Naze32 Fun Fly - First Impressions

[Hands0n]

Courtesy of @philtrum I acquired a Naze 32 Fun Fly (Full) flight controller from his website, here:

First impression on unpacking it was "Gosh! its minute!)  Here it is alongside a KK2 to give you some idea of how small it is.

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I intended to use my Mac to configure the Naze with - the actual software - Baseflight GUI - is a java app that runs in Google Chrome as a browser app (not extension) and so is truly multi-platform.  So the Baseflight GUI software is available on the Google Chrome Web Store here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/baseflight-configurator/mppkgnedeapfejgfimkdoninnofofigk?utm_source=chrome-app-launcher

However, you will need to grab a set of SILabs drivers to connect via USB to the flight controller. That is not made too clear in any documentation I';ve seen to date, but a Google search produced the answer

Here is a link to the driver page:
http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx

Here is a direct link to the OSX driver:
http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/Software/Mac_OSX_VCP_Driver.zip

Just download the OSX driver, unzip, and then run the installer that is inside the DMG.

If you experience any problem connecting it may be you need to run a small command to associate the USB port with the SLI drivers.  So do this :  sudo ln -s /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART /dev/tty.usbserial

I dropped that into a file on the home directory, called it baseflight.sh and used the command "chmod 777 baseflight.sh" to make it runnable by either typing in the Terminal window or double click from within Finder.

Other stuff:
The barometer is incredibly accurate. Place the FC on the floor and the Raw Sensor Data tab shows it at ground level. Raise it to head height and it showed 2.x meters altitude (I';m 6';2").

Compass, Gyros and Accs are lightning quick, responding to every twitch and movement which is probably why it reportedly flies so very accurately.

The board shows great promise already. I need to check to get the latest flight software on it once I';ve soldered the headers on.  Then get it mounted into something and see it fly f';real

How have you found yours?

[Soul]

Maidened mine on the v-tail today (though I';ve only got the cutdown Acro version). Very impressed so far. Seemed very stable and in Horizon mode I could really bank it over while still having autolevel when I needed it.

I like how I';ve got Arming on a proper Tx switch compared to the stick movement of the KK. Seems less prone to error.

I need to do some PID tuning still but so far I think it';s a great FC for the money

[dockman]

I also received my full naze32 from philtrum from his site Makeitbuildit.

Hands0n pretty much sums it up, great little board and once you get the software figured out easy to setup. 

I am looking forward to getting this on the Y6. 

[shazzy]

Just ordered mine! Is there some sort if 3d case that can protect the board and cover the baro?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[dp106]

How easy is it set up for someone who';s never touched a multiwii board?  Although it looks like I';m too late anyway as showing as out of stock now.

[tony]

nice work guys I';m watching with intest any setup walk thoughts setting up this board and flight vids would be great 

[Hands0n]

How easy is it set up for someone who';s never touched a multiwii board?  Although it looks like I';m too late anyway as showing as out of stock now.

I';ve done MultiWii and have to say that the Baseflight GUI seems to make life a whole lot easier than even MultiWii Win GUI ever did.  But what I particularly like, with the new Baseflight flight controller software all of the configuration that was previously done by configuring and recompiling Arduino files is now done in the Baseflight GUI using a simple set of commands.  The config.h file is no more! And that has to be a very good thing indeed - it seems to have caused a whole lot of trouble for those who don';t normally code.

[MrBen]

got mine over a week ago, instantly fell in love and now got bluetooth working, also ordered a couple more for other projects, I removed a kk2.0 from my QAV400 for this and prior to that I had a real hard time trying to get a cc3d working well.

[Pauluk]

Got my naze 32 today,after the initial breakout cable confusion  ,i made a custom cable and within a couple of minutes got her up and hovering.

Baseflight is so easy.

Need to try and get bluetooth working next,cant wait to use my phone to tune this thing.

Love this board.

[Biffa]

Wondering whether my mini H needs one of these

[Pauluk]

Wondering whether my mini H needs one of these

I think you allready know the answer

[guest325]

Wondering whether my mini H needs one of these

Don';t be silly, you know it does       

[Biffa]

Yes you';re both right no doubt. But I am loathed to start plugging in USBs and stuff. I';m such a lazy flyer

The KK2.0 is sooo easy to set up and fly - decisions decisions 

[Hands0n]

Yes you';re both right no doubt. But I am loathed to start plugging in USBs and stuff. I';m such a lazy flyer

The KK2.0 is sooo easy to set up and fly - decisions decisions 

You';ll not look back to the KK2 once you jump to Baseflight.  I';m basing that statement on my own experience of coming from KK2 to MultiWii from which Baseflight has been derived. Then just ten minutes with Baseflight GUI today has convinced me beyond any shadow of doubt that the Naze 32 is a massive enhancement on the older hardware!

Get Bluetooth going, link to your Android phone (of course you have one) and you';re in a much better position than even with the KK2';s four buttons for in-the-field adjustments.

[Biffa]

OK, I think I';m sold

[philtrum]

Glad you like them

I still got a few acro ones in stock, looks like I';m going to have to order some more full Naze32 board
they really are nice to fly

Cheers
Phil

[barneyg]

The fact you dont have to recompile to change, for example, between quad x and quad + or any thing else for that matter makes it much more user friendly. 

The baro info is interesting since it usesnthe same baro as the crius aiop v2 I have ... and my baro data sucks :)

There are some shortcommings ... you can do either GPS or SBus but not both since they use the same pins and the same is true of bluetooth or the 3dr telemetry modules and an osd since they use the same pins too.

On the plus side you get a voltage divider built in and a dedicared frsky telemetry port (but I dont think it does the new sport yet)

[Biffa]

Got one ordered, soon to be a member of the Naze club...

It better be easy to use

[shazzy]

Glad you like them

I still got a few acro ones in stock, looks like I';m going to have to order some more full Naze32 board
they really are nice to fly

Cheers
Phil

Phil you should sell a 3d printed case to complete the look! 

[Soul]

I was wondering about a case for them as well. Not entirely sure I';ve got room for one though

[Hands0n]

It better be easy to use

It is mate, and if for any reason you get stuck there';s plenty of good advice on tap.  PID adjustment is the only thing to really spend some time on. But if you';ve sorted out a KK2 then it';ll be a breeze on the Naze32

What has got me particularly excited with the Naze32 is the jump to 32-bit ARM processors. These things are absolutely stonkingly powerful and even at the relatively low clock speeds of the Naze32 (STM32F103CxT6 CPU (32bit ARM Cortex M3, 72MHz, 64K/128K flash) can process massive amounts of information compared to the ATmega32U4 8bit core of the MultiWii generation of boards we';ve had to date.

[guest325]

It is mate, and if for any reason you get stuck there';s plenty of good advice on tap.  PID adjustment is the only thing to really spend some time on. But if you';ve sorted out a KK2 then it';ll be a breeze on the naze.

I';ll know who to ask about it when I get stuck then!!!

[Soul]

Looks more complicated to me on the Naze. On the KK there';s just PI to play with. Naze has PID and a bunch of other stuff I';ve no clue about

[Hands0n]

Looks more complicated to me on the Naze. On the KK there';s just PI to play with. Naze has PID and a bunch of other stuff I';ve no clue about

It is slightly so - I and D are fairly easy to come to terms with. There';s lots of conflicting advice on PID set up but it isn';t that hard.  And the advice pinned at the top of this part of forum is pretty much spot on. Start with the defaults which may work well enough.

[atomiclama]

What has got me particularly excited with the Naze32 is the jump to 32-bit ARM processors. These things are absolutely stonkingly powerful and even at the relatively low clock speeds of the Naze32 (STM32F103CxT6 CPU (32bit ARM Cortex M3, 72MHz, 64K/128K flash) can process massive amounts of information compared to the ATmega32U4 8bit core of the MultiWii generation of boards we';ve had to date.

That';s nowt compared to the next step up in the STM32 range that I';m startin to work on.
150MHz + clock FPU and more peripherals than you can shake  a stick at.  ::)

[philtrum]

Phil you should sell a 3d printed case to complete the look! 

Im on it

Cheers
Phil

[Soul]

It is slightly so - I and D are fairly easy to come to terms with. There';s lots of conflicting advice on PID set up but it isn';t that hard.  And the advice pinned at the top of this part of forum is pretty much spot on. Start with the defaults which may work well enough.

Hey mate. Apologies if I';m missing something but none of the stickies in this subforum relate to PID tuning on a multiwii/naze. Which one did you mean?

[Hands0n]

Hey mate. Apologies if I';m missing something but none of the stickies in this subforum relate to PID tuning on a multiwii/naze. Which one did you mean?

Okay, I';m obviously losing the plot tonight    I would have laid money there was a PID tuning guide in this section!

A good resource is the official MultiWii PID tuning guide here: http://www.multiwii.com/wiki/index.php?title=PID   Pay attention to the early advice about vibrations.

[Soul]

Okay, I';m obviously losing the plot tonight    I would have laid money there was a PID tuning guide in this section!

A good resource is the official MultiWii PID tuning guide here: http://www.multiwii.com/wiki/index.php?title=PID   Pay attention to the early advice about vibrations.

Awesome thanks mate!

[Hands0n]

Some more brainfood written by another individual new to Naze32 - some interesting snippets in there

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1653753