Sequre 120A settings for speedy glider

[austin]

Hi! I bought a used E-Typhoon (but Alpha 2.0 kit ready to go) with a NEU 1110/1Y 6.7 and a Sequre 120A and a 16x16 prop running on 4S. The ESC was a little hot on maiden. With my infared temp gun an indicated 140*F. So I went into the settings and was a bit overwhelmed with all the settings. What should some of these be set to? Duty, Sine???
Timing, recommended 5-10* for this motor.
PWM- Neu recommends 11-13khz but this esc only goes down to 16-24 I believe.- wrong esc for this motor? Does the firmware use the same values/khz?
Complimentary PWM- do I want that?
Poles-4.
Also, anyway to get telemetry on a Spektrum?

What values might need adjustment?

Thank you, any help is very appreciated.

Pro tip- Do NOT use the "duty lock drag brake!"

 

[Wayne]

@Jarron Should be able to dig into this for you tomorrow.

These ESC are very well rounded and so far they have been able to deal with everything we have thrown at them, assuming you have the cooling for the application.

 

[austin]

I would appreciate that very much, thank you

 

[Jarron]

There are a TON of R/C rock crawler settings in these ESCs, duty_lock being one of them, definitely turn that off, it locks the motor by sending power to it. Set the timing to what you need, turn on the complementary PWM, this gives better throttle response and improves braking. Set your motor timing to what is called for. Sine Range and Sine Power are crawler settings, I set the range to 0 and power to 4.

It is true, these ESCs only go down to PWM freq. 16-24, no lower I'm afraid but that shouldn't be the end of the world. Set your drag brake to 100%. You'll need to save settings, then repower the ESC for the brake to function properly. I am not sure what telemetry type Spektrum uses but the options are KISS, KISS auto, iBUS, S.Port for FrSky and CRSF for crossfire.

Of course, please be sure the ESC is getting lots of air, sure it has a heatsink but it isn't big and it's covered in heatshrink tubing. You can use a razor knife to cut off the tubing covering the top of the heatsink, this should help with your ESC temp.

 

[austin]

There are a TON of R/C rock crawler settings in these ESCs, duty_lock being one of them, definitely turn that off, it locks the motor by sending power to it. Set the timing to what you need, turn on the complementary PWM, this gives better throttle response and improves braking. Set your motor timing to what is called for. Sine Range and Sine Power are crawler settings, I set the range to 0 and power to 4.

It is true, these ESCs only go down to PWM freq. 16-24, no lower I'm afraid but that shouldn't be the end of the world. Set your drag brake to 100%. You'll need to save settings, then repower the ESC for the brake to function properly. I am not sure what telemetry type Spektrum uses but the options are KISS, KISS auto, iBUS, S.Port for FrSky and CRSF for crossfire.

Of course, please be sure the ESC is getting lots of air, sure it has a heatsink but it isn't big and it's covered in heatshrink tubing. You can use a razor knife to cut off the tubing covering the top of the heatsink, this should help with your ESC temp.

Awesome, thank you so much! Exactly what I needed.

 

[smirkracing2024]

I am using the Sequre 70amp for a Durafly EFXtra pylon racer. I use a 5s 1300mah pack and the 7x4 (I think) included prop (which is intended for 4s usage, but I use it anyway).

First, by way of baseline: On the stock motor and stock ESC, I can basically keep the throttle wide open for about 90 seconds, and everything is still fine to the touch upon landing (battery will be just about 3.8v/cell).

Today I installed the Sequre 70amp unit and went for a spin. First off, saving nearly 50 grams was, as expected, a life-altering improvement. Holy smokes. The plane is so docile at low speed now. Incredible. However, I had a problem. On both 4s 1500 and on 5s 1300, the motor would cut out after about 1 minute (usually during a full throttle pass). I then landed dead stick. By the time the plane landed, the throttle was working again. So I'd just launch right away and the same thing would happen again - about a minute of great flying, and then no motor. I checked the voltage, and this was happening when the batteries were at 4.05v/cell and 4.0v per cell.

I checked the settings (which had been helpfully set up by Jarron, thank you!). The two settings I'm worried about are:
1. drag brake - 100. Is that too much drag break? I could set this value to zero and that way when I'm off power, the esc is actually getting a break.
2. LVC: right now the low voltage cut-off is set to 3.5v/cell, which sounds pretty high to me. I wonder if I should bump this way down, like 2.9v/cell. I could even set it to zero, because I track how I fly this plane, I always bring it town in 90 seconds or so.

Any other thoughts? What might the problem be?

Thanks!
Smirk

 

[jure]

...Any other thoughts? What might the problem be?
...
Thanks!
Smirk

the ESC is self protecting itself, as you are overloading it.
It cools down, and it's happy to work again

 

[smirkracing2024]

the ESC is self protecting itself, as you are overloading it.
It cools down, and it's happy to work again

Something is wrong, that's for sure... but I'm not sure we have enough information to conclude that the problem is solely with the ESC.

Knowing precisely what's wrong will help me resolve the underlying issue. Could be batteries, could be airflow, could be drag brake... this new ESC has a LOT of settings so I'm trying to learn which ones might be issues. I will of course try changing the obvious ones including airflow, although the ESC was not even warm to the touch, let alone hot, when it landed, so I am skeptical that heat was the problem. It seems unlikely that the ESC went from "thermal overload" (which ought to be in 212 to 220F range) to "not even warm" in the 10 seconds it took for me to land the plane. I've had other planes in which the ESC was too hot to even touch for mutiple minutes after landing. This esc is not getting thermally soaked.

Based on this thread, the ESC should be able to handle the load I'm putting on it. The other planes in which @Jarron has this installed ESC likely draw as much or more power than mine does.

 

[jure]

have you measured any current, temperature , etc ?
you are over-propping the system using a 5S LiPo battery

I use a 5s 1300mah pack and the 7x4 (I think) included prop (which is intended for 4s usage, but I use it anyway).

 

[smirkracing2024]

I have run the 5s battery with that prop several dozen times without issue. The stock ESC, which is rated at 60amps (but weighs 85 grams!) would also come down from these flights at "modestly warm" temps (i.e. not overheated in the slightest).

Obviously, I'll have to go back and check more precisely now, but the only change in a working set-up was swapping from an aerostar 60amp ESC to the Sequre 70amp esc. So, I am confident that the challenge is the ESC, not the cell count. Ironically, saving 50 grams of weight should even reduce the load on the electronics further, so the Sequre esc is working a little less hard than the heavy aerostar ESC.

 

[jure]

maybe you are not aware that when you change the LiPo battery from 3S to 4S,
the motor power input almost doubles , ( increases by 115% ) ( all other things remaining the same )

and , when you change the LiPo battery from 4S to 5S,
the motor power input increases by 80% ( all other things remaining the same )

edited to put some specific numbers

 

[Wayne]

Jure - He knows what he is doing, he has a pretty impressive bunch of planes. He is just learning about these new ESCs is all. They have a ton of new and not well defined settings. The first time with them can be a vertical learning curve.

Jarron is off from work till Monday, I'm sure he must have missed something on the settings.

Are your motor temps staying about the same? Their are a few settings if they are wrong will turn the motor into an oven.

 

[smirkracing2024]

I wasn't sure what might be wrong, so I came up with a few options to test in the Sequre settings. First item on my list was LVC. I changed it from 3.5v per cell to 3.0v per cell ("30" in Sequre settings, no decimal point).

I got up at 530am so I could get to the field when it was empty, and proceeded to engage in cruel, vicious testing. I pushed the plane as hard as my skills would allow (I actually went beyond my skills, it got hairy). My planes need to live free or die in flames.

100% success. Blasted through multiple battery packs with no issues.

Imprecise results after the first battery were as follows:
-motor: hot, but could hold finger on it for upwards of 20 seconds (after which I got bored) so likely ~125F
-esc: hardly warm at all - zero heat issues, probably ~100F
-battery: reasonably warm, I'd guesstimate ~115F, it was definitely earning its keep this morning

These Sequre units are amazing!!!!

@Wayne Idea for you: many years ago, one small hobby shop took the time to publish a very thorough write-up about the various colors of LEDs (and their patterns) for Castle surface ESCs. So if a person did a search for "Castle red led blinking" the hobby shop's article would appear at the top of the search results. The hobby shop wrote articles about all 4 or 5 LED conditions that could exist, and for literally 10-15 yrs I kept landing on this one tiny hobby shop's pages because I'd often need help with Castle ESCs. I have to imagine that generating that kind of traffic had good ROI for the hobby shop (if for no other reason than the level of effort required was quite modest - maybe 1-2 hrs, then uplift in traffic for 5-10 yrs).

There might be an opportunity for Aloft here which is similar - if you publish some simple articles about Sequre (could literally hang off the product listing page in your website) explaining the core settings, talking about some of the advanced features, etc etc you could become an authoritative source for info about this product. I feel like you are already doing 90% of the work - meaning, you use the ESCs yourself, you actively help people in the forums with detailed questions, so it is just a matter of collecting up the info and putting into an article format vs leaving it tucked away in the forum. Just a thought.

I am going to order more of these ESCs. Wish they made equally awesome ones down in the 20 and 30amp range too.

 

[Wayne]

The 25 amp is kick ass, but tops out at 6S:

Orbit 25A ESC with Escape32 & telemetry!

This ESC does it all, air, land or sea. Simple or cutting edge applications. Very efficient motor drive that is smoother than you have experienced and all in a tiny bit of space! And easy to work setup, and offer telemetry data! Yes, this ultra compact 25 Amp motor speed control blends quality...

alofthobbies.com

This is designed and manufactured by the same guy that writes the Escape32 code.

I have started on the manual in the past! But it has been hard to get some of the details right to where I think they meet the manual requirements. I need to work with the developer on this, but he thinks his level of information he has supplied is enough. He is VERY smart and knows hardware and software like few others, so in his mind it is easy stuff. Maybe we are the perfect folks to write the manual so casual pilots can get them working to their best potential. We sometimes still run into situations where we are not sure why the end result is not great, but seems like the ESCs always have the ability to get there, just like in your case, just a simple setting change. Bingo!

 

[smirkracing2024]

The 25 amp is kick ass, but tops out at 6S:

Orbit 25A ESC with Escape32 & telemetry!

This ESC does it all, air, land or sea. Simple or cutting edge applications. Very efficient motor drive that is smoother than you have experienced and all in a tiny bit of space! And easy to work setup, and offer telemetry data! Yes, this ultra compact 25 Amp motor speed control blends quality...

alofthobbies.com

This is designed and manufactured by the same guy that writes the Escape32 code.

I have started on the manual in the past! But it has been hard to get some of the details right to where I think they meet the manual requirements. I need to work with the developer on this, but he thinks his level of information he has supplied is enough. He is VERY smart and knows hardware and software like few others, so in his mind it is easy stuff. Maybe we are the perfect folks to write the manual so casual pilots can get them working to their best potential. We sometimes still run into situations where we are not sure why the end result is not great, but seems like the ESCs always have the ability to get there, just like in your case, just a simple setting change. Bingo!

Love it. I wish for things and you provide

This esc is three grams without wires. Even with wires I should be sub 10 if I am lucky. Insane!!!

 

[smirkracing2024]

The 25 amp is kick ass, but tops out at 6S:

Orbit 25A ESC with Escape32 & telemetry!

This ESC does it all, air, land or sea. Simple or cutting edge applications. Very efficient motor drive that is smoother than you have experienced and all in a tiny bit of space! And easy to work setup, and offer telemetry data! Yes, this ultra compact 25 Amp motor speed control blends quality...

alofthobbies.com

This is designed and manufactured by the same guy that writes the Escape32 code.

I have started on the manual in the past! But it has been hard to get some of the details right to where I think they meet the manual requirements. I need to work with the developer on this, but he thinks his level of information he has supplied is enough. He is VERY smart and knows hardware and software like few others, so in his mind it is easy stuff. Maybe we are the perfect folks to write the manual so casual pilots can get them working to their best potential. We sometimes still run into situations where we are not sure why the end result is not great, but seems like the ESCs always have the ability to get there, just like in your case, just a simple setting change. Bingo!

@Wayne how do these come? Do they come with motor wires and battery leads soldered on? Or do they come as a bare esc?

I will order two of these today but just wanted to check on how they will be configured when they arrive.

If it were possible to get them in a certain configuration that would be amazing. I need them to have very short stubby motor wires, maybe 1 inch or so, and then a short battery lead, maybe 3 inches with an xt30 connector.

 

[Wayne]

We originally offered them without wires, but we are doing that a lot less now as the warranty rate jumps way up as soon as people need to solder anything more than a battery plug.

We do all of our soldering at once on these to keep costs down, so they are all the same lengths of wire. Sorry, but easy to trim to what you need. We use very nice silicone wires.

 

[smirkracing2024]

Perfect thanks.

 

[smirkracing2024]

I am slowly learning more about these ESCs. I am finding that throt_min of 1000us and throt_max of 2000us are good for *most* radios, but not for my Spektrum ix20. my radio's default range is 1100 to 1900 us.

In order to get my esc to work, I had to bump the throttle trim way down (below zero, i suppose). And, it is likely I did not reach my true 100% on the throttle (not sure the calibration worked correctly.

I will adjust my radio so it outputs 1000-2000 (that feels so much more "correct" for any engineering-minded person than 1100-1900). Just documenting this minor point here for others who might use spektrum.

 

[Wayne]

Yes, This is a special feature of Spektrum radios. They are slightly different in this regard than everyone else. I'm sure it made sense to some engineer 25 years ago.