Greetings,
I’m in the process of assembling my octacopter, and I’ve decided to opt for the T-motor MN501-S KV240 Motor paired with 1555 props. As I contemplate using either a 6S or 12S battery (with potential plans for a future 12S upgrade), I find myself at a crossroads regarding the choice of a 12S ESC. I’m torn between the Flame 60A 12S and the Alpha 60A 12S. Any insights or recommendations on which ESC would be the better fit for my setup would be greatly appreciated.
I am currently looking into similar discussions because we have issues with alphas. cant tell exactly where the problem comes from but we see every now and the desync on our motors with a really strange howling sound. setup is flat hexa, MN801 120kV alpha60 esc 28x8 props.
as we had a strange behavior on a earlier built with alphas that lead to a crash we changed to flame and the copter never again had a problem. so now I am just about to change back to flame again and hope to get rid of the problems.
don’t think that helped you but I am curious what the experts say 
Save your self a lot of expense and crashes, get a set of APD 120F3
If you were definitely staying with 6S then the APD 80F3 would be OK.
These solve a number of issues with the T-Motor Alpha and Flame :
only use PWM, no DSHOT or live data
sudden desyncs for no real reason
ESCs mounted out near the motors
and LOOOooooonnnnggg power wires
Thanks, @xfacta but the 120A rating is too much, and yes I might upgrade to 12S in the future, does the type of ESC you recommended exist as a 60A 12S rating?
The 120A is not a limiting factor, it doesnt mean the ESCs draw that much current, it means they are capable of passing that much current if required. These ESCs are not big and heavy.
The reason I specified the 120F3 over the 80F3 is the battery voltage they will tolerate.
So for 12S you would use the 120F3, and for 6S (up to 8S) you would use the 80F3. There’s also a 40F3.
Check the web site.
EDIT: to be clear, I’m not an APD representative in any way, other than being an impressed user
ok, thats the 3rd time i get them suggested over flame or alphas.
do you know if they can handle 12S with 4,35V per cell (Tattu HV Batteries)?
I would suspect so, but you should email APD support - in my experience they are very responsive and happy to help.
That’s only 52.20 volts compared to 50.40 for a normal Lipo.
In the latest doco it says “Up to 14S capable” which is 58.80 volts, and it now seems to suggest that for “all variations” so it couold be that an 80F3 would also be suitable too. But definitely email them to be sure.
thanks, I do… and sorry @Yousef1 for taking over your topic
I would have liked the change from Alpha to Flame discussion but as this is suggested now multiple times to “not use” them, I think i will switch…
In the past we have a expensive crash likely caused by an esc (flame 60) but to be honest we have good over 1000s flights on our heavy X8 without issue…
I just had a call with them, as we are flying with a expensive payload and reliability is the key, they recommend the 200 F3 version.
So we’ll go for that. If you have a bit more time in a few weeeks there should be wired and housed solution based on the specs of the f-series. but we cant wait
It is okay my friend, we both have the same concerns and I guess both got an answer
Do you have any good way to mount the APD?
3d print could work but if they get too hot and melt it?
Maybe they just dont get that hot
For what its worth APD is closing their line of “hobbyist” ESCs and is fully focusing on the enterprise space. They are still great ESCs, but just something to keep in mind…
That would be the F series? Ah, I see their customer update from 24OCT.
Buy them while there is stock then because APD’s notice says they will be down to one Distributor in North America and it isn’t RaceDayQuads.
The Alphas are the ones to go for but they are FOC they MUST be matched to the motor otherwise you will get de-sync issues etc. This is the link (ALPHA ESC Recommendations_T-MOTOR Official Store - UAV Power System, Robot Power System, Model Power System) to see what motors match which ESC. My business partner has built a LOT of octocopters with Alpha ESCs properly matched and has not had a single problem with them. Their performance over the Flame is way better. Much reduced voltage ripple ie less stress on things like capacitors and much less heat building up.
What MOT_THST_EXPO do you guys use? There’s been some uncertainty regarding that.
Thanks!
The real question should be:
What MOT_SPIN_MIN, MOT_THST_EXPO combination do you guys use?
Shawn can you make this a bit clearer please.
So what I understand from that is
Do not use Dshot or Live data IE telemetry
ESC’s must be mounted near the motors
That was more of a comparison with other ESCs.
The T-Motor ESCs are most likely to be mounted out near the motors (short motor wires) with very long battery wires - this is poor design.
The T-Motor ESCs only do PWM, you dont have a choice.