2013 vintage AIOP Toss or Upgrade

[Droidling]

I have been away for a long time. In 2013 I built my first Quad. It has a Crius AOIP in it, but there are no markings for a version that I can find. It is running MegaPirate firmware. It seems to fly just fine. I assume things have advanced a bit in the last 3 years. I was wondering what the latest firmware that would run on this old controller would be.

I';m also wondering if I';d be better off replacing the old flight controller with a newer model. I saw a thread where a Pixhawk PX4 was recommended. Would it be a huge endeavor to connect my existing GPS, and telemetry radio to the PX4?

[dirtyharry]

I';d say keep it as is , my "old " crius board does a fine job and isn';t cluttered up with junk I don';t need or use.

[Droidling]

I';d say keep it as is , my "old " crius board does a fine job and isn';t cluttered up with junk I don';t need or use.

What about upgrading the firmware? Do I have any options?

[guest325]

I had a Crius AIOP a few years ago and am now running an APM mini, all as I can say is if it works ok don';t fix it!
It';s too easy to get suckered in to the newer is better trap; the newer fc';s are more sensitive to vibration so need more carefully setting up, I don';t intend upgrading to a 32 bit fc at all - no need for me.

[nate80]

Vintage - 3 year old - flight controller. That made me chuckle!

Funny, but true just how far things have come in this field within a few short years.

I don';t have any experience with that fc but as others say, if it ain';t broke...

[dirtyharry]

Not sure if their are any software upgrades for a crius AIO but I doubt it.

On a side note the newer 32 bit boards (naze 32  boards) running cleanflight and baseflight have always had pretty crap  GPS /waypoint / RTH software , even though most of the code was ripped from multiwii it just never realy worked.

Their is a new fork of cleanflight called Inav and this gives excellent gps/waypoint /autoland etc features for the naze boards.

Otherwise i';d look into apm mini boards or if you want to spend the extra a pixhawk. These options are probably more suited to your existing hardware but I dont personally have experience of them.

[Droidling]

Not sure if their are any software upgrades for a crius AIO but I doubt it.

Flightplanner did an auto update when I started using it again. I thought I might need to update the controller firmware to use it. I guess I';ll find out when I start messing with it.

On a side note the newer 32 bit boards (naze 32  boards) running cleanflight and baseflight have always had pretty crap  GPS /waypoint / RTH software , even though most of the code was ripped from multiwii it just never realy worked.

Their is a new fork of cleanflight called Inav and this gives excellent gps/waypoint /autoland etc features for the naze boards.

Otherwise i';d look into apm mini boards or if you want to spend the extra a pixhawk. These options are probably more suited to your existing hardware but I dont personally have experience of them.

It looks like the consensus is to leave well enough alone.

I am feeling the need to tinker, so building something new may be in order. The run down of some of the recent FCs might be real useful in that regard. I was just looking at a Eachine Racer 250 FPV kit and trying to decide between the Naze32 and the CC3D board.

After that I suppose what I really want is a good camera platform. I';ll take a look at the AMP and PIXHawk to see see what makes more sense. I have to warn you now I';m an addicted to bells and whistles, so I';ll probably talk myself into the PIXHawk.

Thanks for the help!