DJI F450 NAZA & Turnigy 9X Ground Station Overview

I have gone through many flight controllers, the original KK, KK2, Multiwii Crius, Black Vortex (Megapirates), APM 2.0 and the Naza. I would say that the Naza is the best performing flight controller of those which I have flown. In my search for a cheaper alternative, I wish I would have just purchased the Naza to begin with. However, I think that multiwii is a much better value and performs very well for the cost. The Naza hardware is way overpriced, but you are also paying more for a well-developed control system. Flying the Naza is more like a "fly by wire" mode of operating the aircraft. Movements are very smooth, there really is no tuning involved and attitude hold mode functions even better than any other GPS hold mode I have tested (APM 2.0 and multiwii). Yes, the Naza's attitude hold is better than GPS hold of any other flight controller I have tried. With that being said, the Naza GPS add on is quite pricey, and probably not necessary unless you want a return to home fail safe or the ability to hold position in wind. I anticipate that when the APM 3.0 is released, or other 32bit flight controllers become more common, performance of open source flight controllers will fall much more in line with more expensive proprietary controllers. At that point there will be very little difference between the hardware of both proprietary and open source flight controllers. It’s the proprietary flight control algorithms being developed by other companies that are what currently gives systems such as the Naza an upper hand over open source flight controllers. In summary, I think that multiwii is the best value. Arducopter is also a great value and supports many advanced navigation features, but it requires far more setup and tuning. The Naza performs the best, but it is overpriced and does not support many of the advanced features of Arducopter. As with all multicopters, regardless of flight controller, building and flying takes a lot of patience and practice.
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No, and I'm only running the TX off of 5V so it doesn't get very hot.
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From the brief tests that I've done, the video quality is quite amazing, but I still need to do some more testing. Here are my cons for the camera:

1) 10 pin USB connector necessary for composite output ($25 extra)
2) Battery charging glitches (resolved yesterday by firmware update)
3) WiFi app supposedly won't work until the firmware is released on December 14th!

I would have preferred it if they released a package with the same specifications as the Black edition, minus the WiFi integration. For FPV and AP there will be far too much lag for the app to serve my purposes, but It can still be helpful for framing shots, playback, etc. without the need for an LCD bacpac. The remote is actually somewhat useful, but I would have rather paid $50 less for a package without it.

The Hero 3 firmware has some flaws, but overall I really like the camera. I am under the impression that GoPro pushed this through a bit prematurely, so there are still some issues that need to be resolved in the firmware.

Yes, the preview will still drop while taking photographs. I primarily use my setup for video, so I'm not sure whether the capture delay is worse or has improved.

I ran some tests on the different video modes to determine the latency to my monitor. Keep in mind that the actual latency may be affected by my wireless system and monitor, so you may experience different results.

ProTune Enabled:
4k/15T
130ms +/- 15ms
2.7k/30T
100ms +/- 15ms
1080/60T
100ms +/- 15ms
720/120T
80ms +/- 15ms

ProTune Disabled:
2.7k/30p
115ms +/- 15ms
1080/60P
100ms +/- 15ms
720/120P
70ms +/- 15ms

If I get a chance I may post a more detailed review of the Hero 3 to either here or my website.
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Send me an email (adam@polakiumengineering.org) and I'll forward you the stl. I don't intend to open source or distribute the design, but I will make an exception as long as this is only for your personal use.
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