ZOHD KoPilot Lite: simple stabilisation and RTH - step by step setup for new pilots

A few last tips: don't forget to setup your fail-safe on the radio/receiver to be the RTH mode (Ch5). That way if the Rx loses connection with the model it'll head for home. Also you will need to be in Stabilise mode for the level calibration to work.

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[nickmarangelis]

I have tried a few flight controllers and some are still in the drawer. This is because they get to complicated and I am not computer savvy. I then bought the kopilot and after a few videos managed to set it up, I was doubtful it would be up to what I expected. I have been using it for the past few months and I could not be more impressed. It is consistently reliable and given me such peace of mind and I enjoy flying so much more. This will now be standard in most of my planes. Your video is well explained. Thanks

[crabsodyinblue]

After 2 years of no flying i got my little Dart 250 from the back of the shed and was clueless again on the Kopilot settings, have the manual somewhere, but your excellent video's are a trusted life and timesaver as always. Thanks again Lee!

[lifeinrc]

Painless, I want to thank you for all your tutorials, reviews, and flight videos first. I have to say thank you now with the tutorials on the Kopilot system. I was able to follow your instructions and I did the maiden flight of my FPV Glider and it was an amazing experience. I was able to do the flight and tested stabilization, RTH, and even failsafe RTH successfully. I do have some trim & battery positioning to work on to get the best balance/performance but it was a fantastic experience. Thanks again for all you work.

[zfpv]

Thank you for this video, having someone showing how the things look when done right is really helpful. I just finished the setup of my Zohd Drift with Kopilot.

[blacksheeprcmodelers]

sorry to go crazy on the comments. I put this setup in my yellow EF 300extra. modes are, stabilization, off, RTH. everything worked great. I even threw the plane in the air to test the auto take off and it worked great!!!! thanks again for this video. The only thing i dont like about it, is you have very limited control when the model is in stabile mode. I wish it was more of just a gyro, but I am still learning all the functions of this item!! thx again

[foreverdroningon]

Once again Mr Painless helps me out. I have just installed one of these which I bought for thirty six pounds from banggood. in my Bixler 3. Followed your clear and simple set up instructions. It works a treat . I think I really put it through its paces. In manual I put it into a full stall switched into stabilize and it corrected itself immediately . To be fair the bixler does tend to correct itself but not as quickly. I performed a half loop in manual switched to stabilize whilst inverted once again the Kopilot sorted it out beautifully. The return to home is great the only very slight downside is that the home point is set above the point where the board powers up which means when it returns to home it orbits over the pit area. Easily fixed by powering up on the far side of the strip. The scary part of my test was actually switching off the transmitter. No problem there back to the home point like a well trained pigeon but when I switched on after the test I had no throttle control so ended up landing dead stick off strip. ( nice day for a walk ) . It was pilot error as I have to set all my switches to the up position before the radio will power on of course this set my throttle in safe mode and I forgot this. Auto launch is a bit scary you really need to give it a good shove to keep it on track as the throttle opens. I think I found a nice little hack or trick. If I apply full left or right rubber in stabilized mode the plane makes nice flat turns. I am thinking of mixing one of my pots to the rudder. This could be really useful in a thermal. Thank you Mr Painless you made my install really easy. FDO

[mickelson]

Great update again Lee, thanks for reminding others about setting the throws back to 100% before attempting the autolevel calibration. This caused me a lot of frustration last time but I know you have a separate video for this now. Thanks Lee.

[LookatTheseMuffins]

This video was just what I needed. The instructions are ok, but a bit confusing when first trying out the system. Your video really helped clear things up for the me though, so thank you so much!

[blah]

I am currently building a drfft and been having bulk issues watching this helped me out perfectly thanks

[IanF-FPV]

I got one for free with my Zohd Talon GT. I installed a Matek board with INav but your video has encouraged me to put it in my old Durafly Sidewinder fpv race wing.

[TheJimpickeringjr]

I just wanted to thank you for all the videos you've produced. :)

[The_Pub_]

Thanks Lee.
Very informative and useful even a year later. Just as JC from "Project Blue Falcon" was, May he Rest in Peace.

[RB-qgqx]

I bought the Drift with the koPilot Etc a couple of months ago and just getting round to setting it up, found your videos very helpful, thank you!

[DavidReynolds-kryh]

Thanks for doing this video, I’ve got the Dart 250g and while it flies beautifully in stabilised mode, it was an absolute pig in manual mode. Now I have a better understanding of where I went wrong.

[fcass]

Thanks for this. When I did my maiden on the Dart 250g it immediately death rolled to the right and broke the nose off (ouch, but you can't see where I glued it back together so all is well.) I did manage to figure out the Kopilot problem and get it flying nicely, but I wish I had seen this then, 'thank you' to your patreon for inspiring it.
I had to move (during a pandemic? Eeesh!) and haven't flown it in too long. I originally tried a little 200mw aio cam like you have in this video and I could never get any range. So I bought an RDQ vtx and a good cam but still haven't set it up. Now that I have the DJI goggles on order I'll probably just stick a Caddx Nebula in it! And someday I'll fly it again ha ha :)

[BigMeanyVids]

Yes, thanks for this vid as about to employ this on a sailplane as a failsafe backup kind of thing since i had one lying around but never used it.

[jwpw]

Many thanks for your videos about the zohd that made my life much easier! I have flown the bigaole before the zohd and must say that the zohd has some very nice features. Besides the easy setup I really like the automatic storage of the home position. I planned to build in a zohd in all of my (next) airplanes. Please keep up the good work!

Greetings from The Netherlands. Jan

[JoaancairoProd]

Really good tutorial! Well explained and very graphical!! Perfect for beginners...

[SteffenRC]

Really enjoy your videos, Ive learned a ton.. Appreciate all your hard work.. I finally figured out the Kopilot for my Dart 250 after watching your video a dozen times. One thing that I couldn't figure out and probably missed in the video.. The Manual mode was working ok, but when I went to adjust Stabilize mode with rotating the pots, everything started to get reversed.. I swapped the servo leads and everything is right as rain... The next one will be a breeze to setup..

[GTStGambit]

12:24 I found with autopilots like the Eagle tree 2D/3D and Ardupilot that adjusting the trims in manual mode would affect the autopilots control and it sounds like the ZOHD is the same. The way I addressed it is to use the flight modes settings on the Taranis linked to the flight mode switch, you can then specify that the trims are only used in manual mode. Means you can adjust the trims for each individual flight and weather condition and know that the stabilised flight modes will not be adversely affected.