MWC MultiWii SE Multi-Copter 4-Axis Main Flight Control Board + FTDI USB PC Basic Programming

Pros: The board quality is good, actually better than the product photos. Some rinse residue remains which can be removed with some alcohol. The solder quality is also good. The components appear to be fine, and overall, the board works as advertised. accelerometer, gyro and compass heading are good without much noise. The barometer is yet to be tested, but it responds as expected to some air blown on to it. The test and calibration software is Java based and tested to work on Windows and Linux. The firmware can also be compiled under Windows and Linux (also tested). It is apparently compatible with Mac but that was not tested.

Cons: The programmed firmware is V1.9. It can easily be upgraded to 2.1 (newest at the time of writing). There is no explicit schematic included. However, in case you need a schematic, the circuit is trivial.

Other: You might consider the newer version V1 also from DealExtreme if you are going to use it in a tiny model. However this is already small enough in almost all models. Development environment and board work remarkably well out of the box after a few software installs. Firmware and PC calibration software are all open source. All code development (if you wish to do development) can be done under Linux also.

Pros: An excellent flight control board, especially if you have some prior experience with building Quadcopters. This particular version has an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and barometer. The soldering on the board is clean, but a small amount of flux residue is left behind (can be easily cleaned up using some isopropanol). This particular SKU from DX comes with the FTDI connector as well as a USB to miniUSB cable, which is required to read data/write data to the main flight control board.

Cons: The machining of the PCB was quite bad; the edges are very sharp, and I almost cut myself on one edge while handling the board. A bit of filing was required to make it safer to handle. In addition, because of the mad cutting of the PCB, one of the mounting screw holes has nearly no material, so I am afraid it will not hold in place securely. The screw hole mounts themselves are a little to close to the corners of the flight control board, leaving about 1 mm of material, which is a bit close for comfort. Unusually, there is more than enough room on the board to move the mounting holes slightly inwards, but why this was not done is unknown. The kit itself is a bit expensive at $52, and there are some cheaper options out there (such as the Multiwii Lite; this only comes with accelerometer and gyroscope, however).

Other: An OK flight control board; if it were a little cheaper it would be much better. The included FTDI breakout board and USB cable was a nice touch, though most people already have extra cables lying around, I am sure. A decent flight control board for beginners and experts alike. This board is a decent middle ground flight control board, and has some of the options that much more expensive flight control boards also have, but at a fraction of the cost