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I need help powering both ESC and FC

Brad

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I'm upgrading my drone (I need an OSD so I don't over discharge another lipo).

I've bought a "Bardwell F4 AIO FC", I didn't realise it's got a built in PDB, I can take out my old PDB, that's fine.
The docs say if you're using a 4 in 1 ESC (which I am: 20A 4 in 1 ESC) then the battery should be connected to the ESC instead of to the FC.

But this ESC only has 5 wires going to the FC, I assume 1 to control each motor and a ground.
So should I connect the XT60 directly to both the ESC and the FC?
Or do I wire the XT60 to the FC and then connect the ESC's power wires to the FC somewhere (maybe I could use any of the ESC+ and ESC- pads)?

Thanks for your help,
Brad.
 
Rule #1, never guess (assume) what the pins are, find the documentation and make a plan. That being said we need to know exactly what ESC.
No you cannot wire the ESC from a FC ESC location, it will not handle the current for the whole ESC, you would need to wire all the FC ESC pads to handle the current draw of the ESC board.
Once I know the exact ESC I can give you an idea of possibilities for a wire out.
 
Thanks for the reply.
Good to know I can't power from 1 set of ESC pads.

The original post has links to the ESC and FC.
I can see from the pictures there that the plug has 5 wires, labeled 1 to 4 not sure about the last one, pretty sure it would be ground, but definitely not a power out.

The ESC is a cheap one from banggood: Racerstar RS20Ax4 20A 4 in 1 Blheli_S Opto ESC 2-4S Support Dshot150 Dshot300 for RC FPV Racing Drone RC Parts from Toys Hobbies and Robot on banggood.com
(I followed UAVFutures $99 dollar video on YouTube
now its time for a slight upgrade)
 
I've just been checking the docs for the FC again (RDQ-Bardwell-F4-FC-Manual-v2.1.pdf),
it says on page 9:
"If you are using a 4-in-1 ESC" ... "V should go to the vBat output on the ESC. It can be connected to the main battery positive pad on the ESC as well."

So is this saying that the 2 power wires (the thick red and black ones in the middle) of the ESC should be soldered to an XT60 socket for the battery, then the V wire from the 4in1 plug thats plugged into the FC can be soldered to the back of that XT60s positive connection?
 
Sorry @Brad, I didn't see the links in your original post, still my suggestion is to tack solder 2 smaller wires onto the battery pigtail leads to run up to the FC. Look around the board though, there may be a better option but I can't tell from what little I see online in the link. I hope you have the V2 that supports DShot600, if not you will want to run Multishot (don't forget to do an ESC calibration for MultiShot/Analog that should NOT be done if running a DShot/Digital protocol).

That's all I can see for now but shoot any questions this way and I will try to advise.
 
Thanks for the reply.
I don't think my ESC supports DShot600, only DShot300. Multishot might be a better option but it's been flying fine as it is and I don't think I ever calibrated the ESC so must be using DShot.

I think I'll read more and watch some more youtube about wiring/powering the FC.
I think I could power the ESC and then pass it to the FC using the VBat wire of the 4in1 plug, or maybe as you suggest run 2 wires up to the usual Bat+ and Bat- pads on the FC.
 
A quick update for anyone that's interested or that comes here with a similar problem.

I found an old copy of the docs for the FC somewhere online (Bardwell-F4-FC-Manual-v1.3.1-FINAL.pdf)
This was written before they changed the board to have a plug for a 4in1 ESC.
In the Troubleshooting section they show 3 methods of how to wire a 4in1 ESC.

One of the options was to wire all 4 ESC+ pads together and join them to the positive pad on the ESC.
Power from the battery goes to the BAT+ pad on the FC.
Ground from the battery goes to the ESC and also has another wire attached that goes to the BAT- on the FC.

I tried asking RaceDayQuads if this would work on the new v2 boards, they either didn't want any responsibility or didn't understand my question, they helpfully sent me the latest v2 pdf.

So I went ahead with this wiring anyway and it seems to have worked.
I flew last weekend and it handled the same as it used to, but now I have OSD and can see battery voltage/usage so hopefully no more ruined batteries for me.
 

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