Reading voltage, current and RPM from ESC32 with an Arduino?

[Trnquill]

I'm planning building a test rig for different motors and propellers. I need to measure current, motor RPM, voltage and thrust in real time. Thrust is measured with a load cell connected to an Arduino board but I was thinking what would be an easy way to measure the rest. Sure measuring voltage and current are easy with Arduino and few external components, but RPM is a bit trickier. Then it occured to me ESC32 has all these measurements built in! But how to get them out?

I remember reading the ESC32 telemetry is sent via CAN bus. Is there any other (easy) way to access it? If not, any pointers on how to read the CAN data?

[chschmid]

I made such a tool with an arduino due and a small PC app with CLI for the arduino due.
If you are interested in the details, I can send them to you. It took me quite a while to get it right.

Best
Christof

[jave-mtr]

Yes, I have a similar problem. All the measurements you mentioned exist internally in ESC32 (except thrust of course), but how to get them out? I'm primarily interested in a fast measurement of commanded RPM to actual RPM.
What would be an easy way to measure this with a decent sample rate (at least 200Hz)? Thanks!

[chschmid]

The binary protocol of ESCC32 should allow you to read at up to 1000Hz.

Best
Christof

[tuloski]

Hi, is there an example for the binary protocol to do this?
Where can I find some documentation about this?
Thanks

[Astudillo]

[chschmid]

[chschmid]

Hi Ray

Yes these where the first steps.
Here is the final linear machine:

Cheers
Christof

[tuloski]

[marrod]

Hello guys!,

I am working on a twin propeller arm, i have to design a control systems that rotates and maintains the arm pivoted in the middle to a desired angle.

Controller: Arduino DUE
ESC: ESC32 from AutoQUAD (Power selected to Vb)
Angle: IMU 9DOF from Spark Fun

When interfacing the ESC32 with QGroundControl and a FTDI cable a can read de ESC32 Parameters, Tune it, start it etc... it seems to work.

With the Arduino DUE a could interface another ESC ("Afro ESC 30A") even with 3.3 V (servo library), nevertheless the ESC32 does not react to the PPM signal even with a level shifter to 5.0 V. According to QGroundControl, following values are shown:
-Min Valid PWM: 750
-Max Valid PWM: 2250
-Min Throtle: 1100
-Max Throtle: 1950
-Motor Start: 1100

What i am doing: I initialize the system and send a PWM of 1000 to the ESC32, i would expect the ESC32 recognizes this signal as a valid signal and should arm, but this is not happen, the red led continius blinking.

Someboy any Idea?