ESC for quad on 450 frame

Good day all

So far, when I was building quad-copters with a 450 frame , I have been using the BLHeli32 - 30A ( Hobbywing Xrotor ) ESC’s. It seems they are discuntinued and I now have to look for something else. I would like to stay with the Hobbywing. Seems to be a good choice.

The ones either side of the 30 A is the 20A and then the 40A ESC ( both Hobbywing )
The 20A is 20A continous ( peak 30 A ) and the 40A is 40A continous and 60A peak.

My setup is as follows:
450 frame
2213 (920kV) motors LDPower
9450 props
Pixhack V3 (FC)

AUW = 1.5kg
Some values when I hover:
CTUN-TH0 = 0.3
RCIN ( CH3 ) ( THR ) = 1400

CUR is at about 12 A ( with a small peak at 14A )

Would I be cutting it a bit close to use the 20A ESC ?? Would like to have some opinions
if I could.

Many thanks all !!

1 Like

I would think 20 Amp is enough. I have a DJI F 450 with Ardupilot and full up, like going in orbit up, maxed out at 40 - 45 Amps. so 10ish per motor.

Good day David

Ahh !!! Very intersting. Thank you David. Yes, here in Johannesburg I don’t have a place where
I can push it a bit. Once in a while I can take a long drive to a farm up in the north where
I can pretty much do what I want !!! Thank you for sharing this.

Oh. and … I liked your description …“like going in orbit up”…!!! I could just imagine this F450
hurtling up into the sky !!! Very cool !!!

Best !

I have ran the 1000kv and 920kv motors for almost 10 years using ardupilot boards. I can say any time you purchase one of these motors they either come with a 30a or recommend a 30a. The rated current on alot of these motors would make one say a 20 would be enough but seeing price difference is really nothing why not use a 30? Their are other brands out there. I can tell you if I had to choose to send my quad up with a 200$ gimbal, a 400$ GoPro and a few hundred more in quad parts I’d opt for the 30a.

Thank you Gino palumbo

I fully agree. When you have all these expensive stuff on your drone, money is not an object.
And my question is not born from a “saving” point of view. What the issue is, is that I used to use
30A ESC’s and I would like to continue to use 30A ESCs, but the Hobbywing 30A has been discontinued. So my options are either 20A or 40A. I would go for 40A, no problem, but they
are 50g/ESC. So its just a weight issue that I am trying to address.

The ESC’s that I used to use is the Hobbywing XRotor BLHEli32 ( 30A) which is a 32 bit ESC
with good MOSFETs. I even asked the supplier of my motors for a opinion and he was in aggreement about those ones being a good choice.

So , now I have to find another ESC !!! Very frustrating !!!

Thanks for your time !!!

I assume 12A is your total draw? If that’s the case it’s like 3A per motor, which is very safely under 20A.
I run Hobbywing XRotor 20A on my F450 at 1.2kg AUW (no payload yet). They come down barely warm after 15-min light flying so I’d say they seem to handle the load well. Never tried full throttle punch yet though.
Still, I would NOT* recommend these, as they seem to have PWM frequency inside human hearing range and emit a high-pitched noise that annoys me to no end. If my 30s hearing can pick it up, I can only imagine it being nightmarish to younger ears.

*update 7 days later: I flashed them with BLHeli firmware which supposedly runs at 21kHz PWM frequency, yet the high-pitched whine remained, at least to a significant degree. I am no longer confident that the noise is solely caused by PWM frequency now, like is the case with DJI 30A ESCs.

Thank you Siqin Meng

I appreciate your comment. I am looking at just numbers, forgetting that there are people
that has some experience with the 20A ESC’s … like yourself !!! Thanks