Download BLHeliSuite (LINK). I am using a diatone dlink f3 v2 flight controller with diatone oneshot 42 heli S Max 60A ESCs. My motors respond in betaflight when I use the slider. When I try connecting to BLheli suite only esc 3 reads. ESC 4 says erased or unknown firmware while esc 1 and esc 2 show three dashes. I also tried connecting using the chrome app blHeli configurator and only esc 3 shows up. Cross-platform configuration tool for BLHeli-based electronic speed controllers.
Hi all can anyone tell me if you can open blheli 32 on Os/Mac to configure. 20 mins of messing around and I have not tested for blheli suite 32. Most FPV pilots nowadays are running ESCs with BLHeli firmware. Whether they are Little Bees, Angry-Beast or even SN20A’s they all have one program in common, and that is BLHeliSuite. Aria 70A and the Tekko 32 F3 mentioned above. For the budget conscious I also tested the HGLRC T-Rex 60AMP 60A BLHeli32 3-6S ESC Dshot1200 (Around £10 Bangood) which to date has performed very well but is not, visually at least, manufactured to the same build quality as the more expensive drone ESC’s.
The BLHeli developers have released the new code and added the S to set it apart from the base code, the S represents something special.. the next generation of ESC firmware. But what makes BLHeli__S firmware so special and is it worth upgrading yet? And will it actually make a difference to your multirotor flight performance? Read more to find out.
Key features of BLHeli_S
- Hardware PWM – smoother and more responsive motor response
- Always use damped light (Regenerative Breaking) for better multicopter control
- Code supports sync loss prevention – tuneable parameters to make your ESC work well in the most demanding applications (not just FPV racing)
- High resolution throttle steps
- Supports Oneshot125 (125-250us), Oneshot42 (41.7-83.3us), Multishot (5-25us) protocols
- Automatically detects input signal protocol on ESC power up
- Beacon Function – your ESC will start beeping after a set time of zero throttle to help you find your quadcopter.
Why is hardware PWM better?
Since the initial release of BLHeli, hardware has improved so the new code is designed to take advantage of the new hardware improvements with the most signification being hardware generated PWM which gives much better performance. This is the most noticeable improvement of BLHeli_S as your motors run smoother, quieter and are technically more responsive too.
Because the hardware generated PWM signal is synchronized with the micro controller clock on the ESC, the motors run more silently and efficiently (with less high pitch squeal). This also enables much more precise throttle steps depending on the ESC hardware (micro-controller and PWM driver type), however the range is between 512 steps and as much as 2048 steps with high end ESC’s.
The hardware PWM also allows you to control very high speed motors (up to 500k eRPM with some hardware). With the older BLHeli firmware and software PWM, the maximum speed signals can be sent to the motor was 16Khz. With the hardware PWM, your ESC can send signals at about 36Khz which is rather insane. Because your motors are getting updates much faster the control is much more precise and smoother response.
Are 32 bit ESC any better?
Many of the new BLHeli_S esc’s coming to the marker actually use a 32bit processor. This means that each ESC has alot more processing power to do more advanced stuff. Currently most of the 8 bit ESC’s running BLheli are still not reaching the processing capacity so why have the developers started using 32 bit microcontrollers on the ESC’s?
The main reason is because 32bit ESC’s are easier to program, the 8bit code is written in C and Assembly (can be a real pain to work with), but the 32 bit allows programming in C++ which is abit easier. This means that this combination of easier programming language and more processing power will make adding novel features abit easier.
Can I upgrade my BLHeli ESC to use BLHeli_S?
No, this is not currently possible as BLHeli_S is designed to run on new ESC hardware, to take advantage of the hardware PWM driver. Current ESC’s that run BLHeli use software PWM and do not have a dedicated hardware PWM driver so they cant use BLHeli S.
Conclusions
When you first turn on your motors with BLHeli_S ESC’s you will notice how smooth and quiet they run, but for me that is where the differences end. With the current BLHeli S ESCs on the market they dont translate into additional performance on static thrust tests compared to some of the other leading ESC such as DYS XM ESC series. I know DYS are releasing some new ESC’s to support BLHeli S called the XS series.
Once you are up in the air flying I could not tell any difference in performance. It is worth noting that I am not exactly the best FPV pilot you can just about manage the odd flip in a wide open area. So perhaps more experienced racing pilots will be able to feel the improvements (let me know). The active breaking definitely improves the responsiveness of your quad, but that is an also option with regular BLHeli ESCs.
At the end of the day I would say its probably not worth ripping out your BLHeli ESC’s just yet, but if you are building a new quad then its a good idea to get some BLHeli_S ESC’s since I am certain we will see some novel features added to the BLHeli code in the near future.
If you have any experience with the new firmware and ESC’s or comments please let us know below!
New version naming convention
The new BLheli S firmware will have the naming convention of A_L_10_REV16_0.HEX
- The first letter denotes the pinout of the Micro controller (MCU) on the ESC. Currently
A,B,C,D,E,F,G - The second letter is the MCU clock speed.
Lfor 24MHz,Hfor 48Mhz - The two numbers denote the MOSFET switching deadtime, if the FET has adaptive switching then
00is used - The REV is the actual code version, the bigger the number the more recent the code is.
It was only about a year ago when we were all getting excited about a new BLheli-S ESC firmware (the S is for special). But now the developers have been working on something extra special, called BLheli-32. This 32bit firmware introduction covers the important things you need to know about. BLheli32 will be supported from BetaFlight V3.2
Key Features
- Runs on ARM 32bit MCU (much faster than 8bit MCU on BLheli-s, runs Dshot1200 now, but faster in future)
- Direct configuration of ESC from flight controller using Dshot commands.
- Programmable PWM frequency (up to 48Khz) – allows for much smoother motor operation
- Automatic Motor Timing – helps run your motor at maximum efficiency with robustness against desync. You can also manually fine tune the motor timing to get maximum power from your motor.
- Current and Voltage Limiting – helps prevents your ESC failure
- Bidirectional mode improvements
- Ability to set the motor brake force
- ESC Telemetry Support
- Maximum Motor Acceleration – can be set to prevent desync on some motors under high acceleration.
Blheli Suite 32 Configurator Download
Some of these features are not fully implemented yet but are part of the initial release plan.
BLheli_32 is closed source 🙁
I will not go into the debate, but ultimately this means that all BLheli-32 ESC’s are going to be a little more expensive since manufacturers need to pay the developers a licensing fee. I was disappointed to see that the 32bit version is now closed source.
Steffen Skaug, the original developer of BLheli said that as the project grew, so did the workload. Blheli-32 was created from scratch and they decided to enable them to get some returns on all the effort they have put into the project, while also stopping clones. This will allow the BLheli developers to push ESC performance and the hobby to the next level.
Blheli Suite 32 Mac
You still need to use BLHeli suite
BLHeli suite v31+ will support the 32bit ESC, which means if you run MAC or Linux you might have some problems. To make it worse the BLheli configurator chrome app will not support BLheli32 right now.
The main reason for this is that when you flash new firmware, BLHeli suite connects to the internet to verify the ESC serial number to make sure it is an official ESC. The one upside of this is that the market will not be flooded with knockoff ESC’s.
Why is 32bit better?
Apart from the extra computing power available to developers, the most significant advantage is the fact that the code can be written in C. This makes it significantly easier to work on new code and features. The initial BLheli and BLheli-S firmware are Assembly based. So I expect the 32-bit firmware to get significantly better as the project continues. Also since the developers are now getting a monetary reward for their efforts through licensing fees, there is more motivation to make it worth it.
Blheli Suite 32 Machine Gun
Dshot vs Multishot – Speed is not everything
Just a quick mention to say that I don’t think the main advantage of BLheli32 is the speed. The guys working on the RaceFlight project introduced the multishot protocol a while ago. Multishot is a much more simplified protocol, so it means that on today’s 8bit MCU they can run at 32Khz, reducing overall latency. However, with Dshot you need to run BLheli32 to get the same update speeds. The main advantage of Dshot is the fact that it is a digital protocol so you can send commands to your ESC. This is where the versatility of Dshot will become apparent. For example, you can send a command to tell your motors to beep, and when to tell it to stop beeping, or tell your ESC to enter bi-directional mode while in flight (so you have full throttle resolution when you don’t need bi-directional mode). I can’t think of any other use cases but I am sure we will see some cool features in the future.
Where can I get my BLHeli-32 ESC?
I will be writing a separate article to list off of the official BLHeli32 ESC’s soon. For now we are selling the Wraith32 Series ESC, which are the first production units to be sold.
I should mention that there are other 32bit ESC’s on the market that supports Dshot such as the racer33. These run custom firmware that is not BLHeli32.
Current Protection
Apart from the performance improvements, I like the fact that they have added current protection support. This will only be supported with ESC’s that have a current sensing resistor (like the wraith32). By using this feature, if the current draw gets above the value you set, the ESC will reduce the power to the ESC to prevent it overheating (like when the motor gets jammed on a crash). This in combination with the temperature monitoring on your ESC MCU will mean that its unlikely you will fry an ESC from overloading it! One thing I am not sure about is the calibration procedure of the current sensor.
Automatic Motor Timing
Automatic timing is great when you are not sure about what you are doing. With automatic timing, the ESC will ensure that your motors run as efficiently as possible. However, this will mean your motors are not running at max power, which is not ideal for FPV racing.
However, you can also manually set the timing between 1 and 31 to fine tune your ESC for your motor setup for maximum power. Usually, the medium setting will work fine for most motors. In the old BLheli-S firmware you can only choose between 5 values that correspond to 0/7.5/15/22.5/30 timing advance.
Maximum Acceleration
This setting lets you tell your ESC to limit the power sent to the motor within a given millisecond. This feature is useful if you are having desync issues with your motor under heavy acceleration (when your motor chirps and looses power when you increase throttle rapidly). You can set this between 0.1% to 25.5% per millisecond.
So if you set it to 15, this means that the power sent to the motor cannot increase by more than 15% per millisecond. If you have desync issues you should try to get this to be as low as possible to get the most power out of your motor.
ESC Telemetry
As mentioned before ESC telemetry is on the plans for BLheli32. Aerosurfer noticed that on the wraith32 ESC, they have a UART port on them (still to be documented). But one advantage is that you can use the current sensor from the ESC for your flight controller, and if the ESC can send other info back to the FC, the flight control algorithm can get extra info about motor state such as RPM to improve performance and tuning.
So that the main things I think will be great about BLheli32, and the main downside is no more open source (but it is fair that they get paid for all the work). If you have any questions or comments let me know in the comments section!