilot etc.) was of poor quality and rarely complete. I burned multiple FrSky receivers and Naze32 boards.
After two engineering degrees in robotics, I've come back now in 2024 and am happy to see the overall quality of things has somewhat improved. However there are still massive glaring issues that will need to be improved upon.
- The hex file for the FC I am using has UARTs in the wrong order, motors that are mapped incorrectly which I only worked out after finding an obscure forum post.
- Another FC's hex file for some reason by default has the accelerometer upside down.
- And now currently I am dealing with a CAN bus GPS that outputs only the magnetometer on the bus. This one it would seem is a hardware defect even though the onboard LED says the GPS is getting a fix. I have spent £70 on this module for the love of god.
- Mission Planner needs a visual and UX overhaul, and actual Mac support.
- MAVLINK/PyMAVLINK/MAVROS: I tried, just no.
WHY do I still have to deal with this amateur hour behaviour.
Please tell me there's prosumer/industry projects out there that have their ducks in a row and actually just works. Is there an OpenSource DJI or something? I even put it down as one of those bonus idea things in this round of YC because I am just so fed up of this stupidity.
Back in 2007, while I was a university student, I started an open-source hardware company that sold Arduino and similar products. At one point, I wanted to stock ArduPilot products from DIYDrones.com. To explore this, I performed a WHOIS lookup on their domain and called the listed number. The founder answered, but his response was less than welcoming. He said something along the lines of, “Do you know who I am? How dare you call me like this.” That was the end of the conversation—and the idea.
Like others have mentioned, I do believe there’s an opportunity to create an alternative.