by r0sewhite » Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:06 pm
Okay, I am one step forward: I still had Firmware 1.4.0 or 1.4.1 on these ESCs and had the problem, that if I connect the UART to one ESC, all other ESCs were powered, too. Though all 8 logic sides together shouldn't draw more current than USB can provide, the connection failed: I wasn't able to read data from the ESC and the other 7 ESCs were also not fully powered (some LEDs were darker than others).
The solution was an update to 1.4.3: Now I can power a single ESC by UART and the other 7 ESCs remain unpowered. Obviously the 5V power is controlled by the microcontroller. This would explain why USB wasn't able to power all 8 logic sides. It was more likely the microcontroller which was overpowered. Can anyone confirm this?
So now there is at least a solution for connecting/editing a single ESC in fully assembled condition. For calibration runs I can still unset the mixer and later recover it from a file.
EDIT: Christof, I'm sorry, we will not sell the ESC boards nor the controller boards. Both PCBs will be reserved for our RTF copters.