Here is a bench test I have done to find out if a 2s to 4s Afro ESC's can run on 6s.
ESC’s and Label Specs
Afro Slim ESC 20amp 2- 4s battery afro_nfet.hex firmware
Afro Bec ESC 30amp 2- 4s battery afro_nfet.hex firmware
Afro HV ESC 20amp 2- 8s battery afro_nfet.hex firmware (control)
ESC component specs taken from the manufactures data sheets.
Afro Slim 20amp 2-4s:
5v MCU supply regulator LM78L05 Max input 30v Max load 100ma
NFets FDMS8018 Max Voltage 30v, Continuous Drain @ Ta=25°C = 30amps
BC817-40W 6CW max Voltage 45v 500ma
All components are rated up to 150°C
Afro bec 30amp 2-4s:
5v MCU supply regulator LM78L05 Max input 30v Max load 100ma
NFets FDMS8018 Max Voltage 30v, Continuous Drain @ Ta=25°C = 30amps
BC817-40W 6CW max Voltage 45v 500ma
All components are rated up to 150°C
Afro HV 20amp 2-8s:
5v MCU supply regulator LM78L05 Max input 30v Max load 100ma
(But this LM78L05 is fed from two DAR transistors that take the HV voltage and step it down to 12v, their Max voltage is 40v) this is why I think the Afro HV was de-rated from 12s to 8s.
NFets FDMS86540 Max Voltage 60v, Continuous Drain @ Ta=25°C = 20amps
(If the 5v MCU supply was by-passed and you fed the MCU with 5v from another source the Nfets are rated at 60v) So I would assume the ESC will run at 12s with a new 5v supply for the MCU.
All components are rated up to 150°C
Test equipment:
Power supply 60amp 24v power station
Amp and Watt meter Turnigy 130A
Tarot 4114 motor with 15 x 5.5 prop fitted
Test meter with temperature probe
Motor stand with weight scale attached for thrust readings
Servo tester for PMW control
Method
Apply a constant 24v supply to a power meter then to an ESC to measure amps drawn with the esc connected to a standard motor and propeller running at 50 % PWM throttle controlled by a servo tester and run for 10mins whist monitoring temperature, amps, watts and thrust.
Result
ESC Amps Draw Watts Temp Thrust
1st Afro slim 20A 5.65 133 47.1C 1114g
2nd Afro BEC 30A 5.68 134 53.8C 1160g
3rd Afro HV 20A 5.3 125 46.0C 1111g
Conclusion
It Appears as if the Afro Slim 20amp and the Afro Bec 30amp ESC’s are capable of handling the use of a 6s battery as a power source, according the specs of the components provided by the chip manufacturer, the temperature of the components was very similar and the amps drawn the same. So if you wanted to hide the ESC’s in the arms of the Multi-rotor (provided cooling holes for air was allowed for) then this will be fine and they will run on 6s power.
Caveats
Slim ESC wiring was upgraded to suit a higher amp draw and the use of 6s batteries, (although the original wiring fitting is 20amp rated so should be fine for most Multi-rotors) the other component’s on the boards were not investigated, so no information on them is known.
Use this info at your own risk.
Video https://youtu.be/91rc37c5YBQ
Photos
Comments
you can enable reverse in ESC and tell flight controller to use it. In that case PWM 1500 means stop anything above that spins in one direction, anything lower spins the opposite.
That mode is used in acro tricks with quads.
I think going from full throttle one way to full throttle the opposite can fry ESCs unless FETs are rated for at least 2x of battery voltage
No don't think they can be configured for reverse during flight ... But you could add a crossover switch to two of the output wires from the esc to the motor then program to a switch on your transmitter, which you then flip on and off to reverse the motor.
Can you configure those ESCs for reverse (3D or car mode), it think they will burn on 6s..
Peter is right about the LDO power dissipation, but when nothing is connected to the BEC, it only has to provide about 30-40 mA to the microcontroller and other circuitry. On 4s, that's (14.8-5)*0.040 = 0.4 Watts. That's not a big deal.
However, if you run the BEC at the published output of 500mA, then it's (14.8-5)*0.5 = 5 Watts, which will get very very hot. As you push the voltage up, it will get even hotter.
The other thing that provides a limit is the MOSFET "absolute maximum Vgs" which is the maximum voltage between the gate and source. Most FETs (including the SiR158DPs used on the 30A Afros) have a maximum Vgs of +/-20V.
Most ESCs under 40 amps use charge pumps to produce a voltage high enough to turn on the high-side MOSFETs. The charge pump effectively doubles the battery voltage so that Vgs is (2*Vbat - Vbat = Vbat), so, if your battery voltage is over 20V, then Vgs is also over 20V, going over the maximum rating. (See here for the schematic of the BlueESC, which is very similar to the AfroESCs)
That said, I've also taken the Afros well above 20V and they work great. I'm not an EE, so I don't understand what is supposed to happen when you reach Vgs max. Perhaps someone else here can speak to that.
-Rusty
Thanks for the test!
I have used mostly Afro ESCs and not had any failures I can remember. I (almost) always re-work to improve the heatsink contact and solder wiring direct to the board, removing all connectors. Often the heat sink is not evenly contacting all fets.
One ESC failure I recall from ages ago was a test where the quad dropped from quite high with motors off and restarted for a landing. I suspect the free-wheeling generator effect killed the ESC; probably over-voltage.
It has been my experience that over-voltage easily kills mosfets, but with good heat sinking they are quite robust to brief periods of over-current. Capacitor voltage ratings could be stressed with more cells. I also wonder if all 7805 regulators are made to the same spec. I replaced some mosfets in a gimbal controller late last year and there seemed to be quite a performance difference between the originals and replacements although all had the same part number. It has worked since, so I didn't investigate.
ESC failure possibility does suggest that some sort of fuse between the battery and ESC may be worth considering, at least in fixed-wing where reliability is important and loosing an ESC is recoverable.
For James
I never use the bullet connectors, on all the machines I build, all wires are soldered direct, the less connections I have the better. Yes I have come across poorly soldered connections before and these will bring down a craft .. never trust what someone else has done.
Due to the fact that these ESC's are labeled 2-4s and they would have been used on a professional machine that our governing body (CAA) have registered on their books (we are 102 Certified by CAA), we will only use ESC's that are labeled to the correct battery and setup we are using, just in case there is an accident and an investigation followed. We would not want to be found using underrated components in an aircraft that is approved by CAA. My test was to prove to myself that you can use a higher cell count, as in the past have used higher voltage without any investigation into ESC components in airplanes that i fly, this was quite a few years ago and I never had an ESC burn out on me. So for our professional machine I have ordered some "ZTW 30amp small" ESC's to test and fit, I will be stripping these down to investigate what components they are using :)
Hi Guys
I welcome any and all comments as I am not purporting to be a professional electronics engineer. I did run these ESC's at full throttle too .. in fact they ran better and the motor ran quite hot, (it is a well know fact that ESC's run better at over 75% throttle, at 50% they are working the hardest). I was careful though not to exceed the amp ratings for motor and ESC .. I would also like to point out that you will notice the fet temp on the Afro Bec 30amp was the highest ..I put this down to, it was the only one to still have its heat shrink on.. also Peter talks about the temp of the 5v regulator as it has to dissipate 1.9w , I did notice the temps of the LM78L05 was barely warm.. I did have my fingers sandwiching the boards on some of the runs to feel for any component that took a rise in temp. I also note that on most bigger Multi rotors you hardly pull much more that between 4amp and 10amp per motor when flying. on one of my machines carrying a payload of 7kgs, I get up to only about 65amps total.
You can run those HV's at 12S :-)
Afro's are bulletproof, have quite a few machines running them, those slims are my personal favourite...
#timecoprules ;-)
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