Guide: Flashing Hobbywing Skywalker 20A ESC with BLHeli Firmware

Category : Arduino, Electronics, RC

This guide will tell you step by step how to flash a Hobbywing 20A esc with BLHeli firmware for multirotors. It will be the same procedure for any other ESC with a silabs chip, you just need to find the pin-outs for it. Well lets get started.

You will need the following:

Arduino (UNO, Nano etc. I use a Mega 1280 in this guide)
Three wires (I used some male to female jumper wires)
Soldering-iron with a tiny tip
OlliW`s flash-toolkit

Step 1:

Attach your selected Arduino board to your computers USB and run the following file from the OlliW toolkit “AvrBurnTool_vxxx.exe”. Choose the type of Arduino board and select it’s COMport, then click the button “Burn All”. This will burn the flashing-tool onto your Arduino board, you can use your Arduino board for other sketches later, this will not make your board useless for other tasks.

A CMD window will popup and let you know the flashing is in progress and then done. Just close the AvrBurn tool and the CMD window. Lets move onto next step!

Step 2.

Remove the plastic wrapping around your ESC, and get familiar with the soldering points as show in the next picture (click on the picture to see a larger one).

 

Now solder on the three jumper wires onto the pads shown in the picture above. The GND can be very tricky to solder, but after some try and fail I noticed it doesn’t need to be soldered exactly where the picture shows, but you can use the GND(black) at the servo-cable connection. Or generally any other GND. The red and white are easier, just put some tin on them first, then while you heat the wire, attach it!

It should look something like the picture below.

 

Then we attach the three wires onto the Arduino boards ISCP header, as shown in the picture below.

Step 3.

We are now almost ready to flash the ESC, but before we do so the ESC needs a lipo battery connected. Needs to be powered on while flashing. The start the file  ”BLHeliTool_v100.exe” and choose your ESC make, model, type. As shown in the picture below.

 

Or choose the firmware file directly ”BLHeliHexFiles\SKYWALKER_20A_MULTI_REV9_3.HEX “, and hit Flash!

If everything went smooth it should say “Flash hex file… DONE!” :) To verify this click the “Setup Basic” tab and select READ, this will tell you the firmware type.

HAPPY FLASHING!

PS! At the moment 9_3 firmware will cause “twitches” when used on the Skywalkers, a new fix is in the works. And will be released in a matter of days.

UPDATE: v10 firmware is now available, check out this link.

 

DIY: Stigerns Homebuilt H-Quadcopter

Category : RC

After some inspiration from fpv.no I decided to build my own H frame quadcopter.

It’s a very simple yet stable design, and makes a perfect FPV quad. The H quad gets a much larger “center” than most other types, which makes it spacious! You can fit almost anything onto it, well you’re only concern is the weight.

So I started off by drawing a simple 3D model of what I was looking for. I used 3dsmax, but for a quick model Sketchup is great. I’m jus more used to 3dsmax.

I bought some 18mm tick pinewood plates which I cut out cylinders in 20x18x800 mm sizes, then cut them down to their correct length.

To make em stick together I used some small wood-screws and polyurethane wood glue between the joints. Making it surprisingly sturdy and stiff!

For soldering it all together I used a power distribution board, placed underneath the plastic box. For battery connections I use two XT60 plugs, one in front and one in back, to keep the quad in balance. Alternatively you could make room for the battery under the plastic box, making it possible to only fly with one large battery.

The end result looking like this! Total quad weight without battery: 1045 g

Parts list:

4x XXD A2212 KV1000 Brushless Motor
10×4.5 SF Props (comes in pack of four)
HobbyWing 20A ESC (found at eBay, RCtimer.com also has some nice ESCs)
Hobbyking Multi-Rotor Power Distribution Board
Hobbyking KK2.0 Multi-rotor LCD Flight Control Board
A 3S lipo of your choosing, I recommend 2x 3000 mah.
Nylon XT60 Connector for battery. 
2x PolyMax 3.5mm Gold Connectors

Other parts:
Receiver of your choice, I use a Turnigy 9x with the 9x receiver.
LED’s? I bought the Turnigy LED’s from Hobbyking.
Feet? I used some tube-isolation foam.
Screws & Glue
Wood, pine or other equivalent.
Zip-ties.

X525 V3 ARF from Goodluckbuy

Category : Electronics, RC

I just took the next step and ordered a real quadcopter, it is a ARF kit thats based on the x525 frame. The contents of the kit looks okay, and I guess for a first time build it’s just a good thing most parts already has been selected for me.

Kit Contents:

- X525 V3 folding frame*1
- KKMulticopter v5.5 *1
- XXD 2212 KV1000 brushless motor*4
- 3.17mm Shaft adapter*4
- GEMFAN Carbon Nylon 90×50″ 9050 9050R CW CCW Propeller *4
- Hobbywing 20A ESC*4
- ESC Connect Board*1
- Heat shink tube*12
- Not assembled,just a kit

I will most likely not be using the KKMulticopter 5.5 board, instead I have a KK2 from Hobbyking on it’s way. It looks much easier for a newbie to understand and setup. As some extras to the kit I also got a few extra props, one screw set, prop savers. I also ordered one extra frame kit!

The receiver I’m gonna use is the Turnigy 9x, and for powering this quad I will be using the lipos listed under here. Of course I will not use both at the same time, but I thought I’d give it a shot with different C ratings and mAh:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=18207

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=26453

I’ll try to update this blog with a build log.

 

Review: Mini Pet Quad 4CH 6-Axis

Category : RC

I have now flown this quad for some time, and it is about time to write a review about it. So here goes!

First some technical data:

Size: 8.5 x 8.5 cm
Flight time: 6-8 minutes (depends on lipo and flight style)
Charge time: Approximated 60 minutes (from my experience it’s a bit shorter)
Radio range: Over 40 meters
Quad-copter weight: 34g
Quad-copter battery: 3.7V 300mAh Li-Po battery
Gyro: 6-Axis

RTF Package contains:

Quadcopter
Transmitter
Charger & 1 Lipo
Spare set of props

The quadcopter itself is quite well built, the build quality is much better than the WL-Toys quads. It got some nice rubber buttons at the bottom of each feet, which keeps it in place when landed. I don’t know if it’s any good as a impact reducer, they aren’t that soft. The booms to the motors are made of aluminium, so they feels very solid. I’ve had my crashes with this one, and it’s not showing. Only visual damages are that the props have a few scratches.

The quad flies great! It’s a blast to fly indoors because of the gyro, it’s the most stable quadcopter I have flown. Having that said, it’s the opposite when turning outside for flying. Because of it’s eager gyro the quad wants to counter every little puff of wind. So if you want a mini quad for outdoor use, you might want to look at the v939.

The flipping function isn’t as good as the wl-toys, you need to flip a switch on the transmitter to make it go from “Beginner” to “Advanced”, when this is activated the quadcopter will do flips if you push the direction stick forward or backwards, resulting in a flip in that direction.

The only drawback is that you can’t fine select sensitivity as on the wl-toys tx, there are only those two modes.

One great feature is that the wires to each motor uses a small connector on the board, compared to the first v929 model this makes replacing a motor simpler.

The transmitter is decent enough, the only thing it lacks compared to the other models in its price class is the back light.

Pros & Cons:

+ 6-Axis Gyro (great for beginners, keeps it very stable)
+ Well built
+  Great indoors

- 6-Axis Gyro (makes it unstable in windy conditions)
- Only two modes
- Comes with only one lipo

WL-Toys v929 & 808 #16 v2 Camera

Category : RC

I’ve had my v929 quadcopter for a couple of days now, and starting to get a hang of it. So I would like to share some vidoes I took with my 808 camera mounted ontop of it’s canopy.

First video is from my parking lot:

This video is from a park close to my house:

 

 

 

WL-Toys V911 First Impressions

Category : RC

I got my v911 RTF package yesterday and here is my quick review & first impressions, lets do the technical first.

Heres a video of me practicing with my v911:

RTF Package contains:

  • 1x v911
  • 2x LiPo
  • 1x Charger
  • 1x Tailrotor
  • 1x Mainrotor set
  • 1x Transmitter
  • 1x Manual

This helicopter is a clone of the Align T-Rex 100, a very good one in my opinion and many others. My previous experience with rc helicopters are a few 4ch coaxes and one 4ch fixed pitch. I’ve never flown such a small 4ch fixed pitch helicopter before, the closest in size is the 4ch coax walkera 5#6. And if you ever flown a coax helicopter you’ll get the hand of the v911 very fast!

I got it flying and hovering beautifully at second liftoff, first try went into getting used to the transmitter. It blew me away how stable and well it flies, compared to my honey bee fp2 the tail motor and gyro is in another league. The v911 never misses the tail and keeps it stable 99% of the time. I’m truly shocked at how amazing this little thing is! I’ve had a few crashes

It also handles outdoor flying much more than any of my coaxes. I would really recommend this helicopter, for the price you can’t go wrong!

Pros:

- Price & Quality
- Easy to fly & hover (Easy as a coax)
- Durable!
- Speed (compared to a coax)
- Handles wind better than a coax

Cons:

- Battery insert can be tricky
- Annoying sounds from TX

 

WLToys Wiki – Check it out!

Category : RC

Me and some guys at the RCGroups forums have started a Wiki page for the WLToys models. At the moment we concentrate on the V911,V929,V939.

It will contain mods, hack, tips & tricks. Also general info about each model with specifications and retailers.

Go to WLToys Wiki

Review: The three cheapest video cameras found on eBay

Category : Electronics

First of all this review has nothing to do with my previous blog post about the 808 #16 camera as I haven’t got mine yet.

So, lets introduce our three tiny video cameras.

Mini DV 808 Car Key Chain

Price is typically around 6-8 USD, this little key chain camera has nothing to do with the real #16, except they use the same plastic housing. Video quality isn’t great, it’s blurry and hard to see any details if there are movements. The camera also struggles if the brightness changes, etc going from indoors to outdoors. Or pointing the camera towards a window. The bottom line is, don’t buy it! You will be better off with the real 808, even if it costs a bit more. This camera weighs 13,9 grams with the metal key-hook removed.

Mini DV MD80

Price for this camera generally lays around 8-11 USD, it comes with allot of different mounts. The general quality feel of the housing is good, you get the impression it’s more well built than the other cameras in this test. Video quality is decent, it’s the best from these three cameras I’ve tested so far. Weight of the camera is 19,4 grams.

5MP Smallest Mini DV

This is the most expensive camera in this review, it’s priced from around 11-16 USD, in video quality it’s better than the 808-clone, and not as good as the MD80. Even tho the resolution on the recordings are high, but the compression makes it blurry and not all that good. One thing I noticed this camera cuts the recording into several files, highly annoying! The weight for the camera is 15 grams.

 

There we go, three of the cheapest eBay mini dv`s tested! I’ll add a video soon, showing the quality of each camera.

Mini DV 808 #16 – Key Chain Camera

Category : Electronics, RC

A long time ago I bought a small key chain camera from a random eBay shop, I knew the video quality had to be very bad considering it’s size, and I was right. But then I stumbled over a thread on RC group discussing just something similar to what I had bought. In fact it was identically looking, only the internals was better on the product discussed on rc groups.

I soon discovered I had bought a cheap china copy of a not so cheap china product hehe. The real hd key chain camera would record 720p in a decent quality.

So me and a friend went onto eBay to look for this #16 model, a real one that is. We found a great deal only 40$ including shipping for each 808. So I’m gonna do a quick review when mine arrives in mail. Until then, here is a sample video someone else recorded with the 808.

Specifications:

  • 1/4” CMOS WXGA HD Sensor / H.264/AVC1 DSP / Hynix 512M DDR2
  • Rechargeable LIPO Battery (250mah), with Battery Charger Manage IC
  • Video: 720P HD H.264/AVC1 video codec, 1280 x 720 30fps .mov
  • Photo: JPG 1280*960 (no degrading by upsizing to interpolated “5 megapixel” size)
  • microSD card slot, supports up to 32GB
  • USB2.0, plug and play, easy connection with computers, no driver needed.
  • Super mini size, only around 50mm (L) x 32mm (W) x13mm (H)
  • Super light-weighted: only approx 17g!
  • Multifunctioned, you can use it as a mini DVR, a camera, a webcam, a removable USB drive.

Stay tuned!

RC Season 2012 – New Toys!

Category : RC

It’s been some time since my last blog about rc helicopters, so it’s time for a new. There haven’t been any changes for about 2-3 years, still got my Lama v3, Honey Bee FP2 & Walkera 5#6. Only one of them are in working condition, only the 5#6 can fly. My lama has a broken TX, and my FP2 misses some crystals(where did they go?).

So, I went back to RCGroups to check out the news on the rc front. And to my suprize quadcopters had really dropped in price! Walkera has some new neat models, the ladybug for example. They still cost, but not as much as those custom built ones. Of course you get what you pay for to some extent.

But I found a thread on the forums discussing about a new brand named WLToys, and their Blade MQx clone the V929. It has recieved very positive response, and many good reviews. Presumably it’s very easy to fly, flies well and stable it can also take a beat. The main argument for getting it is the price which is around 40-50$!

The V929 is my entry into the quadcopter universe, I just ordered one from eBay 47$ including shipping!

Now for some tech specs.

WL Toys V929

Main Wing Diameter: 13.5cm
V929 BodyWeight: 61g
FlightTime: about 10 minutes
Charging Time: 50 minutes
Range: 100-150 meters
Power Supply: 3.7 V 500mAh Lipo Battery

As a replacement for my FP2 I found another helicopter from WLToys the V911:

More about this model later!