ESC32 released for public beta

[JussiH]

[LPR]

I read that a separate 5 volt supply can be used to power the ESC32.
If a separate 5 volt supply is used, could the ESC32 then be able to use 6s or higher voltage lipos?

Larry Rauenhorst

[JussiH]

[copterfreak]

Hi!

Are these ESC's compatible with the BL-Ctrl V2.0 https://www.mikrocontroller.com/index.p ... 7bb4f7a298 , use in the Mikrokopter?

Thanks,
Manuel

[kinderkram]

Not yet. But it won't be long until we have a working i2c solution.
On the long run we'll be focussing on the can bus though.

[copterfreak]

I am planning to buy a Hex copter, at the moment I have the frame almost ready, and I am waiting for new solutions. I think (I am not an expert but the MCUs used are 8 bits 20MHz or in the ESC @ 8MHZ?) the Mikrokopter is limited at the moment by its processing capability, so, I am hopelessly waiting for a good copter controller.

I will keep waiting for the ESC32 I2C release Mikrokopter compatible or the AutoQuad board to use with the ESC32.

Regards,
Manuel

[jphelirc]

Jussi why ESCs are so expensive?? According the parts on board they should be a lot cheaper. Do you have any ideas of overheap on them?

--jp

[JussiH]

Jani, as I explained before the main reason the ESC´s are "so expensive" ) is that we payed a lot of onetime expenses (For instance a twosided Ingun testing fixture, stencils for twosided PnP, setup, prototyping, testing etc). The BOM is only part of the total cost...

I dont agree that they are "so expensive", in fact I think they are "cheap" and that you would have a hard time even finding a "similar" ESC, and you definately wont find one at this price that comes even remotely close to the quality, features and raw power of ESC32 - in that respect, I think that ESC32 is a "bargain" and I am still sure that if Castle or Kontronik made something similar it would cost at least 2-3 times as much and no one would complain about it. A 8-bit transistor-driven "Holger V2" is 64E. An YGE18 or YGE30 will set you back even more and Castle and Kontroniks are just as expensive and are huge bricks in comparison with ESC32. But sure, they have nice stickers on them and they come from respected brands. But take them apart and you basically find the exact same 8-bit transistor driven HW that is found in OEM ESC´s from Hobbyking and none of them can IMHO compare with ESC32.

You never answered my emails But if you can do something to cut the parts costs I am still interested in hearing from you, but I assumed that since you never answered back, there was nothing you could do...

[Wingspinner]

[JussiH]

Hi Ron

Thanks, I hope we can continue to live up to yours and the communitys expectations, and we will try and keep the cool stuff coming....

I agree with you on the features beeing a function of the FW, and we do not charge for that since Bill was kind enough to make it available to us and you without charge. I was just trying to say, that if this was a traditional commercial product (where FW and HW development is a part of the overhead calculation), then the price would have been a lot higher.

I dont think many people realize the amount of resarch, time and dedication that Bill put into designing the ESC32 and AQ6. If that had been part of a commercial production, the ESC should have cost like 100E a piece and the main board would have been over 1K. He choose to give it away, and allow us to produce them, provided we keep the price down accordingly, which is exactly what we are doing But he probably could have made millions by selling the technology behind Autoquad to some DARPA entity or similar.

I would also have preferred it to be cheaper to make and I dont particularly enjoy having to add 25 percent VAT on top of it. But I really dont think its "expensive", and even if you rate it at a very conservative 20A (Although they have been proven to 1,5Kw with proper cooling), you will still have a hard time finding a "similar esc" - the only single ESC´s I can think of that comes even remotely close is YGE, and an YGE18 is listed at 59-69E and does not offer customization of current limiting, closed loop RPM, easy configuration via serial or 1-wire and it certainly wont do 1,5KW on 5S. So in that respect I think that 31,2E plus VAT is actually a bargain deal.

The parts are more expensive than those you normally find on a OEM-ESC. Just the drivers (IR2301) and FET´s (IRLR7843) account for circa 60 percent of the total BOM cost and a 4-layer PCB with 105uM copper and 4 mil separation is not cheap either. Add to that a real 0.0005% shunt resistor for current measuring, passives, STM32, LED´s and Oscillator and you have a pretty hefty BOM price (and parts quality) compared to what you will find on a Sil or AVR based OEM ESC.

To get ESC32 massively cheaper, we will need to make 5-10000 per batch, and we simply cant finance or run that risk. In the longer run, we do want to "spread the load" by bringing in reliable partners and retailers in other parts of the world in an effort to make it cheaper and more widely available for everyone.

I am constantly looking for better and cheaper production alternatives, but so far I have not been able to find anyone able to match our current price and quality guarantee. Anyone with suggestions is welcome to email me.

The fact that we had a 0.6 percent failure rate on the first batch of ESC32 and I did not have a single RMA on ESC32 so far, makes me confident we made the right decision about getting them made here, even if it means a few cents more...

The overhead currently is less than 30%, and once paypal and other related Fees and expenses are paid, the "profit" per piece is under 15%, so its not like we are "printing money" to begin with. There was considerable costs associated with setting the production up and prototyping, and we have made the lowest possible overhead we could to make this interstellar ESC and FC available to you at what I consider to be a very attractive price.