Battle of the flight controllers: FETtec Alpha vs Betaflight 4.4

[@williamlosch]

4.4 leaves me speechless. I've got a quad on 4.2 that is ol reliable but I cannot get over the qualities that 4.4 brings. (thanks - loved the vid btw)

[@Nathan_Adams]

Thank you. 4.4 is a revolution and how betaflight of flies and really brings in line with kiss/fettech

[@k4x4map46]

great comments...curious about FETTec "kiss ultra"

[@Nathan_Adams]

I actually was flying stock betaflight rates when I did the test. 😂 I now fly rates very similar to the stock rates on Fettec Alpha. It will be interesting if you see/feel a difference. Which Fettec ESC are you going to use? And Just a heads up, to go completely blind make sure you have ear plugs in because the start-up tones give away which is which.

[@k4x4map46]

@@Nathan_Adams not sure which esc. Actually prefer to use an AIO FC but seemingly the ultra (and mini V2) are standalone FC's?. Oh and copy that on the startup tones! Thanks!

[@Nathan_Adams]

@@k4x4map46 that would be interesting to go AIO to AIO. I love my AIOs in sub 250 builds, but i tend to be hard on my 5-inch drones and go through ESCs, so I have avoided them on those builds.

[@k4x4map46]

@@Nathan_Adams copy that. my test bed is a Quadmovr frame (CP2 I believe) 3 each cut by Armattan Productions. Size 2004 motors just bare bones test bed!!

[@WKfpv]

I've been saying I will give betaflight a try after many many year flying kiss and now fettec. But as you said this is what I am used to, so switching or even trying fells hard. I will say you maybe feeling the fettec less punchy if you are using sinusoidal conversation instead of trapezoidal in that esc. Again I am used to it so I use sinusoidal on all my quads.

[@Nathan_Adams]

I have since this video gone to Mr Steele and phantomfpv and they gave me some tips and now both fly amazing. They are so similar now that I am 100 percent sure If I had no OSD and did not hear the start-up sounds, I couldn't tell. Both are fantastic. Good shout on the sinusoidal, that was one of the changes I made when tuning.

[@maurozanoni4793]

Hi, I wanted to ask you if you can help me, I purchased an FC Fettec G4 V1.7, I assembled a new drone but I can't fly it. I installed the Alpha firmware, when I touch the accelerator it starts at full throttle, I've done a lot of tests but I can't get it right. You can help me.

[@Nathan_Adams]

I don't have a ton of experience trouble shooting Fettec, but I can give it a whirl. I need to know a bit more about your setup. What controller are you using? And what control link are you using? What ESC are you using? And is this your first drone? Or have you bound and flew other drones with your controller?

[@maurozanoni4793]

thanks for the quick answer Nathan. As a controller I am using the Taranis X9D with the 2 watt Crossfiire module. As 45A T-Motor 4in1 ESC. I've made about 10 drones with Betafligt and Kiss, I've been flying for about 5 years and I've never seen a problem like this, but I think it's a firmware problem. I await your reply. Hi Nathan Mauro.@@Nathan_Adams

[@Nathan_Adams]

I think your intuition about the firmware seems spot on, have you tried reflashing the firmware on both the ESC and Flight controller

[@maurozanoni4793]

Hi Adamas, I managed to solve my problem, now I'll tell you. I went to SETTING+ESC MOTOR then PROPELLER ROTATION DIRECTION (YAW) I put IN instead of OUT and everything was fine. Now I have to find the balance of the drone with the PIDs. Thank you Adam for your courtesy and I wish you much fun with the drone. Hi Mauro.@@Nathan_Adams

[@Nathan_Adams]

@@maurozanoni4793 No problem and glad you got your issue fixed. I have done the same thing. the worst was with a diatone flight stack that had the screen printing for the arrow that points forward was wrong by 90 degrees. It took me ages to figure out that my board orientation was "wrong".

[@lameandboard]

Fly fettek kiss... crunked golden tune....it just flys so nice... still need to tune my betaflight quad again

[@Nathan_Adams]

That was actually installing kiss on that quad tonight while my son was settling down for bed

[@ogpennywise]

I agree, minus anything to do with the jackass Krunked

[@MANDOXsquid]

fettec alpha is rough to fly and tune, I never had a good time with it. Try Kiss FW on fettec FC, thats not bad to fly or tune, they fly nothing alike. Phantom FPV flys Kiss Ultra which has nothing to do with Fettec or Old (Legacy Kiss) 😉 Also fettec makes a 65a ESC 🙃

[@Nathan_Adams]

I feel like I got the fat tech G4 into a decent place, but since switching to kiss ultra on that flight controller, I'm much happier. I think I'm going to revisit this eventually because both quads are flying fantastic after some basic tuning. Also, I'm so happy they brought back the 65 amp ESC, I will eventually swap it out with the 45 amp and see if that makes a difference in the power. When getting the parts of these builds, I waited nearly a month hoping that the 65 amp would come back in stock, to no avail

[@MANDOXsquid]

Kiss FW on G4 is "Legacy"(original) Kiss like the KISS v2 flight controller runs, Kiss Ultra is its own Flight controller, company and firmware separate from kiss, only using the Kiss name with Flyduinos permission. But legacy kiss Firmware is decent. I fly it on my quads that have Fettec G4s. The presets and community presets makes it super easy. Its kind of confusing, when I first got into kiss I was so confused. I thought it was all the same. but kiss ultra is very different than Kiss, Just very hard to get ahold of one.

[@Nathan_Adams]

@@MANDOXsquid I thought phantom flew a Fettec G4? And yes, the current version of legacy KISS.

[@ogpennywise]

@@MANDOXsquid You are not kidding about the confusion. Add to that the discord full of uppity folks that assume you have access to all the documentation they know about. No need for the snark, fellow pilots, just post the fucking link. I also completely agree about Alpha - total dumpster fire right now. In them attempting to make it more simple than KISS they destroyed all logic in setting up a quad.

[@MANDOXsquid]

​@@ogpennywise alpha wouldnt be so bad if it flew ok. I can deal with the setup and actually liked the gui and OSD stuff. but it never flew good for me. I gave it a try for a few months. the only people I see it flying good for fly very slow rates and have more of a flowy smooth style of flying, and tons of time spent tuning.

[@lemonsquareFPV]

Good test, only thing is, blind testing with proper optimized tunes would have been worth way more… but you guys still did a great job! Thank you for documenting this. Alpha stuff is kinda good for a lot of stuff out of the box I found, but tune everything, always, it’s super silly not to. Betaflight is ultra optimized for 5”… so testing really depends on prop size and weight, on defaults (but I think flying on defaults is silly, no offence)… if you did it with a 3” results may have been different 🤷‍♂️ but I never like out of the box testing, everything needs to be tuned properly, period, and I’m super glad you did that… I have seen people just do a quick flash and compare, and jump to conclusions, huge pet peeve!!! I like my Foxeer ESCs on Alpha, Beta, and everything else… Fettec ESCs definitely feel different, and I don’t really like that feel. I like my ESCs tuned a super specific way too! I’m just a good pilot and know how I want my crafts to handle, either that or I’m just too picky and inflexible 😜 As you found, basically all the firmwares are very good when tuned properly. Personally, most of my stuff is on BF4.4/5, because I know it super well and can tune it perfectly in no time. I also like the 🥑 firmware sprinkled in for good measure. OG KISS is alright from what I have experienced (but haven’t tried Ultra1 or 2 for very long, or on personal builds), still prefer Beta, as of right now, but this may change 🤷‍♂️ Ultra, Emu and Alpha I need more experience in… I have had only 2 builds on the bird firmware, and Alpha I just started learning to tune properly, I still need a couple of months on a dozen more builds to really learn how to tune it perfectly. Alexander Fedorov's Ultra boards I still haven’t been able to snag, but have some minimal experience from friends builds. Presets always suck for me because I like my stuff to fly a very specific way, so I just scratch tune everything, as I haven’t found any of the professional tuners presets to be my style, which kinda sucks, but on a positive note, because of this, I get to learn the firmwares super intimately. Happy flying. Great content, as usual!

[@Nathan_Adams]

Thank you and I agree with you about comparing the tuned versions. I may release that video, but I did blind test again with proper tunes and preset for RC link. What I found was that both flew fantastic and nearly identical. With the tunes I was not able to reliably tell one form the other after 3 packs in each. I will say getting the FETtec to that point was way easier (even for a complete fettec/kiss newbie) than Betaflight, but with 4.4 it is on the path to being very easy to get 95% there with presets. The only reason I am hesitant to put that video out is that the conclusion feels very similar to what I found here, it comes down to easy setup vs more customization and variety of hardware. I am going to try kiss on the fettec soon and if that provides something interesting I will definitely make a video

[@lemonsquareFPV]

@@Nathan_Adams very cool! Betaflight does have a lot of options and when you understand them they are very powerful… but yeah KISS has always been about simplicity, even though I can’t get my propwash performance and PID loop latency as good as on Betaflight, if the build is well put together and on a good frame, with good props and motors Alpha has been good, I’m just not 100% proficient in it so I can’t make a definitive judgment yet. I still need to learn it’s ins and outs. Looking forward to whatever you release, I dig your tests and content.

[@lemonsquareFPV]

@@Nathan_Adams KISS Vs Alpha or Ultra would be SUPER useful to the community as not many have done enough testing with those firmwares… they are definitely a lot more esoteric! Also ESCs make a huge difference for me personally and if you can keep that consistent across your testing you will see how differently the Fettec ESCs feel. I am about to flash a bunch of my BL_32 stuff to AM32 so I’m on a similar testing path to you, hunting for performance and flight feel differences, as I usually am honestly 😜 Anyway, happy testing, flying, and I hope you find the things that more suite you personal style, I definitely recommend looking into scratch tuning, at least for finding P:D balance and your personal I preference. I also tune my rates for each build, and my rates are not the same on every craft, because; power, weight, CG, frame design, motor/prop response is not identical from build to build, and I tune them to feel identical, which, at times, gives me very different rates numerically. Things to consider…

[@williamlosch]

4.4 leaves me speechless. I've got a quad on 4.2 that is ol reliable but I cannot get over the qualities that 4.4 brings. (thanks - loved the vid btw)

[@Nathan_Adams]

Thank you, and Betaflight 4.4 feels like the largest jump from release to release. From performance to usability and polish, 4.4 may be the new benchmark for FC firmware. Still some hiccups with GPS return to home, but massively better than before.