I have my quad kit and kk2.0 board arriving this week. Other than a hubsan x4, I have 0 experience with quads. I'm super happy that I stumbled across your tutorials, because now I feel confident about getting the controller setup right away. Thanks man, great work!
Caro Dennis, con il tuo video sono finalmente riuscito a dettare il mio primo drone. Non parlo inglese ma con il video sono riuscito a capire come fare. Ancora tante grazie. Silvano dall'Italia
silvano podda Sto utilizzando Google Translate. Spero che tu possa capire questo messaggio . Grazie per la visione il mio video e sono contento che ci ha aiutato ! Tutti i migliori , Dennis
I appreciate the kind words. I've been really impressed with the KK2 board and it's capabilities. Much improved since the days of the KK1. Happy flying to you too.
Dennis what a Great Job, all you video tutorial are first rate, I know the person that win's the auction will be happy with all the work you put in this Quad. This is why I love your site Garage pilots where good people help each other out, you may not have all the answers but some one out there can make it work. Thank you for all the hard work you have done to make this happen. Thank you very much have a good Day.
Thanks Larry. I appreciate you reaching out to me to help with the build. I'll get everything packaged up and shipped your way. Then I'll be anxious to hear how it flies for you.
You all probably dont give a damn but does someone know a method to get back into an instagram account..? I somehow lost the account password. I appreciate any tricks you can give me.
Dude, I just have to tell ya, I came from the same board set ups as you did..and you got me cleared up, and have to totally agree with being able to toggle these settings is soooooo, much better...great job, had a great time getting your info on this
Dave, it was a request from a friend of mine. He wanted to get rid of the MWC and put the KK2 in. I agree that the quad flies great with the MultiWii and my buddy just wanted to give KK2 a try as well as be able to configure it without a computer. I haven't seen any oscillations with firmware 1.6 like you mention, but he also has the gains dialed way down. Thanks for the comment.
Dennis, thank you thank you thank you very much for taking the time and effort to make this series. I bought the same "RTF" copter late last year and your videos helped me update the MultiWii software properly and eventually decide that the MultiWii board was not nearly as intuitive and useful as the KK boards. I just installed a new kk 2.1 board and using a combination of excellent instructions from Hobbyking and this series of 3 videos, I'm up and running with a very stable copter and am looking forward to hours of fun flying it with my son.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm about to package this quad up and ship it back to Soldier53Flyer, but in my next KK2 build I'll look into this. For this build I left the stick scaling settings at the default.
So happy to stubble upon this today!!! I will be finishing up my Quad tonight and getting her 1st test flight in... glad to see I can set up channel 5 for toggling safe mode on and off! Good stuff man!!
I am amazed that it is so stable you can fly it in your garage. This shows me where I should be in terms of stability. I'm going to try your suggestions and see where that gets me to. Thanks so much for the great video!
Dennis, Thanks for sharing your experience on this video, it helped me zero in on setting up my KK2. I am coming from a KK version 1.2 board. I do have to say, that I have learned that perhaps the quality of the equipment has plenty to do with the value of the settings. I started with your settings and they were too high for my quad. I have a HobbyKing 450 board, Turnigy 12 amp ESC, Turnigy 1100 KVA motors. I will share my settings in a part two post.
Dennies, Thanks FOR ur time answering back. In fact i followed step by step all of ur vids on the tricopter. A big help INFACT. The big problem was the motor Mount on the tail. The Carbon was not strong enough TO handle the motor on what reason i did not know why it keeps wabblin till it ended wrecking. I changed it to a metal plate and now i can start LEARNING TO FLY. A big Thanks to u and your vids it helped a LOT. Merry Christmas in advance and hope to see more of your big help vids. God Bless and more power.
Thanks for all the videos. I was really unhappy with my H100...until I purchased the KK 2.1. After following your videos and setting it up I'm now able to mount a GoPro and take some great aerial footage (without a gimbal). It's a completely different machine!
Ashley, I just watched and it brought a tear to my eye to see you get in the air :) Love the acrylic frame and your attention to detail. Job well done and I'll definitely be keeping up with your channel. All the best.
Yes, do the P gain with I gain set to 0. But once you get the P gain in place start to bump up your I gain to where it feels comfortable. Or, as the HobbyKing guide states you can set your I gain from anywhere between 50-100% of your P gain. I know that's a wide range but I've found that 50% worked okay for me.
Dude this was beyond helpful! Thank you so much for making this video. I recently purchased the quanum venture with a kk2.0 FC and as a beginner had a very hard time controlling the copter with default settings. Also, my self level mode wasn't setup properly so that was an extremely helpful tip. After following these guidelines I feel much more confident with the quanum.
I had no idea, new with quad. Flew it out of the box without knowing any settings and it kept violently flipped from take off. Broke blades. After watching this I feel stupid flying it . Waiting for new blades . But THANK YOU SO MUCH for video. I will step by step follow recommendations and will see hopefully it flies. If just a nice hover, I'll be super happy. THANKS!!!!!!!
top man!!! mine was yaw turning left, and pitching up on on corner... had to trim all thr way on 3axis to counter it, but with your settings its all straight and fine! thanks, great,
Wow, nice! Thanks for sharing these. The next KK2 450 build I do I will try these out and let you know how they do. You're right though, these are definitely lower than the original ones I posted. I would have expected them to be closer, but I'll give them a try in the future.
Hello, I have tried almost all settings for the beginner and this one was by far the most stable especially the rudder (turning a 360 in one spot) self level is as good as you will get. Take my advice input the figures and start to enjoy flying your quad, THATS WHY YOU BOUGHT IT! RIGHT? As you advance you will fine tune the settings but for a day one flyer there is nothing on RUclips that even comes close. Thanks and well done!
Yes, you should have everything you need. I'm sure it's self-explanatory, but the reason I put the battery on bottom is so the KK2 would be on top and accessible to make changes via the LCD buttons. Thanks for the comment.
Legend! So glad you liked it, and thanks so much for replying and subscribing : ) Looking forward to watching the rest of your videos! All the best dude.
Dick, my recommendation is to make record of your current gains and then start to dialing them up in increments of 10 as shown in the video. Move up 10, fly and see what you think. I'm confident you can get your gains to something that fits your needs. Let me if you run into any problems.
I believe this exists to not allow your multirotor to over-oscillate and end up flipping. I hope that makes sense and I'm not a PID expert. Just learning from others and what I've read.
Dennis, part 2 my settings. Firmware ver 1.6+++ PI Editor Roll Pitch Yaw P-Gain 40 40 40 P-Limit 100 100 20 I-Gain 12 12 12 I-Limit 20 20 10 Self Leveling P-Gain 40 (matched Acro Mode settings) P--Limit 20 default ACC Trim Roll: not yet tuned ACC Trim Pitch: not yet tuned Aux Switch Setup: Position 1: ACRO Position 2: not active Position 3: SL Mix Medium Misc Settings Min Throttle:20 Height Dampening: 0 Height D. Limit: 0 Alarm Volts:10.5V Servo Filter: off Motor Layout: X-Quad
Excellent video. One point about the aux toggle too and from self level mode. The channel limits need to be set at 125% or it may not detect the aux state. Cheers.
Ok that's fine,I'm new to RUclips so I'm still learning how it works they don't even let upload long vids so hope to get it right. Thanks again. God Bless
Hey, (using the kk2.1.5 board) I have a bicopter and the servos are acting crazy when I throttle up. Do you know how I can edit them so I can achieve flight testing? Thanks.
What do your auto level gains look like? Have you tried lowering them to see how it responds? Maybe take them way down and then slowly bump them up as you test.
Dennis, you do seem to be easy to fly! but build my Quadcopter with many difficulties and I am on my first flight! I do not know if they are for my PI values, could you possibly make a video to show how we do to adjust and how to fly?
Dennis Thanks for replying... I believe this is a fine source for the PID description. I have another question. My quadcopter is always turning to the right site so i have continusly toe correct with the YAW..... This makes it difficult to fly... Any explanation??? Thanks Dan
Hi I am new to quadcopter building. I have a quadcopter with the kk2.1.5 and I tried using the p gain settings you posted. When I tried to hover the quadcopter goes forward. Can you help me out please.
Hey, thanks for the great videos, it's really appreciated, especially by people like myself who have no experience with these quads. I just hope the FCC doesn't outlaw them, but there's a very good chance that they'll require some kind of a permit and licensing before long. It's already against the law to fly one in a National Park. The planet would be a much better place if people like yourself, who just want to help others were more plentiful.
I'm no expert, but will tell you what I do know. Please consider reading the Wikipedia page for more specifics of PID controllers. So you now about gains..well limits are the values that you input that tells the controller if the value of the gain exceeds this limit to soften it and not let it surpass the limit. Example: P gain is 50% and value comes back from the gyro as 250. The gain value is now 125. If you have a limit set at 75 then the value of 125 will be dampened to 75.
I'm building a 450 Quad with a KK2.1 and I think your video's is going to be a great help. I wish there was a PDF of what to do after you unpack the KK2.1 tell you get it flying. Any idea?
Jack Carpenter I know what you mean about having that PDF! Would be a nice thing to have, but feel free to check out www.garagepilots.com and post any questions over there. Hopefully we can help you out. Thanks for watching.
Okay i see the aerosky has battery on top,but you have yourson bottom... If i buy the aerosky kit frame,esc's,motors,wires and the kk2 board will i have everything i need to have same setup as you have,so i can have battery mounted underneath also...thax for the info
Dennis..I have watched your video a couple times. Very informative. I'm trying to absorb P,I, Gains etc. I have a tricopter. When I turn the heli to face me, it will snap back 180 degrees away from me. I was thinking possible offset on the rudder motor. Not sure though. Any help would be great.
jerry zito That's a strange one that I've never seen happen. I don't have any experience with tricopters but will see if I can find anything out. Let us know if you come to any conclusions.
Hey Dennis, I've watched yours and many other PI tutorials and think I understand it o.k. But my question is are these adjustments affecting the stable mode only or do they affect acro mode as well? I feel like I have to be on the stick the whole time in acro mode just to keep the quad from crashing. I have the KK2 with 1.6 firmware (I think 1.6, did it a while back). I see these videos with the quad on a string (Rolf's, and a couple others) and when properly tuned they stay in the attitude they were in until corrected. If they were in stable mode it would flatten back out. So I guess I may have just answered my own question. I've played with the PI in stable mode and can see what too high or low can do, but still not comfortable with flying acro yet.
Good luck with your experiments and it will be no time before you're flying in acro mode. It really is a lot of fun and challenging at the same time. I still use stable mode when I get in trouble or am doing some filming, but other than that I'm in acro trying to fine tune my skills. Thanks for the comment.
positivecamber Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure if you can use the same settings. I'd probably start with these gains and then bump them up a bit if necessary.
Hi great info...i am just learning about quads...I like the dynam 650 arf for $140...i have a jr x9303 2.4.....will this board work well with the dynam 650....thax
Hello Dennis, I have set all the setting as you have shown me, but the screen shows :Error; no yaw input. I have set the yaw to 75,20,30,10. then back to PI Editor. as your video shows. Do you have any idea why? John.
John Stanley I haven't seen that before. Perhaps it's a channel issue with the board not seeing any signal from your yaw channel? That's my best guess right now.
My mistake. Yes, auto level. When I turn auto level on, it starts to do small banks, then holds the small bank and and starts to run off with a mind of its own. It is not "drifting" but actually doing various banks and holding them. But it flies great with auto level off.
I normally leave them alone... #8 From the link below: Q: What are the "limit" values in "PI Editor"?A: About the "limit" values. They set the maximum of the available motor power to be used for correction. 100 is 100%. The "I limit" value is also known as "anti wind-up" in PID theory.The limits is most important on the yaw axis. The prevent a large yaw correction from saturating the motors (giving full or no throttle), causing no control of the roll/pitch axis.The default values permit 30% ("P Limit" 20 + "I limit" 10) of the motor power to be used to yaw correction, making 70% available for the roll/pitch axis, the most important ones.You can increase "Yaw P Limit" for faster Yaw response. Note that Yaw response is also limited by the craft itself.You can increase "Roll/Pitch/Yaw I Limit" for increased heading-hold "memory", that is how far it can deviate and still return to original attitude. Too large memory can cause problems if you have a "blow out" on one of the axis, tries to correct it with opposite control input and then when the blow-out conditions disappear, the craft will try to return to an unknown attitude.Unless you know what you are doing, leave the limit values as default. Default values has no impact on The PI tuning process.Also leave the self-level "I gain" and "I limit" at zero. The I part of the self-level algorithm does not work well, this will be fixed later. (Accelerometers is too slow) www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1675613
I looked at the Dynam 650 frame and cannot see any reason why the KK2 wouldn't work with it. There are pilots using the KK2 for all sorts of builds so it should work with this frame.
Thank you, Dennis. I have a question: I am going to set the KK2 on a V8 octocopter which I designed and built and will use for video recording. The craft is about 800 mm long and is powered by eight Emax CF2822, with 20A ESCs and a 4500mAH 3S lipo. The full weight, in flying order, is 1950 grams. I would like to know which PI settings I should use to achieve a very very stable and smooth behaviour. I thank you in advance.Cheers from Bruno
Hi Bruno. My recommendation is to start with considerably higher gains than what I posted in the video. Then you can work your way up or down from those. Or you could use my gains knowing that they will be low and slowly work your way up. I've never setup KK2 on an octo so I'm not sure the best way to start. When testing I'd recommend only hovering a couple feet off the ground just to see how it feels. Then you can adjust from there. If it's too wobbly then you'll need to bring your gains down. If it's not responsive enough then you'll need to take your gains up. Work in small increments so you don't run into any problems. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Thank you indeed, Dennis. I am finding that the KK2 works well on my octocopter, with the exception of its behaviour when I let the sticks go back to neutral: it seems to take ages to come back to horizontal. It is a little better on self-levelling mode, but I still find it slow to come back to horizontal. I have tried with higher and lower P gains but it did not change much. Any idea? A (small.....) kingdom for your thoughts (lol). Cheers from Bruno
awesome video. I am using the same settings in my small 220mm blackout clone. my quad is very sloppy in yaw input, it keeps on rotating even after i let go of the sticks, wat should i change to get snappy yaw outputs??? thanks
kushagrgoyal It's so hard to say without more info, but this is a great thread that hopefully can help: forums.openpilot.org/topic/13456-constant-slight-yaw/ Good luck and keep us posted.
I have a Hex that I had built, and it oscillates pretty bad. I have the p gain all the way down to 15 and it still does it. Hard to fly that way for sure in acro mode. Thinking the kk2.1.5 is faulty or the escs are messing up
I have a zmr 450 and a H-king color 250, with the kk2.1.9 steveis firmware and am green to tunining etc,I am using a dx5e.My question is, what would be a good starting point on all the numbers you covered in this video?I would like to fly only in self-level, but with nice pitch angle without getting to crazy.I hope I make sense.I have beat my brain senseless trying to tune these two quads.THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT TO THE UP AND COMING YOUTH!!!!
+Cj Hyde Thanks for the feedback. It's hard to say without seeing your setup. Maybe these will help? ruclips.net/video/uh5ZG4hCddI/видео.html Good luck and let us know what you come up with. This would be great information for others to learn from. Take care.
Great video me and my buddy are 3d printing our body. Hardware is coming soon. I have a dx6i radio will i be setting dual rates and expo on it? With my Apprentice plane i dont but do on my Blade copter. Thanks any help is appreciated.
Wally Krusee I'd probably start without dual rates initially until you get a feel for how it handles by default. Then when you want to improve the responsiveness you can start mess with your rates and expo. Just my thoughts. Good luck with your build.
hey awesome video! do you have any experience with the kk2.1.5 board? im using it on a 250mm quad with emax motors. I have to say im not happy with the P/I gains at all. Iv experimented with it, with little success. It still has alot of oscillation. Any advice?Thanks!
Mad Yet I haven't worked with that board but the first thing that comes to mine is to make sure you have it well isolated from vibrations. On such a small frame sometimes it's hard to keep the FC from seeing vibes from the props/motors. Also, try bringing the gains down pretty far because the defaults may be too high. Do it incrementally and work your way down. Hopefully this gets you closer. Good luck.
Dennis, thank you very much for the response! I actually got it. little to 0 oscillation after leaving the I gains alone completely. I was confused and was under the impression that the I gain would have to move once I moved the P gain. No the case. Once I understood this, the oscillation tuning became much easier and eventually I got the 250mm quad right where it needs to be. Thank you so much for the video and the help!!!
I have done the settings in the controller board kk 2.1.5 now when I'm giving maximum throttle ,at some point it was suddenly stopping by itself... please let me know what the problem is?
Excellent video! I would like to ask you about an issue I am currently facing. I have a kk board 2.15 , 20 amp multistar escs, bumblebee quadcopter kit so when the motors starts I leave them at 30% speed for a couple of seconds and the number 4 starts accelerating by itself. I have calibrated the escs zillion times, I have self level off (my radio is a turnigy 9x mode 1). I wish you could help me with this issue. Many thanks and keep on with the videos!!!!
Alvaro Gestido Thanks for the feedback. It's much appreciated. I'm not sure what the problem is with your motor but if you've calibrated the ESCs make sure you do a sensor calibration on the KK2. I would also swap that ESC with another on your setup to see if the problem exists with the ESC or it's something to do with th signal coming out to motor 4. Hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress.
Hi Dennis, Great video im having trouble with my quad i built with the KK2.1.5 when i take off it doesnt take off vertically it wants to take off sidewards and if i pushed it it would crsh 2 props in the ground, any help would be great?
Glenn Cook Some quick thoughts come to mind: 1. Have you calibrated ESCs? 2. Have you done the KK calibration process? 3. Are your motors and prop rotations correct?
Hi, I have an X230 by HK. The problem I have is that is flies well when off safe mode, but when I turn on safe mode the copter starts to have a mind of its own. I tuned the ESCs, made sure the board is calibrated level, everything is balanced. I have a blade nano quad which is rock solid so now I really can feel how bad the x230/KK2 board are. Also, I understand P & I gains but I am unsure what the P & I limits are for. Any help or input is greatly appreciated, Thanks
Jack Carpenter Other than the settings here I used the defaults. If you're having problems please feel free to check out www.garagepilots.com and post in the forums. We should be able to help you out.
Doug, thanks for the feedback. I really dig the MultiWii for just casual flying out of the box. For autonomous flight and mission planning APM is the way to go.
I have the default 'pid' settings on my KK 2.x - it oscillates like mad in auto-level mode - it's the same as yours. Very similar to 4:10. I can fly my Hubsan X4 and it's very smooth, even in 'expert' mode which is highly responsive to control input.
alexellis2 Yeah the Hubsan X4 has incredible stabilization. I would say to keep working with your KK2 gains. It takes a good bit of trial and error, but you should be able to work up or down and see a change in the responsiveness in your quad. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
Dennis Baldwin I think I've 'cracked' it now - the props were utter rubbish. I've got the expensive 'gemfan' ones on now which has completely transformed it. I'm now getting a very smooth flight which is drifting off slightly to the right.
Hey Dennis! cool tutorials, I just got a ST360 from HK w/ a KK 2.1.5 and I am having a hassle. I followed all the steps you listed in the vids. My problem is when I disarm the quad, the motors keep spinning, very slow but wont cut off completely, what to do? Any help will be really appreciated. Thanks!
Darío Alomía Thanks for the feedback. It's really hard to say without more information. Do you mind posting more info in the forums at www.garagepilots.com? Maybe some photos of your settings as well as what steps you've gone through to get this far. I'm assuming since you can arm your quad and that it flies okay or are you just trying to arm and disarm? That type of info will be helpful so that we can make some suggestions. Good luck!
Thanks to both of you, I corrected it, but now I can get it to fly, as soon as I give it 50% throttle, it starts waggling! I tried to sync the ESCs but this quad is possessed...
wow thanks for all the help! I trying everything, now I burnt two ESCs haha, In the meantime until I get the ESCs, could you please tell me how to set the CPPM? I am running a R615x with a DX6i, thank you!!!!
Great series of videos Dennis, I was following along step by step till I tried to calibrate the esc's... I hit button 1 and 4 and the screen went blank. I didn't get the expected beeps and now the KK2 seems to only work if I turn the radio off, I have tried the factory reset but the problem persists . I would Sincerely appreciate any help you can offer. thanks man and keep up the good work.
Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately I don't have my KK anymore and it's been so long since I've touched it. Good luck and let us know what you figure out.
No it's actually different. Altitude hold is generally done with a barometer or GPS. Auto-level just stabilizes the aircraft and keeps it level when you let off the sticks. You may be able to do what this guy did with the MultiWii firmware although I've never done it: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2157987 Let us know what you find out.
awesome video! i do have a question though. i have set everytthing the same as you. but when i take off the copter goes into a wobble and the wobble gets worse and worse till it smashes its self into the ground :( any suggestions?
Ryan Sweeney It's hard to tell but my first guess would be that your gains are too high. Try bringing them down incrementally (small steps) and then test. If that's not the case then maybe you have too much vibration that is getting back to the flight controller.
I have my quad kit and kk2.0 board arriving this week. Other than a hubsan x4, I have 0 experience with quads. I'm super happy that I stumbled across your tutorials, because now I feel confident about getting the controller setup right away. Thanks man, great work!
Caro Dennis, con il tuo video sono finalmente riuscito a dettare il mio primo drone. Non parlo inglese ma con il video sono riuscito a capire come fare. Ancora tante grazie. Silvano dall'Italia
silvano podda Sto utilizzando Google Translate. Spero che tu possa capire questo messaggio . Grazie per la visione il mio video e sono contento che ci ha aiutato ! Tutti i migliori , Dennis
I appreciate the kind words. I've been really impressed with the KK2 board and it's capabilities. Much improved since the days of the KK1. Happy flying to you too.
Aditya, thank you for the feedback. I'm glad these videos are helping. Take care.
Dennis what a Great Job, all you video tutorial are first rate, I know the person that win's the auction will be happy with all the work you put in this Quad. This is why I love your site Garage pilots where good people help each other out, you may not have all the answers but some one out there can make it work. Thank you for all the hard work you have done to make this happen. Thank you very much have a good Day.
Thanks Larry. I appreciate you reaching out to me to help with the build. I'll get everything packaged up and shipped your way. Then I'll be anxious to hear how it flies for you.
You all probably dont give a damn but does someone know a method to get back into an instagram account..?
I somehow lost the account password. I appreciate any tricks you can give me.
Posted over a year ago and still helpful. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Mike Fuday No problem at all. Thanks for watching.
Dude, I just have to tell ya, I came from the same board set ups as you did..and you got me cleared up, and have to totally agree with being able to toggle these settings is soooooo, much better...great job, had a great time getting your info on this
Thanks for the feedback and glad to know we shared similar experiences. Good luck with your build!
Dave, it was a request from a friend of mine. He wanted to get rid of the MWC and put the KK2 in. I agree that the quad flies great with the MultiWii and my buddy just wanted to give KK2 a try as well as be able to configure it without a computer. I haven't seen any oscillations with firmware 1.6 like you mention, but he also has the gains dialed way down. Thanks for the comment.
Very glad to hear that. Hope you're in the air and stable now!
Man I use to watch your videos everyday after school. Seeing this brought back so many memories lol. This was before DJI took over
Dennis, thank you thank you thank you very much for taking the time and effort to make this series. I bought the same "RTF" copter late last year and your videos helped me update the MultiWii software properly and eventually decide that the MultiWii board was not nearly as intuitive and useful as the KK boards.
I just installed a new kk 2.1 board and using a combination of excellent instructions from Hobbyking and this series of 3 videos, I'm up and running with a very stable copter and am looking forward to hours of fun flying it with my son.
Awesome Bill! Glad to hear it. There's nothing more rewarding than getting a stable build and sharing it with a child. Take care.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm about to package this quad up and ship it back to Soldier53Flyer, but in my next KK2 build I'll look into this. For this build I left the stick scaling settings at the default.
So happy to stubble upon this today!!! I will be finishing up my Quad tonight and getting her 1st test flight in... glad to see I can set up channel 5 for toggling safe mode on and off! Good stuff man!!
***** Great to hear it. Good luck with getting your build in the air!
I am amazed that it is so stable you can fly it in your garage. This shows me where I should be in terms of stability. I'm going to try your suggestions and see where that gets me to. Thanks so much for the great video!
David Dennis Awesome to hear. Good luck and keep us posted.
Thanks for sharing your build info. It's always great to hear what others are doing and I'll be on the lookout for your PID settings.
No problem at all. It was a good learning experience for me. I'm really impressed with the KK2.
Dennis,
Thanks for sharing your experience on this video, it helped me zero in on setting up my KK2. I am coming from a KK version 1.2 board.
I do have to say, that I have learned that perhaps the quality of the equipment has plenty to do with the value of the settings. I started with your settings and they were too high for my quad. I have a HobbyKing 450 board, Turnigy 12 amp ESC, Turnigy 1100 KVA motors. I will share my settings in a part two post.
I appreciate it Chris. The KK2 is an awesome little FC for the money. I will definitely be doing a build with one of these in the future.
Dennies,
Thanks FOR ur time answering back. In fact i followed step by step all of ur vids on the tricopter. A big help INFACT. The big problem was the motor Mount on the tail. The Carbon was not strong enough TO handle the motor on what reason i did not know why it keeps wabblin till it ended wrecking. I changed it to a metal plate and now i can start LEARNING TO FLY. A big Thanks to u and your vids it helped a LOT. Merry Christmas in advance and hope to see more of your big help vids. God Bless and more power.
bobot021070 So glad to hear you got it working! Merry Christmas to you too. Please keep us posted on your progress.
Thanks for all the videos. I was really unhappy with my H100...until I purchased the KK 2.1. After following your videos and setting it up I'm now able to mount a GoPro and take some great aerial footage (without a gimbal). It's a completely different machine!
Just Gumby So glad to hear you got it configured and in the air. Very coo. Thanks for sharing and fly safe.
Thank you from Sicily, my dad and I fixed our drone with your kind help. Fly safe!
HCarota You're very welcome. Thanks for watching and greetings from Austin, TX.
Ashley, I just watched and it brought a tear to my eye to see you get in the air :) Love the acrylic frame and your attention to detail. Job well done and I'll definitely be keeping up with your channel. All the best.
Yes, do the P gain with I gain set to 0. But once you get the P gain in place start to bump up your I gain to where it feels comfortable. Or, as the HobbyKing guide states you can set your I gain from anywhere between 50-100% of your P gain. I know that's a wide range but I've found that 50% worked okay for me.
Dude this was beyond helpful! Thank you so much for making this video. I recently purchased the quanum venture with a kk2.0 FC and as a beginner had a very hard time controlling the copter with default settings. Also, my self level mode wasn't setup properly so that was an extremely helpful tip. After following these guidelines I feel much more confident with the quanum.
Dionatronics So glad to hear that. Thanks for the feedback.
You're welcome and I'm happy to hear things are working well.
You are like the best advocate on Quads. I wish you were my neighbor, keep up the good work.
fade2nada Thanks so much for the good words. It's very much appreciated :)
I had no idea, new with quad. Flew it out of the box without knowing any settings and it kept violently flipped from take off. Broke blades.
After watching this I feel stupid flying it . Waiting for new blades . But THANK YOU SO MUCH for video. I will step by step follow recommendations and will see hopefully it flies.
If just a nice hover, I'll be super happy.
THANKS!!!!!!!
sabyx5 Good to hear. I hope this helps and that you get back in the air soon.
top man!!! mine was yaw turning left, and pitching up on on corner... had to trim all thr way on 3axis to counter it, but with your settings its all straight and fine! thanks, great,
Wow, nice! Thanks for sharing these. The next KK2 450 build I do I will try these out and let you know how they do. You're right though, these are definitely lower than the original ones I posted. I would have expected them to be closer, but I'll give them a try in the future.
Hello, I have tried almost all settings for the beginner and this one was by far the most stable especially the rudder (turning a 360 in one spot) self level is as good as you will get.
Take my advice input the figures and start to enjoy flying your quad, THATS WHY YOU BOUGHT IT! RIGHT?
As you advance you will fine tune the settings but for a day one flyer there is nothing on RUclips that even comes close.
Thanks and well done!
Yes, you should have everything you need. I'm sure it's self-explanatory, but the reason I put the battery on bottom is so the KK2 would be on top and accessible to make changes via the LCD buttons. Thanks for the comment.
Legend! So glad you liked it, and thanks so much for replying and subscribing : ) Looking forward to watching the rest of your videos! All the best dude.
good job Dennis once again. Keep it up and keep the videos coming. They help out so much......
Got it! Had one mixed up motor connection. Your settings are spot on, and thank you again!!! Im new to this and a lot of fun with it.
sabyx5 Glad to hear that. Hope it's flying well!
Excellent just made a quad and never flown one before so this was invaluable 👍
You da man, helped so much, I was afraid I would never learn to fly. Thank you!
thanks dennis, i got my quad in the air , you are the man
chedda214 So glad to hear that. Thanks for the good words.
great video my friend very informative great work bud and what your doing it for happy flying !!!!!!
Dick, my recommendation is to make record of your current gains and then start to dialing them up in increments of 10 as shown in the video. Move up 10, fly and see what you think. I'm confident you can get your gains to something that fits your needs. Let me if you run into any problems.
EXCELENT . Thanks for all your help in these tutorials.
I believe this exists to not allow your multirotor to over-oscillate and end up flipping. I hope that makes sense and I'm not a PID expert. Just learning from others and what I've read.
Dennis,
part 2 my settings.
Firmware ver 1.6+++
PI Editor
Roll Pitch Yaw
P-Gain 40 40 40
P-Limit 100 100 20
I-Gain 12 12 12
I-Limit 20 20 10
Self Leveling
P-Gain 40 (matched Acro Mode settings)
P--Limit 20 default
ACC Trim Roll: not yet tuned
ACC Trim Pitch: not yet tuned
Aux Switch Setup:
Position 1: ACRO
Position 2: not active
Position 3: SL Mix Medium
Misc Settings
Min Throttle:20
Height Dampening: 0
Height D. Limit: 0
Alarm Volts:10.5V
Servo Filter: off
Motor Layout: X-Quad
Thanks for sharing your gains. It's always good to know what others are doing. How is your quad flying now?
Excellent video. One point about the aux toggle too and from self level mode. The channel limits need to be set at 125% or it may not detect the aux state.
Cheers.
Thank you for explaining the esc calibration!
aerialphotographydrone No problem at all. Hope it helped and thanks for watching.
Just what I was looking for. Good show.
Thanks Wayne. I appreciate you following along.
Sweet garage. Mini ramp and everything.
Invitingsauce Thanks man. I appreciate that.
Ok that's fine,I'm new to RUclips so I'm still learning how it works they don't even let upload long vids so hope to get it right. Thanks again. God Bless
bobot021070 No problem. Enjoy the learning process as there's a ton of information out there. Stay tuned and thanks for watching. Merry Christmas!
Hi, thanks for the great tutorial. Definitely useful if you could show some settings on the stick scaling with this setup. Thanks again.
You're welcome. Thanks for watching.
Hey, (using the kk2.1.5 board) I have a bicopter and the servos are acting crazy when I throttle up. Do you know how I can edit them so I can achieve flight testing?
Thanks.
I fixed it, don't worry about it
What do your auto level gains look like? Have you tried lowering them to see how it responds? Maybe take them way down and then slowly bump them up as you test.
It's hard to say, but what flight controller and transmitter are you currently using?
Dennis, you do seem to be easy to fly! but build my Quadcopter with many difficulties and I am on my first flight! I do not know if they are for my PI values, could you possibly make a video to show how we do to adjust and how to fly?
thank you sir! Your videos have helped me a lot, i appreciate your efforts.
Dennis
Thanks for replying...
I believe this is a fine source for the PID description.
I have another question.
My quadcopter is always turning to the right site so i have continusly toe correct with the YAW.....
This makes it difficult to fly...
Any explanation???
Thanks
Dan
Hi I am new to quadcopter building. I have a quadcopter with the kk2.1.5 and I tried using the p gain settings you posted. When I tried to hover the quadcopter goes forward. Can you help me out please.
many thanks for this tutorial, excelent as always!
Hey, thanks for the great videos, it's really appreciated, especially by people like myself who have no experience with these quads. I just hope the FCC doesn't outlaw them, but there's a very good chance that they'll require some kind of a permit and licensing before long. It's already against the law to fly one in a National Park. The planet would be a much better place if people like yourself, who just want to help others were more plentiful.
just sayin.... the US would be a better place if the Fed didn't overstep it's boundaries and take land from The People in the form of National Parks!
I'm no expert, but will tell you what I do know. Please consider reading the Wikipedia page for more specifics of PID controllers. So you now about gains..well limits are the values that you input that tells the controller if the value of the gain exceeds this limit to soften it and not let it surpass the limit. Example: P gain is 50% and value comes back from the gyro as 250. The gain value is now 125. If you have a limit set at 75 then the value of 125 will be dampened to 75.
Very nice!
Great video thanks for taking the time.
Michael L No problem. Thanks for watching.
Great video. Appreciate the effort.
Hank Stites Thanks for watching.
thanks for the video.....can u take out some time to tell what's the difference between aleron....yaw... elevator modes??
This may be helpful: uavcoach.com/how-to-fly-a-quadcopter-guide/
I'm building a 450 Quad with a KK2.1 and I think your video's is going to be a great help. I wish there was a PDF of what to do after you unpack the KK2.1 tell you get it flying. Any idea?
Jack Carpenter I know what you mean about having that PDF! Would be a nice thing to have, but feel free to check out www.garagepilots.com and post any questions over there. Hopefully we can help you out. Thanks for watching.
Dennis Baldwin I just join the forum. If I need ask a question I'll do it there. Thanks
great video, thank you so much. im building a quad and this was an incredible tutorial.
Aniketh Rao Glad to hear it and good luck with your build.
Okay i see the aerosky has battery on top,but you have yourson bottom... If i buy the aerosky kit frame,esc's,motors,wires and the kk2 board will i have everything i need to have same setup as you have,so i can have battery mounted underneath also...thax for the info
Dennis..I have watched your video a couple times. Very informative. I'm trying to absorb P,I, Gains etc. I have a tricopter. When I turn the heli to face me, it will snap back 180 degrees away from me. I was thinking possible offset on the rudder motor. Not sure though. Any help would be great.
jerry zito That's a strange one that I've never seen happen. I don't have any experience with tricopters but will see if I can find anything out. Let us know if you come to any conclusions.
Hey Dennis, I've watched yours and many other PI tutorials and think I understand it o.k. But my question is are these adjustments affecting the stable mode only or do they affect acro mode as well? I feel like I have to be on the stick the whole time in acro mode just to keep the quad from crashing. I have the KK2 with 1.6 firmware (I think 1.6, did it a while back). I see these videos with the quad on a string (Rolf's, and a couple others) and when properly tuned they stay in the attitude they were in until corrected. If they were in stable mode it would flatten back out. So I guess I may have just answered my own question. I've played with the PI in stable mode and can see what too high or low can do, but still not comfortable with flying acro yet.
Good luck with your experiments and it will be no time before you're flying in acro mode. It really is a lot of fun and challenging at the same time. I still use stable mode when I get in trouble or am doing some filming, but other than that I'm in acro trying to fine tune my skills. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you for the vid Dennis.And the Page link, Very helpful. Kazz
Kazz- Mann No problem at all. Thanks for the feedback.
This is a great tutorial. Thanks. I'm building a hexacopter with the KK 2.0 board. Can I use the same settings?
positivecamber Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure if you can use the same settings. I'd probably start with these gains and then bump them up a bit if necessary.
Hi great info...i am just learning about quads...I like the dynam 650 arf for $140...i have a jr x9303 2.4.....will this board work well with the dynam 650....thax
What do you mean by safe mode? Are you referring to auto level mode?
Hello Dennis, I have set all the setting as you have shown me, but the screen shows :Error; no yaw input. I have set the yaw to 75,20,30,10. then back to PI Editor. as your video shows. Do you have any idea why?
John.
John Stanley I haven't seen that before. Perhaps it's a channel issue with the board not seeing any signal from your yaw channel? That's my best guess right now.
My mistake. Yes, auto level. When I turn auto level on, it starts to do small banks, then holds the small bank and and starts to run off with a mind of its own. It is not "drifting" but actually doing various banks and holding them. But it flies great with auto level off.
Thank you for a great video. Can you explain, what does the Limit do?
I normally leave them alone... #8 From the link below:
Q: What are the "limit" values in "PI Editor"?A: About the "limit" values. They set the maximum of the available motor power to be used for correction. 100 is 100%. The "I limit" value is also known as "anti wind-up" in PID theory.The limits is most important on the yaw axis. The prevent a large yaw correction from saturating the motors (giving full or no throttle), causing no control of the roll/pitch axis.The default values permit 30% ("P Limit" 20 + "I limit" 10) of the motor power to be used to yaw correction, making 70% available for the roll/pitch axis, the most important ones.You can increase "Yaw P Limit" for faster Yaw response. Note that Yaw response is also limited by the craft itself.You can increase "Roll/Pitch/Yaw I Limit" for increased heading-hold "memory", that is how far it can deviate and still return to original attitude. Too large memory can cause problems if you have a "blow out" on one of the axis, tries to correct it with opposite control input and then when the blow-out conditions disappear, the craft will try to return to an unknown attitude.Unless you know what you are doing, leave the limit values as default. Default values has no impact on The PI tuning process.Also leave the self-level "I gain" and "I limit" at zero. The I part of the self-level algorithm does not work well, this will be fixed later. (Accelerometers is too slow)
www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1675613
Good vid...thnx pids were driving me crazy
I looked at the Dynam 650 frame and cannot see any reason why the KK2 wouldn't work with it. There are pilots using the KK2 for all sorts of builds so it should work with this frame.
Thank you, Dennis. I have a question: I am going to set the KK2 on a V8 octocopter which I designed and built and will use for video recording. The craft is about 800 mm long and is powered by eight Emax CF2822, with 20A ESCs and a 4500mAH 3S lipo. The full weight, in flying order, is 1950 grams. I would like to know which PI settings I should use to achieve a very very stable and smooth behaviour. I thank you in advance.Cheers from Bruno
Hi Bruno. My recommendation is to start with considerably higher gains than what I posted in the video. Then you can work your way up or down from those. Or you could use my gains knowing that they will be low and slowly work your way up. I've never setup KK2 on an octo so I'm not sure the best way to start. When testing I'd recommend only hovering a couple feet off the ground just to see how it feels. Then you can adjust from there. If it's too wobbly then you'll need to bring your gains down. If it's not responsive enough then you'll need to take your gains up. Work in small increments so you don't run into any problems. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Thank you indeed, Dennis. I am finding that the KK2 works well on my octocopter, with the exception of its behaviour when I let the sticks go back to neutral: it seems to take ages to come back to horizontal. It is a little better on self-levelling mode, but I still find it slow to come back to horizontal. I have tried with higher and lower P gains but it did not change much. Any idea? A (small.....) kingdom for your thoughts (lol).
Cheers from Bruno
Bruno De Michelis try setting up p gain in self level setting.. increase it up a bit and see if it solves the problem.
awesome video. I am using the same settings in my small 220mm blackout clone.
my quad is very sloppy in yaw input, it keeps on rotating even after i let go of the sticks, wat should i change to get snappy yaw outputs???
thanks
kushagrgoyal It's so hard to say without more info, but this is a great thread that hopefully can help:
forums.openpilot.org/topic/13456-constant-slight-yaw/
Good luck and keep us posted.
I have a Hex that I had built, and it oscillates pretty bad. I have the p gain all the way down to 15 and it still does it. Hard to fly that way for sure in acro mode. Thinking the kk2.1.5 is faulty or the escs are messing up
I have a zmr 450 and a H-king color 250, with the kk2.1.9 steveis firmware and am green to tunining etc,I am using a dx5e.My question is, what would be a good starting point on all the numbers you covered in this video?I would like to fly only in self-level, but with nice pitch angle without getting to crazy.I hope I make sense.I have beat my brain senseless trying to tune these two quads.THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT TO THE UP AND COMING YOUTH!!!!
+Cj Hyde Thanks for the feedback. It's hard to say without seeing your setup. Maybe these will help?
ruclips.net/video/uh5ZG4hCddI/видео.html
Good luck and let us know what you come up with. This would be great information for others to learn from. Take care.
Great video. Can you confirm that with these settings that I can put full sticks forward or backwards ect and it won't flip over at all?
Hi Dennis, when to increase 'Limit' parameter for roll/pitch and Yaw ?
Great video me and my buddy are 3d printing our body. Hardware is coming soon. I have a dx6i radio will i be setting dual rates and expo on it? With my Apprentice plane i dont but do on my Blade copter. Thanks any help is appreciated.
Wally Krusee I'd probably start without dual rates initially until you get a feel for how it handles by default. Then when you want to improve the responsiveness you can start mess with your rates and expo. Just my thoughts. Good luck with your build.
hey awesome video! do you have any experience with the kk2.1.5 board? im using it on a 250mm quad with emax motors. I have to say im not happy with the P/I gains at all. Iv experimented with it, with little success. It still has alot of oscillation. Any advice?Thanks!
Mad Yet I haven't worked with that board but the first thing that comes to mine is to make sure you have it well isolated from vibrations. On such a small frame sometimes it's hard to keep the FC from seeing vibes from the props/motors. Also, try bringing the gains down pretty far because the defaults may be too high. Do it incrementally and work your way down. Hopefully this gets you closer. Good luck.
Dennis,
thank you very much for the response! I actually got it. little to 0 oscillation after leaving the I gains alone completely. I was confused and was under the impression that the I gain would have to move once I moved the P gain. No the case. Once I understood this, the oscillation tuning became much easier and eventually I got the 250mm quad right where it needs to be. Thank you so much for the video and the help!!!
dude you vid was on point, It really help me out a lot THANKS!!
+Michael Howard No problem at all. Glad it helped.
I have done the settings in the controller board kk 2.1.5 now when I'm giving maximum throttle ,at some point it was suddenly stopping by itself... please let me know what the problem is?
Excellent video! I would like to ask you about an issue I am currently facing. I have a kk board 2.15 , 20 amp multistar escs, bumblebee quadcopter kit so when the motors starts I leave them at 30% speed for a couple of seconds and the number 4 starts accelerating by itself. I have calibrated the escs zillion times, I have self level off (my radio is a turnigy 9x mode 1). I wish you could help me with this issue. Many thanks and keep on with the videos!!!!
Alvaro Gestido Thanks for the feedback. It's much appreciated. I'm not sure what the problem is with your motor but if you've calibrated the ESCs make sure you do a sensor calibration on the KK2. I would also swap that ESC with another on your setup to see if the problem exists with the ESC or it's something to do with th signal coming out to motor 4. Hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress.
Hi Dennis,
Great video im having trouble with my quad i built with the KK2.1.5 when i take off it doesnt take off vertically it wants to take off sidewards and if i pushed it it would crsh 2 props in the ground, any help would be great?
Glenn Cook Some quick thoughts come to mind:
1. Have you calibrated ESCs?
2. Have you done the KK calibration process?
3. Are your motors and prop rotations correct?
Hi, I have an X230 by HK. The problem I have is that is flies well when off safe mode, but when I turn on safe mode the copter starts to have a mind of its own. I tuned the ESCs, made sure the board is calibrated level, everything is balanced. I have a blade nano quad which is rock solid so now I really can feel how bad the x230/KK2 board are.
Also, I understand P & I gains but I am unsure what the P & I limits are for.
Any help or input is greatly appreciated, Thanks
Do you remember all the setting for this FC? You have part here but you have rest of them? Hope you remember.
Jack Carpenter Other than the settings here I used the defaults. If you're having problems please feel free to check out www.garagepilots.com and post in the forums. We should be able to help you out.
I wanted to thank you also! Great job explaining the basic set procedure. Which did you like better, Apm or Multiwii? Thanks, Doug
Doug, thanks for the feedback. I really dig the MultiWii for just casual flying out of the box. For autonomous flight and mission planning APM is the way to go.
I have the default 'pid' settings on my KK 2.x - it oscillates like mad in auto-level mode - it's the same as yours. Very similar to 4:10. I can fly my Hubsan X4 and it's very smooth, even in 'expert' mode which is highly responsive to control input.
alexellis2 Yeah the Hubsan X4 has incredible stabilization. I would say to keep working with your KK2 gains. It takes a good bit of trial and error, but you should be able to work up or down and see a change in the responsiveness in your quad. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
Dennis Baldwin I think I've 'cracked' it now - the props were utter rubbish. I've got the expensive 'gemfan' ones on now which has completely transformed it. I'm now getting a very smooth flight which is drifting off slightly to the right.
Hey Dennis! cool tutorials, I just got a ST360 from HK w/ a KK 2.1.5 and I am having a hassle. I followed all the steps you listed in the vids. My problem is when I disarm the quad, the motors keep spinning, very slow but wont cut off completely, what to do? Any help will be really appreciated. Thanks!
Darío Alomía Thanks for the feedback. It's really hard to say without more information. Do you mind posting more info in the forums at www.garagepilots.com? Maybe some photos of your settings as well as what steps you've gone through to get this far. I'm assuming since you can arm your quad and that it flies okay or are you just trying to arm and disarm? That type of info will be helpful so that we can make some suggestions. Good luck!
Thanks to both of you, I corrected it, but now I can get it to fly, as soon as I give it 50% throttle, it starts waggling! I tried to sync the ESCs but this quad is possessed...
wow thanks for all the help! I trying everything, now I burnt two ESCs haha, In the meantime until I get the ESCs, could you please tell me how to set the CPPM? I am running a R615x with a DX6i, thank you!!!!
Great series of videos Dennis, I was following along step by step till I tried to calibrate the esc's... I hit button 1 and 4 and the screen went blank. I didn't get the expected beeps and now the KK2 seems to only work if I turn the radio off, I have tried the factory reset but the problem persists . I would Sincerely appreciate any help you can offer. thanks man and keep up the good work.
Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately I don't have my KK anymore and it's been so long since I've touched it. Good luck and let us know what you figure out.
Hi... is 'auto level' the same as 'altitude hold'..?
Does the KK2.1.5 flight controller have any of the bells & whistles of the other controllers?
No it's actually different. Altitude hold is generally done with a barometer or GPS. Auto-level just stabilizes the aircraft and keeps it level when you let off the sticks. You may be able to do what this guy did with the MultiWii firmware although I've never done it: www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2157987 Let us know what you find out.
Could you share the hobby king PDF that you have, it is from hobby kings website
awesome video! i do have a question though. i have set everytthing the same as you. but when i take off the copter goes into a wobble and the wobble gets worse and worse till it smashes its self into the ground :( any suggestions?
Ryan Sweeney It's hard to tell but my first guess would be that your gains are too high. Try bringing them down incrementally (small steps) and then test. If that's not the case then maybe you have too much vibration that is getting back to the flight controller.