Yesterday was "let's be unfair to the DJI Wookong WKM day!" here at Build Your Own Drone, I've had a growing number of people asking just how good the WKM Flight Controller from DJI Wookong is, & how much setting up is needed to get the "outstanding flights" seen in the other videos I've posted here, I hope that this video might help show / answer just how easy it's to start with the stock settings straight from the box with the Wookong WKM, and then build on this with some PID tuning and taking a little care while building!
The test was done using a F450 Flame wheel with a DJI Wookong WKM running on the 5.02 firmware. The motors were 880Kv with 10" props between rain and hail storms rolling through!
So how did we make this an "unfair" to the WKM day, very easily, pay next to no attention on the details during the build, don't check for the CoG, use a few cable ties to hold "items" in place, take no time to build / don't adjust any PID settings from the box, don't balance a single prop, don't replace the prop adaptor which is running off centre and causing a ton of vibrations (this bonus was only seen after the first test flight), use the cheapest props you can get! Then go fly it on a bad weather day, you will see at the end of the video another rain storm starting, so I have to bring the Flame Wheel and WKM down real quick!
In summary, the WKM & F450 Flame wheel was put together with very little care or attention to detail, and I would say that this falls into what I could call a very, very "amateur" build, I was very keen to show just what the WKM can do even when you don't try!
I had to film and "fly" ("watch" would be a better term to use here than "fly") the F450 Flame Wheel & WKM combo yesterday, so the video is not that stable like the others, so sorry for the shakes and the odd cut where I have panned the camera, which did not look great!
I hope you enjoy watching the DJI Wookong WKM & F450 Flame wheel video!
Regards
Martin
Comments
Jason: so now we're talking about performance, not features? Okay, fair enough. Open source platforms, by virtue of the dizzying variety of hardware, airframes and software options they have to support, do tend to be more variable in performance and often require more tuning (although we're working on minimizing that-- stay tuned). And although I did post the link to reliable fully-autonomous performance with ArduCopter 2.4.5, I will certainly concede that different platforms and settings can give different results -- although asking for perfect autonomy "that works all the time for everyone" on any platform is a high bar!
If I could afford a full-featured Wookong, I'd certainly buy one to see if it can do that on all platforms, but sadly I can't ;-)
Jarvis, a little off topic, but from your logs, seems to me like you need to lower your stab Ps by about 0.25 or 0.50 to see if you get more control. What value are you using? Basically software is not doing much stabilization. It's pretty much just responding to your inputs. More analysis at the 2.5.3 discussion.
[EDIT]
So, from reading that discussion thread, that the logs in question doesn't include the flip. You had a total FC failure. Some kind of power failure or brown out?
Jason, could you link to your pricing source? I'm not quite following the math. The DJI site shows much higher prices for equivalent technology (unlimited waypoints, scripted missions, etc--ie, Mikrokopter/ArduCopter-style UAVs).
John, have you really run the Wookong enough to guarantee that the copter will not fall from the sky for no reason? From my experience it's usually not a flight controller failing that causes such crashes. It's usually a loss of motor or other propulsion part. If you put a Wookong on a $50 frame with $8 motors and escs, that's not going to help.
The good thing about AC is that if such a mishap occurs, I can look at logs, and look bugs in the code. With the Wookong, I'll just cry to myself if my $10k gimbal and camera crashes to the ground. Don't expect to post a mess in "Rants and Raves" and expect anyone to respond.
Jason: Here's ArduCopter doing waypoints with 2.4.5.
I don't think it's meaningful to compare RC quads with fully- autonomous-capable UAVs-- they have have different target markets and the autonomous vehicles have much more complex hardware/software. A better comparison would be with the DJI Wookong, which is $3,400 just for the controller with telemetry. (APM 2 + telemetry, offering essentially identical features, is less than 1/10th the price at $274)
The DJI WKM is very expensive for a hobbyist, but that is not the marked they are aiming at. When you have $10K++ worth of photo equipment up in the air, not falling out of the sky suddenly is much more important then saving a couple of hundred dollars and supporting open source/hardware. But as I said. Totally different marked from the DIY community. And besides, DIY is slowly getting there.
DJI frames are easy to mass produce, so they have a price advantage there.
You can actually get a non-banded DJI Hexa frame with motors and esc for $199(USD £124) at rctimer.
I have changed my Xaircraft electronics to DJI WKM an all I can say is WOW ! worked out of the box ,super stable and easy to use, gps position hold rock solid. Using AKE esc and stock Xaircraft motors. If you can muster the cash you will not regret it. Boomshanka
Huh?! A full hexa kit, including controller and vat is only £606.00, That only works out to $967.75, The DJI Wookong controller alone is more than that. Add the frame kit for another $200.
The thing that's really "unfair" is that I can't afford one.
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