Gene Knight
Member
I recently got involved with fpv drones with a KingKong 210GT and Turnigy i6s transmitter. I've learned a lot in a short time about binding, CleanFlight, and transmitter programming, and I'd like to share some of that knowledge with others as lost as I was.
The first shock was to open the 210GT "manual" (maybe 200 words, max). Page 3, in a mixture of Chinese and English says that I have to use CleanFlight to reflash the Flight Controller. Alas, the CleanFlight that you can install is v2.x, and my drone (and I suspect many others) is 1.x. The two will *not* talk to each other.
The second shock was after a total of an hour's stick time with the drone, while pawing through the menus on the transmitter, I hit "Bind Rx". This *instantly* unbinds your current drone, and apparently *totally* *erases* all the settings that the transmitter had for that drone. Unfortunately, some very important settings were made at the factory, and unless you duplicate them you'll never fly that drone again.
CleanFlight to the rescue, but unless your drone speaks 2.x, you have to find an older version. Thanks to the good people at Connex, you can download v1.2.4 from this page: https://connexuav.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001850863-Cleanflight-Configurator-v1-2-4. Download and install the 'crx' file as a Chrome extensions, and you're all set.
The flight controller should have a micro USB jack. Plug it into your computer, run the CleanFlight extension, click on the Connect button, and it should show a live image of your drone's current attitude.
My problem was actually three: rebind transmitter and receiver, program one of the switches on the transmitter as "Arm", and program another switch to select "Beginner" (Angle) mode.
Binding: Looking closely at the innards of the drone, I identified the receiver, and could see 3 "servo pins" exposed on the side. With a little effort, I was able to plug in the "binding plug" that shorts pins 1 and 3. With the battery connected, this puts the receiver in binding mode. Hit Bind Rx on the transmitter again, and the two are bound. The transmitter will beep when power is applied to the drone, and it shows the current battery voltage of the drone.
At this point, though, the sticks still do nothing.
On the transmitter, program one switch to control Channel 5 (this will be Arm), and another to control Channel 6 (flight mode, including "Beginner"). Channels 1-4 are already devoted to AETR (Aileron/Roll, Elevator/Pitch, Throttle, Rudder/Yaw). Channel 5 and 6 will become Aux1 and Aux2 in CleanFlight. 7 and 8 would become Aux3 and 4, so the whole setup is called AETR1234 by CleanFlight.
Plug the drone into CleanFlight (the main battery can remain disconnected), and Connect. From the left menu, select Modes. This page uses *analog* readings from the 4 Aux channels to activate selected modes.
For the ARM mode, click Add Range, and select Aux1 in the dropdown box. Turn on the transmitter, and switch the switch that you assigned to Channel 5 / Aux1. In the number line for this range, you should be able to see the current transmitted value as a small, vertical green bar, under the long, horizontal bar, that jumps when you flip the switch.
Move the sliders in the long, horizontal setting bar so that the green, "on" area is above the "on" location for the switch, and the gray, "off" portion of the bar is above the "off" position. With this setting, the drone will be "armed" - the sticks will be active - when the switch is in the "on" position, and disarmed otherwise.
At this point, the sticks were active, and the drone was *real* squirrely.
For Beginner mode, click Add Range for the Angle mode. This is the mode that makes the drone fly relatively peacefully when the sticks are released. Put the switch that you assigned to Channel 6 in the position that you want for Beginner mode, and then position the green bar over that spot.
Use a 3 position switch for this function, and you can do the same for Horizon / Intermediate mode, and Air / Expert mode with the other two switch positions.
Hope this helps!
The first shock was to open the 210GT "manual" (maybe 200 words, max). Page 3, in a mixture of Chinese and English says that I have to use CleanFlight to reflash the Flight Controller. Alas, the CleanFlight that you can install is v2.x, and my drone (and I suspect many others) is 1.x. The two will *not* talk to each other.
The second shock was after a total of an hour's stick time with the drone, while pawing through the menus on the transmitter, I hit "Bind Rx". This *instantly* unbinds your current drone, and apparently *totally* *erases* all the settings that the transmitter had for that drone. Unfortunately, some very important settings were made at the factory, and unless you duplicate them you'll never fly that drone again.
CleanFlight to the rescue, but unless your drone speaks 2.x, you have to find an older version. Thanks to the good people at Connex, you can download v1.2.4 from this page: https://connexuav.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001850863-Cleanflight-Configurator-v1-2-4. Download and install the 'crx' file as a Chrome extensions, and you're all set.
The flight controller should have a micro USB jack. Plug it into your computer, run the CleanFlight extension, click on the Connect button, and it should show a live image of your drone's current attitude.
My problem was actually three: rebind transmitter and receiver, program one of the switches on the transmitter as "Arm", and program another switch to select "Beginner" (Angle) mode.
Binding: Looking closely at the innards of the drone, I identified the receiver, and could see 3 "servo pins" exposed on the side. With a little effort, I was able to plug in the "binding plug" that shorts pins 1 and 3. With the battery connected, this puts the receiver in binding mode. Hit Bind Rx on the transmitter again, and the two are bound. The transmitter will beep when power is applied to the drone, and it shows the current battery voltage of the drone.
At this point, though, the sticks still do nothing.
On the transmitter, program one switch to control Channel 5 (this will be Arm), and another to control Channel 6 (flight mode, including "Beginner"). Channels 1-4 are already devoted to AETR (Aileron/Roll, Elevator/Pitch, Throttle, Rudder/Yaw). Channel 5 and 6 will become Aux1 and Aux2 in CleanFlight. 7 and 8 would become Aux3 and 4, so the whole setup is called AETR1234 by CleanFlight.
Plug the drone into CleanFlight (the main battery can remain disconnected), and Connect. From the left menu, select Modes. This page uses *analog* readings from the 4 Aux channels to activate selected modes.
For the ARM mode, click Add Range, and select Aux1 in the dropdown box. Turn on the transmitter, and switch the switch that you assigned to Channel 5 / Aux1. In the number line for this range, you should be able to see the current transmitted value as a small, vertical green bar, under the long, horizontal bar, that jumps when you flip the switch.
Move the sliders in the long, horizontal setting bar so that the green, "on" area is above the "on" location for the switch, and the gray, "off" portion of the bar is above the "off" position. With this setting, the drone will be "armed" - the sticks will be active - when the switch is in the "on" position, and disarmed otherwise.
At this point, the sticks were active, and the drone was *real* squirrely.
For Beginner mode, click Add Range for the Angle mode. This is the mode that makes the drone fly relatively peacefully when the sticks are released. Put the switch that you assigned to Channel 6 in the position that you want for Beginner mode, and then position the green bar over that spot.
Use a 3 position switch for this function, and you can do the same for Horizon / Intermediate mode, and Air / Expert mode with the other two switch positions.
Hope this helps!
