Lets Talk ESC's and Bang For Your Buck!

[TheMoonDr]

Hey guys,
After a recent poor decision choice on my part and buying some really horrible 30a EMAX ESC's....Which you cant upgrade the firmeware unless you want to unsolder a Cap and Resistor...I am looking to replace these with some good ESC's that the mojority of the people can agree are good. I was looking onling and came across these http://www.dys.hk/ProductShow.asp?ID=243 (DYS XSD 30A ESC) which seem to get good reviews from people online and the price was pretty good once I found some online coupons. I debated between that and this other DYS Esc http://www.dys.hk/ProductShow.asp?ID=221 (DYS XS 30A ESC) But on there website I noticed it said "********ATTENTION****

**DYS XS30A is with A-H-30 firwmware, pls don't change the original firmware by yourself.**"

That sent up some red flags for me, since the last ESC's I bought had issues updating the fireware. SO, I'd like to ask everyone who reads this post to post their thought's on ESC's and what has worked good for them. I'd like ot hear both the bad and good, cause lets be honest, you wont find a ESC that is tottaly perfect, there will always be some sort of drawback one way or another.

Also on a side note I make and sell copper heat sinks that fit on your ESC's that will greatly improve the cooling effencincy and protect them from prop strike. That wayyou dont have to tape the ever living poop out of your ESC's just to protect them and keep them on the quad. General weight is .25G to 1.25G depending on the size of your ESC, and can be applied to the ESC's in such a way you wont void the waranty if you are worried. But I would recommend removing the heat shrink and applying them my way Vr the slap on and paste method.

 

[jhitesma]

You can reflash the emax without desoldering the cap and resistor, you just have to use an arduino and rig up a way to attach to the dedicated programming pads on the circuit board. In fact, even if you removed the cap and resistor you'd have to flash it with the arduino over the programming pads the first time anyway since the stock firmware doesn't have the bootloader needed to re-flash over the signal wire.

If you want to get really fancy you can even rig up a flashing harness for them to be able to do all four at once. With the silabs based ESC's like the emax "blheli series" it's only 3 wires (Ground, signal, clock) and the signal wire is common across all 4 ESC's so you have 1 GND, 1 Signal and 4 clocks connected to the arduino and a little 6 pin header works perfect. (Or in a pinch two servo connectors glued together to make a 6 pin header.) Then you get to keep the better input filtering the cap and resistor provide and you have an easy way to reflash when needed. With the atmel based ESC's it's more wires and you need more for each esc so it's not as easy or clean to rig up a flashign harness.

 

[TheMoonDr]

Its not worth all the trouble, when you can just buy a better esc that allows you to reflash newer firmware across the signal wire and not have to go through all the trouble. I have the documentation to work on the EMAX esc and reprogram them, but like I said not worth desoldering the cap and resistor and riging up an arduino board. Thats why I was wanting to get people opinion on other esc's than the EMAX.

 

[PsyBorg]

It is all a personal preference really. I fly the 30 amp esc's from FT store on my versacopter still with stock firmware and it does what I want it to just fine. I also have the Alien with the full Kiss set up running dshot. Quads are like cars. You get what you pay for.

A Chevy Chevette (my runner 250) will get you point A to point b fairly reliably. A Cadillac (my modded Versacopter) will do it in comfort. A Rolls Royce (My Alien) will do it with style. They all do the same job just some do it better and they all depend on how much effort you put into setting them up. The hardware is secondary to all that.

 

[jhitesma]

Its not worth all the trouble, when you can just buy a better esc that allows you to reflash newer firmware across the signal wire and not have to go through all the trouble. I have the documentation to work on the EMAX esc and reprogram them, but like I said not worth desoldering the cap and resistor and riging up an arduino board. Thats why I was wanting to get people opinion on other esc's than the EMAX.

Nothing wrong with wanting to switch to better ESC's. The FETS on the emax aren't the fastest anyway, but as far as non_s blheli esc's go their not much better or worse than most of the others out there. Just wanted to clarify that you don't have to remove the cap and resistor to reflash them. Only if you want to use the signal wire for flashing/changing settings - but if you do that you risk getting noise on your input anyway and would still have to flash at least once the way that doesn't require removing those. And really there's no point in constantly reflashing changing settings on ESC's all the time so being able to flash through the signal wire isn't that big of a deal to me. (Though I fly KISS on most of my builds and don't worry about ever adjusting anything.)

Blheli_s is a much nicer setup than the older blheli stuff, but I haven't used those DYS ESC's you were asking specifically about. I have a set of the little bees and have been very happy with them, not quite as nice as my KISS but for a fraction of the price they seem to perform about 95% as well so I'd gladly use them again.

 

[Habakkukk]

Something like this may be a good option if your looking for value. Those xsd's work fantastic though. (Buy from a vendor that sells the v2's though). Digital is slightly easier to tune vs analog (dshot vs multishot). Any of the newer blheli_s esc's will perform better than older emax running Simmonk firmware.
Also, download the blheli configurator chrome app, it's a little easier to use vs blheli suite

 

[TheMoonDr]

Something like this may be a good option if your looking for value. Those xsd's work fantastic though. (Buy from a vendor that sells the v2's though). Digital is slightly easier to tune vs analog (dshot vs multishot). Any of the newer blheli_s esc's will perform better than older emax running Simmonk firmware.
Also, download the blheli configurator chrome app, it's a little easier to use vs blheli suite

I was looking at the V2 you mentioned and didn't really notice a difference. Only thing is the V2 is smaller, both have the same chips

 

[Habakkukk]

I was looking at the V2 you mentioned and didn't really notice a difference. Only thing is the V2 is smaller, both have the same chips

Not entirely sure what the difference is but v2 will probably eliminate firmware issues later on. Hardware is probably the same.

 

[TheMoonDr]

Not entirely sure what the difference is but v2 will probably eliminate firmware issues later on. Hardware is probably the same.

For now I went with the V1, saves me over 20$ for a set of 4, and I didn't notice a difference in chips. I'll post how the performance once I get them in my 210

 

[TheMoonDr]

I take it back, I did get the V2. Just waiting on them to arrive. Was going to get 2 more this weekend but they out of stock till Feb 1st