The Kakute F4 V2 – The new Tri/Bicopter flight controller

Written by

RCExplorer – David

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We’ve been looking for a more powerful flight controller for a while now. Something with good features like a built-in OSD, soft-mounted gyro, faster processor, good amount of UART’s, enough ADC inputs and enough available pins capable of driving servos.

It’s a pretty tall order, but we did manage to find one; The Kakute F4 V2. It can do both Tricopter and Bicopter with some remapping of pins in betaflight and jihlein on the forums has already made the first test target for dRonin, an awesome firmware that is showing a lot of potential for both the Tricopter and Bicopter. More info regarding this will be posted soon. So keep an eye out!

Comments

15 responses to “The Kakute F4 V2 – The new Tri/Bicopter flight controller”

  1. Terje Avatar
    Terje

    Looks sweet! Will miss the rock solid RCExplorerF3 standalone board though.

    Looking forward to some new build videos, I LOVE those 🙂

    1. RCExplorer - David Avatar
      RCExplorer – David

      I will too. It was a pretty good design, if I may say so myself 🙂

      1. Maisra Avatar
        Maisra

        David
        Can you build Baby tricopter using the Kakute F4 V2

        1. RCExplorer - David Avatar
          RCExplorer – David

          Yes. Information is available on the Kakute product page and on the Baby Tricopter page on how to use it and set it up.

  2. The-One-Who-Never-Crashes Avatar
    The-One-Who-Never-Crashes

    Nooo… not an F4. I hate all the inversion hassles. Why not just stick with F3?

    1. RCExplorer - David Avatar
      RCExplorer – David

      I know right. That is why I went with this board. Already has a built-in inversion for the SBUS and the s.port UART is self-inverting.
      Times move on. More power and more ports. Built-in OSD and all that.

  3. swisseagle Avatar
    swisseagle

    @David, will I still be able to use my PPM receiver? … on the manual it says PPM/PWM are not supported..

    1. Kevin_Erik Avatar
      Kevin_Erik

      Most Sbus receivers can be gotten for $20 and weight like 3-5 g. While its a shame to give up your old gear, the overall improvents will be worth it.

    2. RCExplorer - David Avatar
      RCExplorer – David

      I’m afraid not. Fewer and fewer flight controllers support it, and there is a good reason for it; Latency.
      PPM is very slow compared to SBUS and other newer digital packet protocols. A PPM stream has to be a certain time as that is what’s used to convey the data. It’s also susceptible to noise/jittering as it needs to be read by a timer in the flight controller.
      Compared to a serial protocol where you give the FC a pristine little packet of information that is checksummed to eliminate any errors.
      It’s also at least 4 times as fast.
      It’s a good investment to switch over to a serial protocol. You really do feel the difference if you fly FPV.

  4. vanbierstein Avatar
    vanbierstein

    There is an “All in One” version of this on HolyBro. My question is if I need to power a video transmitter do I need a separate PCB for that? Or can this power a video transmitter and a servo as well? Looking to build the Tricopter I purchased 2 years ago and never got a flight controller for it. 😉

    1. RCExplorer - David Avatar
      RCExplorer – David

      I wouldn’t recommend powering the servo from the built-in BEC in the Kakute AIO board. It’s not made for handling the high peak current generated by servos.
      But besides that, it’s no problem powering the video TX from the same source as the servo as long as it’s rated for the output current

      1. vanbierstein Avatar
        vanbierstein

        I can’t find any info on tuning the servo in beta flight. Do I need to go back to the KK board?

  5. Eugenio Caceres Avatar
    Eugenio Caceres

    Dear Davis update my baby tricopter to the kakute f4 v2 and perform all the steps recommended by you and the telemetry does not work, my radio is taranis x9 plus and receiver x4r sb, pdb latest version, I made the steps several times, with the f3 rcexplored did not have that problem, I installed the latest version of kakute firmware and telemetry works I install the recommended firmware and telemetry does not work, help

    1. Eugenio Caceres Avatar
      Eugenio Caceres

      Dear Davis update my baby tricopter to the kakute f4 v2 and perform all the steps recommended by you and the telemetry does not work, my radio is taranis x9 plus and receiver x4r sb, pdb latest version, I made the steps several times, with the f3 rcexplored did not have that problem, I installed the latest version of kakute firmware and telemetry works I install the recommended firmware and telemetry does not work, help

  6. jaimegil118 Avatar
    jaimegil118

    Using Kakute F4 Aio V2 for tricopter with Dronin: where do I News to connect siervo cables?.
    You show in RC conections for beteflight, but imagino trato with Dronin mighty be diferent, as no posibilities o FREMAP ing, correct?

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