I’ve had 2 Flycolour Xcross 160A controllers turn up with the same. I haven’t been so lucky getting anywhere with the seller so just a heads up for those buying the Xcross from now. I’m not sure if Flycolour are going to deal with the BLHeli issue or not but if anyone has info on this please share 
1 Like
Had the same issue with two X Cross, had bl heli 31.xxx and of course couldn’t program. I returned them. Ordered two more from a different supplier and hopefully these come with usable firmware.
I’m assuming it’s now just a game of lucky dip if a supplier has old stock pre-BLHeli shutdown (I’m assuming despite the many suppliers that there are only a few manufacturers of them - that may be a bad assumption haha). I’ll be asking suppliers to confirm and show me the ESC has production firmware… Longer term I need to find an alternative…
I got one of those ESCs with a test version of blheli_32 on too.
If you try connect with the regular configurator it won’t work. You need a special version of the software that was never meant to be available to the public.
You can find the required version here:
Unzip it and go into the activator version and you will be able to connect and configure your ESC as normal. The software looks like regular blheli_32 configurator.
I’m not sure if I damaged my esc or something but I am no longer able to get it to connect. It worked for maybe 10 or so configurations (read - write) but a few weeks later I tried to add a Bluetooth module to the esc so it could connect wirelessly but now it won’t connect at all anymore. So could be I damaged something with all the soldering/playing with ardruino settings etc or there’s a hard limit this test version of blheli_32 will let you make read/write changes.
Luckily I think the settings I have now are great so hopefully I don’t need to make changes in the future. Else it’s am32 time.
Good luck
1 Like
After 80, 120, 150, 160A Flycolor ESCs, there is now a 200A version on the market… for 90usd
2 Likes
Even $82 including shipping on Ali
With AM32
Will wait till somebody test it…
Update:
A bad experience with two such esc:
'Foil Drive Assist, DIY - #1549 by rttn
Hi,
Can you please elaborate on the process with Epoxy to make the battery pack water proof?
How does this solution handles heat coming out of the batteries?
Thanks
epoxy has good heat transfer. using the same for an electric winch for paragliding which has only air cooling and more amps without any issue since >2 years.
It is important to pot it all around.
1 Like
some updates:
PETG breaks easy in very cold water:
External Antenna (but not really needed for the boards I have tested yet.)
New case comming soon:
To much stuff:
Warm water testing:
4 Likes
looks awesome! do you know if the antenna is waterproof or did you pott it in epoxy?
yes, it is potted in epoxy.
1 Like
After testing a lot of different assist designs, I ended up in using two plastic bags.
One for the battery, one for a vesc.
I put both in a waterproof backbag and run the motor cable to the board.
This is somehow the lightest and easiest design possible.
I honestly have to say that I like this assist setup the most.
Having no weight on the board feels just great. And I don’t really feel the backbag.
2 Likes
Do you have a pic of the cable gland into the backpack, and perhaps hints on how to make it reliable and waterproof with some falls and abuse?
For my tests I used a > 15 year old waterproof backbag and just inserted the motor wire through the main opening:
For the future I just bought the following:
4 Likes
Looks great! I gave it a try today as well, but the temperature climbed pretty fast.
Do you ever run into overheating issues? Or do you mostly just use it to get up on the foil and then keep going by pumping?
Cable glands are useful to prevent water from entering into rigid volumes. Why wouldn’t a modified vacuum bagging valve for molding composite do the same for cables going out of soft containers ?
Variant:
1 Like
If anyone knows how Duotone solves cooling with their new hip-bag assist, I’d like to know as well
2 Likes