Discussions

ESC Recommendations. No EMAX, and no SimonK, as neither work with Pixhawk

Posted by Phil Gamito on May 6, 2015 at 4:13pm

Hi there!

Legitimate 3DR Pixhawk owner.

I started my first Pixhawk build 3 days ago with SimonK Afros. No go. Sync issues, even after FW update.

Bought and overnighted some EMAX 60a ESCS. Apparently EMAX also has compatibility issues with Pixhawk.

No go, for whatever reason, and the dev ticket to fix this issue is apparently closed with no solution.

What's a not garbage 40-60a ESC that isn't terrible that I can go spend even more hundreds of dollars on that is guaranteed to work with the Pixhawk?

Rules:

No SimonK, because that firmware isn't compatible.

No EMAX because that hardware isn't compatible.

I hope this could end up being an actual, no BS compatible ESC reference for others that have less time or cash they want to waste

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Replies are closed for this discussion.

esc, compatibility

Replies

- - Simon Kirby > Bill Bonney May 12, 2015 at 2:40pm
    
    Hi Bill,
    
    I can't control the EMAX firmware, since I have nothing to do with them. They just borrowed my name for marketing. It sounds like that is a bug that should be fixed in their software, though..
    - Developer
      
      Bill Bonney > Simon Kirby May 12, 2015 at 3:57pm
      
      I agree, but if its the long high state of the PWM line that is causing the issue, this maybe be able to be fixed in PixHawk driver to not do that.
- Simon Kirby > Rob_Lefebvre May 11, 2015 at 3:55pm
  
  Well, it would be nice to get working what isn't, if only for the purpose of avoiding having to maintain lists of what doesn't work. ;)
  - Phil Gamito > Simon Kirby May 12, 2015 at 11:38am
    
    Simon, if there's anything I can do to help you, even sending you one of the Afros I used, I'd be happy to.
    - Simon Kirby > Phil Gamito May 12, 2015 at 2:47pm
      
      Well, it sounded like from your previous post that the firmware update had resolved the issue, but that you didn't want to try it since it might cause damage. That is fair. I think I have enough Afros for testing, but not that particular motor. I'll pick one up and confirm with old and new firmware. If you'd like to test on the bench or similar, throttle jump from slow speed to full (leaving time to slow back down between retries, and preferably do the jump with a switch) is most likely to reproduce any sync issues.
  - Rob_Lefebvre > Simon Kirby May 12, 2015 at 9:29am
    
    I agree. Unfortunately, we can't fix hardware problems or sync problems in flight controller software. This needs to be fixed by the ESC manufacturers. The best we could do would be to add a low-pass filter to the PWM outputs, but then that would defeat the purpose of using the high-response ESC firmwares anyway.
  - Felixrising > Simon Kirby May 11, 2015 at 11:06pm
    
    Why sir, I like the cut of your jib!
Lars S May 11, 2015 at 7:00am

Hi, I had a problem with my Jdrones 5010 motors on Afros. The Emax 4 in 1 goes into fault mode, because Pixhawk put out 0 pwm before arming, so that also went in the bin.

After contacting Jdrones, I was adviced to try Hobbywing Xrotor esc. They work perfectly, and I have not touched a setting.

The are also quite inexpensive.

Lars
Moderator

RM Aviation May 11, 2015 at 1:15am

I'm working on a fix for the emax 4 in 1 esc using an op-amp. I won't go too far into the electronic theory but it should fix the issues. I will post when complete. Till then the Quattro 4 in 1 works very well.
Krzysztof May 11, 2015 at 12:26am

I use KDE UAS 55A+ with KDE 4014XF (380kv) + 18" props. It works great with Pixhawk.