Research platforms
Holybro S500, X500 V2 or X650: choosing a drone development kit for research
Three airframes, but nine ways to buy each one. Most of the confusion in a development-kit order is not about which frame — it is about which kit format, and about the things that are not in any of them.
Kit format decides the order before the airframe does
Holybro sells each of these platforms in three formats, and the difference between them is much larger than the difference between the airframes. A frame kit is the airframe alone: arms, plates, landing gear, fasteners. An ARF kit adds the propulsion — motors, speed controllers, propellers and the power distribution. A development kit adds a named avionics set on top of that.
Choose the format from what your project is actually about. A laboratory that has settled on a specific autopilot and telemetry arrangement should buy the ARF kit and fit its own avionics: the development kit's flight controller would be spare stock. A teaching programme that needs twelve identical aircraft flying by the end of term should buy the development kit, because every hour spent selecting a GNSS receiver is an hour not spent on the syllabus.
The frame kit is the right answer less often than people expect. It suits a project whose propulsion is the research — a new motor, an unusual propeller, a hybrid powertrain — and it is the wrong answer if you simply want to save money, because sourcing four matched motors, four ESCs and a distribution board separately usually costs more and always costs time.
Read the kit name as a specification
A development kit's product name is not a model name; it is a bill of materials. "X650 Development Kit (Pixhawk 6X/M10/915MHz)" says three separable things: the autopilot is a Pixhawk 6X, the GNSS receiver is an M10, and the telemetry radio is the 915 MHz variant. Each has a 6C or 433 MHz sibling under a different SKU.
One discrepancy worth raising before you order. Holybro's current kit listings describe the supplied SiK V3 radio as selectable between 433 MHz and 915 MHz, while this catalogue stocks the kits as separate frequency part numbers. Those two descriptions can both be true of different batches, and we are not going to guess which you would receive: ask us to confirm the radio in the specific kit being quoted, and get the answer in writing before the order.
Which band you may use is set by national regulation, not by the product, and a manufacturer's product page does not establish it. Confirm the permitted allocation and power for your country and class of operation with the relevant authority, and record the answer in the project file. A 433 MHz air unit will not talk to a 915 MHz ground station at any range, so a mismatched spare is money spent twice.
The frequency matters most, because it is the one that cannot be corrected later without buying another radio. A 433 MHz air unit will not talk to a 915 MHz ground station at any range. Which band you may use is set by national regulation, not by the product, so confirm the permitted allocation and power for your country and class of operation before the order goes in — and record the answer in the project file.
The autopilot choice inside the kit carries the same consequence as choosing it on its own: a Pixhawk 6C arrives as a complete controller with a fixed connector set, and a Pixhawk 6X is a compute module that needs a baseboard. Our flight controller comparison covers that branch; check whether a 6X kit includes the baseboard before assuming it does. The kit listings pair the two routes with different power modules — a 6C kit with a PM02 V3, a 6X kit with a PM02D-class digital module on a V2A baseboard — and Holybro notes that the 6X option needs SENS_EN_INA228 enabled under PX4, with ArduPilot support starting at 4.4. That is a firmware task on the first day, not a surprise in week three.
What the three airframes actually differ on
The catalogue holds manufacturer figures for the two ARF kits, and they set the scale of the decision. The S500 V2 has a 480 mm wheelbase, measures 383 × 385 × 240 mm, weighs 782 g as supplied, and carries 2216 KV920 motors on BLHeli S 20 A controllers with 1045 propellers and a 60 A continuous integrated power distribution board.
The X650 is a different class of aircraft: a 650 mm wheelbase folding carbon-fibre frame with 4 × T-Motor MN4014 KV330 motors, 4 × Tekko32 F4 45 A controllers and Gemfan 1555 carbon-fibre propellers, wired XT60 for the battery and XT30 for the ESC and peripheral connections.
Read those two propulsion sets against each other and the payload story tells itself. A KV920 motor on a 10-inch propeller is tuned for a light, agile airframe; a KV330 motor on a 15-inch propeller is tuned to lift. The X500 V2 sits between them at a 500 mm class wheelbase and is the common choice for a first PX4 research platform.
One figure to be careful with: payload allowance is not a catalogue figure and we do not publish one. It is a function of the battery you choose, the propeller, the ambient temperature and the flight time you need, and the honest way to get it is a thrust-versus-current curve for the specific motor and propeller at your pack voltage. Ask us for the manufacturer's propulsion data for the exact kit and we will send it; treat any single "max payload" number without those conditions attached as marketing.
Source: S500 V2 development kit · X500 V2 development kit current store listing · X650 development kitWhat no kit includes
Battery first, because it is the one the manufacturer states outright: no battery is included with any of these kits. Holybro does publish what to fit — a 4S LiPo of 3000–5000 mAh at 20C or better on an XT60 for the S500 and X500 V2, and a 6S LiPo of 5000–12000 mAh on an XT60 for the X650 — so the budget line can be costed accurately rather than guessed.
Beyond the battery, treat the exclusions as a question rather than a rule. An RC transmitter and receiver, a charger, a ground-station computer, your payload and its mounting are not things these kits are sold to provide, but exactly what ships in a given package can change between SKUs and batches. Ask for the packing list for the part number being quoted and check it against that list.
The X650 ARF kit says so in its own listing — flight controller, GPS, telemetry and battery not included — and the X500 V2 ARF kit (SKU 30125) is documented as arriving with motors, ESCs, propellers and the power distribution board pre-installed, with the frame kit (30120) as the bare airframe. A development kit closes the avionics gap; it does not close the others.
For an institutional purchase, put those four lines on the requisition at the same time as the kit. A quotation that covers the airframe and arrives without a battery is a platform that cannot be flown, and a second purchase order is usually slower than the first.
Source: S500 V2 development kit · X500 V2 development kit current store listing · X500 V2 ARF and frame kits · X650 development kitAssembly, and what the aircraft still needs from you
An ARF or development kit is not a ready-to-fly aircraft. Expect to build the frame, mount and wire the propulsion, install and configure the autopilot, calibrate the sensors and the radio, set the failsafes, and carry out a first-flight procedure. Budget days rather than hours for the first one, and much less for the second.
Firmware is a decision, not a default. PX4 and ArduPilot both run on these controllers and are not interchangeable in their configuration, their parameter names or their ground-station workflow. Pick one for the programme and standardise on it, because a laboratory running both ends up with two sets of tribal knowledge and aircraft that cannot be swapped between students.
Plan for spares from the start. Propellers and landing gear are consumables on a research platform; arms are the next most likely casualty. On a teaching fleet, one spare airframe's worth of parts per six aircraft is a reasonable starting rule, and it is far cheaper than a grounded cohort waiting on an import.
Expansion: what each platform lets you add later
The two questions that decide whether a platform will still suit you in eighteen months are physical space and electrical headroom. Space for a payload and a companion computer under the centre plate; headroom in the power system for what that payload draws.
A 650 mm airframe with KV330 motors on 15-inch propellers has both. A 480 mm airframe on 10-inch propellers has much less of either, and adding a camera, a companion computer and their power to it eats the margin that was making it fly well. If the research plan includes onboard computation — vision, mapping, autonomy — size the airframe for the aircraft you will have at the end of the project, not the one you are starting with.
If a companion computer is in the plan, decide early, because it interacts with the autopilot choice: the modular 6X can sit on a Jetson or Raspberry Pi CM4 baseboard that carries both computers on one board. Our companion computer integration guide covers the responsibility split, the power arrangement and the bench tests before first flight.
What to send with a development-kit enquiry
The airframe class or the payload mass and dimensions you need to carry; the flight time you are targeting; whether you want frame, ARF or development format; your autopilot and firmware preference; the telemetry band you are permitted to use; the quantity, and whether they must be identical; and whether a companion computer or a specific payload is in the plan.
Tell us if this is an institutional purchase. Educational and research orders in India frequently need a formal quotation against a tender or grant line, with part numbers, HSN codes and delivery terms stated — that is a different document from a price list, and it is easier to produce correctly the first time than to revise.
The three platforms and their kit formats
Figures below are the manufacturer's, as held in our catalogue for the ARF kits. Every family is sold in all three formats; the development-kit row shows the avionics combinations each is listed with.
| Platform | Wheelbase | Propulsion in the ARF kit | Development kit avionics | Frame kit | ARF kit | Development kit SKUs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S500 V2 | 480 mm | 4 × Holybro 2216 KV920, 4 × BLHeli_S 20 A, 1045 propellers, 60 A integrated PDB. 383 × 385 × 240 mm, 782 g | Pixhawk 6C plastic, PM02 V3, M10 GNSS, SiK V3 telemetry | 510074 | 30062 | Pixhawk 6C / M10: 30184 (433 MHz), 30185 (915 MHz) |
| X500 V2 | 500 mm class | 4 × Holybro 2216 KV920, 4 × BLHeli_S 20 A, 1045 propellers, PDB pre-installed | Pixhawk 6C plastic, or Pixhawk 6X on a V2A baseboard with a PM02D-class module. M10 GNSS, SiK V3 telemetry | 30120 | 30125 | 6C: 30188 / 30189 · 6X: 30199 (433 MHz), 30200 (915 MHz) |
| X650 | 650 mm | 4 × T-Motor MN4014 KV330, 4 × Tekko32 F4 45 A, 4 × Gemfan 1555 carbon fibre, WS2812 arm lighting. XT60 battery, XT30 ESC and peripherals | Pixhawk 6C plastic with PM02 V3, or Pixhawk 6X on a V2A baseboard with PM02D. M10 GNSS, SiK V3 telemetry | 30178 | 30179 | 6C: 30180 / 30181 · 6X: 30182 (433 MHz), 30183 (915 MHz) |
Wheelbase, dimensions, mass, propulsion sets and development-kit avionics are from Holybro's own kit documentation, read on 7 September 2026; part numbers are from the price list held in this catalogue. Older X500 V2 documentation lists an M8N receiver where the current listing gives an M10 — ask which is in the kit being quoted rather than assuming the newer one. a dash means the figure is not held here, not that the kit lacks the part. In every development-kit pair the lower SKU is the 433 MHz radio and the higher the 915 MHz. Payload allowance, flight time and thrust curves are not published here and depend on your battery, propeller and conditions — ask us for the manufacturer's propulsion data for the exact kit. Confirm the permitted telemetry band with your national regulator before ordering.
Source: S500 V2 development kit · X500 V2 development kit current store listing · X500 V2 ARF and frame kits · X650 development kitWhat each format includes, and what none of them do
Three concentric purchases, and four things outside all of them. The row along the bottom is the one that turns up after delivery on projects that budgeted for the kit alone.
Products discussed
The parts this guide names.
Specifications on each page are the manufacturer's. Confirm the exact variant and document revision before ordering.
Holybro S500 V2 ARF Kit
480 mm, propulsion included, avionics separate. SKU 30062.
Holybro X500 V2 ARF Kit
The common first PX4 research platform. SKU 30125.
Holybro X650 ARF Kit
650 mm folding carbon frame, MN4014 KV330 propulsion. SKU 30179.
X650 Development Kit (6X / M10 / 915 MHz)
Airframe, propulsion and a named avionics set. SKU 30183.
Holybro X650 Frame Kit
Airframe only, for a project whose propulsion is the research. SKU 30178.
All development kits
Every family and format, with each SKU.
Sources & basis
What this is based on.
- Part numbers, wheelbase, dimensions, mass and ARF propulsion sets for the S500 V2, X500 V2 and X650 kit families as published in the Vebix Automation catalogue.
- Payload allowance, endurance and thrust figures are deliberately not stated: they depend on battery, propeller and operating conditions, and no single figure is meaningful without those conditions attached.
- Kit format definitions and the assembly, spares and procurement guidance are planning advice drawn from how these orders go wrong, not a manufacturer statement.
- Permitted telemetry bands and transmit power are set by national regulation; confirm them with the relevant authority for your country and class of operation.
- S500 V2 development kit (accessed 2026-09-07)
- X500 V2 development kit current store listing (accessed 2026-09-07)
- X650 development kit (accessed 2026-09-07)
- X500 V2 ARF and frame kits (accessed 2026-09-07)
Published 7 September 2026. Last revised 7 September 2026. Corrections to sales@
Talk to an engineer
Specifying a research platform?
Send your payload mass and dimensions, target flight time, preferred autopilot and firmware, the telemetry band you are permitted to use, and the quantity — and we will return a compatible component shortlist and a formal quotation suitable for an institutional purchase order. Request a quotation for supply in India.
- sales@
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