HolyBro Kakute F4 AIO - the new best betaflight F4 FC?

Recently holybro released there latest FPV flight controller, the Kakute F4. Just about everyone is making their own flight controllers nowadays, but why did I (and why should you) pay any attention to this one? Well I will explain below.

At this point I have not fully tested this FC, so I am taking what holybro are saying at face value, and assuming what they say is true, this is why this FC will be great

https://youtu.be/Bhw9O-CzWZs

What makes the Kakute F4 Special?

  • It has a vibration isolated IMU the ICM20689 connected via SPI which lets you run at a full 32Khz update rate without worrying about vibrations (on paper for now at least)
  • It checks the boxes of what to look for in a modern FC It has a F4 MCU to cope with a 32Khz PID looptime, it has a betaflight OSD (direct configuration via betaflight GUI), it has built in PDB rated to 120A, It has a 1.2A 5V Bec powerful enough to power your receiver, camera and VTX, and a 12V bec for LED’s
  • It has a very well written manual not exactly the firs tthing you look for, but the kakute F4 manual is well written and explains everything clearly.
  • It is not overpriced no official word on pricing, but we are looking at about $40, or £35, so for a fully integrated FC with PDB, its not bad at all.

We have a bunch on the way, so once I get my hands on this FC I will do a proper review, but for those who dont want to wait, here is where you can buy it so far

Where to buy

Key Features

  • Supports Betaflight and Cleanflight with official target KakuteF4.
  • Betaflight OSD. Change PIDs, adjust common configuration parameters, and change video transmitter channel and power level, all using your transmitter sticks and goggles.
  • Soft-mounting built in. The IMU (“gyro”) chip on this board is mounted on vibration-isolating foam. This means that there is no need to soft-mount the board itself.
  • New high-performance / low-noise / high sensitivity IMU. ICM20689 with 6-axis gyro and accelerometer. Can run at up to 32 kHz.
  • 2 oz. copper PCB allows up to 120A maximum continuous current.
  • Dedicated bootloader button for easy firmware flashing.
  • Low-profile design fits into even very compact frames.
  • Input voltage 7v to 42v. Power the board directly from the flight pack, up to 6S (on “BAT” pad only).
  • Automatic voltage monitoring. No need to run a separate vBat wire for voltage monitoring; the Kakute F4 AIO monitors voltage directly from the battery power lead.
  • Filtered voltage output for clean, noise-free video. On-board regulators output 5v at up to 1.5 amps and 3.3v at up to 200 mA to power peripherals such as receiver, video transmitter, FPV camera, or LED strip.
  • Supports BLHeli pass-through for easy ESC upgrade and configuration.


Specifications:

  • MCU: STM32F405RGT6 32-bit processor
  • IMU: ICM20689 (SPI)
  • USB VCP Driver (all UARTs usable simultaneously; USB does not take up a UART)
  • 3 hardware UARTS (UART1,3,6)
  • 128 Mbit Dataflash chip for Blackbox logging
  • Dimensions: 35x43x7mm (includes USB in height)
  • Mounting Holes: Standard 30.5mm square to center of holes
  • Weight: 7g
3 Likes

According to the INVENSENSE ICM20689 datasheet: The ADC sample rate is
programmable from 8,000 samples per second. Where are you seeing 32khz update rates???

think you have to turn overclocking on (at your own peral) in the CLI command, you can then use 32k

That is for the STM32, not the IMU. Thanks though.