DJI Flight Controller - pricey but impressive
- Thread starter mbsteed
- Start date
I'm still a little foggy on this, for $1400 they provide the hardware for you to have MK quality flight control and you just have to buy CheeSC's and build a power harness for them?
What brand of CheeSC's do they recommend?
Is that what the excitement is about?
So let's put this in perspective, a complete MK stack with 6 BL 2.0 will cost $1328.68 at MK.US, right now the DJI unit can be had for $1200 until the end of September. Add in say 6 Turnigy Plush ESC for $20 each and we have $1320 or pretty much the same price as the MK hardware. From what I've seen on videos and heard from people I know and trust that were at IRCHA and actually flew one of these, they are as good if not better than any MK now flying and they have great customer support.
If all of this is true, and I believe it is, and the units that will be delivered to customers in the next couple of weeks perform to the level they're being hyped up to then MK finally has real competition for about the same $ and you won't be locked into expensive proprietary motor controllers, what's not to like about that?
Granted the DJI doesn't have all the bells and whistles that MK does at the moment but to be honest I don't use a lot of it myself though it is nice to have. They certainly have the ability to do it, their heli gear has all the same goodies available that you get with MK although at a fairly steep price from DJI. Bottom line is they have already proven they can do it, its just a matter of how much $ they'll want for those features added to the multirotor version for those that really want it. The best part is if you do spring the $ for the ground station and waypoint capability, you won't be limited to 250 meters from the takeoff point, their current system goes well beyond line of sight.
So as much as I like both of my MK Hexas, I'm willing to pay the $ and see if DJI is for real or not. I'm betting on it being the real deal and quite possibly the platform that puts MK in second place at the top of the ladder. If not, I still have 2 well tuned MK Hexa that will get the job done and someone will get a heck of a deal on what will be the next best thing to MK.
Ken
I don't have it yet. The units are not in the country yet. I am going to get on the list. Hope to have it some time in the next month.
Emowillcox
Member
Wow ... Micro... if I remember reading your early post .. your pretty new to this stuff and RC flying.. right? Looks like your diving right into the top... I wish you luck that will be some nice gear. Do you have any multicopters your flying now?
MombasaFlash
Heli's & Tele's bloke
I really don't see the point of installing DJI on a multi-rotor. It was brought to market to reduce pilot fatigue on single-rotor heli's - something that multi-rotors do by default - and waypoint programming WILL be a part of the DJI setup.
I use CARVEC on a large gasser in order to have 'a buddy pilot' sitting next to me and to be able to park it at distance. The week's experience I have had of the MK Octo shows that it does pretty much the same thing, with the addition of RTB and CareFree.
EDIT: Duh! Oh I get it. Use DJI instead of MK boards.
I use CARVEC on a large gasser in order to have 'a buddy pilot' sitting next to me and to be able to park it at distance. The week's experience I have had of the MK Octo shows that it does pretty much the same thing, with the addition of RTB and CareFree.
EDIT: Duh! Oh I get it. Use DJI instead of MK boards.
Last edited by a moderator:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19086006&postcount=228 offer has been extended to the end of September.
Ken
Emowillcox
Member
Hey Ken did you hear anything about those guys selling their system with a frame? Just wondering about some one stop shopping?
Also been watching your Y 6 build and thought I remembered your planning to put this dji system on their. Are you going to use that set up for video and stills?
Also been watching your Y 6 build and thought I remembered your planning to put this dji system on their. Are you going to use that set up for video and stills?
Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
Mike will you please spend some of that money you've been making all summer already!!
Everybody join me in helping Mike to pull out his credit card...
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BorisS
Drone Enthusiast
okay i going to take the jump and also order one WK-M plattform. Just cant figure out the discount thing, took the ordering process till the end but only get a 1400 something price.
on http://www.djiusa.com/how-to-order/
wrote them a mail lets see what comes back !
on http://www.djiusa.com/how-to-order/
wrote them a mail lets see what comes back !
Emo, I am totally new to the r/c world but I have been involved with photography for over 25 years. Most of my camera equipment will not work for what I want to use the Hexa for because it is mostly medium format cameras, Hasselblad. The last couple of years I have kind of not done a lot of photography because I got bored with it, other than for personal use. I do have some Nikon film and Canon digital equipment but if I get into this, I am looking at the 5D or 7D.
About 1 1/2 years ago, I was looking thru some videos on Youtube and on the side was a preview of a video of the Hexakopter and I got really interested in them. I spent a couple of days searching for any info I could get about them. I had some other things going on, so I put it on the back burner but I never forgot about them. A couple of months ago I decided to check them out again and so here we are.
You have to get a coupon from Robert to get the discount. He said to email and he would send you a coupon.
BorisS
Drone Enthusiast
What do they mean with:
Supported ESC output: 200Hz refresh frequency,
Would normal ESCs Like: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=9130 *High performance microprocessor (24khz) work. Or are they referring to something completely different ?
Ken which ESCs are you planning on using ?
Thanks
Boris
Supported ESC output: 200Hz refresh frequency,
Would normal ESCs Like: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=9130 *High performance microprocessor (24khz) work. Or are they referring to something completely different ?
Ken which ESCs are you planning on using ?
Thanks
Boris
What it means is an ESC takes a 200 Hz PWM input signal where the pulse width varies from 1 ms to 2 ms. A 1 ms width pulse at 200 Hz means the motor is off, increase the pulse width to 1.5 ms and the motor runs at half speed, increase to 2.0 ms and the motor runs at full speed, that is basically how an ESC controls motor speed. Of course there are other steps between those points and the number of steps an ESC recognizes is dependent on the design and programming, cheap ESCs have fewer steps and less resolution in the throttle control.
Many decent or more recently designed speed controllers are capable of running at 400Hz while still being able to maintain the 2 ms pulse window, so what DJI has done is build their controller to be compatible with the widest range of speed controllers currently in use as the newer units that can run at 400Hz will also work at 200 but not the other way around. The ESC you linked to will most likely work fine but is really overkill for a multirotor, you would need really big motors with large props lifting a LOT of weight to even begin to approach the rating those are capable of, not to mention they're $70 each.
The Y6 I will be putting the DJI on is using Avroto 2814 motors and DYS 30 amp ESCs. I'll probably will go with APC 11 x 4.7 props and I have a set of 12 x 3.8 on hand as well, I'd like to see if it works with both sizes as both of the other flight controllers I tried were very sensitive to prop size and pitch. I've already flown it with a Hoverfly Pro board and at the moment it has an Mk electronics stack with an I2C converter on it while I get the frame and camera mount fully setup and ready for the DJI, both have had some degree of wobble to it that was greatly reduced by changing props. In the case of the Hoverfly there really isn't much else you can do to tune it besides change the gain settings on the board and no amount of changes made the wobble go away so it got replaced with the MK. The Mk doesn't do PWM so I had to use a converter and its not quite the same as the I2C BL controllers but the board is tuneable enough to be able to smooth out the wobbles by changing the settings in MKtool. The Mk board by the way runs the I2C bus at 500Hz so the BL controllers can react faster than PWM ESCs and that's one of the reasons why the Mk is more stable than just about anything else and also why the Mk board doesn't work as well using an I2C converter and PWM ESCs.
Ken
BorisS
Drone Enthusiast
Hi Ken, thanks for the explanation !!!,
Just ordered the WK-M
I actually wanted to go straight forward and us the WK-M with my 900m Hexa Rc-Carbon Frame, and give the setup some HL motors 2820 Axis. Same thing i would have done if i would have used MK boards. Maybe a little bit of an overkill and than straight away on a no platform.
At the end of your last paragraph you sound not to convinced that the DJI will meet the performance of MK boards, or did I interpret you wrong, due to the standard PWM ESCs that could be the weak link.
Boris
Just ordered the WK-M
I actually wanted to go straight forward and us the WK-M with my 900m Hexa Rc-Carbon Frame, and give the setup some HL motors 2820 Axis. Same thing i would have done if i would have used MK boards. Maybe a little bit of an overkill and than straight away on a no platform.
At the end of your last paragraph you sound not to convinced that the DJI will meet the performance of MK boards, or did I interpret you wrong, due to the standard PWM ESCs that could be the weak link.
Boris
Looks like an interesting product, even if the manual is written in Chinglish. But at that price I wouldn't call it a game changer. Looking at the configuration options laid out in the manual, the controller seems highly dedicated to stable, leisurely flight - i.e good for AP but no loop-the-looping on Sundays. I'm slightly concerned at the gimbal image they show: it has roll inside tilt - I hope/assume that's not a "requirement" (since that kind of gimbal will experience "gimbal lock" when pointed straight down at the ground).
As has been pointed out, the price looks less scary when compared to a full MK stack - but it's still scary! I fully expect OpenPilot to trounce it soundly with the forthcoming Pro/INS, on features as well as price.
@Boris: there's nothing wrong with over-speccing components like ESCs - in fact, you can expect them to be more reliable if you run them at less than their their rated capacity. A potential issue with the particulkar one you pointed to is that it is minimum 5S - which means you'd need some VERY low kV motors to spin big-lift blades at less than supersonic speeds.
As has been pointed out, the price looks less scary when compared to a full MK stack - but it's still scary! I fully expect OpenPilot to trounce it soundly with the forthcoming Pro/INS, on features as well as price.
@Boris: there's nothing wrong with over-speccing components like ESCs - in fact, you can expect them to be more reliable if you run them at less than their their rated capacity. A potential issue with the particulkar one you pointed to is that it is minimum 5S - which means you'd need some VERY low kV motors to spin big-lift blades at less than supersonic speeds.
Hi Ken, thanks for the explanation !!!,
Just ordered the WK-M
I actually wanted to go straight forward and us the WK-M with my 900m Hexa Rc-Carbon Frame, and give the setup some HL motors 2820 Axis. Same thing i would have done if i would have used MK boards. Maybe a little bit of an overkill and than straight away on a no platform.
At the end of your last paragraph you sound not to convinced that the DJI will meet the performance of MK boards, or did I interpret you wrong, due to the standard PWM ESCs that could be the weak link.
Boris
Lets just say the DJI has a steep hill to climb to get to the top, there's a reason why MK uses I2C BL controllers and its not so they can charge a lot more $ for their own product...
Still, I believe it is possible to meet and perhaps even exceed MK performance levels using standard ESCs as long as the hardware and software were designed properly, I've put up the $ and now I'm waiting to see if it can or not.
Earlier today I had my Droidworx MK Hexa out in the gusty wind we're having before the hurricane gets here, it flew amazingly well in conditions that I absolutely could not have flown the Y6 with Hoverfly board in. Not only did it fly well but I was also able to park it about 20 meters straight up in GPS position hold and altitude hold and it easily stayed within a couple meters of the point I set the GPS at in what were 12 to 18 mph winds and it barely moved at all vertically. Later I took the Y6, now with Mk boards, out in the same conditons, it performed well and was safely flyable but no where near as steady and stable as the full Mk electronics were in the Droidworx Hexa, but keep in mind the Mk flight controller was never intended to be used with PWM ESCs so I don't expect the same level of performance it would have with all MK parts. This is partly experiment, partly necessity to be able to fly the Y6 and get the AV130 setup under it in preparation for the DJI, the Hoverfly board just wasn't up to the job.
Ken