Mikrokopter New MK Firmware, 0.90




scubatech

Designer and Pilot
Yes. It works fine (same flight behavior). I liked the servo relative mode, and the SD card access. However after the upgrade i have some compass errors, and I have to find out why as i did not have them before.
 


scubatech

Designer and Pilot
No, i did not change anything. All my previous settings were entered again carefully into the new firmware, after i deleted the settings.ini file on the SD card. Yes, i did recalibrate the compass twice, but i still had compass error notifications. On the other hand, the octo still flew very nice, without any indication that something was going wrong. I have to investigate the situation further and let you know.
 

mephisto

Member
Check some Values in the telemetry:

- EarthMagnet %
- measured Inclination

maybe something went wrong while calibrating. i'd do it again..
 

scubatech

Designer and Pilot
Magnet field 123-127 always, and inclination around 61 without any serious changes...
I was very close to the sea (about 20m from the water), so there might be water masses just under my ground that might influence that.. Of course that is only a speculation and I cannot tell for sure. Any comments are mostly welcome.
 



RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
I wish we could get WK-style POI flying. That feature is extremely handy.

MK has had POI capability for a while now, I forget what firmware version it was first implemented in but it was probably a year ago if not more. If I recall correctly the current implementation is very sophisticated although typically German-engineered difficult figure out how to use it properly... ;)

I still have my original MK hexa V1 as well as a Droidworx AD6 with Mk stack and an FPV MK quad that came afterward. I'd sell any of my DJI multis before even considering selling any of the MK. I still enjoy flying the MK based multis and I know what to expect from them every time they fly, still the gold standard IMO though many others may not think so anymore.

Ken
 

Tahoe Ed

Active Member
Ken, I hope your recovery is coming along well. I have my original MK hexa V1, it was the first serious MR that I built. It was a labor of love and frustration. I have kept it up dated to v.88 firmware. I will probably do the v.90 upgrade as well. I rarely fly it as I do prefer my DJI controllers. You are right about the German engineered features and the difficulty in explaining the method in actually using them. They are much better now than 2 years ago but only marginally. Even with the translation difficulties with DJI they are still much better at trying to explain their systems. I wish MK would have a US presence like DJI USA. It could help advance their cause and promote their products. They seem to just want to cloister themselves in their own German forum and for the most part ignore the rest of the world. Just my two cents and I have several A/P Pro friends that continue to favor the MK over DJI or HF Pro.
 

scubatech

Designer and Pilot
Very interesting opinions.. and I tend to agree with both sides. The truth seems to be somewhere in the middle. As for the FW 090, i will try to calibrate the compass again again in a different location and let you know.
 

mephisto

Member
POI Waypoint flying is included in the big License of MK (NaviCtrl 2.0 + Lizenz) - same as DJI with the Wookong License. Currently it's done with the Kopter tool

At the moment a Android Tablet App is in development for comfortable in-flight programming. Also an Adapter Box wi232<->BT is in construction.

@Tahoe Ed: It is not true, that the germany want to stick among their kind.. Sure, i'm sure it's hard to read a forum, where the Main Language is not wide spread (It's prolly the same like for me, trying to dig something out of a french forum with one little english section..). But there's a bunch of people that often pickup issues of international Users, and try to guide them to solve the problem. The Wiki is multilingual, too (sure there's always a lag when new things come out). And everyone is invited to contribute to the Wiki... But I also have to admit that meanwhile there's a bunch of jelous assholish ppl, that tend to say silly things (this happens when a forum size reaches a critical mass). Don't be pissed of by them - there's always someone on the forums who try to help in english. I just opened a MK Channel for international guests. freenode/#mikrokopter.int...

so long,
meph
 

Suppose I should have been more clear when I stated that I wished MK had WK-style POI. Watch a video of the WK POI, it's far more accurate and easier to use. You can program it by flipping a switch on your transmitter, backing off 5 meters, and the chopper will automatically lock to a POI. With MK we all know you have to tell it where to point via KopterTool which is really crappy IMO.

For example, if you're flying POV and you spot something very interesting on the ground, with WK you could simply flip the switch and have it smoothly circle the POI. With MK you'd have to make sure you have the right map loaded and burn precious battery power to program it on-screen and with this you only get accuracy linked to the map and LAT/LON. WK is simple and effective. MK needs this. I could do so much with it without having to stare at a damn screen to click my POI's.

Would it be that difficult to implement this for say, 0.91?
 

MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
... I'd sell any of my DJI multis before even considering selling any of the MK. I still enjoy flying the MK based multis and I know what to expect from them every time they fly, still the gold standard IMO ...

Well I agree. Just like the majority of S800 suckers I do not like it, I do not trust it, and it has one damn problem after another - airframe and WKM. Produces excellent video with the Zenmuse though, but I just don't trust the bloody thing.

On the other hand, my Droidworx AD-8 HLE with MK stack (still on FW 0.88) is a trooper. As you say, I know what to expect every time, I have full confidence in it and it has never done anything weird. It weighs less, takes user friendly 4S battery packs and is stable and predictable. The minus point is the AV200/3X camera mount. Not exactly rubbish but pretty poor.

I dream wistfully of Mr. DJI tripping over and breaking his sodding yellow neck.
 

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
Well I agree. Just like the majority of S800 suckers I do not like it, I do not trust it, and it has one damn problem after another - airframe and WKM. Produces excellent video with the Zenmuse though, but I just don't trust the bloody thing.

On the other hand, my Droidworx AD-8 HLE with MK stack (still on FW 0.88) is a trooper. As you say, I know what to expect every time, I have full confidence in it and it has never done anything weird. It weighs less, takes user friendly 4S battery packs and is stable and predictable. The minus point is the AV200/3X camera mount. Not exactly rubbish but pretty poor.

I dream wistfully of Mr. DJI tripping over and breaking his sodding yellow neck.

I received a spam email from DJI about their worldwide video contest which I was giving a quick thought to entering when I noticed it's only open to S800/WKM/Z15 owners. I guess it wouldn't look too good for them if someone with a WKM powered Cinestar or Skyjib with Alexmos brushless gimbal bested the top dog offerings from DJI so restricting it to totally DJI platforms makes sense, for them anyway... ;)

I'll be loading the latest .90 firmware on my brushless gimbal equipped MK Hexa as soon as this little gem arrives... https://www.mikrocontroller.com/ind...id=773&zenid=4e085640356967cba45200a3e4be2a35 I have two of them currently somewhere between a Boston cargo facility and my house, tracking says out for delivery though it's starting to get late in the day for that to happen. Fingers crossed it gets here today, I'd really like to be able to test it out tomorrow and it shouldn't take more than an hour to install/update/test fly.

If this works as well as it claims to I may well be going back over to MK on the Cinestar, one of my biggest issues with MK on a platform that large is it's d**m near impossible to hold a constant altitude in our windy New England weather. What MK doesn't do on the CS is that annoying yaw twitch that the WKM does and I've never been able to fully tune out of it regardless of the settings used. There is something to be said for having a lot of parameters that can be changed to fine tune the flight characteristics (ala MKtool) as I've been finding out lately playing around with MultiWii boards of various configurations. Applying that knowledge to MK makes it far easier to get the MK to do what you want without having to resort to a Germanglish Google translation of the Wiki to get the full gist of what the functions do.

I really like the ease of use and stability of the advanced features in the DJI stuff but I do wish there was an advanced tuning mode available for people that want to be able to fine tune it to work with whatever platform they want to use it on although I suppose doing that would eat into S800 sales so it's likely we'll never see it.

I've been having great success with the little MK Hexa and RCTimer brushless gimbal, still have a little work to do but I've never been able to get this level of quality from raw video with any servo driven gimbal even with the remaining bugs that need to be worked out on the brushless setup. Once I have this one fully dialed in to where I want it I'll turn my attention to the big Cinestar with Nex 5n carrying brushless gimbal, would be nice to be able to set it up with the spare MK stack while I'm at it. :)

Here's the Hexa V1 with GoPro brushless gimbal in action last weekend...


Ken
 
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MombasaFlash

Heli's & Tele's bloke
... I wish MK would have a US presence like DJI USA. It could help advance their cause and promote their products...

Er, excuse me? ... Quadrocopter ?

Quadrocopter IS MK-USA. I forget the name of the software geek ... sorry .. 'engineer' that was originally involved on the European open source project that evolved into MikroKopter when they decided to commercialise their efforts, but he (could it be Florian?) buzzed off west to the US and was instrumental in establishing Quadrocopter - along with Firchau and Scholl.

The trouble is Quadrocopter is very dog-in-the-manger about how MK stuff works and any attempt to extract useful information is met by a polite brick wall. Remember how 'helpful' Scholl was until Droider blew a fuse and lambasted him for showing off yet another boring video but not getting involved in the forum by answering any questions about gear or setups? They're all the same over there. That little clique likes to keep it all to themselves so good luck there.
 

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
Over the weekend I installed the ACC upgrade on my Hexa F/C and upgraded the firmware to .90. Only have a couple test flights on it so far but from what I've seen it's probably the best upgrade I've ever done on an MK. The difference in altitude hold is night and day, it actually holds altitude even in fairly windy conditions and the climb and descent rate is so smooth and linear on the throttle it's like having the MK hanging from a crane that raises and lowers it in direct proportion to the movement of the throttle stick. Simply amazing difference, I actually like this better than the DJI altitude hold now, while it's not as 110% solid in altitude variation as DJI, it's a lot smoother and controllable going up and down, and best of all I can simply shut it off with the flick of a switch if I don't want to use it, unlike DJI where you can only turn it off by going to full manual mode. To go along with the MK hardware and firmware upgrades there is also a new version of the Alexmos BGC firmware and GUI that I also loaded to the RCTimer brushless GoPro gimbal on the MK, this in combination with the Mk upgrades has raised the bar yet again for stability doing video recording. The best thing about the Alexmos firmware upgrade is the ability to chage to a faster PWM rate that gets rid of that annoying motor squeal along with the ability to store 3 different configuration profiles for differrent camera setups. The profiles can then be assigned to a TX switch and swapped with a flick of the switch rather than having to hookup to a computer to do it, how much easier can it get?

Now that I've tried all of this out on the little MK, I'm about to swap the WKM on the Cinestar for the spare MK stack with BL 2.0 after I do the Acc/firmware upgrade and do the Alexmos upgrade on the Gotheli BL gimbal at the same time. If I get the same results on the big bird that I have seen so far on the little Hexa I may just have to retire the WKM as an APV controller, I'm really impressed with the recent MK improvements and I think they're close to being back on a level field with the Chinese systems. Glad I never sold off the MK systems now!
 

crcr

Member
I actually like this better than the DJI altitude hold now, while it's not as 110% solid in altitude variation as DJI, it's a lot smoother and controllable going up and down, and best of all I can simply shut it off with the flick of a switch if I don't want to use it,
So with WKM, you have to have PH and AH on at the same time? That sucks. I quite often fly with PH on and AH off.

Thats a good review Ken, thank you. Think I'll have to go ahead and order the parts.

Has anyone had issues with the FC resetting to default settings on power-up?? was just reading this thread http://www.mikrokopter.us/the-hardware/mk-fc-2-2-randomly-resetting-settings/msg43707/?topicseen#new

Craig
 

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