BlHeli Programming with Arduino as Programmer - Brushless ESCs in Combat Robots

[@blockednostril9739]

Oh this is sick, I’ve got dozens of bl heli parts from my RC heli days. Might play around with them now

[@KrotowX]

And if they are obsolete for flying/driving thing, you can use them, to make a leaf blower or something different useful.

[@elitedogger7142]

This worked perfectly thank youu

[@workingforgear]

Really helpful!

[@ahalgamal]

thanks for the video , i have a ZMR blheli 50A ESC and got stuck in the bidirectional mode, which disabled the programming mode, i followed the video but the ESC is not recognized by the BLHeliSuite nor BLHeliSuite32 .. how can i exit this bidirectional mode and make it forward ?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Sorry but I'm not familiar with that particular esc.

[@SexyRhubarbe]

Hello, i have the same issue, do you find a solution ?

[@tapanpatil7260]

Hi I am trying to program emax BULLET 15A BLHELI-S esc with this method, but unable to get it to connect in ESC setup page

[@JustCuzRobotics]

BlHeliS requires BlHeliSuite while BlHeli32 requires BlHeliSuite32. Make sure you have the correct software. Also be sure the ESC has battery power. Can't really help beyond that.

[@TeamJunkYardDog]

Will this work with knock off esc from amazon? Or would you need a different program? I know this is a not likely because of so many options out there but programming esc is new to me.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

That's not possible to answer without knowing what ESC. Any Blheli32 ESC or BlheliS (if using the older BlHelisuite instead of BlHelisuite32) should work fine with this. If it's not actually using Blheli firmware it won't work

[@AdonnesDerrell]

THANK YOU

[@JustCuzRobotics]

No problem 😊

[@AdonnesDerrell]

@@JustCuzRobotics you should make more bot making videos. I like the process it takes for making your bots.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I have already made over 2 dozen and not planning to stop now. kzbin.info/aero/PL_m9B4y_C-qqWCQ_f7wcc6GATmOQs8C-0

[@tszkoon4269]

can i use a stm32 nucleo to program my bl heli 32

[@ankjaers]

Why not plug into an old flight controller running betaflight? Would be usefull anyway to make the but more controllable

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I don't own a flight controller, these are cheaper, I already have like 6 of them, and I really doubt a flight controller is easy enough to set up for a land based robot and weapon. Betafight looks pretty complicated to me as someone who never built a quad.

[@ankjaers]

@@JustCuzRobotics it is much easier since blheli just talks directly to betaflight via dshot. So esc’s can be configured all at once. And you have esc telemetry back to the remote. Could be usefull for weapon esc’s and motors.

[@utpal4455]

Yes flight controller is much easier to communicate

[@FabioR-qf5vw]

Hello!! I hope you will read my comment and try to answer me because I really don't know what to do anymore. I have an Arduino mini, or rather, more than one because out of desperation I tried to buy several. I should connect it to Bheli but there is no way. I installed the drivers, the computer recognizes it, sees it and tells me a working device but then when I go to make Bheli recognize it there is no way to connect it.... It sees that it is inserted in the USB port but when I give it the command connect continues to load and finally tells me "interface fails". What could be wrong? Thank you very much if you answer me

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Did you set blheli to look for the correct interface? Certain about it being connected to the right pins? I'm not sure there is too much help I can provide other than checking the obvious things.

[@FabioR-qf5vw]

@@JustCuzRobotics Yes, the pins are connected correctly. How do you tell Blheli to set the correct interface? Maybe it's the step I'm missing....

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Top menu should have select blheli32 interface and you need to choose USB/COM

[@MikeysLab]

BLHeli normally drives sensorless brushless motors, for something like a combat robot would sensored brushless motors not make more sense, given the better control at slower speeds? Could sensored brushless motors negate the need for gearing? a 920 kv sensored motor has MUCH better performance on the low end, so no stuttering and higher torque at the 5% throttle ranges. This would also open up using VESC speed controllers (I like the FSESC variety) which are by no means cheap, but they are open source :)

[@JustCuzRobotics]

This is true. But for bots in the 1lb and 3lb and even 12lb class there are almost no sensored motors small enough, and both the sensored motors and especially ESCs are way more expensive. At the 250lb battlebot scale that changes and sensored motors are really the go-to. My next 12lb bot I intend to use a sensored motor that's basically the smallest one I could find that can use 4S or higher voltage, but the VESC I am driving it with cost about 50% more and is about 400% heavier than a similarly rated Blheli32 ESC.

[@MikeysLab]

@@JustCuzRobotics There are some motors designed for RC cars, which I agree might be a bit big :) was actually toying with the idea of building my own ESC but that might be a touch extreme

[@JustCuzRobotics]

For reference the one I wanna use for my 12lb bot will be just for a lifting arm, hence it is absolutely essential to have sensor feedback. It is a NEO 550 motor from REV Robotics.

[@MikeysLab]

@@JustCuzRobotics I see your point, the smallest I can seem to find is about 160g and cost $60, which is the Turnigy XK3650

[@logiloigloig369]

Hi, I am using an arduino uno and the HobbyKing® ™ Brushless Car ESC 10A w/ Reverse ESC. I have followed your tutorial, but it doesn't seem to work. What can I do? (The problem is that it doesn't detect the esc). Thanks!

[@JustCuzRobotics]

That ESC is not using Blheli32 or BlheliS firmware. If it did it would say so on the product page. So you won't be able to program it with BlHelisuite.

[@logiloigloig369]

@@JustCuzRobotics Ok, thank you very much! Witch esc are you using?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Supply shortages suck so the ones I have are really expensive and hard to find now. They are HAKRC 35A Blheli32. I can also recommend the Flycolor XCross Blheli32 ones.

[@Tzarkyl]

have you tried using the 4 in 1 esc?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I haven't personally, but many others have used them successfully

[@Tzarkyl]

@@JustCuzRobotics do you know of resources, guides or tutorials related to using them in non drone (combat robot) applications? Thanks

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I'm sure there are a hundred FPV drone youtube channels and websites that would have some. I am not personally involved with any of that but Google is your friend. Only one I know of is Oscar Liang.

[@vwing7332]

Can i use nodeMCU instead of Arduino?

[@JustCuzRobotics]

Honestly I have no experience with NodeMCU but probably not. If it's not on the list of boards to flash with the Blheli software. You can download the software for free and see what boards are listed though.

[@robowarner]

Even with Arduino, I've had issues using unofficial nano boards. I had to use a genuine Uno. Probably something to do with the USB drivers that BLHeli is looking for

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I have had occasional issues with the bargain basement Nano boards as well. Lots of them come with the old bootloader rather than the new one but most of them have worked for me. I used to buy a bunch of Pro Trinkets and use those for throwaway projects but it's a massive pain to work with them (every time you hit the reset button you have like 10 seconds to upload code to them) and they are really finnicky with limited IO. The Nanos seem much better

[@vwing7332]

Thank you @justcuzrobotics for the video .... I have successfully flashed my esc with Arduino nano board ...

[@toonverbruggen7351]

Hi Seth, I was watching this (kzbin.info/www/bejne/qn64momMraxkgbM) the other day and this gave me an idea. The belt on division has always been a weak point so how about putting the motor next to the drive shaft and using a impact wrench-ish thing to connect it? That way you should have reliable direct drive with the effect of the slipping belt. I´m sure you will find something to say why this is a bad idea but you never know, maybe I will once suggest something usable.

[@JustCuzRobotics]

If by impact wrench thing you mean some sort of clutch, that is something I had thought about. The main issue is I cannot use direct drive between the motor and the weapon because I need the mechanical advantage afforded by a 3:1 pulley ratio to self right. In order to direct drive the weapon I would need a much bigger/heavier motor, which I did look into, but it would need to be heavily modified into a hubmotor to survive impacts and that's pretty involved. It would also make the bot way more topheavy and unstable. Having the already rather heavy and large weapon motor low down makes the bot drive much better. Figuring out some means to add slip to the system and still have the torque to self right while surviving massive impacts is a serious engineering challenge in general, and something I have yet to properly solve.

[@toonverbruggen7351]

Being top-heavy is indeed a problem I was worried about. You could solve it by putting the motor and clutch in the regular position and use a drive shaft/gearbox to drive the weapon. You could also get rid of the clutch by using a flexible drive shaft (Like the TPU or whatever that orange/red stuff is called or something a little stronger).

[@JustCuzRobotics]

I don't think a drive shaft has been used by any combat robot like that. I'm not sure why but I feel like there's a reason.

[@toonverbruggen7351]

@@JustCuzRobotics Well make a test bed, put it through the biggest torture you can imagine and see, I guess.