Holybro 11046 Mini V3 Flight Controller Installation Guide

Holybro 11046 Mini V3 Flight Controller

Product Information

• Specifications
  • Flight Controller: Holybro Kakute F7 mini
  • Integrated On-Screen Display (OSD)
• Warranty and Return Policy
  • If you believe that your Kakute F7 mini is defective, please contact us.
  • If we determine that the board is defective, it will be repaired or replaced at no charge to you. We may ask you to send your Kakute to our service center for examination or repair.
  • Shipping costs are your responsibility. Returned items should include the original packaging and all accessories.
  • If the product is damaged or defective, we will repair or replace it.
  • Refunds are only given when the product is lost by the shipping company.
  • The refund amount is limited to the price of the product. Shipping costs are never refundable.
  • Contact us at  Kakute F7 mini https://manual-hub.com/.
• Installation Guide
  • Follow the steps below to install the Kakute F7 mini in your quadcopter frame:
  • Do not completely reassemble the frame.
  • Leave the Kakute F7 accessible so that you can solder wires to it.
  • For example, leave the top plate of your frame off so that you are working only with the base plate.

FAQs

• Q: How do I update the Betaflight firmware?
  • A: Please refer to the “Updating Betaflight Firmware” section in the user manual for detailed instructions on updating the Betaflight firmware.
• Q: How do I use the OSD?
  • A: Please refer to the “Using The OSD” section in the user manual for detailed instructions on using the on-screen display (OSD).
• Q: How do I adjust PIDs / Rates / vTX from Taranis?
  • A: Please refer to the “Adjust PIDs / Rates / vTX from Taranis” section in the user manual for detailed instructions on adjusting PIDs, rates, and vTX settings using Taranis.

Overview

• The Holybro Kakute F7 mini flight controller makes it easy to build your multirotor. It integrates a flight controller (FC) and an on-screen display (OSD) in one. The Kakute F7’s layout makes it easy to wire up the other components of the multirotor while keeping the build neat.

Specifications

• MCU: STM32F722RET6 32-bit processor,216MHz, 256Kbytes RAM, 512Kbytes Flash
• IMU: MPU6000 (SPI)
• Barometer: BMP280
• USB VCP Driver (all UARTs usable simultaneously; USB does not take up a UART) 5hardware UARTS (UART1,2,3,4,6)
• Supports serial receivers (SBUS, iBus, Spektrum, Crossfire) only. PPM and PWM receivers are not supported.
• Onboard 16Mbytes for Blackbox logging
  • 5V Power Out: 1.0A max
  • 3.3V Power Out: 0.2A max
• Dimensions: 30x30mm
• Mounting Holes: Standard 20mm square to center of holes
• Weight: 4g

Warranty and Return Policy

• If you believe that your Kakute F7 mini is defective, please contact us. If we determine that the board is defective, it will be repaired or replaced at no charge to you.
• We may ask you to send your Kakute to our service center for examination or repair. Shipping costs are your responsibility. Returned items should include the original packaging and all accessories.
• If the product is damaged or defective, we will repair or replace it. Refunds are only given when the product is lost by the shipping company. The refund amount is limited to the price of the product. Shipping costs are never refundable.

Pinout Diagram

Top of board

Installation Guide

“Board Align” Feature Documentationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeuSq71pYF0.

• Before wiring up your camera and video transmitter (VTX), you must determine whether you will power them by 5v or battery voltage (vat). You must refer to the product specifications for your camera and video transmitter to determine what maximum voltage they allow. These can typically be found on the product listing page of the vendor that sells the equipment.
• If the voltage that you will use to power the copter (such as 4S or 5S) is too high for your camera or vTX, you must power them from the 5v regulator. If the voltage that you will use to power the copter is less than the maximum rated voltage of your camera and vTX, you may power them from vBat.
• Most cameras today can take up to 6S voltage safely. Many vTX can take up to 6S voltage, however, the TBS Unify Pro is one exception: it requires a 5v maximum.
• Remember that the rated load of the 5v regulator on the Kakute F7 mini is 1 amp. This means that the sum of the accessories you run from the regulator cannot exceed 1 amps. This should be enough current to run a camera, receiver, and video transmitter (even a high-powered vTX like the Unify Pro). However, if you have other 5V accessories, such as 5V LEDs, you might exceed the rated capacity of the 5V regulator. In that case, you would have to run some of the accessories from vBat, to remove load from the regulator. When accessories are run directly from vBat, they do not load the regulator.
• To recap: the sum of the current drawn by all accessories on the 5v pads must be less than 1 amps.
• Some video transmitters allow the channel, transmit power, and other such parameters to be configured remotely, through the Betaflight OSD. This means you can change channel and transmit power using your goggles and transmitter sticks, instead of pushing a button or flipping DIP switches on the vTX itself. This is a huge convenience!
• How to wire up analog RSSI to your receiverhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX_PWoLhooU.
• An alternate way to get RSSI in your OSDhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-evOAS9Mkg.
• FPV Camera Control is a feature of Betaflight that allows you to access your FPV camera’s on-screen menu using your transmitter sticks. With this feature, you can easily adjust brightness, contrast, and other camera settings in response to changing lighting conditions.
• There are two forms of Camera Control: analog and digital. Analog camera control is for cameras that use an analog-style joystick input. Digital camera control is currently reserved for some Runcam cameras. Look at the plug on the back of your camera. If you see a pin labeled “OSD” then your camera uses analog control. If you have a Runcam camera with pins labeled “RX” and “TX”, then your camera uses digital control.

Updating Betaflight Firmware

• Like all software, the software that runs your flight controller has versions. Just like Windows XP was followed by 2k, then 7, 8, and 10. The software that runs your flight controller is called Betaflight. Putting a new version of Betaflight on your Kakute F7 mini is called “flashing” your board.
• Even if you decide you don’t want to update your firmware right now, you still need to install the VCP driver to configure the board. So, you must at least go through step 1 below to use your board.

Installing Drivers

• Before you can flash your board, you must get the drivers installed on your computer. If you are on MacOS or Linux, Your O/S comes with the drivers you need pre-installed. You do not need to perform this step. You may skip directly to “Installing Betaflight Configurator”.
• If you are on Windows, you must install the drivers manually. This is a place where beginners often struggle.
• We’re going to present the steps here, and if you can follow them, then great, but many people won’t be able to follow them. If you need a more personal approach, here is a link to a video that walks you through the process in more detail.
• All About Betaflight Drivers, Including How to Install Themhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4ygG6Y5zXI.

Here are the steps you will perform:

1. Download the Virtual COM Port (VCP) driver installer from here. Unfortunately, you must either create a login or give them your email address, then wait for them to email you a link, to download the actual installer. We recommend that you create a user login because the “send you a link in an email” method sometimes takes a long time to go through.
   • a. To create a login at the STM site, first go to this URL.
   • b. Click “Create an Account”
   • c. Enter your information in the next page and click “Register”
   • d. You will receive a confirmation email. Complete the confirmation process.
   • e. Log in to the STM site using the login you just created and download the VCP driver installer from the link in step 3.
2. Run the VCP installer and let it finish.
3. Download the ImpulseRC Driver Fixer from here.
4. Run the ImpulseRC Driver Fixer. It will instruct you to plug in your flight controller.
5. Plug the Kakute F7 mini into your PC via USB. The ImpulseRC Driver Fixer should be completed successfully.

The video linked above shows a process of using Zadig to replace the VCP driver. The ImpluseRC Driver Fixer is an easier way of doing the same thing. So, use the ImpulseRC Driver Fixer, and don’t mess around with Zadig like the video shows.

Is It Over Yet?

• THAT WAS SUPER ANNOYING WASN’T IT. Yes… we know.
• The good news is, that you do not need to repeat this process. Sort of. You never need to install the drivers again on this computer, unless you reinstall the operating system for some reason. If you use another computer for the first time, you will need to install those drivers on it. Also, you may need to re-run the ImpulseRC Driver Fixer sometimes when you go to flash the board. If you try to flash the board and it fails, repeat steps 3 through 5 above.

Installing Betaflight Configurator

• Betaflight is managed using the Betaflight Configurator application, also known short as the Betaflight GUI, or just, “The GUI”. (GUI is pronounced “gooey” in case you wondered. Only weirdos say, “Gee You Eye”.) Download the Betaflight Configurator application here: https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight-configurator/releases.
• This is a standard application package for Windows, MacOS, or Linux. After you download it, install and run it the same as any other application.
• On MacOS you must give the application permission to run and access the network. The simplest way to do this is to right-click the installer and choose Open. A security prompt will appear asking, “Are you sure you want to open it?” Click Open on this prompt and the relevant configuration changes will be made automatically.

Flashing New Firmware

• At this point, if you want to update your firmware, here is how to do it. But if you just want to go fly, please, go for it! You don’t have to be running the absolute latest firmware to have a good time. Just forget about this nonsense!
• To flash your firmware, you must connect the board in “bootloader mode”. Bootloader mode means that the board is ready to accept new programming. To put the board into bootloader mode, hold down the bootloader button while plugging in the USB cable. Leave the button pressed for a moment after plugging in the USB cable to be sure it “takes”.
• If your Kakute F7 mini is in bootloader mode, then you will see “DFU” in the pulldown menu in the upper-right of the configurator, as shown here:
• If you don’t see DFU in the pulldown menu, then either the board didn’t detect that you had the bootloader button pressed or your drivers are not installed correctly. If you don’t see DFU in the pulldown menu, you cannot flash new firmware to the board. It won’t work.
• For the advanced users, a simpler way of getting into bootloader mode is to go to the CLI and type “bl”.
• This will reboot the board into bootloader mode. This is especially useful if the board is installed in a copter where it isn’t convenient to press the bootloader button. In rare cases, the “bl” command doesn’t work and you must press the bootloader button on the board.

Here are the remaining steps:

1. Go to the “Firmware Flasher” tab.
2. Select “KAKUTEF7MINI” in the “Choose a board” pulldown menu. If you flash any other board type, the Kakute F7 mini will not function. It won’t be damaged, it just won’t work until you flash KAKUTEF7MINI to the board.
3. Select the latest version of Betaflight in the “Choose a firmware version” pulldown menu.
4. Click the “Load Firmware (Online)” button. The button will change to read “Downloading”. The Flash Firmware button will change from gray to orange.
5. Click the “Flash Firmware” button. The screen should automatically scroll down to show the status bar, which will fill with orange as the flashing process completes.
6. Flashing will be followed by a process called “Verifying”. Verification sometimes fails, but this isn’t a problem. If the flash completes, everything is usually fine.
7. Unplug your board and then plug it back in again, this time without holding down the bootloader button.
8. For Windows users, the pulldown menu in the upper right of the configurator will read COM3 (or some other number). For MacOS and Linux users, the pulldown will read something starting with /dev/tty. This is normal. If the pulldown menu reads “Manual Selection” then your board is not being detected. This may indicate that you did not use the KAKUTEF7MINI target when you flashed the board. Or it may indicate that your Virtual COM Port (VCP) drivers were not installed correctly. You are ready to configure your board.

Initial Configuration

• The full configuration of Betaflight could take hours to document. In this section, we’ll describe a few things that are specific to this board.
• This won’t be enough to get you into the air, so we’ll also point you to some videos you can watch if you’re not perfectly sure what else you need to do.
• Even people who have a few builds under their belt may be skipping some important steps without realizing it!

Connect to The Board

• Plug the board into USB. Start Betaflight Configurator.
• You should see “COM3” (or some other number) in the upper-right menu. Click “Connect”.
• The GUI will load.

Ports

Click on the “Ports” tab on the left side of the window.

• The UARTs on your Kakute F7 mini are versatile; any UART can be used for any function.
• This is different from the Kakute F4, in which certain functions had to be assigned to certain UARTs.
• In the wiring instructions above, certain UARTs were suggested, such as soldering the SBUS receiver to R6.
• However, you don’t have to follow these recommendations if for some reason they don’t work for you.
• If you followed the instructions in this guide, the screenshot above shows how to configure the Ports tab.
• When you configure the Ports, keep the following guideline in mind: each UART can be used for one function only.
• Each column (Serial RX, Telemetry Output, Sensor Input, Peripherals) represents a single function.
• So each UART row should only have one function active at a time.
• If you try to enable multiple functions, the configuration may be rejected, or the results may be unpredictable.

For each function, identify which UART number you connected the peripheral to. So if you soldered your receiver signal wire to pad R3, that would be UART3. If you soldered your SmartPort telemetry wire to pad T1, that would be UART1. The number following the R or T indicates the UART number. On each row in the Ports tab, enable the one function that you connected ot the TX and/or RX pads for that UART. The most common options are below.

• USB VCP is the port that is used to talk between the Kakute F7 mini and the Configurator GUI. MSP is the protocol that they use to talk to each other. If you turn off MSP on USB VCP, you will not be able to contact the board any more via the Configurator. You will have to re-flash the board and erase your configuration to get back into it. Suffice it to say, this is bad, and you shouldn’t do it. Don’t turn off MSP on the USB VCP line in the Ports tab.
• If you are using FrSky SmartPort telemetry, in the Telemetry Output column, choose SmartPort from the pulldown menu.
• Enable “Serial RX” for the UART that you soldered the receiver signal wire to. If using an SBUS or Spektrum receiver, this will have been the RX pad only. For a Crossfire receiver, you will have used both the TX and RX pad of the same UART.
• If you are using RunCam digital camera control, in the Peripherals column, choose RunCam Device.
• If you are using ESC Telemetry, on the UART7 line, in the Sensor Input column, choose ESC. Although you can technically use any RX pad for ESC Telemetry, the R7 pads are specifically located at the corners of the board for this purpose.
• If you are using SmartAudio or ImmersionRC Tramp Telemetry to control your video transmitter: in the Peripherals column, choose either TBS SmartAudio or IRC Tramp, depending on which type of transmitter you are using.

Configuration
Click on the “Configuration” tab on the right side of the window. Scroll down to the “Other Features” section.

• If you are using any kind of telemetry (SmartPort, Crossfire, etc.), enable TELEMETRY.

• If you are using a programmable LED strip, enable LED_STRIP.

• Air Mode increases authority when the throttle is down. We recommend leaving this option on all the time.

• The Kakute F7 mini has built-in Betaflight OSD. The OSD option should always be enabled.

• If you are using ESC telemetry, enable the ESC_SENSOR option.

• The ANTI_GRAVITY option increases the stability of the copter when the throttle is raised or lowered quickly. We recommend enabling this option, and setting Anti Gravity Gain to 3.0 in the PID Tuning tab. Detailed instructions for tuning this value are outside the scope of this manual, but this default setting will work well for most quads.

• Next, go to the Receiver section of the “Configuration” tab. Since the Kakute F7 mini only supports serial-type receivers, the configuration of this section is simple.

• Set the Receiver Mode to “Serial-based receiver”.

• Set the Serial Receiver Provider to the type that matches what kind of receiver you have. FrSky and other SBUS receivers should use SBUS. Spektrum Satellite receivers should use SPEKTRUM2048 or SPEKTRUM1024 depending on whether they are DSM2 or DSMX. FlySky
  receivers use iBus. Crossfire receivers use CRSF.

• These are the most common serial receiver types that are likely to be encountered.

OSD

• In the OSD tab, you can choose which values you want to see on screen while you are flying. Enable and disable individual elements using the Elements toggles on the left.
• The Video Format section lets you choose whether your camera is NTSC or PAL.
• Betaflight defaults this value to Auto, but Auto sometimes picks wrong. If this happens, you might not see any OSD text, or the bottom of the OSD text might be off the bottom of the screen.
• In some cases, you won’t see any video at all—just the OSD. Because of this, we recommend manually setting the Video Format to NTSC or PAL depending on which type of FPV camera you have.
• You can rearrange the individual OSD elements on the screen by dragging them with your mouse in the “Preview” section of the window.

Some individual OSD Elements of note are:

• Main Batt Voltage: This is probably the single most important element to use. Your battery must never go below 3.3 volts per cell under any circumstances, or it will suffer damage.
• For a 3S battery, this would be 3 times 3.3 = 9.9 volts. For a 4S battery, it would be 13.2 volts. Any time the battery goes below this level, it is likely being damaged, at least a little. More importantly, you will have very little power and may crash if you are doing aggressive maneuvers.
• Although 3.3 volts is the recommended absolute minimum, you will get the best life out of your batteries if you keep the voltage above about 3.5 volts per cell—10.5 volts for 3S and 14.0 volts for 4S. If you are flying and you notice the battery going below this level, it might be time to land, or at least go easier on the throttle. If your batteries consistently drop to this level when you try to fly, it might be time to get new batteries.
• When you are using the battery, its voltage will drop. This is referred to as “sag”. After you land, the battery will recover a small amount and its voltage will rise.
• We recommend that the battery should be at no less than 3.75 volts per cell—11.25 volts for a 3S and 15.0 volts for a 4S—after it has been allowed to rest at the end of a flight. If your batteries are consistently resting at below this level at the end of a day of flying, then you might be shortening their lifespan at least a little.
• mAh Drawn: Although voltage is what ultimately determines whether a battery is being damaged, mAh may be a better way of deciding when to land. Because voltage sags when you raise the throttle and recovers when you lower the throttle, it can be hard to tell exactly how used-up the battery is. mAh is like a “gas gauge” for your battery. It shows how much capacity you have consumed, independent of other factors.
• A good practice is to draw from a battery no more than about 80% of its rated mAh. So, a 1300 mAh battery would be able to deliver about 1000 to 1100 mAh. With a healthy battery and an honest battery rating, this will result in the battery resting at about 15.0 volts after flying. If you draw 80% of a battery’s rated capacity and it is resting at higher than 15.0 volts, the manufacturer might have under-rated its capacity. If the battery is resting at lower than 15.0 volts, the manufacturer might have over-rated its capacity. Also, remember that batteries lose capacity as they age.
• A battery that consistently fails to deliver 80% of its rated capacity without sagging below 14.0 volts might need retirement.

Current Sensor Calibration

The current sensor in your Kakute F7 mini has been set with a nominal calibration value. However, you may be able to improve the accuracy by performing a more precise calibration. We recommend that you record the mAh used at the end of your first few flights, then compare it to the mAh that your battery charger puts back into the batteries. Then adjust the Current Scale in the Power And Battery tab to compensate for any difference.

Here is an example:

• OSD shows 1100 mAh Drawn at the end of the flight.
• The charger shows 1000 mAh put back into the battery.
• 1100 / 1000 = 1.10. The OSD is reading 10% high.
• The current Scale works backward from how you might think. To make the OSD read lower, you make the Current Scale larger. Since the OSD is reading 10% high, we need to INCREASE the Current Scale by 10%. This will cause the OSD to read 10% lower.
• If the Current Scale is at 400, we will multiply it by 1.10 to add 10%, meaning the new value should be 440.

The mAh put back in by the battery will seldom perfectly match the mAh reported by the OSD, but by taking several measurements and averaging the results, you can usually get it reasonably close.

Using The OSD

• If you are using a Betaflight Flight Controller with Betaflight OSD, you can manage the Atlatl’s transmit power and channel from within the OSD.
• The graphics above show the stick command to bring up the OSD menu.
• The stick command is: throttle centered, yaw left, pitch forward.
• The exact stick command therefore depends on which mode your transmitter sticks are in.
• In the OSD menu, use pitch up/down to move the cursor between menu items.
• When a menu option has a > symbol to the right of it, this indicates that it contains a sub-menu.
• Roll-right will enter the sub-menu. For example, on the screen to the right, moving the cursor to “Features” and then moving the roll stick to the right will enter the “Features” sub-menu.
• To manage the vTX, enter the “Features” menu. From there, enter “VTX SA” if you are using a SmartAudio device, or “VTX TR” if you are using an ImmersionRC Telemetry device.
• The screen to the right shows the current vTX settings. From here, you can change the frequency band, channel, and power level of the video transmitter.
• After making the changes, move the cursor to “Set” and press roll-right to confirm the settings.

Saving Your Configuration

Once you have finished building, configuring, and tuning your multirotor, it’s a good idea to back up your configuration so that you can restore it later. This is useful if you lose your quad, you damage your flight controller, or if you accidentally lock yourself out of your flight controller and must reset it to get back in. Before we show you the right way to save and restore your configuration, let us warn you about the wrong way. Betaflight and Cleanflight have a “save configuration” and “restore configuration” button. Without going into too much detail, they have some significant drawbacks that mean we don’t recommend that you use them.

The correct way to save your configuration is as follows.

1. Connect your Kakute to your PC by plugging in USB.
2. Start the Betaflight GUI app.
3. Go to the CLI tab.
4. In the text box at the bottom of the CLI, type “diff all” and hit enter. This will cause the flight controller to display all configuration options that you have changed from the default values.
5. In the lower-right corner of the configurator, click the “Save to File” button.
6. Save the file somewhere you won’t lose it.

To restore your configuration, do this:

1. Open the text file in your text editor.
2. Highlight the entire contents of the file.
3. Right-click in the text editor window and choose “Copy”.
4. Connect your Kakute to your PC by plugging in USB.
5. Start the Betaflight GUI app.
6. Go to the CLI tab.
7. Click the mouse once in the text box at the bottom of the CLI tab to place the cursor there.
8. Instead of typing any commands, right-click in the text box and choose “Paste”.
9. Press the Enter key on your keyboard. The pasted-in text will rapidly scroll past.
10. Type “save” in the text box at the bottom of the screen.
11. Press Enter. The flight controller will reboot and the configuration will be restored.

Additional Reference

Here are some links to additional videos to help you build your quadcopter successfully.

• Betaflight 3.3 Ultimate Setup Guide
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vJCrHj9s6s.
• How to Calibrate Your ESCs
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Mg-9M0l24.

If you are using an analog protocol like Oneshot or Multishot, calibrating your ESCs is mandatory. Most ESCs today support Dshot. If your ESCs support Dshot, you should use it, and you can skip this step.

• Failsafe
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dikr9oDzQqc.
• Failsafe is what happens when you fly too far away or your receiver gets disconnected from your flight controller. If you don’t configure a failsafe, the quad could fly away, or it could crash into something… or someone.
• DON’T FLY WITHOUT VERIFYING THAT FAILSAFE WORKS CORRECTLY.
• To verify the failsafe, remove your props, then plug in your battery and arm your copter.
• Then turn off your transmitter.
• Your motors should stop within 1 to 3 seconds at most.
• If your motors don’t stop when you turn off your transmitter, DO NOT FLY YOUR MULTIROTOR UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

Adjust PIDs / Rates / vTX from Taranis

If you have a FrSky Taranis radio and if you are using telemetry (such as SmartPort, FPort, or Crossfire), you can use your Taranis to change your PIDs and rates.

This is done by installing a piece of programming code called a Lua script on your Taranis. If you are also using SmartAudio, you can use a Lua script to change your vTX settings. This is the same as if you were using the Betaflight OSD, but it works without you having to put your goggles on.

Detailed instructions for how to do this are below:

How to Upgrade Taranis to OpenTX 2.2 and Install Lua Scriptshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist? list=PLwoDb7WF6c8kLrGADjuxJUm5M2szXd_j8

References

• Releases · betaflight/betaflight-configurator · GitHub
• impulserc.blob.core.windows.net/utilities/ImpulseRC_Driver_Fixer.exe
• Manual-Hub.com – Free PDF manuals!

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