Let's be honest: in terms of mini-quad racing there is Betaflight (probably also Raceflight but I've never flew it yet, so will not comment on its flight performance), long long gap, and then it's everything else including Cleanflight, LibrePilot, INAV etc.

Originally INAV concentrated on "big" UAVs with GPS capabilities. After all NAV in name stands for Navigation. Mini-quads and acro performance were left alone, and once again, let's be honest: comparing to Betaflight, it sucked. It was possible, I've even written a short tutorial how to set it up, but it sucked.

Luckily, it is changing. INAV 1.2 had brought some improvements like Iterm limiting and acceleration limiting, and Acro flying in INAV became very nice. Small revolution, or maybe bigger catch up, is planned for INAV 1.3: asynchronous gyroscope, accelerometer and attitude processing. I've been working on it for last few months and results are very promising: INAV can drive a mini-quad with Betaflight comparable performance. Like this (please remember I'm not the best pilot!)

Setup:

  • PID task frequency: 1kHz
  • Gyro task frequency: 2kHz
  • Accelerometer task frequency: 120Hz
  • Attitude task frequency: 100Hz
  • Frame: Reptile X4R 220
  • Motors: EMAX RS2205 2300KV
  • Propellers: DALprop TJ5045
  • Flight controller: SPracingF3
  • Firmware: INAV 1.2 with custom changes