KISS ESC calibration with Taranis Sbus.

[leopold1]

I would like to know if there is a way to calibrate the KISS ESC's through Sbus with the X8R from taranis.
With AQ you need to have an invertor. All outgoing signals from the taranis TX are therefore also INV. For example, my THR channel starts high and is then inverted and proparly managed by the AQ.
Now I would like to calibrate my KISS ESC's with the same RX.
Is there a way through AQ itself?
If I want to calibrate directly in ch 3 (THR) from my receiver, the signal is INV. So to commence throttle calibration I should keep the stick low?
But If I use Sbus, can I use PWM at the same time?

[leopold1]

After some tinckering arround I finally found a solution.

First of all the X8R receiver has the capability of 16ch via Sbus. Fysicaly it has 8 pwm outputs.
The X8R has the option to be paired in different modes. More info at


I opted to go with mode 4 where ch1-8 goes via Sbus and ch 9-16 goes through the fysical pwm outputs.
Once I trimmed the mix for the THR channel I copied it with the opentx companion software to ch16. I also didn't invert it. This gives me the possibility to calibrate the ESC's the normal way with the same trims as through the Sbus.

Also I can use the remaining 7 channels to be used directly as pwm outputs to be used as pitch and yaw control for a 3 axis gimbal or led nav control among other things. This also means I don't have to use the passthrough option of the AQ.

Hope this is usefull for the Taranis users.

[kinderkram]

Surely will. Thx for tinkering!

[Altix]

[leopold1]

Nice find indeed!

[kinderkram]

Question is: can you assign the throttle to one of the PWM channels when using SBus?

If the PWMs are only extra channels ranging from -700/0/+700 instead of 0-1400 you might not be able to use them for ESC calibration.
Dunno how configurable the Taranis is...

[Max]

Yes, nice find Michael! One less component is always good. Those tiny X4Rs are great, full range with replaceable antennas, and full telemetry.

Norbert, you can get any Tx channel to send any PWM range you want by adjusting end points. E.g. you could use a toggle switch just as well. Even on the X4R with only first 3 channels as PWM this shouldn't be a problem.

This has nothing to do with AQ at all, except that you want to match the same range as configured for Motor Minimum and Maximum PWM settings. Which, BTW, is very conservative -- you could easily go to 900-2100 and get higher overall resolution.

I'm confused by the OP -- inverting the S-Bus signal shouldn't affect the actual channel values at all. Regardless, to calibrate ESCs you just plug the ESC into the Rx directly (or all of them at once with a splitter). No AQ involved.

I was using a Hitec HPP-21 servo programmer the other day and realized it has a test mode which outputs precise PWM pulses (via a GUI on a computer). With a variety of modes and user-defined positions and end-points. Would be perfect to calibrate ESCs or even do motor thrust calculations. < $30.

My point is that any precise servo tester with a digital pulse display should work, or any other device capable of outputting a defined PWM pulse (fairly common in the RC world ).

-Max

[bluuu]

hmm I made simple PWM sender/programmer based on arduino (no matter what MCU we using)
It can calibrate ESC in 1 shot. Other way is using some Menno's code.

[sandmen]

On Taranis and Sbus receiver (X8R, X4R) you can define your PWM output for calibrating ESC's.
Configure a switch, and map it to the HW-PWM channel.
For using the Telemetry you need only Smart.Port, and a inverter (74HC04) for example, and a 1N4148.
Then you can receive the "fake Telemetry".

I will push in the next time the source, and the LUA script for telemetry screen's.
On X4R, I have already done the hack, and of course there is nothing more to do.