Hi,

After some months in the hobby I am still confused by the name OMNIBUS. I understand this is a type of flight controller which has been cloned many times but I can't find anywhere an answer to theses simple questions: 

- What is the thing that makes a board an omnibus? What are the main differences with other boards (I guess firmware is part of the answer)?
- Who created the first omnibus, is this some kind of open source design?
- Is there a place where I can find a revision history of the boards? I am confused when shopping for a FC, with all the versions available: v2 v2.1 v3 v4 v5 v5.1, pro, non pro, but yet cannot say what differences there are between those boards.

Regards!

Omnibus was and is still being created by Airbot. The betaflight team makes firmware target for a FC if the hardware developer by request. In return, the hardware developer has to provide working samples for the team to test and make sure the firmware works. They usually name of the firmware after the name of FC. Hence, there is an Omnibus firmware and FC.

There is outright clone of a FC and there is FC that uses Omnibus firmware. The former means identical copy of the layout. The latter means a hardware developer didn't ask the betaflight team to create them a separate firmware. The reason they can use Omnibus firmware is the physical layout might be different, but all the pin assignment are the same. The actual pin tracing is a copy of the Omnibus.

As far as difference between the FC, from version to version, it is usual just improvements in design any occasionally layout. No new features usually added. The Pro version usually have current sensor vs non pro.

Anyway, here is a comparison of v2 vs v3
http://www.dronetrest.com/t/omnibus-f4-p...rence/4391

Real Omnibus are blue PDB, while clone are usually black. You want to buy the original, go to

https://store.myairbot.com/

Thanks for your answer, it brings me some clarification. The "about us" page on the myairbot site you linked has this particular statement: “Omnibus” is our most notable line of FCs. Omnibus has been used by many partner manufacturers, as well as used (without consent) by many others. The Omnibus FC was the first FC a built-in OSD connected to SPI bus directly, which created and lead the trend throughout its first year of release.

But how I can tell if I am buying a licensed (partner) version of the omnibus board? I would prefer to support the "real version" and pay a little more to the developpers instead of just buying a clone made by someone who is jsut doing a copy/paste of the hardware...

If you buy directly, then it is real. If you buy from eBay or banggood.com, likely clone. If you buy from a reputable company in the USA, then likely real.

In general, blue pdb is real.