Hardware

PX4 runs on flight controller hardware, and connects to various sensors, cameras, telemetry radios and other peripherals. Some of the more important hardware is described below.

Flight Controllers

PX4 is officially supported for the following flight controller hardware:

  • Pixhawk-compatible flight controllers: Pixhawk is an independent open-hardware project providing readily-available, low-cost, and high-end, autopilot hardware designs to the academic, hobby and industrial communities). Popular implementations include 3DR Pixhawk and Pixhawk Mini.
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight: A high-end autopilot that combines PX4 and a Linux computer (PX4 runs on a DSP).
  • Intel® Aero Ready to Fly Drone: A high-end autopilot that includes a Linux computer and a separate microcontroller running PX4.

A list of other flight controller boards that PX4 can use is provided here.

Sik Telemetry Radio

SiK is a collection of firmware and tools for radios based on the cheap, versatile SiLabs Si1000 SoC.

  • Currently, it supports the following boards:
    • HopeRF HM-TRP
    • 3DR radio
    • RFD900 ultra long range radio
  • Currently the firmware components include:
    • A bootloader with support for firmware upgrades over the serial interface.
    • Radio firmware with support for parsing AT commands, storing parameters and FHSS/TDM functionality
  • Source code can be found here: https://github.com/Dronecode/SiK

SAPOG ESC

Sapog ESC is an advanced multi-platform three phase brushless motor controller firmware.

Optical Flow Sensor

PX4Flow is a high-sensitivity optical flow smart camera. Unlike many mouse sensors, it also works indoors and in low outdoor light conditions without the need for an illumination LED. It can be freely reprogrammed to do any other basic, efficient low-level computer vision task.