Silent outrunner and ESC for less then $60

[jrayvail]

Am I missing something here? I have 4 esc to try. No matter if it's a new or old esc, blue and green light come on for less than a second and fade. This happens in the st link and when I plug the battery in. Swcd, swc, ground and power are all verified good connections. I appreciate the write up, but please do it sober and don't leave out stuff, because this absolutely does not work. If anyone can help please do.

[GA Dawg]

Originally Posted by jrayvail

please do it sober and don't leave out stuff, because this absolutely does not work.

What a great way to ask for help.

[gvngoheavy]

I just realized that I bought V2 wraith esc's.

Could this be the source of my problems?

[Voodoobrew]

Originally Posted by gvngoheavy

Decided to take a second whack at this. Thank you much for sharing all the files and this tutorial.

This time seems to be more successful than last time. I get the dixie tune on start up but nothing beyond that. Thinking I fried the esc at some point? Never smelled like burning and never got any magic smoke though. The only sign of a fried esc is the indicator LEDs light up real bright when battery is first plugged in then fade like a cap going. But it will do this everytime I plug in.

Thanks much for the help in advance. Really would like to get the two escs Ive been tinkering with going.

yea the led does that every time, its normal. I think its hooked up to a debug pin or something. Because its not programed to light up, at least not on purpose. Try powering on the radio after you plug the battery in. There is some kind of intermittent arming issue in some of the builds. But if you hear the start chime the next step is arming. Some times its just trim, some times its turn on the transmitter after the car, I never have arming issues with my Arduino PWM servo tester. but i do with my Spektrum tx/rx, most of the quad copter people never have the issue. The full flashes are the best bet, because they have the EEPROM populated. if you load the bootloader separate from the firmware then you need to load or save EEPROM defaults in the configurator through a flight controller. I dont have much time to respond here because I'm in the last week of may BSN program and the stress is hitting me pretty hard.

The best place to get help is in the AM32 slack chat https://am32-invite.herokuapp.com/

I have no idea id the V2 is compatible with this firmware or not, I dont have one. I mean I sure it could be if it has a STM32F051 processor, but I dont know the Pinout.

[gvngoheavy]

Originally Posted by Voodoobrew

Try powering on the radio after you plug the battery in. There is some kind of intermittent arming issue in some of the builds. But if you hear the start chime the next step is arming. Some times its just trim, some times its turn on the transmitter after the car, I never have arming issues with my Arduino PWM servo tester. but i do with my Spektrum tx/rx, most of the quad copter people never have the issue. The full flashes are the best bet, because they have the EEPROM populated. if you load the bootloader separate from the firmware then you need to load or save EEPROM defaults in the configurator through a flight controller. I dont have much time to respond here because I'm in the last week of may BSN program and the stress is hitting me pretty hard.

Righton. Thanks much for the response. I went back after and watched the tut videos. I totally missed the EEPROM/Bootloader portion of things. Got an FC in the mail that should arrive tomorrow. Im going to try getting things going through the configurator.

Ill hopefully figure it out before you respond here but thought Id put the question out there incase anyone else knew. Just wanted to confirm that all I need to connect to the FC is GND + PWM(to the motor port on the FC) Just wanted to make sure I didnt have to connect up the TX pad to a telemetry pad on the FC. All my blheli experience is with either pre-wired combo fc+esc stacks or whoop AIO boards.

Thanks much, Good luck with your last week!

[Voodoobrew]

There is new firmware coming out and a new configurator with some new features in the configurator.


Using direct connect you can use an Arduino Nano flashed from the make interfaces tab of BLHeliSuite32 or download the Arduino INO file from my drive. I dont know if this works with other Arduino Boards, if you know Arduino then you should be able to figure it out looking at the pins in the code.

The new volume, and input settings are only available for firmware 1.65 and Higher.

There is also some firmware that allows BL32 ESC's to be used with brushed motors. But there are not settings to configure as of yet. I tested it on a scx24 and it had noticeably more torque then stock.

[JC3]

I've got two Wraith V1's and an ST-Link on order. Gonna give it a try.

[ovidiugm]

Wow, great low speed control!

A few questions though:

1. Why would you flash the ESC with a different firmware? To be able to drive the motor at a lower speed than stock, or do you obtain other functions like drag brake, reverse and so on?
2. Is there a programming interface for this ESC? Can you change its working parameters on the fly?

Sorry for the basic questions, don't have much experience in heli ESCs. Thanks!

[ovidiugm]

One more thing: would a motor like in the link work? It's a 3.17mm shaft so no need for 5mm pinions...
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/propdriv...ner-motor.html

[themountain]

Originally Posted by ovidiugm

One more thing: would a motor like in the link work? It's a 3.17mm shaft so no need for 5mm pinions...
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/propdriv...ner-motor.html

Why not
I have a BG special 1450Kv and it works fine !
[IMG][/IMG]

[ovidiugm]

Originally Posted by themountain

Why not
I have a BG special 1450Kv and it works fine !
[IMG][/IMG]

Are you using it on 2S or 3S?

[themountain]

3 and4s ��

[Voodoobrew]

Originally Posted by ovidiugm

Wow, great low speed control!

A few questions though:

1. Why would you flash the ESC with a different firmware? To be able to drive the motor at a lower speed than stock, or do you obtain other functions like drag brake, reverse and so on?
2. Is there a programming interface for this ESC? Can you change its working parameters on the fly?

Sorry for the basic questions, don't have much experience in heli ESCs. Thanks!

I with ground based tr/rx no you can't change settings on the fly like with bluetooth.
maybe it can be done with a dshot command but I dont use that to know about it.

It gives you much lower RPM with an out runner, and its much quieter. outrunners have much more power then a standard motor and you can get them cheap, so that's why I love this firmware. but I suppose the original firmware was also quiet, so for the low end speed I guess. It has drag brake and active drag brake like the original firmware too.

[Voodoobrew]

Originally Posted by ovidiugm

One more thing: would a motor like in the link work? It's a 3.17mm shaft so no need for 5mm pinions...
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/propdriv...ner-motor.html

Yes but that's a smaller motor its 28mm where as a 540 is 35mm in diameter,
The mounting bolt pattern is also smaller this motor is 16mm & 19mm where a 540 is a 25mm mounting pattern.

Much easer to use a 5mm pinion, yes?
or buy a revolver from Holmes Hobbies, or a riot from team brood, they have 3.15mm shafts.

[ovidiugm]

Originally Posted by Voodoobrew

Yes but that's a smaller motor its 28mm where as a 540 is 35mm in diameter,
The mounting bolt pattern is also smaller this motor is 16mm & 19mm where a 540 is a 25mm mounting pattern.

Much easer to use a 5mm pinion, yes?
or buy a revolver from Holmes Hobbies, or a riot from team brood, they have 3.15mm shafts.

Thanks so much, this makes sense, I will look into a 35mm diameter motor.
Are you on 2s or 3s?

[CM9000]

the 50a esc is capable up to 6s. also makes me wonder... can these run brushed motors?

[ovidiugm]

Originally Posted by CM9000

the 50a esc is capable up to 6s. also makes me wonder... can these run brushed motors?

If they are not designed to be able to reverse the polarity (hardware limitation), I would say the most you could get would be to be able to drive a brushed motor one direction only.

A custom firmware might be able to fire all three phases together, this would offer forward only, no reverse.

[ovidiugm]

One more question, anyone had luck flashing the newer version Wraith32 V2?
V1.1 seems to be out of stock.

[ovidiugm]

Originally Posted by ovidiugm

If they are not designed to be able to reverse the polarity (hardware limitation), I would say the most you could get would be to be able to drive a brushed motor one direction only.

A custom firmware might be able to fire all three phases together, this would offer forward only, no reverse.

Looking deeper into this project, it turns out that the hardware has the capability to drive not one, but actually two brushed motors!

And some nice people are actively developing a firmware for it: Open source ESC and firmware

[gvngoheavy]

Originally Posted by ovidiugm

One more question, anyone had luck flashing the newer version Wraith32 V2?
V1.1 seems to be out of stock.

I have been flashing the v2.1 Wraith32 esc's with great success. Dont trust the images online. The swc and swd pads are on the board! Be wary of the KV rating you throw at these esc's. I have popped FETs immediately trying to run a 2500kv revolver. Seems that 1800kv is the upper limit of the wraith32 esc at the moment.

I have other boards in the mail to be tested. Im particularly interested in the capabilities of Metal FET boards.