Originally Posted by power

As far as cold weather goes, I use the Hobby Lobby Rapid Drives (SimonK) on my heavy Y6. I went out the other day at 2 degrees and everything was smooth as silk...

Tharr62, I have the video from yesterday brewing right now. The CC-25's did well. My new ultra light Y6 did pretty ok too

Mike

Nice photos!
I need a good high resolution still camera – what camera do you have or recommend?


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Originally Posted by RC Man

Nice photos!
I need a good high resolution still camera – what camera do you have or recommend?


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Thanks, I have now ditched my DSLR cams and use the Sony NEX-5n exclusively with the 19mm Sigma lens. The Sigma lens is now dirt cheap and it is far sharper than the Sony 16mm pancake. Not so good with video as it hunts with AF, but the stills are super.

Here is my camera on a new lightweight Y6 (with CC-PH 25's ) . This is the first test flight with the cam on deck...

it was actually quite breezy during the flight so I left the wind noise in at the end of the clip

Enjoy...

The little Y6 that could (6 min 5 sec)

Originally Posted by power

They work well, I had them on a flat hexa and they seemed slow in comparison to my SimonK flashed ESC's. I have since swapped them to a Y6 config and things seem much better. I have concluded that the DJI Naza configs have a different code that affects response. That said, I feel my SimonK ESC's still have a more solid feel in the air. I have the CC PH-25's installed on a new Y6 that I will test fly today. I will post the video here later this evening.

Bottom line...IMO they work well, so do SimonK ESC's at a fraction of the cost. Reliability is a non issue both get the job done. If had to do it all over again it would be a cold day (and it is ) before I would shell another $300.00+ for the CC ESC's when there are products that will equal it at less than half the cost.

I do have to give CC a couple of good points though, I like the fact that they stay very cool even though they do not have a heat sink like their competitors. I also like the fact that for calibration you only have to use one ESC and set the range of your TX and all other ESC's will follow suit. They did things exactly opposite of the China based stuff. The CC ESC's have factory fixed endpoints all that is needed is your TX to know what that range is and your good to go.

Anywho...If you have the cash go with CC.

Mike

Mike I agree - I have 8 cc 25s and they work ok - but I have switched back to SimonK. Castles seem to still be doing a small amount of filtering - probably for safety or reliability - that makes simonK slightly more responsive.

SimonK on ESCs with external clock - have been very reliable for me at a fraction of the cost

Just my opinion

Al

Does anyone have anything new to report on how the Phoenix 25 with the latest firmware gets along with 24-pole pancake motors like the T-motor MT4006?

And yeah I've read all 24 pages of this thread.

Thanks!

Pete

I am excited.. just about to finish up a TBS Discovery quad, with AXI 2217/20's and CC ESC's.. just trying to research now the best programming settings in Castle Link (Motor Timing) for this setup, as taking the cover off this quad will be a pain for further adjustments.

Originally Posted by PGR

Does anyone have anything new to report on how the Phoenix 25 with the latest firmware gets along with 24-pole pancake motors like the T-motor MT4006?

And yeah I've read all 24 pages of this thread.

Thanks!

Pete

I think its in this thread - people reporting problems.
Use simonk latest firmware instead with non CC ESC.

Originally Posted by PGR

Does anyone have anything new to report on how the Phoenix 25 with the latest firmware gets along with 24-pole pancake motors like the T-motor MT4006?

And yeah I've read all 24 pages of this thread.

Thanks!

Pete

I have Phoenix 25's of my F-450, ICE Lite 50A on my Quad 670 and ICE 50A
on my Octo and I am pleased with their performance as I only fly for AP which
is smooth and steady flight. HOWEVER, I have used the Castle Link to program
each ESC to the new "Multi-rotor" catagory which now appears in the first setup screen.
I have heard that the popular, moderately priced ESC's that are SimonK flashed, seem
to be slightly more responsive, but for my purposes the Castle ESC's are great.

I'm still trying to get this combo going. No useful help coming from either Tiger or Castle at this point.
Running with high timing still looses sync at around 70%. Too bad cause these are sweet motors, and I am a big fan of the P-25.

Had a long break and am just getting back into it. I'll report if I have a breakthrough.

I just thought I would add my last and final thoughts on the Castle ESC's for multi use....


Don't bother....

If you look back in this thread I have tested them on plenty of platforms and they do work. That said, the SimonK versions out there at a fraction of the cost work far better in every way.

If you want a real treat for an experience, try slapping a set of six on a Y6 with a KK2 board and see what happens...I was flying the Y6 with the Naza and it did ok. Still had slight wobbles at times but worked well. (again, SimonK esc's were faster responding) I decided I was going to use this Y6 as a sport copter so I mounted up the KK2 board and tuned it for stable flight. I gave the sticks a slight poke to the right and the copter went into oscillation and flipped twice and landed on the gear. Wheww....no damage. I decided to hand hold for testing. I found that if I rocked the copter fast in one direction it would start rocking violently with no recovery. I tried a quad layout and got the same result at any PID settings...

Just for kicks I slapped on a set of non SimonK Turnigy plush ESC's and it was smooth as silk at the same tuning parameters. Now...This did not really surprise me. Many yrs ago, before Castle decided to upgrade their firmware with multirotor settings. I worked with them by phone while seeing this very same violent action on multi wii boards. They insisted that it was my setup . Ironically....After many crashed, bashed, and tested platforms I swapped out the Castles for turnigy plush and saw the light.

I have now sold off my last 6 Castle PH-25's 6 for $70.00 someone got a bargain! I can honestly say that I have now completely washed my hands of Castle products and I am not looking back. I have spent a TON of money and time to get ok performance or flat out scary results. Save your money guys....

Mike

Just got back from putting in 11 flights with my quad with Phoenix 25’s. They sure run nice. I have used a few different motors over the past year and they all work best with PWM = 12 KHz and timing set between 3 and 5.

I fly with APM 2.5+ and mostly do waypoint navigation flights to take photos. The latest APM firmware is awesome. Loiter in about half meter box horizontally. The latest firmware used INS and holds altitude dead on with almost no variation.



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Also APM firmware allows you to set the communication frequency to the ESC’s. I called CC Tech support and they said to use 400 Hz so that’s what I have been using. If you are having problems maybe your board to ESC PWM frequency is not optimal.

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Originally Posted by RC Man

Also APM firmware allows you to set the communication frequency to the ESC’s. I called CC Tech support and they said to use 400 Hz so that’s what I have been using. If you are having problems maybe your board to ESC PWM frequency is not optimal.

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RC Man, you also said; "they all work best with PWM = 12 KHz and timing set between 3 and 5." With all the
talk about the Phoenix 25A not being a good choice over the low priced SimonK flashed ESC's, I would like
your opinion on the following. Once a Phoenix 25 is connected to the Castle Link and the "Multi-rotor" catagory
is downloaded to it, do you suggest any other changes to the values while still connected to the Castle Link?
I just do not get why any Simonized ESC should work better for Multi-rotors than a Castle and why it's said
that the Castle responds much slower. Your comments will be apreciated.

Originally Posted by Papajeff

RC Man, you also said; "they all work best with PWM = 12 KHz and timing set between 3 and 5." With all the
talk about the Phoenix 25A not being a good choice over the low priced SimonK flashed ESC's, I would like
your opinion on the following. Once a Phoenix 25 is connected to the Castle Link and the "Multi-rotor" catagory
is downloaded to it, do you suggest any other changes to the values while still connected to the Castle Link?
I just do not get why any Simonized ESC should work better for Multi-rotors than a Castle and why it's said
that the Castle responds much slower. Your comments will be apreciated.

I just looked at my setup.
I have cutoff voltage locked at 4V. You never want it to shutdown with a multirotor. I also have Soft Cutoff.

There are many variables like the controller, motor, prop, battery, and maybe others. I have tried a couple of different controllers and really can’t tell any in-flight difference between Chinese and Phoenix 25 ESC’s. Maybe others can tell the difference but I can’t. I like the setup that I have so I will continue to use it just the way it’s now setup.

The guys at Hover Fly did some lab tests and found that CC ESC’s performed as good as or better than SimonK flashed ESC's. Lab tests are something that I really don’t pay much attention to. Some say that they can run more or less gain but if they all fly the well why spend all the time and energy with these useless discussions.

If Chinese works best for you just keep flying it and be happy.

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BTW it was spring on Saturday and I got in many good flights. Sunday the weather gods crapped on us and we now have 18” of snow in central Illinois – I am definitely ready for some better flying weather.

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RC Man, thank you for your reply and I tend to agree with you that if one is happy with the performance of Chinese,
then use them and the same for Castle ESC's. I have also had no complaints using the Castle ESC's once they
have been programmed for "multi-rotor" use on the Castle Link. I just thought that you changed some of the other
settings on the Castle Link once you had programmed them for "multi-rotor" use and I did not think that the other
parameters could be changed, such as KHz and the timing.

Sorry to hear about all that Spring snow you are getting.

I was wondering if anyone has had problems getting the phoenix ice lite 50 (firmware v4.02) to work with the Wookong-M. I recently installed them on our octocopter and all that happens is ocassional twitches, red light flashing, 5 beeps, or they run for a second then either of the above.

I set the ESCs on multirotor and I have tried different settings on the firmware, but nothing helps. I know both the autopilot and ESC work as i have tested each independently, they just dont seem to work together.