KISS FC v2 Flight Controller | Kick A$$ or KISS my A$$

KISS FC v2 Flight Controller

It’s been over a year since I used any KISS gear. BetaFlight has been so good to me lately I didn’t wanna leave. And now RaceFlight is even better. In the original KISS, we had some annoying oscillation issues. We built 10 identical quads with the original KISS fc and all 10 had a weird oscillation we couldn’t get rid of. Finally we had to flash the KISS fc with Betaflight and it fixed the issue. There were a lot of issues with KISS in the past so I gave up on them. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the new KISS FC v2 that I had to give them another shot.

Parts Used in this Build

• FlightClub PROton Skeleton 5″ Race
• KISS fc v2 flight controller
• Aikon AK32 35A 4in1 3-6s ESC
• Hyperlite 2206 2522kv Motors
• Foxeer Arrow v2
• TBS Unify Race
• AXii Stubby LHCP
• FrSky XM+

Specifications:

• STM32F722RET6 MCU, ARM-Cortex M7 with FPU running at 216Mhz
• MPU6000 Gyro and ACC Sensor
• first 4 esc signals are 5v boosted
• 2-6s input
• 5v 500mah outputs
• 5g
• 30x30mm mount holes. have not clue why they still wont conform to the standard 30.5mm

Physically the board looks similar to the original KISS board. The biggest physical change is that now all the solder pads are on one side of the board. Thank you KISS for doing that!

KISS fc v2 Build

Hallelujah, they finally moved all the solder pads on the top side of the board. On the original board you had to solder on both sides of the board which was a pain. On the KISSv2 the signal pads are at the 4 corners. Paired with the Aikon AK32 35A 4in1 ESC the physical install was a piece of cake. The AK32 has a VBAT wire in the harness so all you do is solder that directly to the power pad on the KISS cause it can take voltages up to 6s.

I’ve been using the XM+ rx on pretty much all my builds because with an OSD fc you can change vtx settings from the OSD. I was so excited to fly this quad I forgot on the KISS you need the SmartPort wire on something like the R-XSR to have the ability to change channels on the TBS Unify RACE via LUA script. My plan was to get it flying then swap out the rx after…but it never go that far. Keep reading to see why.

The KISS configurator looks pretty much the same as 2 years ago except with the addition of the Advance tab.

Let’s Start with the Good

If you can get it to fly correctly, yes, it flies great. It has that super locked in KISS feeling. Even on stock PIDs the quad felt buttery smooth and locked. I didn’t have any oscillations and there was only slight prop wash on full throttle 180 turns. I could tweak the rates to my liking and fly it as is on stock PIDs. But sadly I didn’t even get enough flights with it to give a full in depth review. I was able to only put about 5 packs on this fc.

On to the Bad

Strike One – The KISS fc doesn’t support BLHeli passthrough. So unless you are using the KISS ESC, which are about $100 a set, you can’t flash, change esc settings or reverse a motor on the computer. In order to connect to BLHeli, you have to first install the Aikon AK32 to a BetaFlight flight controller, changes your settings, remove the BetaFlight board then reinstall it to the KISSv2. This is a major pain. I ended up just reversing a motor the old school way by flipping two wires on the motor.

Strike Two – The KISSv2 is $70! That’s almost double the cost of an F4 Betaflight board with OSD. Is it twice as good as a BetaFlight board? Does it fly twice as good? No, I don’t think so. I’ve been flying the RaceFlight RevoltOSD and it flies just as good and is only $45 with OSD.

Strike Three – This KISSv2 I had was super buggy. I would fly a pack, land, change battery and when I try to take off it would do a violent flip as if I had a wrong prop, motor was spinning the wrong way or wrong board orientation. I’d put on a new prop and it would fly fine for the next couple packs then do it again. I know it’s not the wrong prop on the wrong motor because it would happen from just changing the battery and nothing else. Not fun not knowing if it will take off or do the scary flip.

Sorry KISS, I’m on blood thinners for my heart condition. If the quad decides to flip out and cut me, I could die. I’m not risking my life for you.

KISS My A$$

As someone who sells and use to fly exclusively KISS flight controllers for about 6 months, I can attest that the KISS gear (flight controller and ESC) are the most problematic equipment I’ve ever experienced. I’ve never had any luck transplanting a KISS fc to a new build. Anytime I removed a fc and put it on a new build, there would be some issues. Either an ESC would go bad or a channel on the FC would die. I’ve had to replace more problematic KISS fc’s than pretty much all other flight controllers I sold combined. No joke.

I really really wanted to like this board. There’s that special flight characteristics that only KISS fc have. A year ago when there weren’t as many options as we have today, I’d give this fc another try.

Sorry KISS fans, I don’t recommend this FC. If you can get it to work properly, yes, it flies great. But at $70 I’d expect it to at least work properly. The new KISS fc v2 flies good but it seems like it’s still plagued with quality issues. Save your money and go with something like RaceFlight. It flies just as good, cost less and has been a tank in my PROton.

Next up, Helio Spring flight controller with ButterFlight!

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