Change Betaflight To iNav FW?

C

Curmudgeon

Member
I own several helis and have my first PNP quad on the way. It comes with Betaflight installed on an Omnibus F4 Pro V3 flight controller. It also has a Beitian BN-880 GPS that I would eventually like to utilize (RTH/PH). After scouring the internet I would prefer to use iNav instead of Betaflight. Can I simply erase Betaflight and flash iNav to my FC (or any brand FC for that matter)? With my helis any given brand of FBL controller will ONLY work with the factory installed FW, you're stuck with it and have to buy a different FBL brand if you don't like the way it fly's/programs or the features it has.
Thanks in advance! JW
 
wafflejock

wafflejock

Well-Known Member
It is marked discontinued here in the repo for iNav but I don't know if that means deprecated as in no longer testing for or straight doesn't work on those boards anymore https://github.com/iNavFlight/inav/... - Omnibus F4.md#omnibus-f4-v3---discontinued In general flashing new firmware to the chips is just a matter of getting them into bootloader mode and/or getting device firmware upgrade (DFU) mode running so data can be flashed onto the chips, a ST-Link adapter can be used to bypass the USB and directly connect to pins on the STM32F4 chip and flash firmware directly to it using the st-link utility program in windows. So yah there's some way to get other data onto the chips but not sure if iNav supports that particular board anymore ??
 
C

Curmudgeon

Member
wafflejock said:
It is marked discontinued here in the repo for iNav but I don't know if that means deprecated as in no longer testing for or straight doesn't work on those boards anymore https://github.com/iNavFlight/inav/blob/master/docs/Board - Omnibus F4.md#omnibus-f4-v3---discontinued In general flashing new firmware to the chips is just a matter of getting them into bootloader mode and/or getting device firmware upgrade (DFU) mode running so data can be flashed onto the chips, a ST-Link adapter can be used to bypass the USB and directly connect to pins on the STM32F4 chip and flash firmware directly to it using the st-link utility program in windows. So yah there's some way to get other data onto the chips but not sure if iNav supports that particular board anymore ??
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Thanks wafflejock. Hmm...it sounds like it might be just a bit above my programming/setup skill level to get iNav on it. I'm sure BF will be fine for now. If not and I really want to try iNav I'll swap the FC out for an iNav supported one later. Anyway I'm finding out electronics/parts for a mini quad sure are cheap enough, nothing like helis LOL.
JW
 
wafflejock

wafflejock

Well-Known Member
Usually it's not too bad either push a button or short some pins while plugging in battery power to get it into bootloader mode then flash using the betaflight configurator or in this case I guess the iNav configurator but yah that's outside my wheelhouse :D
 
C

Curmudgeon

Member
Hmmm....looking closer at that link it appears the Omnibus F4 v3 is discontinued, the F4 Pro v3 looks to be supported? It calls out Omnibus F4 Pro- "Sometimes called Omnibus F4 v2 Pro, but also exists v3, v4 & v5 versions". Wonder if I would I risk "bricking" the FC by trying the iNav FW? Would I be able to reflash BF if it didn't work?
JW
 
wafflejock

wafflejock

Well-Known Member
There are some cases where it could end up damaging something on the board because of hardware that it expects on one pin/port of the processor and it's on another but it's pretty unlikely. So long as you can get it back into DFU/bootloader mode (with button or pin shorting) you can reflash it with something else, if it doesn't get recognized on USB because some pins going from the processor/MCU that control USB got messed up from flashing then you have to go the ST-Link USB adapter and software route of hooking up directly to the MCU (not trivial maybe not possible I've done it on esk8 hardware using stm32 based chips but had SPI pins exposed there and was working around USB bootloader being broken)
 
Dugdog47

Dugdog47

Well-Known Member
inav is for boring aerial photography drones, you are getting a fpv racing drone. If you're going to flash the board you should go betaflight 3.5.7, get the most performance out of your f4.
 
wafflejock

wafflejock

Well-Known Member
Haha while I am in the same camp I can see the advantage of waypoint modes and gps control for some use cases (more utility/commercial though nothing I'd do for fun necessarily, and that means getting part 107 and other things to be official so haven't delved deep)
 
Dugdog47

Dugdog47

Well-Known Member
I've actually been thinking about flashing inav to my 450 with a f4 V5 but not too sure if my drivers are up to it. Waypoints mode and gps control does sound cool so maybe aerial photography isn't all a bore lol.
 
RENOV8R

RENOV8R

Well-Known Member
All the Omnibus F4's use basically the same firmware. Go into the Betaflight CLI tab, type version and hit enter. It will show you what firmware it is using. Then just check in the iNav Github if that firmware is available
 
C

Curmudgeon

Member
Dugdog47 said:
I've actually been thinking about flashing inav to my 450 with a f4 V5 but not too sure if my drivers are up to it. Waypoints mode and gps control does sound cool so maybe aerial photography isn't all a bore lol.
Click to expand...
I mainly want the GPS for RTH if I loose orientation. I have two helis with the Spirit/GeoLink FBL system and I don't use rescue but I do occasionally use RTH if I'm at all disoriented. It's very cool, comes back just like an obedient hunting dog. Position/Altitude Hold is also nice if I need a quick break. My quad is showing "out for delivery" today and I'm going to try flashing iNav on it. Last night I saw a thread in RC Groups (VERY LONG) and guys were using iNav on the F4 Pro v3. I also noticed in GitHub the Pro also supposedly has an SBUS inverter connected to UART1 so maybe it will play nice with the inverted SBUS signal from my FrSky receiver? Yikes I've created a monster.... :)
JW
 
Dugdog47

Dugdog47

Well-Known Member
Haven't tried any of the position hold, rth stuff but it does sounds handy especially for los flights.

As far as sbus, yes I think it was my f4 boards that have pads specially for sbus, should be no problem.
 
C

Curmudgeon

Member
RENOV8R said:
All the Omnibus F4's use basically the same firmware. Go into the Betaflight CLI tab, type version and hit enter. It will show you what firmware it is using. Then just check in the iNav Github if that firmware is available
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip. It arrived and I just checked...….it came with iNav 2.2.1 installed! No flashing FW needed. Connected right away, didn't even need to download any drivers (but I do have a new laptop?). Now to get a receiver installed and wade into the setup.....Sweet!
 
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