ESC Protocol

The Reflex drone supports Electronic Speed Controllers (ESC) that are capable of communicating through (Bidirectional) DShot protocol.

DShot

DShot is a digital ESC protocol, providing advantages over analog protocols like PWM, OneShot and MultiShot:

  • No calibration needed, resulting in increased robustness to noise and signal frequency.
  • High-frequency RPM telemetry over the dataline is supported.
  • Motor reversing can be achieved without the need for (de)soldering.

The Reflex currently supports the DShot600 protocol.

Bidirectional DShot

Bidirectional DShot enables the ESC to send high-frequency speed telemetry back to the flight controller through the dataline.

While the Reflex does fly using the regular DShot protocol, in order to use the latest innovative features such as the INDI controller, it is recommended to use ESCs supporting Bidirectional DShot.

PWM Protocol

The Reflex also offers support for ESCs utilizing PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) with PWM frequencies ranging from 50 to 500Hz.

Supported DShot Hardware

BLHeli ESC

ESCs running BLHeli_32 firmware are shipped running Bidirectional DShot firmware out of the box. If possible, the use of a BLHeli_32 ESC is advised. These are plug-n-play compatible with the latest innovative features on the Reflex. ESC settings can be configured using the BLHeliSuite32 configurator.

ESCs running BLHeli_S firmware come shipped with the regular DShot protocol. It is possible to get Bidirectional DShot working on that hardware, but flashing of different firmware is needed.

At the time of writing this documentation, two different firmwares for BLHeli_S ESC's are known to be capable of running Bidirectional DShot:

KISS ESC

KISS ESCs are developed by Flyduino and are capable of running Bidirectional Dshot. Protocol settings can be changed in the chrome application KISS GUI.

APD F-series ESC

Advanced Power Drives (APD) is an Australian company, developing ESCs for high power applications. The F-series has ESCs rated for 6S, 8S, 12S and 14S voltages.

All F-series ESCs support regular DShot straight out of the box.The F-series 80F3v2 rated for 8S and 120F3v2 rated for 12S come shipped with Bidirectional Dshot. The F-series 40F3 rated for 6S can be flashed with firmware that supports Bidirectional Dshot. The 200F3v2 does not allow for Bidrectional Dshot.

Check their documentation for a guide on uploading the correct firmware onto the ESCs.