EmuFlight – the new ButterFlight?

Helio is dead, ButterFlight is dead. Welcome the new king – EmuFlight. 

EmuFlight is a ButterFlight fork and supports more than just Helio boards. Version 1.0.0 (currently in the Release Candidate) supports many F4 flight controllers and will soon support F3. This fork differs from Baseflight, Cleanflight and Betaflight in that it focuses on flight performance, innovative filtering, leading-edge feature additions, and wide target support.

What features does EmuFlight have that BetaFlight does not?

• Feathered PIDs (previously Buttered PIDs, calculating the dterm using measurement which is smoother)
• IMUF filtering on all flight controllers
• i_decay (unique way of handling iTerm building during quick moves)
• EmuBoost and BoostLimit (similar to FeedForward, but retaining with a more organic feel. Also EmuBoost and Feathered PIDs have a happy relationship)
• EmuFlight uses different methods to calculate dTerm filtering than Betaflight (tuning dTerm and dTerm filters remains easier than before)
• TPA is split into kP, kI and kD
• TPA can be a boosting factor now. Especially useful in conjunction with the iTerm

Looks promising, but will it live or will it die young – thats the question.

Here is the interview with Kevin Plaizier, the co-creator of the EmuFlight, published on the www.culturefpv.fr website:

Interview of the Emuflight Creator:

Can you explain to us what Emuflight is and how was born the idea of ??developing a new firmware?

“It all started at the end of Butterflight and the revelation of HelioRC’s IMUF source code. Robert Marinus a friend of mine then began to dissect this filter code IMUF so particular, then we tried together to simplify it while making it more efficient. The idea then came to integrate these changes into our own version of Betaflight, and that’s how EmuFlight was born! “

EmuFlight being a fork of Betaflight , why not simply ask to integrate these new functions in future versions of Betaflight instead of creating a separate firmware?

   “We decided to create a full fledged firmware because we wanted to implement technical choices that the Betaflight team does not support. Like for example the operation with a 32k gyro. Or again the compatibility with the HelioRC cards. Betaflight is moving in a different direction than we wanted for EmuFlight. “

But then what differentiates Betaflight from EmuFlight?

   “The differences with Betaflight are mainly around 3 points:

Firstly the integration of the filtering code IMUF reviewed and corrected by us

Secondly the gyro support in 32k

And finally, a different management of the dterm which gives a feeling more smooth and direct during the flight. “

All this compatible on which flight card (s)?

   “Almost all! Today EmuFlight is available in beta for more than 150 different flight controllers, from Helio to Kiss via Revolt, AlienWoop, Colibri, Beebrain … “

What are the future developments planned for EmuFLight?

   “First of all the arrival of our own configurator which should come out with the latest version of our firmware. Then an idea we are still working on is to merge the accelerometer and gyroscope data to provide more accurate readings to the flight controller. It’s still under consideration for future firmware releases. “

Last question that I think raises a lot of questions: Why did you choose an Emeu as a logo?

   ” Ahah, because few people know it, but the Emu, like all the animals in the ostrich family, has a gyroscope implanted in the brain that allows their heads to remain stable during movement. our emblem choice for EmuFlight, always stable despite the parasitic movements! “

How is the flight with EmuFlight?

Here is the example of the flight with EmuFlight firmware by French pilot KoreFpv. You can judge yourself how clean and smooth is the flight and absence of the propwash, this firmware seems to keep all its promises:

Update 2019-09-17: Emuflight released beta v.0.1.0. and also EmuFlight now has its own EmuFlight Configurator.

Where to get the EmuFlight?

If you really want to try the the EmuFlight, You can find the firmware files in this repository https://github.com/emuflight/EmuFlight-Butter-Varient. EmuFlight is in Release Candidate state at the moment of writing this article has stable releases now. Instructions and CLI settings can be found here: https://github.com/emuflight/EmuFlight-Butter-Varient/wiki/Installing-EmuFlight

EmuFlight Configurator is still under the developement, so you will have to use ButterFlight Configurator.

Emuflight Configurator can be found here: https://github.com/emuflight/EmuConfigurator/releases

Owners of the Helio spring V1/2 mini / all in one – you will need to download a specific installer to update the IMU-F separately: It can be found here.