How To Calibrate ESCs with Cleanflight and BLHeliSuite

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This video shows you step by step how to calibrate your ESC throttle endpoints with Cleanflight or Betaflight and BLHeliSuite. Here are some related videos that you might also want to watch:
• Cleanflight BLHeli Top... - How to manually calibrate the top end of your throttle curve. This is something that the calibration method in this video will not accomplish. For some people, this step is the only way of finally getting smooth motors at high throttle.
• "Smoke-stopper" protec... - How to build a current-limiting bulb adapter to protect your ESCs while you are working on your copter, and to allow you to safely work on your copter with the props on.
• BLHeli Passthrough | E... - How to use BLHeli Passthrough to program your ESCs without disconnecting them from the flight controller, and without a toolstick.
• Cleanflight throttle p... - The full treatise on throttle parameters in Cleanflight, part 1.
• Cleanflight throttle p... - The full treatise, part 2.

[@waxman6352]

Great video! I finished my first build earlier this week a QAV210 and had not been able to arm the thing. After watching your awesome video tutorials I was able to get it armed and calibrated my ESC's. I have had my first flight today!!! And I was amazed at how well she handled even in the windy conditions. (I had to fly , I couldn't wait a minute longer) I really want you to know that I appreciate all your time and effort! Thanks and happy flying!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Thanks! Glad you got into the air!

[@lf5133]

Hey Josh thanks for your reply. I checked the throttle expo but it was not turned on. However, I found the problem while watching this video. Somehow I had turned down the max throttle under the configuration tab. It was max 1500. I raised it and it fixed the problem. Thanks for sending me in the right direction. As I get more knowledge I'll understand this video. U r definitely way ahead of me. Thanks again for taking the time to reply and helping me get back in the air. I'm now a new subscriber.

[@planksimonproduktion9399]

Hey i am building my first quad and those videos help me a lot! Thank you for your service! Have a nice day!

[@prOkrEAt]

nice! very helpful. i've actually been doing it how you suggest all along, just got confused by which set what and their relations. now i shall go back to not worrying about it and understand it better.

[@th3hunt3r85]

Thank You so much Joshua! Thanks to people like you this hobby is so great , just keep doing what are you doing , and know that there are people all over the globe that are grateful and i'm talking about all of your videos not just this one , just wanted to share my thoughts :)

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+s3v0 Glad it was some help to you. HAPPY FLYING!

[@gelatediashvilifpv862]

This video saved a lot of my time, 10X Joshua, your doing good staff !

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Awesome!

[@akshayn3926]

your videos are always helpful, thanks

[@mikeendsley8453]

I've been having issues with my motors vibrating badly when throttling up. I thought is was my FC (Naze32 Rev6) and I was trying all kinds of o-rings and vibration dampening things to keep the gyro acting weird. Following this helped me calibrate and adjust my ESC settings correctly...problems went away. Thank you!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Mike Endsley AWESOME! Glad I was able to help you.

[@VIKFPV]

Thanks man - the very last part of this video helped me with my DODO.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+VIKO FPV Awesome! That's what I'm here for.

[@VIKFPV]

+Joshua Bardwell +Joshua Bardwell one thing though I am getting confused on is min command vs min throttle. Why wouldn't you just sync up bhheli ppm min throttle to min throttle on clean flight instead of syncing up min command and ppm min throttle?

[@DudeWithDogs]

this is by far the most usefull calibration tutorial ive ever seen, thanks for that

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+teramax awesome. Thanks.

[@alanhennesy2145]

i'm more confused now than before i watched it,...

[@DudeWithDogs]

alan hennesy watch again, its important ;-)

[@alanhennesy2145]

hehe ok i watched again and the main point was ''its not important, leave it alone'' hehehe, its all neither here nor there, the topic meandered over to resolution then hinted at some complex stuff that may or may not be true then its bumbled via programming by tx via a history of legacy controls back to the min max throttle setttings... the fact is, these are readings not settings, theres no real reason to change them at all, even if one esc is slightly lower and cleanflight asks for more ''max' when there is none? then it sense no more thrust via accels sensorss, and if you do adjust the max throttle up to the rest of the esc's? guess what, cleanflight limits them again when no more thrust is output.... so i'm back at square one .. when you consider noobs like me... trying to fumble through to get a quad to fly, i basically ignored everything i didnt quite understand and the quad flew ok, then i started trying to understand stuff like fine tuning endpoints on my tx and matching those to cleanflight ... which i don't even recall if it used as defaults the 1000 and 2000, and from there to changing my habit of no spin at arm to a minmum spin at arm plus being careful not to set my minimum spin too high or too low and then this red herring topic of blheli's min max.... and wwhen you bear in mind i'm trying to have a look at loop times and if i can make mine faster, and how.. loop time was mentioned in the middle of this too. i think i could sum up the whole vid in a couple of shortish sentences,, ''these numbers don't really matter leave them alone unless one number is more than x out of sync with the other numbers, in which case you probably have a bad esc.'' .. damn i did it in one hehehe

[@conguero39]

Great Tutorial! Thanks a lot!

[@DrysdaleOsteopathy]

Excellent - many thanks Joshua.

[@snting]

Good stuff mate!

[@-sickfast434]

cant believe this is 4 years old man lol u da man mang thx jb

[@johnbohemier9063]

Helped a lot. Thanks

[@HappyKmore]

Joshua, your videos are awesome, keep up the great work! One thing you might want to note is your "damped light" setting. With my littlebee 20's if that's not set, I get a flat spot at 1500 - 2000. Changing to damped light allows my motors to vary all the way up to 1940ish.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

You have to use damped light if your ESCs support it, period. Dither will help with the dead spot at the top. You can also do top-end calibration. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaHImIiPe513rs0 kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZnPMYouZmdWhh6s

[@HappyKmore]

Thank you again!

[@jeroeniemans]

Man... everything i lookup your face or voice pops up.... master

[@terjetularsen]

Great stuff! Have been looking for documentation on BLHeli for ages :-) Could you go through the other values in a later video? What are the values, and how do they influence the ESC/motor/prop/multitrotor weight setup?

[@andrewauguscik9062]

I figured it out! The only thing I needed to do was reverse the motors. I guess lum motors ship as cw and my other motors were ccw so I soldered them up opposite. I didn't even check rotation because I was sure I set them up right. I feel so stupid haha. Thanks for your help!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

You can never know for sure whether a motor will be CW or CCW when wired straight-through unless you have wired up that exact motor before. Glad you found out the issue!

[@alexadabic]

Thanks man, love you :D

[@bugre29]

Dear Joshua, first thanks for your effort and patience to teach and help us improve our understanding of the hobby "guts". I'm trying to build a new quad, with this settup: FC BeeRotor F3+Betaflight 3.0, RCX 12A F Series + BLHeli 14.8, Sunnysky 2204S motors. My problem is that after calibrating (or directly in betaflight -3.0) of via blhelisuite, the motors, when in idle, even before arming, do some kind of stutter. I've tried repeating calibration many times, also did try changing the motor timing in blhelisuite, but nothing helped. The only way i get to stop jittering/stutter is , setting Min Command as low as 950. Thanks in advance for any suggestion/indication if it's ok to let mincommand that low.

[@wdavie27]

Cool thanks joshua Bardwell so do I do this after setting up my f3 fc in cleanflight iv still to unbrick the board but I'm just going to do that iv found a few videos showing to unbrick the f3 deluxe so I'll get that done iv only one problem iv got the cc3d naze32 f3 pdb and I don't know where to connect the v-bat connection and iv got this setup on the table and going to get a we video of it setup before I put it in the quad and upload it and if you can have a look at it and hopefully it's looking good and ready to install and get it powered up without any magic smoking haha yeah that's a thought josh lol

[@VinceIrie]

Great video

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Vince Irie Thanks much.

[@bugsysiegals]

Hi Joshua, you might want to put a note, I didn't see it, that you need to be in Multishot in order to do this ... it wasn't working for me and then recall you mentioning Multishot in another video so I tried it and it worked. :)

[@reminoel483]

hey josh i have a probleme with one of my quads... my Naze32 will only recognize motor 1 and 4... switched esc and same thing... any ideas what could cause that before i purchase a new FC? thankyou love your vids!

[@doublehelix.]

You did well, i didnt knew this.

[@spex357]

Whilst setting up my new drone, one esc got very hot and the motor just juddered. I asked the seller if I could buy a replacement in the UK to save time, yes they said you can use a Racerstar 20amp. The ones that are on are not Racerstars or a copy of Racerstars but have no name on. Is there anything I need to watch out for when setting it up or would you say don't have an odd one?

[@dinofranchini6329]

Hi Joshua in first happy new year! Many thanks for your fantastic videos !!! Please I need your help: for start and practice with the 'fpv I rebuilt my old QAV250 lumenier: I mounted on the fc F3 motolab cyclone: I left the default pid I did the various calibrations accelerators and esc but it is unstable in flight😱😱😱 even with propellers new ..in hovering is not standing and slips a little back or sideways and I must continue to correct .. unlike my other two miniquad Armattan LM2 with fc tornado and chamaleon with same fc cyclonet that are stable: what can I do to make it stable? Please Have any advice to give me on how to correct the bad stability? Thank you

[@GoGetter787]

Hi Joshua, love your videos. What would cause this.. I do the calibration on the esc and I only get a couple beeps starting the calibration and only one beep on the way down the slider. Thanks

[@mgenstraycat]

Great video , had a problem with two quads with motor's stuttering etc. , tried all sorts ....watched video , re-flashed firmware and re-calibrated esc's , all stuttering has gone , quads fly again ... min throttle and max throttle are a bit off, though

[@305bonddog]

Thanks Josh Will try

[@REDhlg]

Joshua, where is the video where you go over the Mincheck and Minimum command settings? I've seen it before, but am not finding it now... I'm finding my quad wants to start out at 10% on the motors and not 0% and following this ESC calibration didn't seem to fix it like I'd hoped. Thanks!

[@nitro2037]

first, thanks for all ur vids..so helpful..ive been into this for 1 1/2 yrs. now and i always seem to run into new problems, so my latest is...betaflight, 3.1 naze32 rev5, dys XM20a bhheli oneshot esc, mini red bottoms....problem is, naze or esc will not go into sync mode. no sound from esc when i plug battery in, then motors SPIN UP.., but if i plug just the battery, esc work fine..just cant get into sync mode..HELP?? and this is why you take props OFF..this set up worked fine a week ago..alls i did was change the FC to a new one.same as the last...

[@rolandburrows4859]

Josh, I flashed ny secs with Blheli configurator (using MAC) and two of my motors did not show up on the menu afterwards. When I tried to power up the motors, only 1 and 4 worked. What did I do and how do I correct this? Can I use clmeanflight to fix this?

[@hquiroz113064]

quick question my quad is trying to flip on full throttle punchouts , would you say this is probably a esc issue? thanks

[@rscarawa]

One thing I am noticing in BF 3.0 is when I command 1950 throttle, only 1791 is showing up in bb explorer. Some motors run slightly higher than that. is BF trying to leave some throttle in reserve for stabilization? Should I be able to get full throttle from atleast one of the esc when I do a punchout?

[@thavis117]

I'm having a problem on BLHeli where it says setup out of sync with master, how do I fix that? Sorry if you already went over in the video, I'm just confused

[@rolandburrows4859]

Josh, I just followed this video and it was great thanks. I found that Blheli read that my esc1 showed "u" and said "earned or unknown firmware." The other 3 read fine with #2 being the master. How do I fix esc#1 given I updated the firmware from 14.1 to 14.9 on the FVT Litttlebee 20A Blheli escs. All motors work and spin despite this issue.

[@hyphyfpv1331]

This is my problem :( anybfix. Lol 4 years later

[@MrShouser1955]

Can you update the video using the current blheli configuration?? Mine does not look like yours.

[@rcpete7055]

How do I calibrate the spedix 4in1 esc please Josh or does it need calibrating? I made a smoke stopper and have just bought a Taranis Qx7 please help

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Use Dshot and forget about calibration.

[@MrEzork]

Hey Joshua. When using DSHOT, is tuning the PPM Min and Max throttle with BLHeliSuite usefull still ?

[@scottcampbell8568]

Might be too simple but it was super helpful!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Glad to hear it!

[@gmoetech9111]

Awesome tutorial. I have been well versed in the calibration procedures but never synced it inside the ranges max min throttle number and min max throttle number , however when I throttle calib my ranges were always 1020 on min and around the 1880 ranges on max . Wondering why I'm not getting more of full range like the 1970 range on max like you are getting. All calib were done on either spider ztw's or ubad angry beasts all running Multishot 14.4..... Any input is greatly appreciated

[@JoshuaBardwell]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHTSdop4na-sbLM

[@KhoaLe-yz2sn]

Hi ,i have walkera f210 .when i move my right stick to up (100) just one of the motor on the back is spin hard but the other back is spin too but is not hard like the the other and they are the same on roll even the throtle, four of them are spin the same time but after 2 or 3 second two motor drop down . Can you help me with that ? Thank (show on leanflight) a

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Weird stuff happens when the props are off. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnPElpmbhtl0Z8U

[@malo6748]

I cannot drag the Master slider up, using Littlebee 30A oneshot 125. Yes everything required is ticked.

[@jamesdoyle6839]

running blheli S. when running program it shows motors 1,2.& 4 no #3 .. doing a refresh it shows only #2.... all 4 motors operate just fine in configurator..

[@cksarath319]

Can i calibrate dji fcb A2 by using Cleanflight and BLHeliSuite

[@kevinlancaster3200]

hi JB, my Hawk 5 dips the front left motor when i punch. I've changed the motor and no difference, is calibrating worth a go or am i faced with buying a new ESC Bullet 4 in 1?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Assuming you're running dshot, calibration has no effect. I'm afraid the ESC is a likely candidate.

[@Madisonsemien9857]

hi I have a issue with my racerstar 30a esc not calibrating on betaflight are blheli suite when it's plug into the USB and I plug the battery with Max either the motors will spin are won't get the calibration beeps could you please help thanks

[@JoshuaBardwell]

What FC is it? Some FC's back-feed the ESCs from USB so the ESCs are already powered up when you plug in the battery. Then the ESC doesn't go into calibration because the throttle must be at full when the ESC is powered up.

[@adriancjones]

Hey thanks for the vid. I'm having a problem. I just went back and started over, and its still giving me issues. In cleanflight after I hit save and reboot then one of the motors starts to run. I don't have a lipo hooked up it's just running off of the usb power. That interferes with doing the esc calibrations. When I shut down the battery and put my TX throttle to high the esc's arn't sensing the high signal because they are already on from the power from the usb. Any ideas? I'm going to try removing the + & - from the esc to the flight controller and see if that helps anything. Is there anything I can do in BLHeli to fix this, or is it a bum FC?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+adriancjones this is an issue with early Naze r6 and Dodo boards. There should be a diode to prevent them from powering off of USB. I don't know any workarounds that aren't a pain in the ass. I suggest using my "Maximum resolution ESC calibration" method (search my channel)

[@m3dXX]

Have a problem with Blheli_s and SP F3 Evo. Looks like Naze32 rev6 power from usb problem. During calibrating motors start spin when bat attached

[@PerthBoyz]

Dmitry Astapkovich throw it at the Wall that fixes it

[@shawnhannah3320]

hey Josh I tried all day and I'm stuck any idea why when I arm my quad the motors don't spin equally they are perfect when I go into the motor tab and use the master switch but when I use my spektrum the motors are pulsating I appreciate any help soo much thanks

[@JoshuaBardwell]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnPElpmbhtl0Z8U

[@Gray_Wolf33]

Hi Josh, thanks for all your videos they have been extremely helpful and have learned a substantial amount from you. I had a question for you: I'm currently running BL Heli 14.4 using the old calibration method using min/max throttle in CF of 1000-2000. After calibration, I go to BL Heli and ESC's have slight differences. I am getting 1980, 1976, 1982, 1972 for the PPM Max. Should I be setting the max throttle in CF to the lowest figure of the 4? In this case set CF max throttle to 1960 or leave it at 2000? This part of the calibration procedure has always confused me! Thanks a lot!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+u189961 if you want to entirely avoid dead-band, set max_throttle to the smallest of the four. Or use my "maximum resolution" calibration method, which is posted in a later video.

[@MaxBeamer]

I was freaking out when he typed the values in the wrong boxes as if it was going to remote detonate the quad or something haha

[@enachelucianadrian]

But if the value fluctuates when they are calibrated and there are calibrate one by one? It could be this result.

[@orblivious1]

hi Josh, love your channel...quick question. I did the cleanflight calibration and set min comman/max throttle like you stated. when i check my Afro12A's they are all consistent but show a PPM Max Throttle to be 1864...the PPM min is 1020 which seems OK. Question: Should i change my PPM Max Throttle to be around 1980 or leave it as 1864? Does this mean i have another issue? The readings were nearly the same for each one; min on all four was 1020, and all but one had a max of 1864 (one showed 1868). Thanks!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+orblivious1 Leave it as whatever it calibrated at. But you might consider increasing max_throttle to get more resolution out of your throttle channel. Was max_throttle=2000 when you calibrated?

[@hippopotamus86]

I've got the same ESC's. Their default setting was like 1100 / 1800, Just done the calibration and it's now 1024 / 2020 for every ESC. Does this mean they were extremely out previously?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Yes. I would personally reduce max_throttle until they calibrate to 2016 or less.

[@andrewauguscik9062]

I'm having a problem with my quad, when I arm the motors seem to spin up fine and everything but then if I move the quad at all the motors start shaking. I was thinking my escs weren't in sync when I programmed them in the boot loader or some problem with not setting up the gyro correctly. Thanks so much if could help me or just lead me in the right path. Happy flying!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Andrew Auguscik make sure your motors are plugged in in the correct order.

[@_bdub_]

after i ran the calibration for ESC in cleanflight, the BLHeli Suite showed my min=1032 max=2020...what effect does that have if the max is 2020 but cleanflight is set to 2000 max ? Does that mean I will hit max power before my stick is all the way up?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Brennan G no. The whole point of calibration is that the two sides are now aligned. If you could just set the numbers the same then you wouldn't need to calibrate. If I say, "I'm sending you 2000," and you say, "I'm seeing 2020," oh well, at least we know how far off we are. But you don't want 2020 as the maximum value. Reduce max_throttle and re run calibration until the ESC calibrates to less than 2020.

[@_bdub_]

OK, well I adjusted max_throttle to 1990 in cleanflight, and after calibration, BLHeli is still showing 2020 max...so I lower max throttle again in cleanflight to 1980, calibrate again, and BLHeli is showing max at 2012, 2012, 2012, 2016....min values are 1028 and 1032. Should I keep lowering the max throttle in cleanflight to get closer to 2000 max in BLHeli ? I'm confused now....I only know the ESC themselves aren't far off from each other, within "one step" of each other... sorry to trouble you, I'm new (obviously)

[@JoshuaBardwell]

As long as they're below 2020 you're fine. Them being one step off is no big deal.

[@_bdub_]

Thank you for replying. Super nice of you to be so quick to help. Cheers

[@andrewauguscik9062]

They are plugged in correctly and it's only when my quadcopter gets moved, like the motors soon up fine but if I tilt on side of my quad all the motors seem to freak out and shake. Could this be because of my escs or something in the fc

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Are you sure it's not just the normal effect of handling the copter with props off? The copter is going to try to oppose your motions.

[@joeynuggetz]

What does it mean why the ESC's twitch at idle/power on? Trying to run oneshot and flashed blheli 14.4 and twitches were worse than what I'm running now 14.1. Not sure what the issue is. I have both the ground and signal wires connected. Does this indicate a problem? My ESCs are ZTW Spider 12A ESCs.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Joey Nuggetz The twitches can be solved by reducing min_command to a lower level. Just to be clear, here is the process I would recommend: set min_command=1000 and max_throttle=2000; calibrate ESCs using the motors tab; set min_command=950. That should do it.

[@waveriderdwf4007]

Hi Josh I hope you can help me. I like what you for everyone. My diatone 180 flips forwards. Can't get it off the ground. Everything is right, the motors turn right direction, props are on right too. Any thoughts ?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Don Fowler motors wired to wrong header, I'm wrong order. FC facing wrong direction, board align not set. Motor spinning wrong direction. If the copter instantly flops on throttle up, it is almost always one of those three things.

[@fpvandgasrc4321]

I'm using blheli32 and my min pwm value is 10:10 to 10:16 is that too low also my min pwm max value is 2016 what should I do leave them all different or do they have to be below 2,000

[@JoshuaBardwell]

If you are using Dshot, then none of this matters, because Dshot does not require calibration. If you are using multishot or oneshot, then whatever they calibrate to, that's what you should use. That's the whole point of calibration.

[@baverona]

I'm using aikon 30a esc's, with a cyclone, with betaflight 3.0... no matter what i do it will not stop jittering... any ideas.... any info will be greatly appreciated!!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Jitter is just so open-ended it's really hard to make any good suggestions. If it happens only when armed, and NOT in the motors tab, then it is something to do with the PID loop or tuning. If it happens also in the motors tab, then it is something in between the FC motor outputs, the ESC, and the motor.

[@hiwayM9]

I have been setting up my naze boards with my futaba forever it seems... never with much else. I have been building a salvage quad out of spare parts and put one of those new Orange ppm only rx I mentioned in another video since this is a goof off craft. I am using a spare set of ZTW's with an older fw release of blheli (I just plugged and calibrated) and I am getting this odd "twitch" to the motors when not armed. I thought I remembered seeing something in this vid but have watched it 3 times and do not see it. Do you have any idea or possible resolutions?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Hiway Calibrate with min_command=1000, then set min_command=960 and do not re-calibrate.

[@hiwayM9]

+Joshua Bardwell ah. you da man. gotta put you in the will or some shit ;)

[@RonFerlman]

hello, I have a sp racing f3 clone board. in the motors tab in cleanflight and betaflight the x y and z numbers for the gyro are moving all crazy like even though the drone is sitting still. the graph shows the 4 lines to be flat. any idea what's going on?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

The gyro has a very high amount of low-level noise. You're probably not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Some time back the BF devs changed the configurator to show the gyro instead of the accelerometer. I think it was a mistake. The gyro data is practically useless as it is presented there.

[@RonFerlman]

Joshua Bardwell so if I ever get a noisy motor or vibration I won't be able to pinpoint it through that?

[@malcdickinson06]

Thanks for the help, any idea why cleanflight will only connect with the batter connected, i am using a vortex 250 pro.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

That's a weird one. Does the board power up when USB is plugged in? Do the LEDs light up?

[@malcdickinson06]

Hi, nothing happens , ive been having trouble with the firmware, upgraded from immersion website but latest doesn't work, other people have confirmed this, i had to install the latest beta, i set my modes on cleanflight but when i disconnect the modes haven't saved, no self leveling, only with the cable plugged in, tries multiple cables and installed drivers, im on a macbook pro 2015 if that helps.

[@AbdulAleemShekhani]

It is fun to care about these things, another great video buddy :] So the esc tones we hear here marking the calibration mode are specific to blheli or multishot or are the same for them all?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

They're specific to BLHeli. There are some custom compiles of BLHeli that have different tones, like the imperial march.

[@AbdulAleemShekhani]

Yea but those are the third party firmware writes? I believe you have a video out on those too and that you used the Imperial March :P

[@alexandrucovaliov8989]

So, if I do an ESC calibration in Cleanflight and then connect to BLHeli I see "Out of sync with master" message. Do I have to change "Min Throttle" and "Max Throttle" to make them similar or leave them as is?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Alexandru Covaliov I leave them as is. That's the whole point of calibration. You can disable "sync min/center/max" under the Options menu to avoid getting a warning. If any ESC is more than, say, about 50 us off from the CleanFlight configured value, I would be suspicious of an issue with the oscillator. Realistically, it will probably fly fine, but I would want to be aware of it just in case.

[@macfosch]

Hi! Thanks a lot for all your videos, really useful ! Questions about the calibration please. What is the best method : 1- Set the min/max PPM values in BLHeli at 1020-1980, or 2- Calibrate via Cleanflight and then adjust min/max PPM with BLHeli to get the same values for all ESCs ? In the second case, I get 1020-1860. Should I reduce max_throttle close to 1860 or keep 2000 in Cleanflight ?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Fosch I prefer to set min_command=1000, max_throttle=2000, then run calibration using the Motors tab. ESCs will have different values, but that's the whole point of calibration: to compensate for small differences in the timing circuitry in the ESCs and FC.

[@macfosch]

+Joshua Bardwell Thanks !

[@baverona]

does blheli_s recognize multishot in betaflight.. or do they ha e to be flashed to multishot.. and if so where are the .hex files for dys xs30?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

BLHeli_S supports multishot natively. Also Oneshot42.

[@lieber1230]

How do i calibrate bidirectional esc.

[@maraxpl]

Hello when i put master to full and connect battery i have no signal music (beeps) when i put down i have only 1 beep. then when im using my radiolink at9 motors spinning up and i must cut off. There is problem i cant get calibration mode and dont know why. I have 20A Opto and Naza

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Piotr Pietrzak I'm sorry, I don't know anything about Naza flight controller.

[@maraxpl]

Ok :(

[@baverona]

only happens in flight... any suggestions on where to start teouble shooting?.. seems to smooth out when i give throttle

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Blackbox?

[@juancarlosvargas6640]

Hello Joshua Bardwell, Great tutorial. Can i do the same either using PPM or PWM protocols ? I will be using PWM on my quad. thanks

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Juan Carlos Vargas you need to calibrate ESC's regardless. But don't use parallel PWM.

[@juancarlosvargas6640]

Joshua Bardwell, sorry but what is parallel PWM, you mean I should use PPM instead PWM ?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Juan Carlos Vargas a PPM receiver would be better, but these days cheap serial receivers are available and should be preferred.

[@DangerDavefpv]

what could make my accelerometer when in betaflight with quad hooked up and go back to the setup page for accelerometer and it will be off oreintation and ive not touched it? Sorry im getting tired of trying to get this thing to work.. i did a lift off and it walked back and forth and flipout

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Accelerometer drift when the copter is sitting still on the bench probably means a damaged accelerometer. You can try calibrating the ACC again, but if it keeps drifting, it's probably damaged. Accelerometer drift when the motors and props are spinning can mean you need more filtering on the accelerometer. But that's not what you're describing.

[@DangerDavefpv]

so when i try to fly it sits and jerks and it dont go to one side, its like a car sitting there jerking around with big cam lol. Funny how it least flew before but for 20sec and then drop but the owner before had placed a long screw into stator/windings. im about to give up on this thing,what you think? make video and send to you? im scared of breaking to peices if try to fly outside since dark but if help you figure out. should went with droneproz and got a good one to begin with

[@DangerDavefpv]

do you sell drones lol? to cut cost couldnt i just use my flysky fs-i6 on something from droneproz?

[@astifcaulkinyeras]

What should I do if my PPM max throttles are 2006, 2006, 2006, 2008? Do I set them all to 2000 or 2006?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+ryanhayn leave them alone. It's fine.

[@wdavie27]

joshua bardwell is there a custom setup for esc & motors for racestar blHeli 4 in 1 esc when im checking motor 1 its motor 4 and 2 and 3 ar the same back to front but all turning the right way every things wired up as it should be but i cant understand whats going on but i think i found the problem with the instant flipping josh but cant work out why my motors ar back to front josh

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Whenever I have done a 4-in-1, I have always had to move the signal wires around to get the motors to map correctly. You need the motors to spin correctly in the Cleanflight or Betaflight motors tab. If the wrong motor spins, write down which wire it was and where you need to move it to make the right motor spin.

[@wdavie27]

+Joshua Bardwell woohoo so I'm not going of my nut haha thanks very much josh will it be the lead from esc up to fc outputs for esc & motor and swap 1&4 and 2&3 yeah that's making more sense josh iv climbing the walls all week stripping it down and keep going over all the wiring diagrams haha and it's something so simple really thanks again your the man josh

[@wdavie27]

Joshua Bardwell iv got them all in order now josh thanks very much im gony put the props on and give it a try in the bedroom and see if its gony flip or fly haha woohoo fun time josh haha

[@txfieros]

Very informative...I always wondered about the BLHeli stuff. I have SimonK Autoshot....I've stayed away from BLHeli for my last 3 builds just because I kept reading of all sorts of issues with BLHeli, either because that's what most people use or because people may just be messing with them through the suite making it seem like it's a more problematic firmware for ESC's. I may try BLHeli at some point in the future. One question, how could adapt your technique outlined here if I have a CC3D that needs power for Cleanflight to connect via USB? Thanks.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+txfieros I'm not sure how you would do this with CC3D. I suppose you would need a separate power source for the CC3D vs. the ESCs. But this might not be practical, and you might just be better off setting the endpoints manually.

[@txfieros]

+Joshua Bardwell now that you say that, if I ever had to I could just use my variable voltage power supply to sent power via some PWM pins.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+txfieros I do think that you could power the board via the motor header. The center pin of the motor header is typically wired to Vcc on most boards.

[@FPVPortugalTV]

Other question (sorry to bother you mate), do you think BLheli 14.2 is best to Little Bee 20A? I see you use 14.2 and not 14.3. Thanks again.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+FPV Portugal I don't really know about that. I am currently running 14.2, but only because I'm a bit hesitant to upgrade to the latest and greatest if what I have is working. I don't remember there being any huge bug fixes or performance improvements in 14.3, so I haven't moved up. But I wouldn't down-grade from 14.3 if it was on my ESCs.

[@FPVPortugalTV]

Joshua Bardwell Thanks for the answer Joshua. :) Yeah i knwo what you mean, if aint broke dont fix it. :)

[@LJT9393]

For my Mobula7 FlySky version, should I have it on PPM or PWM? What’s the difference? I tried to read up a bit but I wasn’t really understanding the difference. And if I switch it on my TX I need to change it also in betaflight right?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

The Mobula uses DShot output to the ESC's. So calibration is not needed or possible. If you are talking about receiver input, a Flysky receiver should be using serial receiver with IBUS protocol.

[@LJT9393]

Joshua Bardwell so under the port tab should I turn on the serial RX, and then in the tab over switch it from disabled to iBus? Sorry for so many questions... also if you know how to get the telemetry stick commands working with FlySky TX, and the FlySky mob7 with F4 Pro flight controller. I know it supports the telemetry, and some stick inputs I do will make a beep like when you trim accelerometer on other models or transmitters, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. I used to be able to change profiles with stick commands when it was factory and early release firmware. I flashed newest firmware and tho telemetry tab is on and I’ve also activated it under modes over my arm switch when it’s in the disarm position. But I’d like to be able to trim my accelerometer with stick commands cause I can not get rid of this drift. Thanks man!

[@frankposterello1628]

Thanks for the instructions. Is it odd that all 4 of my ESC's calibrated to the same values 1012/2004? It seemed to work, and all the values changed from what they were prior to calibration. These are racerstar 30A/v2 escs and I did it through Betaflight instead of CF.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

It's unusual to see them all calibrate exactly the same, but not problematic.

[@frankposterello1628]

Ug, something else must be wrong. They all started at the same time with the motor slider, so probably OK there. Now when I power up - still disarmed - the motors all twitch like once a second... not the betaflight buzzing, but actually moving. I changed from oneshot125 to DSHOT600 and it seems to have gone away.

[@wadestewart3042]

Frank Posterello mine are the same , same v2 esc & 1016/2030

[@rcopter3770]

if i change looptime in the gaui cleanflight 1.2.0 from 1000 to 2500 the chance wil not stay after saving , it turns back to 1000....? doe i stil have to change the looptime in the CLI comand like bevoor? is it a bug in 1.2.0 ?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Not a bug. PID is locked to gyro at 1 kHz. Why do you want to make aliasing worse by sampling slower? F1 board can run all features under 1000 looptime now, so there is no need to go slower.

[@rcopter3770]

+Joshua Bardwell after flying this afternoon, same thinking here erverything workes great no need to change, thank`s

[@baverona]

so if i just choose multushot from the dropdown menu and then recalibrate my esc's ill be good to go?.. thanks in advance!

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+bobby averona Yeah.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+bobby averona Yeah.

[@chrisyoung8062]

I recently used my first set of blheli-s ESCs. I'm using multi-shot. Whether I calibrate using betaflight or the calibration in blheli suite I get the same result and that is that the max end point is 2012 on all ESCs. Should I change this down to 2000 since my max throttle setting is 2000 in betaflight or will the ESC automatically map max throttle from the FC to its max? BTW the ESCs are Aikon 30a.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

The entire point of the calibration is that what the FC sees as 2000 is not the same as what the ESCs see as 2000. If you change the ESC endpoints to 2000, you are un-doing the calibration. Think of it like the ESC's clock is running slightly slow compared to the FC's clock.

[@chrisyoung8062]

ah! I see...so when the FC sent a value of 2000 to the ESC, during calibration, the ESC saw it as 2012. I will get full power from the ESC.

[@kaanaslan_tr]

Hello, Could you please tell me the right settings I should set on CleanFlight and on BLHeli ESC Min Max Throttle Calibration? I have 20A littlebees. CleanFlight Configuration: Minimum Throttle: 1031 Maximum Throttle: 2000 Minimum Command: 1000 After I flash the ESCs to 14.4 each ESC's values are shown below: ESC1: PPM Min: 1024 PPM Max: 1972 ESC2: PPM Min: 1024 PPM Max: 1976 ESC3: PPM Min: 1020 PPM Max: 1960 ESC4: PPM Min: 1020 PPM Max: 1960 And startup power is at x0,75, should it be at 1 or is it fine as it is? Last question: The PWM Frequensy/Damped is set to high. I see on some videos it's set to damped light. Should I change it to damped light?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Kaan Aslan Yes. Use Damped Light if your ESC supports it, which LB20 does. If you performed calibration, don't worry if the final values are a little different. That's normal. The calibration is doing its job. Startup power of 0.75 is fine.

[@kaanaslan_tr]

+Joshua Bardwell Thank you. Then I leave the rest :)

[@JorgePerez-yt9ou]

I'm having trouble with motor/ESC #4. the motor twitches when I put power to it. I checked all my solder joints, and they look good. I've swapped motors to make sure that the motor isn't bad, it seems to be getting a signal, but I'm not sure if I need to replace the esc. all the other motors seem to be in sync after the calibration...just motor #4. any suggestions?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

If you swapped the motor and it didn't fix it, then the next thing to do is to replace the ESC.

[@JorgePerez-yt9ou]

Joshua Bardwell is it a bad idea to run three 20 amp escs and one 30 amp? or should I replace all to match?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

It's best that they match, but most people probably won't notice any difference.

[@madforit9661]

Hi Josh Please can you try and help I have a Diatone Tyrant S Today I checked the esc version and found it to be out of date .I connected through Blheli and it read all 4 esc' It said they where A H 30 I selected the 1st esc and proceeded to flash Half way through, it said Flash failure Now when I try to re flash ,it doesn't see that esc Its only finding the remaining 3 There was no smoke ,fire or anything burning The software just failed How do I get Blheli to recognize these Many thanks As always

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+spooner Graham if the flash failed and now it won't work you need to re flash over the C2 interface (assuming a SiLabs ESC) to restore function.

[@madforit9661]

But if they are not getting recognised when I connect to blheli When I click read ,it only finds 3 now, So how do I go about re writing over the c2

[@renescentm]

Sry i have another Question... where can i change my >Stick Min/ Stick Center / Stick Max< in Cleanflight its by Receiver Tab .. but where can i change this in Betaflight ?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Betaflight requires you to do this in the CLI. Best to adjust the transmitter so the endpoints match 1000 to 2000 with 1500 in the center.

[@renescentm]

Joshua Bardwell okey thanks..but by the way can you tell me the commands in CLI? And Great Videos:) !

[@415bryant]

Can I send you an email video so you can see how my motors are twitching? I dont know what it is and putting the props on it and lying it didn't help. Just osolates when in the air.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+415bryant sure.

[@OZSCQUADS]

This is a very helpful video. I have an issue/question and was wondering if I could get some feedback. I set min command to 1000 and max throttle to 2000. When I followed this process, my esc min ended up at 1148 and max was 1862. DYS XM20A escs.. Possible there is a problem, or is it possible that these numbers are correct? If this is not a problem, then I would have to set min throttle to about 1160-1170, right?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+FlyinSunnyCoast no. The whole point of the calibration is that your 1000 to 2000 in the FC has been mapped to whatever the ESC perceives that as. To find min_throttle, raise the master slider in the Motors tab until all four motors are spinning without stuttering, then add 20.

[@OZSCQUADS]

OK. Thank you. Greatly appreciated.

[@DavidBowring]

Hi Joshua. I'm not quite sure what's going on with my new(ish) QAV-R build. I'm running LittleBee 20A Pro's and a Lumenier Lux. I flashed BLHeli 14.6 just now and I'm running Betaflight 2.8.1 RC1. I thought I'd calibrate them again (not sure if it was necessary) but I'm finding the PPM Max throttle is going to 2020 as max on all four of the ESC's. I wondered if the calibration was simply failing so I set everything to completely random values in BHS, then dropped max throttle command in CF down to 1990 and calibrated again. Now BLHeliSuite is showing PPM Max Throttle at 2016 - so it appears that it's calibrating, but I'm not sure I'm happy with the results. Any suggestions?

[@jtr159]

Set max throttle down five at a time until the results are just above 2000 -- that's how I did it. Keep the other values where they should be.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

I agree completely.

[@DavidBowring]

Thanks guys!

[@FPVPortugalTV]

Another useful video. One question, what is better, calibrate the throotle manual or with blheli suite?

[@FPVPortugalTV]

+FPV Portugal Question asked before seeing all the video... LOL

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+FPV Portugal Just for the record: I like to calibrate because it tells me how far off my ESCs are, and because I know that it brings my ESCs into sync with each other. But it's just a sort of nit-picky thing that I like to do, and practically speaking, there is usually no effect from just setting reasonable endpoints like 1030 / 1970 and getting out to the field. Pilots who have many different crafts and who are replacing ESCs often can benefit from settling on a certain fixed value rather than calibrating all the time.

[@FPVPortugalTV]

Joshua Bardwell Thanks for the very complete answer, yeah now i understand, i picky just as you so i will keep do the tx calibration. :)

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+FPV Portugal Also, let me add that I last calibrated my ESCs maybe three months ago. And when I calibrated them for this video, I got different values! My best guess is that the oscillator is somewhat temperature sensitive, and it being winter now, maybe they've drifted somewhat. I don't know. But the point is that even if you calibrate, you're still likely to end up a few microseconds out. I think the real advantage of calibration is that, if you have an ESC that is way off from the others, you will find out.

[@FPVPortugalTV]

Joshua Bardwell Yup, man you have real knowledge. Thanks for all explanations and videos, i love your channel and i recommend it in my forum, keep up the good work man. ;)

[@MrShlucas82]

I just put emax 2205 2300 kv motors on with fvt littlebee pro 20 amp's and during calibration, 3 of my motors started twitching, and then the esc and motors (only 3 ) started smoking .....HELP!!! waiting on replacement motors and Esc's but too gun shy now to just thro them on now. set up : betaflight 2.8 naze32 rev 6 fvt littlebee "pro" 20 amp ( apparently MS capable ?) Emax 2205 2300kv (super sessy) diatone PDB Frame I double and triple checked to make sure my motor screw were only about 3 or 4 threads into the motor, so I know there was not a short there, I also ohmed everything out prior to calibration, no dead shorts were found.... I can provide any further info needed...if needed.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

If the motors were smoking, then either you flashed the wrong firmware to the ESC, or you have a wiring problem such as a motor screw touching your windings. Possibly you used screws for 4mm arms with 3mm arms and your screws were too long? The ESCs should not attempt to spin the motors during calibration. It sounds like the ESCs did not enter calibration mode, then the ESCs tried to spin the motors and a short existed, and the windings burned. I'm sorry to say that the motors may be ruined. If you end up determining that the motors are flyable, please remember this going forward, as at some point in the future you may have "mysterious" issues that you cannot solve, and when that happens, be sure to tell the person helping you about this incident so they don't waste a ton of time trying to troubleshoot it. Always use a current-limited power supply or a "smoke-stopper" bulb when working with ESCs and motors, especially a new build or a new firmware. It would have protected you against this situation. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aquaqoV9apuUga8

[@MrShlucas82]

+Joshua Bardwell oh the motors are definitely toast. I keep running into the same conclusion with short scenario, really makes me second guess what I thought were solid shiny smooth solder joints, none of the screw indicated arching, but I did see scorch marks on the arm where the screws were. ....soooo. maybe....definitely going to be using the light bulb rig through testing fro. here on out, my super nice KLEIN CL800 has let me down today

[@MrShlucas82]

+Joshua Bardwell also I should add, when using the master tab, the motors spun up, it was when I stopped them that they let the ghost out

[@kyleblackniak4764]

Josh, when I tried syncing my escs with the Blheli suite I had a few issues. First, when I plugged my battery in I did not get the tonals indicating I was plugged in to the program. Then, if I continued on and selected to read escs my motors would just start up. Have you heard of this before? If so do you know of any solutions?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

That's weird. It sounds like your ESCs are not going into programming mode. I would post over on the BLHeli thread on rcgroups.

[@kyleblackniak4764]

No emax never replied with the actual answer. They said that the esc shouldn't be completely wiped. I just bought new ESCs. Banggood has some 25a Blheli s escs 4 for $30.

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Aha! So the ESCs were already powered up. So they wouldn't calibrate.

[@FPVcambodia]

Hi, is this feature now in Cleanflight or still with Betaflight, please?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+FPV Cambodia Betaflight only for now I believe.

[@silicosick]

Nice video ... need to know what Yi protector that is you are running. :P

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Designed and printed by a friend.

[@silicosick]

cool thanks .. looks nice

[@axialtilt7835]

Ok so right now I'm having an issue that kinda came out of nowhere on my 5th or 6th flight and not after a crash of any sort..... so when I arm my quad nothing happens, then I give it a bit of throttle and the motors start one at a time and then it flys great.... but every 1 out of 3 times I turn my quad on only one or two motors spin and the rest are dead.... but then I unplug and replug my battery and it's all fine again

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Start by testing in the Motors tab to see if the motors consistently spin smoothly. If not, then the ESC or motors are probably damaged. If you are using Dshot, switch to Multishot and see if that helps. Check your CPU utilization also. It should be less than 50%.

[@kerem8197]

during the esc calibration in betaflight you mentioned that there is an end button. where is it actually?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

+Slaither on your keyboard. Home, end, PgUp, PgDn.

[@kerem8197]

oh thank you!

[@305bonddog]

Josh sorry to bug you. Im having an issue with these stupid DODO FC's calibrating my escs got any pointers PLEASE i have no hair left to pull out

[@MrJwmckenzie]

OK Josh. I have gotten my esc flashed and ready to go with blheli(thanks to your help by the way!) I cannot get my quad to arm at all. I have my swithces set right and i have followed this video over and over trying to figure if I have missed something. As a note. I am running the Naze 32 rev6( I took what you said at the end of the video in consideration) Also my Tx min value will not go below 1050 and go above 1840. I have a cheap Fly-sky fs-ct6b and have used the software to get the max out of my stick range for the closer values of 1000-2000 but thats all I can get out of it. Your thoughts?

[@MrJwmckenzie]

ok, never mind on the above. I got it to arm by setting my min check to 1150. but now i have 2 motors spinning out of sync

[@JoshuaBardwell]

The throttle must go below min_check before you can arm. Make sure to use rxrange to adjust CleanFlight's expected channel endpoints, if you can't get your channels to 1000/2000 in the transmitter.

[@MrJwmckenzie]

Joshua Bardwell i got the quad to arm. now as i throttle up i notice it wants to roll left and pitch backward. I have checked all my esc calibrations, motor directions, accelerometer calibration and orientations and everything is correct. Could wrong PID's be the cause?

[@JoshuaBardwell]

Are you in autolevel mode? If so, you need to use accelerometer trim to fix it.

[@MrJwmckenzie]

Joshua Bardwell , Ijust tried that and it didn't do anything to help. I notice that when i first arm it ,the number 3 motor is the last to get the same power as all the rest (only by a fraction of a sec.) and is the last to coast after disarming. (again only by a fraction.)