I wish to experiment with QGroundControl, Pingviewer, and a RaspberryPi 3 running Ardusub Raspian and a Pixhawk but my ROV is not BlueROV2 compatible.
The original Pixhawk 1 is no longer available and the Pixhawk 4 is rather expensive just to experiment with no guarantee of any success. (See my posting “Scanning Sonar thoughts” in General Discussion Topics. My Blue Robotics Ping Sonar works so well that I would like to add features).
Has anyone tried any of the apparent copies of the Pixhawk sold on Ebay (search Pixhawk 2.4.8 Flight Controller PX4 32Bit)?
Specifically does QGC recognize them and program them? Do they return attitude and compass heading? I don’t need thruster control or autopilot.
1 Like
Can’t comment on specific boards that I haven’t used, but just noting here that firmware for all ArduPilot sub-projects (including ArduSub) gets automatically built for a large variety of boards (see the ArduSub Downloads Resources page). As before, we can’t guarantee that they will work, but at least there’s a much higher chance than just going in blind.
Pixhawk is a set of open-source standards. From what I understand QGC should recognise any Pixhawk AutoPilot boards, and be able to program them (see Installing ArduSub).
From this Amazon link it seems like the Pixhawk 2.4.8 basically follows the Pixhawk 1 spec. Not sure what the differences are, but given the sensors seem to be the same then you should still get attitude and compass heading.
Thanks Eliot;
I will check out your links.
I was hoping someone has actually tried this board and can relate his/her experience.
1 Like
I’ve been using one of these boards for years for bench tests and it does work, QGC recognizes it and all the sensors are there. As a clone, it brings the same functionalities, but I would say it is not as reliable as the original. It has some glitches, and I only recommend to use it in a real dive if there isn’t another option.
2 Likes
Just the information I needed Vagner. I ordered the Advanced ROV Electronics Package to make sure any problems are not caused by a questionable Pixhawk. If I later buy a clone at least I will have a reference for comparison. Since I am not using the BR components in a BR2 ROV I need confidence in what I’m using. As I said I had instant success with the camera and Ping Sonar. Awesome!
1 Like
I started to order needed electronics boards to make Ardusub.
I alredy bought 2 pcs PI 3, model B.
As pixhawk here is not avaliable, I also have question if this boards from ebay ( pixhawk 2.4.8) will do the job ?
Did someone already buy and try it ?
thank you for help,
Joze
Hi @jozesaje, welcome to the forum 
Please see this thread, which is all about that topic.
I would generally recommend our Navigator flight controller instead, but it requires a Raspberry Pi 4B, and is unfortunately incompatible with the Raspberry Pi 3B.
thx,
I will try some more research
br,joze