INAV vs Betaflight: Who Dominates The Firmware Battle?

Introduction

Despite both of them being Cleanfight forks, INAV and Betaflight excel in different fields. It might be difficult for new Drone buyers to choose the better FC firmware between them.

So, who wins the battle in INAV vs Betaflight?

There are many dissimilarities between the two drones. Betaflight provides the best performance, while INAV has better navigational capabilities. Betaflight is an open-source firmware and supports most FC targets. On the other hand, INAV supports a wide range of vehicles.

We have discussed more key differences in detail. Interested to learn more? It’ll only take a minute. Let’s get to the details-

iNAV vs Betaflight: Key Differences

Similar to the difference between Traxxas and Buggy, the two Cleanflight forks have distinctive features. Let’s be familiar with some of the primary differences of the two flight controller firmware-

Despite being the fork for Cleanflight, Betaflight and INAV have separate firmware features and dominate separate attributes.

INAV vs Betaflight: Detailed Comparison

We now have a vague idea about the primary differences between the two flight controller firmware. It’s time for a detailed discussion on the differences. A detailed comparison can help with timber vs durafly tundra comparison. 

Primary Focus

INAV focuses on navigational capabilities and supports a broad range of vehicles. 

While INAV is more navigation-focused, Betaflight prefers performance, racing, FPV, and acrobatic mode.

INAV uses all the accessible data from all its available sensors. It amalgamates the data and calculates the velocity and position in the local frame of reference. This positional estimation helps to make all navigational decisions.

Betaflight is currently the predominant FPV flight controller firmware. It offers better flight performance than INAV for multirotor in the ACRO mode.

Supported Vehicles

INAV works on quadcopters. But it also targets other multi-rotor copters, fixed-wing aircraft, gliders, flying wings, rovers, cars, and boats. This also means that the INAV can be used to control a quality RC car ESC.

Unlike INAV, Betaflight is limited to working on quadcopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

Supported FC Boards

Only a few FC(Flight Controller) boards have a proper target for INAV. This is a huge limitation for INAV users.

Betaflight works on almost all available FC boards and does not have its own hardware. But it supports a large number of STM32 based flight controllers. It aids the longevity of Betaflight as they didn’t have to split their development efforts. 

Software Source

Because it’s an open-source flight control system, Betaflight is free to use, modify, and distribute. This means that it is free to use, distribute and modify. This serves as a huge advantage to Betaflight users who are interested in making useful tweaks.

INAV only gives access to its developers to contribute and modify the codes.

GPS Mode

When it comes to GPS, INAV  has a total of 7 GPS modes. Each mode is required for various navigational purposes and a better user experience.

Betaflight only offers a basic rescue mode feature. This mode is similar to the ‘’Return to Home’’ feature. This makes the drone use the GPS system to return to you automatically. It’s used as a failsafe measure when the radio signal or video feed gets sketchy.

Accelerometer And Gyroscope Calibration

It’s mandatory to calibrate the acceleration and gyroscope calibration on INAV. This calibration requires the user to follow a 6-step process.

Whereas, Betaflight users can skip the calibration process as it’s optional. If they do want to calibrate, they can do it by following only a single step.

The accelerometer is the key sensor for INAV firmware.

Stability

The massive flight performance of Betaflight comes at the cost of stability. This makes it one of the toughest FC firmware to learn and use. The Betaflight has a ton of flight modes to explore. But the more it pushes towards performance, the more unstable it becomes. 

So, we suggest you use flight controllers with better stability. Here are some of the best stability-driven flight controllers in the market that we recommend-

INAV, on the other hand, is relatively stable thanks to its well-developed coding. INAV mostly supports the best FC boards, which is another reason for its increased stability.

iNAV vs Betaflight: Verdict

Both firmware boasts dominance in their relative fields and has its own distinguishable features. INAV, while similar to Betaflight and Cleanflight, has similar features in its core mechanics.

When it comes to performance, Betaflight wins in leaps and bounds to INAV. It should be the go-to firmware for racers and those who prefer performance. It’s an open-source firmware that can be used in almost all FC boards.

But in case you are looking for a flexible flight experience, you should go for INAV. This firmware is simply great for its navigational capabilities and increased stability compared to Betaflight. You can also use INAV on a variety of remotely controlled vehicles.

FAQs

Question: Can you get Betaflight on Ipad?

Answer: Betaflight is designed to be used with OTG cables. It doesn’t support the Bluetooth module. So, Betaflight only supports Android devices, not IOS.

Question: Does INAV require a compass?

Answer: The magnetometer aka compass is an optional sensor for INAV. Multirotor drones require compass only to be able to execute navigational modes. 

Question: What is the INAV configurator?

Answer: The INAV configurator is a cross-platform tool for the INAV flight control system. It is run as an app within Google Chrome. 

Endnote

This is all the necessary information on INAV vs Betaflight. We hope this helped you come up with a decision to choose the better flight controller.

Have a good time with your preferred flight controller firmware and enjoy!