How to Flash a Hobby King 20A ESC with simonk

by MaxPower | April 26, 2014 | (10) Posted in How To

In this video, I go through the steps I used to flash a cheap Hobby King 20 amp ESC with the simonk firmware.  The simonk firmware is a must to get the most out of your multirotor! I like them as they are cheap (but don't come with any bullet connectors) and have awesome performance after they are flashed.

The video goes through the whole process from what firmware to use and how to make the pins/cable to connect to the computer.

 

Search for "USBasp Programmer" on google or ebay for the usb programmer/cable required to do the flashing.

This is the command line I used for the flashing:
avrdude -c usbasp -p m8 -U flash:w:bs_nfet.hex

Below are the links I mention in the video:

The thread where I learned how to do it:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1513678

The hithub links for the simonk firmware:
https://github.com/sim-/tgy
https://github.com/sim-/tgy/downloads

Winavr software:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/winavr/

 

The programming pads on the ESC

See the video for how to make the wire to interface with the programming pads.

The AVR USB Programmer

The homemade programming pins, made from some Cat5 Networking wire, you can use any wire but it should be wire that is stiff.  You can see I used a blob of hot glue to hold it together.

My website: http://eclectic-workshop.weebly.com/

- Find this article & others like it at www.FliteTest.com -

COMMENTS

andre on May 23, 2014
Great stuff. I got annoyed with the pin thing and put on a connector.

http://fly.gt6.ca/gallery/DW-Tricopter/0516-Build-Up/slides/IMG_5251.JPG
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Cyberdactyl on May 25, 2014
To me, that would be quite a bit more effort compared to press pins, especially when you are programming several F20As in a session.

One problem you may have had is many times the programming pads have a thin, clear lacquer-like coating on the pads. Take a flat micro screwdriver and lightly scrape the pads to expose fresh copper, or in some cases, a fresh film of solder.
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andre on May 26, 2014
I think I burned 2-3 hours trying to make a pin connector.

In the end it took 10 mins to put solder them onto the boards.
So I'm happy with my results.
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LordVader on May 24, 2014
This is really neat stuff, thanks for sharing. I have the Q-Brain, but this will work for other tris or quads using individual escs.
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GB-air on May 29, 2014
Also, at ready to fly quads, they took the box off the q-brain and flashed it with simonk. It think it is only a few dollars more than the original. Link: http://witespyquad.gostorego.com/speed-controllers/4-on-1-f-20a-ince-blue-normal-esc-with-rapidesc-fw-for-multirotor.html
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michas on May 26, 2014
Hi,
just a little tip:
There is a simple flashing tool from lazyzero:

http://lazyzero.de/en/modellbau/kkmulticopterflashtool


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enivid on May 30, 2014
Yes, this tool is great, the other advantage with this tool is that it locates the flash images for you.
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btallis on May 30, 2014
Another tip that worked well for me was that I "hot-glued" my wires to a standard wooden clothes-pin. This allowed me to just "clip on" the clothes-pin onto the esc pads and it allowed me to be hands free instead of trying to hold wires in place and move my mouse to flash the firmware...

You can see an example on this page (not mine)

http://static2.fotoalbum.ee/fotoalbum/387/485/096992627bcb9a.jpg
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Hannes on November 15, 2014
What are the advantages of flashing a ESC?
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MaxPower

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How to Flash a Hobby King 20A ESC with simonk