Originally Posted by Joshbb

Nek: can you test the 02-10-11 version? to compare it

I need to flash 4 more RCT18A for my quad so I will give the 2011-02-10 version a go and let you know

Hi. Is it possible to flash a regulator http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...mmable%5F.html? Where to get firmware?

Originally Posted by Nek

Well maybe simon should look into the latest tgy 2011-10-12.hex firmware as it seems it has a clear loss of power and more heating of the ESC compared to the old undated tgy.hex

I can confirm this on my tricopter. I switched from RCT 30A with tgy.hex to RCT 18A with tgy 2011-10-12.hex.

I had a clear loss of 10% power, heat on the 18A ESC and shorter flight times by a good 2-3 minutes.

I flashed tgy.hex on the RCT 18A and I am back to the same performance, flight time and cool running ESC just like I had on the 30A and tgy.hex

This leads me to think that it is definitely something with the firmware and not the amp rating or the ESCs.

Right now I would advise to stick to the tgy.hex

Again thanks simon for still working on this code!!!

Hi, Nek!

Well, I've been hacking on it until Christine gets too annoyed at all of the motor sounds from my desk. The newer version actually runs at twice the clock rate and as such supports a much lower PWM duty cycle as part of the range (including a part where the FETs will probably never turn on). I need to subtract this out and push a new version to restore the "middle" throttle being somewhere around the same power level, but it depends on the particular board's FETs to some extent.

However, regardless of it running at twice the clock, the run timing should be the same between the two versions. tgy.hex uses hardware phase-correct PWM at a slightly lower clock rate (~15KHz) whereas the current builds do about 18KHz, but that really shouldn't make a huge difference. I'll try both for a few minutes and see if I can reproduce.

I should point out that I had a fun experience with a new HK KK board and three 18A plushes that I had flashed with a build around the age of tgy.hex. I hadn't hooked up the radio to the KK board yet, but had the motors plugged in without props. I hooked up the battery to make sure things looked ok, and a few seconds later the KK board armed itself (with no input). A few seconds after that, it seemed to go full throttle (and yaw all over the place). With that older build, the motors did not start properly and just constantly kept starting and stopping, I assume at 25% cycle with broken timing. They got very warm in just a few seconds before I unplugged the battery. I will confirm, but the newer builds should not have this problem. The KK board should probably have pull-downs or pull-ups on the radio Rx pins.

Cheers,

Simon-

Originally Posted by aleksasm

Hi. Is it possible to flash a regulator http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...mmable%5F.html? Where to get firmware?

It depends if they are AVR-based or not, and a number of them seem to be changing to a different SiLabs chip. I recently got some HK BlueSeries boards that were rated poorly but were cheap and they still seem to be AVR; for example, this one: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=15205

I'd recommend that one if not for the fact that seems to have problems with high current causing a voltage sag on VCC, making it reset itself if the current spikes too high (perhaps an (un)intentional design decision). The "caught on fire" comment made it particularly attractive. Anyway, it's cheap, and that stock batch still seems to be an AVR-based all-nFET design (use the bs_nfet target).

See the beginning page of this thread for download instructions.

Originally Posted by simonk

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=15205

Hmm, it looks like they already went through their stock of >1000 since I bought it, so who knows what it will be next.

Hey simon!

Thanks for looking into this, I too have to watch for the old lady haha

When you talk about run timing you are talking about flight times? Well you might be right that it should be the same, I only did one flight and it felt short.

The roughly 10-15% lack of power or pwm range offset is definitely there.

Thanks for this, really enjoying the tgy.hex so far so I'll stick to that on my tri

Nek, I use the 10-02-11 version and it seems fine but I have not compared it to the older tgy.hex. It will be interesting to see if you notice any difference between the 10-02-11 and the 12-10-11 as that could narrow down things regarding your lack of power etc... possibly

Josh,

Did you try this with Xaircraft UltraPWM already?

Originally Posted by bas10an

Josh,

Did you try this with Xaircraft UltraPWM already?

i am thinking about doing it this weekend,

Simon very kindly compiled an 'ultra pwm' hex which i will flash to some rctimer 30's.

Nek's post about less power and run time has me holding off though as its the same build date as the ultra hex.

i dont see any point in flashing xair escs, there are no pads either which would make it a hassle

I wonder if apparent lack of power stuff is due to extended throttle range?
Aren't most default ESCs like 1200..1800us for full throttle range? Where as this updated stuff is more like 1100..2000? or so. Just adjust your throttle min/max in software to higher?

Originally Posted by timecop

I wonder if apparent lack of power stuff is due to extended throttle range?
Aren't most default ESCs like 1200..1800us for full throttle range? Where as this updated stuff is more like 1100..2000? or so. Just adjust your throttle min/max in software to higher?

has that changed in the different builds?

I think it became wider in the build with overclocked intrc, but simonk would be the answer to that for sure.

Originally Posted by timecop

I wonder if apparent lack of power stuff is due to extended throttle range?
Aren't most default ESCs like 1200..1800us for full throttle range? Where as this updated stuff is more like 1100..2000? or so. Just adjust your throttle min/max in software to higher?

I believe you are on the right track here.

I am not worried about the throttle range, rather the heat that NEK reported with the latest version of the firmware (even though it is anecdotal). hmm, I think I will wait until more people report on firmware before I flash. I have 16 esc to flash, so want to do them at once.

Yup, maybe I should just change my range around, but yeah would be nice to have exact figures from simon to work from.

Also the heat issue was marginal, but there was a difference once I flashed to tgy.hex

Josh, I'll give 10-02-11 a go on my quad but I first need to get it setup with 4 18A running on tgy.hex so I can make a comparison.