Category: ESC
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Matek 4 in 1 ESC – STM32F4, SerialShot and no BLHeli
I have to say I take great pleasure in installing this very early prototype of Matek 4-in-1 ESC in one of my mini quads and taking it for a flight. It’s kind of cool to know I was one of the first ones in the world that got it, installed it and tested it. Nice…
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BLHeli_32, should I care?
Looks like BLHeli team is not wasting their time and is preparing something new for our multirotors. After BLHeli_S, we will also have BLHeli_32. According to an announcement posted on RCGroups, new software for ESCs (and new ESC of course, since it will not be compatible with current Atmel and SiLabs MCU) will be: Running…
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PWM, OneShot125 and Brushed motor protocol on an oscilloscope
When I’ve buoght an oscilloscope (cheap digital DSO201), I’ve decided it would be a good idea to see how different ESC protocols looks like from the signal point of view. Previously I’ve written few words about them, like which is the fastest as so on, but is there something “special” about them? Well, let’s find…
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Air Crash Investigation: gone in 6 seconds
“What goes up, must come down”. I had an opportunity to face this old truth 2 weeks ago, when my 600mm quadcopter felt from 30 meters straight into water. It was supposed to be a simple flight: take off fly few hundred meters away with GPS assist engage Return To Home and land Dozens of…
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PWM, OneShot125, OneShot42, Multishot and DSHOT comparison
Two years ago it was simple: you wanted to connect ESC to Flight Controller or radio receiver, you were just doing it. There were only one (maybe 2) protocols that allowed to pass information to ESC. It was a standard PWM protocol. And it was enough. No, with faster hardware, mini or even micro quads,…
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BLHeli firmware for ZTW Spider 40A OPTO Small ESC
ZTW Spider 40A OPTO Small ESC with stock SimonK firmware can be easily flashed with BLHeli using Cleanflight interface. I just did it, the whole process took few minutes. To be true, it took me more time to find out which firmware should those ESC be flashed with, than to flash them. For unknown reason…
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EMAX SimonK Series 30A ESC – 3 months later
When 3 month ago I was doing “Hands on” review for EMAX SimonK Series 30A ESC I was quite optimistic about them. Well, why should I not be? Quite cheap, decent quality, easy to configure. Did EMAX 30A SimonK Series ESC met expectations I was putting on them? Simple and short answer is: no, they…
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How to reverse motor direction
You finished your build, you connect LiPo, power up flight controller, apply throttle (no propellers of course) and you see that one or motors are spinning in wrong direction. How to fix that? You can not do it, for example in Cleanflight Configurator. ESC communication protocol does not allow to change BLC motor direction. There…
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Hands on: Emax SimonK Series 30A ESC
You want to know the secret? I’m cheap. I almost never buy expensive stuff. It’s not that I can not afford it and buy cheapest stuff available. In my opinion, both ways are wrong. I buy things that position themselves somewhere in the middle. Not the cheapest, not “the best” and most expensive? Why not…