Top 4 Best Flight Controller for drone that you should know before building a drone

Rohith PatilLast Updated: October 12, 2022

4 minutes read

Best Flight Controller for drone dji naza — Photo Credit DJI

If you plan to build a drone by yourself, you will enjoy the whole building process. The building process is easy, but choosing the right components to build a drone is challenging. The flight controller for drone is one of the main parts responsible for its performance. There are numerous flight controllers in the market, but in this blog, I will discuss the best of them based on the application types of your drone.

So what is a flight controller?

The brain of a drone is the flight controller. A compact box that monitors and regulates all drone operations using sophisticated electronics and software. The size and complexity of flight controllers also vary, just like that of the brains of other species.

It consists of a gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer, microcontroller with different input and output ports, LCD(optional), and some tuning buttons. It controls the drone’s motor’s speed using ESC (Electronics speed controller) based on sensor data and signal from the remote control.

The flight controller also does automation by updating the program to the microcontroller.

Now let’s see how to choose the best flight controller for drone

How to select the Best flight controller for drone

Before choosing a suitable flight controller, you need to identify your needs. What kinds of drones are you going to build? Is it a regular drone, an FPV, or an autonomous drone? Here we will not discuss anything about FPV.

After identifying your needs, you need to focus on certain things in the Flight controller. Those are

Processor
Input voltages
Sensors
Weight
Support for other external devices
Supported motors

Here we will discuss the top 3 flight controller

KK2.1.5 Flight Controller

kk flight controller — Photo Credit: Robocraze.com

This is the best flight controller for the beginner. Though it has some cons, it is still easy to use for basic functionality.

Processor

It has an ATMEL mega 664p 8-bit AVR microcontroller with 64K of memory.

Input Voltages

Its input voltage ranges from 4.8 to 6.0 V while operating from 1.8 to 5.5 V.

Sensors

It has an inbuilt accelerometer and mem gyroscope. But we can’t attach extra sensors to it, also like kk.

Weight

its weight is 25 grams

Support for other external devices

We can attach only one gimble with the controller. We can’t connect GPS, camera, or other sensors to the controller. If we want to use a camera, we need to mount the camera on the drone with a separate controller.

Supported motors

It supports from 2 motors to 8 motors. Using this drone, you can make from bi-copter to octa copter.

Notes

This flight controller is less stable than other controllers but is very easy to use. No need for any external PC for setup, and it is very much cost-friendly.

CC3D Flight Controller

This is also a beginner-friendly flight controller with a powerful processor.

Processor

STM 32bit with 28 kb flash & 20kb RAM

Input Voltages

Its input voltage ranges from 4.8 to 15.0 V

Sensors

It has an inbuilt 3-axis high-performance accelerometer, gyroscope, and 6050 MPU (Micro Electro-mechanical system). But we can’t attach extra sensors to it.

Weight

its weight is 26 gram

Support for other external devices

We can attach one three-axis gimble and an external GPS module with the controller. We can’t connect any camera or other sensors to the controller. If we want to use a camera, we need to mount the camera on the drone with a separate controller.

Supported motors

It supports only 4 and 6 motors

Notes

We need an external PC to set up the whole thing.

If you wants the basic functionality with limited capabilities you can choose any of the above controller among the Best Flight Controller for drone

APM 2.8 Flight Controller

APM is the flight controller which can be used for GPS-based automation tasks. And most importantly, it is compatible with Arduino.

Processor

ATMEGA2560 (Arduino Mega Microcontroller) , ATMEGA32U-2

Input Voltages

Its input voltage ranges from 12 to 16.0 V

Sensors

Acc, gyro, barometer. With the help of a barometer, the drone can hold its altitude. We can attach many external sensors to this board because this controller has many gpio pins.

Weight

its weight is 25 grams

Support for other external devices

We can attach different sensors to the controller.

Supported motors

It supports only 4 and 6 motors

Notes

We need an external PC to set up the whole thing.

DJI- NAZA M V 2 Flight Controller

Next Powerful flight controllers for recreational, business and industrial pilots include the Naza-M V2. Installing and configuring it is straightforward and, most importantly, stable.

Processor

The processor is not disclosed by the DJI

Input Voltages

MC:4.8V~5.5V and VU Input: 7.4V ~ 26.0 V

Sensors

Acc, gyro, Barometer, and Magnetometer.

Weight

its weight is 28 grams

Support for other external devices:

We can attach different sensors to the controller.

Supported motors

It supports only 4, 6, and 8 motors

Notes

We need an external PC to set up the whole thing. This enables it to return home and land securely. A failsafe system will turn on if the multirotor and remote control link is lost while the aircraft is in flight. The multirotor will fly back to its place of takeoff and land itself if there is enough GPS signal at the time of the disconnect, assuming there was enough GPS signal at that time.

The One-Key Go-Home functionality, enabled via Assistant, may also activate this feature manually. Using a BTU with power-efficient Bluetooth may always change settings through a smartphone without using a lot of electricity. The Bluetooth module automatically keeps password-protected connection logs. When mobile devices are replaced, parameters may be instantly synced to the cloud and promptly restored.