I recently upgraded from an APM 2.6 to Pixhawk. I have Afro 30a escs with only the signal wire connected. This setup was flying perfectly with the APM. But with the Pixhawk they are jittering with massive sync issues. I have read numerous posts about others having the same issues. Some have said that connecting a ground wire for the signal helps the problem but does not solve it. I want this to be a rock solid platform. From reading 3DR’s responses they seem to only be willing to offer help with their own hardware. But they don’t make a 30a esc that I can find on their store. So can anyone tell me what escs are working correctly that I may use? Or is my best move to go back to APM?
Hiya, I recently changed from DJI E300 ESCs (which you can’t calibrate, but seem to be impervious to desync if used with the E300 motors), to Afro Slim 20A which apparently use the same chips as the 30A, just with thinner gauge wiring. I read about people having sync issues with the Afros and most people were recommending upgraded to the latest simonk firmware, or better yet reflash to blheli. Not having using any other ESC before I took the plunge and flashed blheli straight away then recalibrated using the pixhawk all in one method and haven’t had any problems at all so far. I’m still running the E300 motors until my sunnysky pancakes arrive on the slow boat from china so not really giving the new ESCs a workout yet, but they’ve performed perfectly so far with the pixhawk, even under sudden full throttle.
One thing to check is that I think the pixhawk runs a faster timing loop than APM so you might need different timings, and to disconnect the power/bec wire from the ESC but make sure you have the ground and signal wires connected. Make sure to read the wiki:
copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common … ick-start/
[quote=“fluffyflyer”]Hiya, I recently changed from DJI E300 ESCs (which you can’t calibrate, but seem to be impervious to desync if used with the E300 motors), to Afro Slim 20A which apparently use the same chips as the 30A, just with thinner gauge wiring. I read about people having sync issues with the Afros and most people were recommending upgraded to the latest simonk firmware, or better yet reflash to blheli. Not having using any other ESC before I took the plunge and flashed blheli straight away then recalibrated using the pixhawk all in one method and haven’t had any problems at all so far. I’m still running the E300 motors until my sunnysky pancakes arrive on the slow boat from china so not really giving the new ESCs a workout yet, but they’ve performed perfectly so far with the pixhawk, even under sudden full throttle.
One thing to check is that I think the pixhawk runs a faster timing loop than APM so you might need different timings, and to disconnect the power/bec wire from the ESC but make sure you have the ground and signal wires connected. Make sure to read the wiki:
copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common … ick-start/[/quote]
So you never tried the Afro with their original firmware? I wish I could get a solid answer on this but I have spoken with Xoltri about this and he said he was never able to get the afros to work consistently. Even with flashing new firmware. If this was the solution I feel like it would be working for everyone, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
No I was a bit nervous as I hadn’t run ‘proper’ ESCs before (not that the DJI aren’t proper, just that there’s nothing to setup or calibrate about them) so did lots of reading, and the general consensus seemed to be to use blheli. I couldn’t find a single report of problems with blheli, whereas there were still people reporting problems even with the latest simonk.
Just to follow up, I’m now using my afro slim 20a with much bigger ‘pancakey’ motors - sunnysky v3508 580kv. absolutely 100% no problem yet even when punching full throttle, plus they fit perfectly in the cf tube arms of the tarot 650 for a very neat install and don’t even seem to get warm under heavy use.