BLHeli VS SimonK

Which fireware is superior from your experience


  • Total voters
    7

Robbie

Senior Member
Hey guys,

Because the kiss 30A ESCs are a while a way i am looking to get either some Afro ESC 30Amp which run SimonK or some Rotorgeeks 30A BLHeli ESC, and i am curious as to which firmware is better?

Also does anyone know any other good quality ESCs which have some of the features of Kiss.

Thanks
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
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Having played with and tuned both, I prefer BLHeli.

That being said, the Simonk with bootloader versions are easier to flash and have fewer options to tune . . . but that can be either good or bad.
 

narcolepticltd

I unbuild stuff regularly
the 30a rotorgeeks ESC's are good stuff. They're easy to update as well as long as you buy the tool stick with the ESC's. dampening and oneshot on by default I believe.

I'm hoping he'll come out with the smaller version with dampening soon.
 

Robbie

Senior Member
the 30a rotorgeeks ESC's are good stuff. They're easy to update as well as long as you buy the tool stick with the ESC's. dampening and oneshot on by default I believe.

I'm hoping he'll come out with the smaller version with dampening soon.

the rotorgeeks site say: OneShot125 mode autodetected. Current batch flashed with BLHeli 13.1 with damped mode ENABLED
 

narcolepticltd

I unbuild stuff regularly
Btw do you need a bec lead to reflash ESCs

no, you just need power to the ESC. However, if you do end up with the RG ESCs, you can simply install them, and then connect to each one with the tool stick while you have the battery on the copter connected
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
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you at least need to consider it . . . then switch because it is a change for the better.
 

Craftydan

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Damping is another term for a regen-braking technique -- using the flywheel energy of the prop to slow the motor. it allows for the spin-down half of a speed change to be active instead of passive and can make performance MUCH snappier.

Issue is, some ESC hardware can do it well, some, not so much.
 

jipp

Senior Member
Damping is another term for a regen-braking technique -- using the flywheel energy of the prop to slow the motor. it allows for the spin-down half of a speed change to be active instead of passive and can make performance MUCH snappier.

Issue is, some ESC hardware can do it well, some, not so much.

thanks dan.. i guess we need a poll now on ESC brands that support such features, for a reference..

chris.
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
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I think the question of BlHeli or SimonK is partly one of purpose.

SimonK is simple. It is LIGHT YEARS better than stock HobbyKing firmware and if you get pre-flashed Simon K ESCs you connect them and forget about it. If you are a beginner or just not up to flashing firmware on a set of ESCs, SimonK is EXCELLENT.

BlHeli offers more options and is more performance oriented. Here you can really go down the rabbit hole and make the ESCs perform the way you want to. BlHeli offers better performance but you will work for it.

I am a fan of simple. I just wanna fly. Then again, I like to dig into rabbit holes so I have both running today. Both will do flips and rolls and spins just fine.
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Well there's this list:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhR02IDNb7_MdEhfVjk3MkRHVzhKdjU1YzdBQkZZRlE#gid=0

And the BlHeli distribution includes a file that lists more details about which BLheli features are supported on which ESC's.

I've switched over to BLheli on all of my non KISS ESC's - but that doesn't mean I don't like SimonK. SimonK actually has more options and features than most people realize (most people don't seem to know what SimonK also has a beep function like BL/KISS where the ESC's start making noise if they don't get a signal after a few minutes, and some don't even realize simonk has comp_pwm ) - but they're not as easy for the end user to change unless they use RapidFlash which doesn't support the flashing hardware I happen to use. That said BL does have more settings exposed to the user - but most of them really never need to be modified for most uses.

What I like most about BL is that it seems to be undergoing more active development. SimonK certainly isn't stuck or not progressing...but does seem to be playing catch up at this point. (I know that the code for SimonK now support automatic oneshot detection like BL - but I'm not sure if there's an official release version with that incorporated yet.)

It does seem to me that BL's damped light works better than SimonK's comp_pwm but it can vary wildly from ESC to ESC which makes this a somewhat nonsensical question as the answer varies depending on the ESC.

If you've got the setup and ability to flash ESC's I'd say try both - it's not that hard and is pretty much the only way to find out which is better for your particular application/hardware.
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
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If you've got the setup and ability to flash ESC's I'd say try both - it's not that hard and is pretty much the only way to find out which is better for your particular application/hardware.

That is assuming, of course, the ESC is Atmel based. If it's running SimonK already, then it's a good assumption.

If its SiLabs based, you have the choice between stock and BLHeli . . . but that's not a bad thing ;)