I am after some esc’s to go with the pixhack kit I have and was going to go with the BLheli series but noticed there are issues with these and the pixhack/hawk.
My question is which ones will work with it?
I was going to get the 20A MULTI-ROTOR ESC (SIMONK) but which flavor opto or bec? If these are the correct ones?
Is there a definitive answer to why there is a problem and what will possibly solve it, as doing some research on the subject I have managed to confuse myself.
Its not BL heli firmware that have issues with pixhawk, but rather these specific BL heli esc’s as the actual hardware has some compatibility issues with Pixhawk autopilots, but not others (an issue to do with the PWM signal voltage).
The SimonK ESC’s you mentioned will work well, however if you are definitely after BLheli firmware we do sell the new Emax Nano series 20A which are fully compatible with pixhawk.
As for the BEC/ No BEC issue it does not realy matter that much but usually for pixhawk you will have 1 ESC with BEC output, and 3 with no BEC. You can read more on our ESC guide
I have been reading this post Redundant Power Pixhawk / Battery Elimination Circuilt (BEC) and it suggests that there is possibly no need for a esc with a bec as I will be powering it through the Power Module or is it just wiser to do it that way, or have I missed a point somewhere?
You are correct, the pixhawk is powered via the power module. But the output rail is not powered, but they all share the same 5V, and GND pins so if you want to connect anything to the pixhawk output that need power (such as servos) then you will need to power them via a BEC either from one of your ESC’s or an entirely separate BEC. For 90% of multicopter applications this is not needed which is why no BEC / OPTO ESC’s are more popular.