We are attempting to use the VOXL ESC on our platform and having difficulties driving some smaller brushless motors, not unlike those on the Starling with the EMAX 1306B's.
Standalone with other ESC's we are able to drive our motors without a voltage drop and generate the thrust/RPM we need off of a 2S power supply at nominal voltage of 7.4V.
However, I've noticed when running voxl-esc-calibrate.py
that the voltage drops as reported by the VOXL ESC, despite being connected to a constant power source that confirms it is supply a continuous 7.4 Volts.
As a result our curve to calibrate the ESC comes out like this:
Quadratic fit: motor_voltage = a2*rpm_desired^2 + a1*rpm_desired + a0
a0 = 69.74106389340773
a1 = 0.24428260831710763
a2 = 4.98882913108724e-06
ESC Params (after scaling):
pwm_vs_rpm_curve_a0 = 69.74106389340773
pwm_vs_rpm_curve_a1 = 0.24428260831710763
pwm_vs_rpm_curve_a2 = 4.98882913108724e-06
Additionally the ESC reports the following as the last line of calibration:
POW: 89, RPM: 17791.00, Voltage: 6.79V, Current: 2.90A
On our other ESC's with the same airframe we are able to take off no problem and drive the motors at a much lower current for constant voltage.
We will keep digging in, likely an issue on our part but it seems like the VOXL-ESC is not able to maintain voltage and perform in line with the other ESC's we've prototyped against. Appreciate any thoughts or insight!