Herkules II
- Thread starter andrebandre
- Start date
DucktileMedia
Drone Enthusiast
I apologies in advance. 
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Siteline
Member
BorisS,
Are you happy with your choice to use the Herkules ESC's? If you had to do it over, would you do it the same. You are a trailblazer and I am considering following your footsteps. I'm trying to be patient but getting anxious to move forward on my CS8. Everything seems to take so long when you add in the delivery times for all of this stuff. One small part can hold us up for weeks.
Are you happy with your choice to use the Herkules ESC's? If you had to do it over, would you do it the same. You are a trailblazer and I am considering following your footsteps. I'm trying to be patient but getting anxious to move forward on my CS8. Everything seems to take so long when you add in the delivery times for all of this stuff. One small part can hold us up for weeks.
BorisS
Drone Enthusiast
Hi Siteline,
i personally am happy at the moment with the Hercules II.
For me the benefits.
1. Once you know how to do it. Simple fast installation if you dont go the way of a custome heat sink like i did
2. Weight reduction compared to single ESCs, compared to my Turnigy plus on the Hexa one Hercules weighs as much as 1.5 turnigy plush and you need no distribution
3. Gold connectors on the boards is a nice clean solution. But also could be considered as a negative since you will have to check them often or switch to cables being solders to them eventuelly ending in gold connectors again.
4. 6s ready for both WKM and MK, incase of MK you dont need to change the anything on the FC.
5. You have someone to talk to when it comes to the firmware maybe even changes to you specific FC needs. !
Site to give a complete statement though I need to do more testing. These 5 flights only with 14 x 4 props on the WKM and no data A temp etc. I hope to do some more testing tomorrow with 4s 5s 6s and my 12 38 props on it and be able to back up things not only from my subjective view but also with data.
If they regulate faster than the normal turnigy plush i also cant say because i couldnt test them in conditions were the difference would be obvious.
I will know more tomorrow !
Regards
Boris
i personally am happy at the moment with the Hercules II.
For me the benefits.
1. Once you know how to do it. Simple fast installation if you dont go the way of a custome heat sink like i did
2. Weight reduction compared to single ESCs, compared to my Turnigy plus on the Hexa one Hercules weighs as much as 1.5 turnigy plush and you need no distribution
3. Gold connectors on the boards is a nice clean solution. But also could be considered as a negative since you will have to check them often or switch to cables being solders to them eventuelly ending in gold connectors again.
4. 6s ready for both WKM and MK, incase of MK you dont need to change the anything on the FC.
5. You have someone to talk to when it comes to the firmware maybe even changes to you specific FC needs. !
Site to give a complete statement though I need to do more testing. These 5 flights only with 14 x 4 props on the WKM and no data A temp etc. I hope to do some more testing tomorrow with 4s 5s 6s and my 12 38 props on it and be able to back up things not only from my subjective view but also with data.
If they regulate faster than the normal turnigy plush i also cant say because i couldnt test them in conditions were the difference would be obvious.
I will know more tomorrow !
Regards
Boris
andrebandre
Member
Man you are a treasure.
I was planning to ship it back today since i haven't heard from Snador anymore regarding the orig cable.
Meanwhile i got an email from Andreas who offered to fix it and make it happen for me if i send it to him.
I don't know what to do now.
Should i trust Sandor any further, send it back ofr a refund and buy another one, should i send it to Andreas?
I fear there might be some component messed up when the connectors were soldered, and although it gets all 4 LEDs on when i power it there might something wrong with after all, not only the possibility of faulty programming.
I really don't know what to do.Probably send it to Andreas would be best.
But since you showed me how nice and neat yours are i kind of wish to have one just as nice and not with solder all over the place and misaligned connectors .
Though choice for me.
I'll roll a dice.
Last edited by a moderator:
BorisS
Drone Enthusiast
Andre send it back to Andreas. If something went wrong because of the messy soldering it will go back to Andreas any ways. Sp shortest way is to Andreas if you ask me ! Andreas and his guys are just setting up two WKM birds to check them out, so they know what they are doing and have it set for you !
Boris
Boris
andrebandre
Member
Will do.Thank you for taking charge and making it easy for me to decide.
Ill let you how i fare once i get it back.
Thank you for the tremendous goodwill you have showed me.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for your success with the mega okto/
I bet my hat you will end up with one outstandingly performing ship.
More time is mostly you need.
Howgh
Ill let you how i fare once i get it back.
Thank you for the tremendous goodwill you have showed me.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for your success with the mega okto/
I bet my hat you will end up with one outstandingly performing ship.
More time is mostly you need.
Howgh
redridinghood
Member
Yeap, Boris is the man
And now we know which vendors to avoid.
And now we know which vendors to avoid.
ichwillnix
Member
Hi Victor!
Please take the offer from digitech and send it back to him. I will assemble for you one new board, program it correctly and send it to you TOGETHER with a programming cable.
In the meanwhile i will clarifiy the issue with Sandor and try to find the problem...
Sorry, i wasn't aware about this....
Andreas
(www.andreasbaier.de)
Please take the offer from digitech and send it back to him. I will assemble for you one new board, program it correctly and send it to you TOGETHER with a programming cable.
In the meanwhile i will clarifiy the issue with Sandor and try to find the problem...
Sorry, i wasn't aware about this....
Andreas
(www.andreasbaier.de)
Last edited by a moderator:
andrebandre
Member
Andreas it is only one Herkules II board not 2. I only fly quads.
I have just received a notification that the programming cable was sent out today so at least i can make the claim that i am a proud owner of a Herkules II programming cable that might work.
I'll FedEx the board back to him today and hope for a refund.
I have just received a notification that the programming cable was sent out today so at least i can make the claim that i am a proud owner of a Herkules II programming cable that might work.
I'll FedEx the board back to him today and hope for a refund.
?
*****
Guest
wow i am suprised all the Flack i am getting here...
as you all can imagine i make only a very small profit on these boards i made the following decision :
1 . we will NOT pre program these boards anymore for customers
2 no more pre solderings exept for ready to fly units.
we as a company have build over 60 RTF machines without ANY issues.
i sold a few to people here on this board , and still they are flying them as of today.
now back to the real story what has not been told :
Victor emailed me that the board did not work , ok i can understand that , as you can see to all copied emails he put on ( thanks for doing that and filling my inbox with Spam) MODERATOR: please remove ANY post with my company details these are privat!.
now i got flamed and received a picture from mr beier and globeflight telling me basicly :what the hell?
i looked at the picture and i also went what the hell?
today i received back the board from Victor.
now if you look back to the picture victor has posted look very carefully to row A and C you can see clearly that the bullet connectors are damaged by a grind tool.
Victor has cut of with a dremel or some other tool the XT-60 connector (he has a counterpart with the package)
he has then drilled the remaining bits out of the power connector.
stuck in a couple of cables and soldered them cold.
you can image because of the drilling and all of the grinding , all the copper parts flew everywhere and embedded themselfes between the micro smd parts creating shortcuts
i measured up to now 12 of them , but that was just on the upper side..
i am sure as the messenger now , i will still look bad.
about the solderings , yes there seems a lot of solder on and by the bullet , this is why:
you cant solder a flat side to a Round bit , the contact it will make will be very thin.
that is why i used a bit more solder , try to run a 6S on a skyjib with a RED epic and minimal soldering , it pulled 81 amps runned at 85 degrees celcius , and started to smell.
now with the bit thicker solderings the smell is gone , so is the high temps..
all the contacts you see where working , i fly to heavy skyjibs and a CX 4 with the herkules boards .
to close this story once and for all here are the pictures i made , everything that is gray or gold is copper dust......
View attachment 1587View attachment 1588View attachment 1589View attachment 1590View attachment 1591
as you all can imagine i make only a very small profit on these boards i made the following decision :
1 . we will NOT pre program these boards anymore for customers
2 no more pre solderings exept for ready to fly units.
we as a company have build over 60 RTF machines without ANY issues.
i sold a few to people here on this board , and still they are flying them as of today.
now back to the real story what has not been told :
Victor emailed me that the board did not work , ok i can understand that , as you can see to all copied emails he put on ( thanks for doing that and filling my inbox with Spam) MODERATOR: please remove ANY post with my company details these are privat!.
now i got flamed and received a picture from mr beier and globeflight telling me basicly :what the hell?
i looked at the picture and i also went what the hell?
today i received back the board from Victor.
now if you look back to the picture victor has posted look very carefully to row A and C you can see clearly that the bullet connectors are damaged by a grind tool.
Victor has cut of with a dremel or some other tool the XT-60 connector (he has a counterpart with the package)
he has then drilled the remaining bits out of the power connector.
stuck in a couple of cables and soldered them cold.
you can image because of the drilling and all of the grinding , all the copper parts flew everywhere and embedded themselfes between the micro smd parts creating shortcuts
i measured up to now 12 of them , but that was just on the upper side..
i am sure as the messenger now , i will still look bad.
about the solderings , yes there seems a lot of solder on and by the bullet , this is why:
you cant solder a flat side to a Round bit , the contact it will make will be very thin.
that is why i used a bit more solder , try to run a 6S on a skyjib with a RED epic and minimal soldering , it pulled 81 amps runned at 85 degrees celcius , and started to smell.
now with the bit thicker solderings the smell is gone , so is the high temps..
all the contacts you see where working , i fly to heavy skyjibs and a CX 4 with the herkules boards .
to close this story once and for all here are the pictures i made , everything that is gray or gold is copper dust......
View attachment 1587View attachment 1588View attachment 1589View attachment 1590View attachment 1591
Attachments
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?
*****
Guest
View attachment 1592last picture :
Attachments
?
*****
Guest
Still Victor as i have cooled of a little bit , i have decided to send the board in for repair so its not a total loss for you.
we will repair the board for a fixed charge plus shipping it back to you.
you have allready the usb programming cable , but i will ask also to reprogram and test it again with PPM.
we are rethinking in how we proceed in selling them again.
i think all must agree best would be to send out a presoldered board with connectors or a cable and reprogrammed to i2c or PPM signalling.
but that costs time and some pluscharge , the customer is then not allowed anymore to alter anything on the boards.
i will keep you informed.
next time be carefull with experts on forums , they are half informed , and run to conclusions to fast.
still i like my job and look forward in recieving emails in how happy they all are...
i also recomend this form moderators to have manufacturers been slagged or bashed , there are enough forums who do that.
that is why i dont like to spend much time on forums..
Best Regards
Sandor Kruise
we will repair the board for a fixed charge plus shipping it back to you.
you have allready the usb programming cable , but i will ask also to reprogram and test it again with PPM.
we are rethinking in how we proceed in selling them again.
i think all must agree best would be to send out a presoldered board with connectors or a cable and reprogrammed to i2c or PPM signalling.
but that costs time and some pluscharge , the customer is then not allowed anymore to alter anything on the boards.
i will keep you informed.
next time be carefull with experts on forums , they are half informed , and run to conclusions to fast.
still i like my job and look forward in recieving emails in how happy they all are...
i also recomend this form moderators to have manufacturers been slagged or bashed , there are enough forums who do that.
that is why i dont like to spend much time on forums..
Best Regards
Sandor Kruise
andrebandre
Member
Sandor the board did not work ever since i got it with the original connector before i cut it off.
No throttle response from any of the motor outputs. LED's and beeps yes but no throttle.
After i chopped off the connector ( i think it may have been 1 or 2 days later) and soldered the wires inside the two bullet female like parts still soldered to the boards, same thing, LED's came on as before, beeps but no throttle response just as before.
So there was no difference in the behavior of the board.
I made a second mistake after desoldering to wires by cleaning the inside of the female bullet like connectors just prior tp packing it and shipping it which might account for the copper dust.
Anyway here and now i ask you to try the board.
Power it up and see if you get the blue LED's to come on and a beep or more from a motor connected to any of the outputs.
If there is than it is the same board that i received before i cut off anything.
If it goes up in smoke than it is my fault entirely, i screwed up the board and will apologise to you and everyone else i troubled here and elsewhere.
But if the board does respond by turning on the LED's and the outputs with a motor connected behave just as they did like they did the very same i unpacked it and tried it, then what?
I would not try to blame my mistakes on any one.
I take responsability for my deeds.
If i broke the board, i will send you the 450$ i still have to my name as reparations and i apologise to you.
But if i didn't break anything, except that i removed the original connector and in the process touched and put some marks on the bullet females on the sides will you fix it and show proof here on the forum that it works before you ship it back to me?
No throttle response from any of the motor outputs. LED's and beeps yes but no throttle.
After i chopped off the connector ( i think it may have been 1 or 2 days later) and soldered the wires inside the two bullet female like parts still soldered to the boards, same thing, LED's came on as before, beeps but no throttle response just as before.
So there was no difference in the behavior of the board.
I made a second mistake after desoldering to wires by cleaning the inside of the female bullet like connectors just prior tp packing it and shipping it which might account for the copper dust.
Anyway here and now i ask you to try the board.
Power it up and see if you get the blue LED's to come on and a beep or more from a motor connected to any of the outputs.
If there is than it is the same board that i received before i cut off anything.
If it goes up in smoke than it is my fault entirely, i screwed up the board and will apologise to you and everyone else i troubled here and elsewhere.
But if the board does respond by turning on the LED's and the outputs with a motor connected behave just as they did like they did the very same i unpacked it and tried it, then what?
I would not try to blame my mistakes on any one.
I take responsability for my deeds.
If i broke the board, i will send you the 450$ i still have to my name as reparations and i apologise to you.
But if i didn't break anything, except that i removed the original connector and in the process touched and put some marks on the bullet females on the sides will you fix it and show proof here on the forum that it works before you ship it back to me?
ichwillnix
Member
Hello guys!
I have to apologize at all for drawing a too fast conclusion and blaming Sandor without having the real board in my hands and finding the rootcause for it.
I think the mistakes done here are distributed on all of us.
@ Victor:
Without having the board in my hands yet (i will receive it soon) and only by listening to your descriptions i believe that the board is still working and is also correctly programmend. The LEDs are only blinking and and the motors are only "beeping" when the have
a) the correct firmware installed
b) the connections (motor, PPM-signal and battery supply) are done correctly
c) the Herkules ESCs receive a valid PPM signal.
When the Herkules is beeping and blinking, we have 95% of the job done. The only thing i could imagine is that the PPM-Signal doesnt reach safely 0% (means less than 1.1msec Pulse with). The Herkules has a lock mechanism which prevents the motor from starting when power supply is applied with a throttle value higher than 20%). This avoids the motors from spinning up uncontrolled when the battery is connected. Maybe you should check your signal source. Do you use a servo-tester or the wookong system? Did you calibrate the ESC with the wookong? I don't know the DJI in detailed but i have something in mind that has to be done.
By the way, we are currently building our own Oktokopter with DJI and 2x Herkules Boards and we will do intensive tests and then we will place also a detailed description (manual) with do's and dont's on our webpage.
As i told, this is only an assumption. I will check this detailed when i have the board. Victor, i promise you that you will receive soon a fully working board and we will bring your copter airborne. I will send it to Sandor and he will ship it to you.
Remark 1: The sawing copper dust on the pictures are not good for the electronics. As sandor told, you make shorcuts on a lot of the fine-pitched pins. I will be difficult for us to clean it from all that dangerous dust...
Remark 2: Victor, it is not a good thing to post private email communication with company infos to a public forum. Please never do this again! This does not improve communication lacks!
@ Sandor:
Again sorry for blaming you so quickly. I trust in you that you delivered the board 100% fully working. Nevertheless we have to work together and find solutions to make it as easy as possible for Herkules users to implement the ESC easily without any stress and helping them to bring the copter safely and fast to the air.
We are thinking of providing a "ready to use" ESC by default (maybe boxed) with only connectors for motors, battery and signals with no need of soldering at all.
This helps really all customers who want to spent more time with flying than with building and soldering.
@ Me:
I will still try to provide good support to all of the customers as good as i can. In future i will firstly analyze the problems personally and then drawing the conclusions.
Sorry again for all guys i judged about and i apologize again.
=> Lets concentrate now again on the good technical work and bringing more Copter airborne....
Andreas
I have to apologize at all for drawing a too fast conclusion and blaming Sandor without having the real board in my hands and finding the rootcause for it.
I think the mistakes done here are distributed on all of us.
@ Victor:
Without having the board in my hands yet (i will receive it soon) and only by listening to your descriptions i believe that the board is still working and is also correctly programmend. The LEDs are only blinking and and the motors are only "beeping" when the have
a) the correct firmware installed
b) the connections (motor, PPM-signal and battery supply) are done correctly
c) the Herkules ESCs receive a valid PPM signal.
When the Herkules is beeping and blinking, we have 95% of the job done. The only thing i could imagine is that the PPM-Signal doesnt reach safely 0% (means less than 1.1msec Pulse with). The Herkules has a lock mechanism which prevents the motor from starting when power supply is applied with a throttle value higher than 20%). This avoids the motors from spinning up uncontrolled when the battery is connected. Maybe you should check your signal source. Do you use a servo-tester or the wookong system? Did you calibrate the ESC with the wookong? I don't know the DJI in detailed but i have something in mind that has to be done.
By the way, we are currently building our own Oktokopter with DJI and 2x Herkules Boards and we will do intensive tests and then we will place also a detailed description (manual) with do's and dont's on our webpage.
As i told, this is only an assumption. I will check this detailed when i have the board. Victor, i promise you that you will receive soon a fully working board and we will bring your copter airborne. I will send it to Sandor and he will ship it to you.
Remark 1: The sawing copper dust on the pictures are not good for the electronics. As sandor told, you make shorcuts on a lot of the fine-pitched pins. I will be difficult for us to clean it from all that dangerous dust...
Remark 2: Victor, it is not a good thing to post private email communication with company infos to a public forum. Please never do this again! This does not improve communication lacks!
@ Sandor:
Again sorry for blaming you so quickly. I trust in you that you delivered the board 100% fully working. Nevertheless we have to work together and find solutions to make it as easy as possible for Herkules users to implement the ESC easily without any stress and helping them to bring the copter safely and fast to the air.
We are thinking of providing a "ready to use" ESC by default (maybe boxed) with only connectors for motors, battery and signals with no need of soldering at all.
This helps really all customers who want to spent more time with flying than with building and soldering.
@ Me:
I will still try to provide good support to all of the customers as good as i can. In future i will firstly analyze the problems personally and then drawing the conclusions.
Sorry again for all guys i judged about and i apologize again.
=> Lets concentrate now again on the good technical work and bringing more Copter airborne....
Andreas
BorisS
Drone Enthusiast
In general if you ask me the final solution shouldn't be the gold connectors. They a prone to vibrations and sooner or later will fall off. For light not too important copters it might not be that important but if you take up expensive equipment solder the cables on. This is the next thing i will do with my CS8. You can still have the gold connectors just solder them to the cables coming from the Herkules.
I cant comment on the before situation i just hope you guys find a solution. In doubt for the customer or ?
Boris
I cant comment on the before situation i just hope you guys find a solution. In doubt for the customer or ?
Boris
ichwillnix
Member
Hello guys!
I have to apologize at all for drawing a too fast conclusion and blaming Sandor without having the real board in my hands and finding the rootcause for it.
I think the mistakes done here are distributed on all of us.
@ Victor:
Without having the board in my hands yet (i will receive it soon) and only by listening to your descriptions i believe that the board is still working and is also correctly programmend. The LEDs are only blinking and the motors are only "beeping" when the have
a) the correct firmware installed
b) the connections (motor, PPM-signal and battery supply) are done correctly
c) the Herkules ESCs receive a valid PPM signal.
When the Herkules is beeping and blinking, we have 95% of the job done. The only thing i could imagine is that the PPM-Signal doesnt reach safely 0% (means less than 1.1msec Pulse with). The Herkules has a lock mechanism which prevents the motor from starting when power supply is applied with a throttle value higher than 20%). This avoids the motors from spinning up uncontrolled when the battery is connected. Maybe you should check your signal source. Do you use a servo-tester or the wookong system? Did you calibrate the ESC with the wookong? I don't know the DJI in detailed but i have something in mind that has to be done.
By the way, we are currently building our own Oktokopter with DJI and 2x Herkules Boards and we will do intensive tests and then we will place also a detailed description (manual) with do's and dont's on our webpage.
I have to apologize at all for drawing a too fast conclusion and blaming Sandor without having the real board in my hands and finding the rootcause for it.
I think the mistakes done here are distributed on all of us.
@ Victor:
Without having the board in my hands yet (i will receive it soon) and only by listening to your descriptions i believe that the board is still working and is also correctly programmend. The LEDs are only blinking and the motors are only "beeping" when the have
a) the correct firmware installed
b) the connections (motor, PPM-signal and battery supply) are done correctly
c) the Herkules ESCs receive a valid PPM signal.
When the Herkules is beeping and blinking, we have 95% of the job done. The only thing i could imagine is that the PPM-Signal doesnt reach safely 0% (means less than 1.1msec Pulse with). The Herkules has a lock mechanism which prevents the motor from starting when power supply is applied with a throttle value higher than 20%). This avoids the motors from spinning up uncontrolled when the battery is connected. Maybe you should check your signal source. Do you use a servo-tester or the wookong system? Did you calibrate the ESC with the wookong? I don't know the DJI in detailed but i have something in mind that has to be done.
By the way, we are currently building our own Oktokopter with DJI and 2x Herkules Boards and we will do intensive tests and then we will place also a detailed description (manual) with do's and dont's on our webpage.