Holybro Kakute F7 (Discontinued)

Discontinued

WARNING

PX4 does not manufacture this (or any) autopilot. Contact the manufacturer for hardware support or compliance issues.

The Kakute F7 from Holybro is a flight controller board designed for racers.

INFO

This flight controller is manufacturer supported.

Key Features

• Main System-on-Chip: STM32F745VGT6
  • CPU: 216 MHz ARM Cortex M7 with single-precision FPU
  • RAM: 320 KB SRAM
  • FLASH: 1 MB
• Standard racer form factor: 36x36 mm with standard 30.5 mm hole pattern
• ICM20689 Accel / Gyro (Soft-mounted)
• BMP280 Baro
• microSD (for logging)
• 6 UARTs
• 1 I2C bus
• 6 PWM outputs
• Built-in OSD chip (AB7456 via SPI)

Where to Buy

The board can be bought from one of the following shops (for example):

• getfpv

TIP

The Kakute F7 is designed to work with the Tekko32 4-in-1 ESC and they can be bought in combination.

Connectors and Pins

This is the silkscreen for the Kakute F7, showing the top of the board:

Pin	Function	PX4 default
B+	Battery positive voltage (2S-6S)
5V	5V output (2A max)
VO	Video output to video transmitter
VI	Video input from FPV camera
G or GND	Ground
SDA, SCL	I2C connection (for peripherals)
R1, T1	UART1 RX and TX	TELEM1
R2, T2	UART2 RX and TX	TELEM2
R3, T3	UART3 RX and TX	NuttX debug console
R4, T4	UART4 RX and TX	GPS1
R6, T6	UART6 RX and TX	RC port
R7, T7	UART7 RX and TX (RX is located in the plug for use with 4-in-1 ESCs)	DShot telemetry
LED	WS2182 addressable LED signal wire (not tested)
Buz-	Piezo buzzer negative leg (Connect buzzer positive leg to 5V pad)
3V3	3.3V output (200 mA max)
M1 to M4	Motor signal outputs (located in plug for use in 4-in-1 ESCs)
M5, M6	Additional motor signal outputs (located on side of board)
RSI	Analog RSSI (0-3.3V) input from receiver
Boot	Bootloader button

PX4 Bootloader Update

The board comes pre-installed with Betaflight. Before PX4 firmware can be installed, the PX4 bootloader must be flashed. Download the kakutef7_bl.hex bootloader binary and read this page for flashing instructions.

Building Firmware

To build PX4 for this target:

make holybro_kakutef7_default

Installing PX4 Firmware

The firmware can be installed in any of the normal ways:

• Build and upload the source

  make holybro_kakutef7_default upload

• Load the firmware using QGroundControl. You can use either pre-built firmware or your own custom firmware.

Configuration

If you use a 4-in-1 ESC with Betaflight/Cleanflight motor assignment you can use the Actuator configuration UI to set the motor ordering appropriately.

In addition to the basic configuration, the following parameters are important:

Parameter	Setting
SYS_HAS_MAG	This should be disabled since the board does not have an internal mag. You can enable it if you attach an external mag.

Serial Port Mapping

UART	Device	Port
USART1	/dev/ttyS0	TELEM1
USART2	/dev/ttyS1	TELEM2
USART3	/dev/ttyS2	Debug Console
UART4	/dev/ttyS3	GPS1
USART6	/dev/ttyS4	RC SBUS
UART7	/dev/ttyS5	ESC telemetry (DShot)

Debug Port

System Console

UART3 RX and TX are configured for use as the System Console.

SWD

The SWD interface (JTAG) pins are:

• SWCLK: Test Point 2 (Pin 72 on the CPU)
• SWDIO: Test Point 3 (Pin 76 on CPU)
• GND: As marked on board
• VDD_3V3: As marked on board

These are shown below.