Transmitter help please

[Leebo914]

Hi guys, can anyone p,ease tell me how many channels i will need on a transmitter for a fully loaded multicopter i.e. gps, loiter, rtl etc i am not sure what to go for, i cancelled my order with HK as it was taking too long.

Oh also i will be needing to order a flight controller from RC, would i be better with the ardupilot or Crius v2.5

Cheers, Lee

[Jumpy07]

Depends on the flight controller to some extent...

You need four channels min..
Most flight modes can be done on one channel.. (MegaPirateNG and Arducopter),  That said some flight controllers need other channels for tuning .. And if you fit a camera gimbal you might want to control it..  So min 6.. but better with min 8
There are a lot of good reasonably priced transmitters on the market.. have a look at the Turnigy 9x and clones.. or the new version 9XR.. if you can get one with upgraded firmware..(er9x)  even better....  you can upgrade and add to it later and they have 8 channels.
As far as flight controller goes...  If you starting fresh and want to run Arducopter then the Ardupilot...  however if you want to run MultiWii then Crius.. V2.0

[Gaza07]

I would deff go 8 channels 

[Leebo914]

Thanks for that guys, i had ordered the new Turnigy from HK but nearly a month later it was still on back order however, having looked at the price of other brands i may just have to wait on it coming into stock.

Unless anybody would have one for sale

What is the easier flight board to program and maintain, i see their is a difference in price. Is this because the arduflyer better in any way?

[Jumpy07]

Couple on ebay just now.. but new ones are scarce....  so premuim price

Some people say older one is better.. new one too many bugs.. also new one doesent come with TX/RX modules..

Try and get a Turnigy 9x with backlight and er9x upgrade...

Multwii on the Crius is probably the easiest of the two and gives you the option of MegaPirateNG later...

[QuadBod]

Multwii on the Crius is probably the easiest of the two and gives you the option of MegaPirateNG later...

... which, for clarity @Leebo,  is a port of APM to the Crius AIOP and clones. So you get pretty much everything APM offers, including use of the Mission Planner. Lately MPNG has been tracking the release of APM betas pretty closely, although I think the port of 2.9 final is yet to drop.

The AIOP is a smaller neater board in a standard 50 mm x 50 mm form factor, but you do have do deal with a slightly more fiddly hookup for things like 3DR telemetry and GPS (until RCTimer get their act together and ship a breakout cable as standard instead of a molex plug with bare wire ends) as those (the serial ports used for 3DR and GPS) are on an 8 pin Molex on the AIOP (to save space), compared to standard header pins on the ArduFlyer.

[Leebo914]

Thanks guys, your help and advice is much appreciated.