voxl 2 flight deck with esc v2 few questions

bensusana

hi guys,
we recently got our voxl 2 flight deck kits after few months of testing the older system (voxl1).

first thing we trying to change esc protocol to Dshot like we did in the older version , i can see that option is not available in QGC on firmware 1.12.31Beta (the flight deck arrived with that ver).

is the v2 esc support this protocol ?

second , we might have a problem with the esc v2 max Continuous Current, in data sheet it says 10A+ what is the maximum ?

can we use other 4-1 esc's non modalAI with bigger current limitation (we using 4s lipo battery's with high kv motors average consuming 25A )

thanx in advance
ben

Steve Turner

I do not work for ModalAI, but will attempt to answer.

The V2 ESC supports serial and PWM input. https://docs.modalai.com/modal-escs/
I am unsure if it supports DSHOT but you could configure it to use PWM. That said, if you're using a VOXL the serial connection is a better option.

As far enabling DShot in the firmware, you need to make sure the uart is disabled by setting UART_ESC_CONFIG to disabled. Then I believe the option for DShot/PWM will show up.
Check out https://docs.modalai.com/modal-esc-px4-user-guide/ for more info.

https://www.modalai.com/products/voxl2-io?variant=40610514206771 for generating PWM from the VOXL2 to command a larger 4-1 ESC.

modaltb

Thanks @Steve-Turner who is always helping us out, greatly appreciated!

Correct - VOXL2 currently doesn't support PWM or DShot output.

VOXL2 currently only supports UART protocol between the target and the V2 ESC (protocol and driver for the voxl-dev release is here https://github.com/modalai/px4-firmware/tree/voxl-dev/src/drivers/uart_esc/modalai_esc)

VOXL2 doesn't natively support PWM output (it's based off a smartphone chip and these chips don't have PWM out), so as Steve mentioned we have the VOXL2 IO board that uses PX4IO protocol, which allows us to get PWM outputs from the VOXL2 IO. PX4IO doesn't support DShot, so the VOXL2 IO board presently doesn't have DShot.

Do you mind describing your use case a bit? There's a good chance the VOXL2IO board will work for you, but it's not as performant as the V2 ESC with VOXL2...

bensusana

@Steve-Turner thanks steve for your fast reply and info
@modaltb i will describe it in general .

we using 5" racer frame with 2207 size motors with about 2300kv and prop size 5.1".

the amp draw we getting from this motor&prop in 70% throttle is about 20A +
so in this case we can see the esc v2 is not suitable for us .

can we use a different 4in1 ESC from other brands with voxl2 IO ?
for example : https://store.tmotor.com/goods.php?id=821

bensusana

@modaltb
please if you can give me some info it will be much appreciate