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| The top side of the Birdie 30A ESC |
The flashing couldn't have gone smoother, thanks to the great programing tool mentioned in the OpenPilot wiki. Now to update all my ESCs and see how my quad-copter flies.
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| The FET bank on the Birdie 30A ESC |
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Flashing HobbyKing Birdie 30A ESC
I recently bought 4 Birdie 30A ESCs from my favorite online hobby shop, HobbyKing. I bought these ESCs for my quad-copter project I'm SLOWLY working on. When I received them I wasn't too excited about the lack of programming features and they just seemed to be a little sluggish. Not to mention they are actually 25A ESCs despite being sold as a 30A ESC. Anyway, I had heard that there was some open source firmware people were flashing their ESCs with that made them perform better with multi-rotors. After some hopeful web searches to see if anyone had any experience with these Birdies I came across a great resource for flashing ESCs. OpenPilot has a great wiki with tons of useful information for anyone wanting to try their hand at trying to improve their ESC's performance. Unfortunately, my Birdie wasn't on the list...... Oh well that just means I get to poke around and solve it myself. After looking at some of the PCB layouts that were supported, I found that the Birdie looked to be an exact replica of the supported RC MAX 18A ESC. I was in luck, that meant the standard tp.hex firmware should work for my model. A little soldering and a few minutes later my ESC was ready to flash.
The flashing couldn't have gone smoother, thanks to the great programing tool mentioned in the OpenPilot wiki. Now to update all my ESCs and see how my quad-copter flies.
The flashing couldn't have gone smoother, thanks to the great programing tool mentioned in the OpenPilot wiki. Now to update all my ESCs and see how my quad-copter flies.
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Very helpful. Thanks for the trick.
ReplyDeleteHi. Have you made ESC calibration after reflashing?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is still performed the same as before flashing. Works great
DeleteOk i reflasched this esc but a have a problem now.....
ReplyDeleteThe temperature is too high respect of before....the esc is not touchable in 4 minutes of flight!!!!!
I noticed that my ESCs also got hotter after I Re-flashed but, I could still touch and hold mine. Remember that these ESCs are are really only 20-25A ESCs. I always oversize my ESCs. Each motor on my quad only draws about 5-10A during flight.
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