Is my ESC from V2/V21 batches? How to solve the bidirectional DShot bugs?

In this article, we'll talk about:

How to identify if my ESC is from V2/V21 batches?

What issues do the V2/V21 batch ESCs have?

How to solve the bidirectional DShot bugs?

How to identify if my ESC is from V2/V21 batches?

Method 1

Please check out the backside of your ESC, if it has only 4 chips (MCU & Driver 2-in-1) in the center, then it belongs to the latest batch.

Method 2

If your ESC is installed in the quad and it's not easy to see the backside of the ESC, please follow these steps:

1. Remove propellers from your quad.

2. Use a USB cable to connect the quad to your computer.

3. Plug in a battery to your quad.

4. Open the latest BLHeliSuite32 configurator(32.8.1.2 for now), click 'Connect' then 'Read Setup'. You'll get a dialog like this:

If V2 or V21 is shown up, then your ESC is from these batches.

 

 

What issues do the V2/V21 batch ESCs have?

The V2/V21 ESCs were flashed with the official BLHeli32 Rev32.8 firmware. With this firmware, if you enable the bidirectional-Dshot in Betaflight:

1. One or more motors will randomly fail to spin up when you arm the quad. The failure rate is around 16% from our test.
2. When you trigger the motor beacon, the ESC will hang and you can't arm the quad until you re-plug the battery.
3. When you connect the BLHeli32Suite configurator, you'll get a chance to see 'ESC# X: ---' which indicates one of the ESCs can't be recognized.

It won't burn motors or the ESC, but it's quite annoying. If you don't use the bidirectional DShot functionality, then you could leave it disabled and can fly your quad safely.

 

 

How to solve the bidirectional DShot bugs?

Download the latest BLHeli32Suite from here:

https://github.com/bitdump/BLHeli/releases

Then update firmware to Rev32.9 or above.

 

If you have any other questions, please feel free to submit a request.

 

#V2 ESC #V21 ESC #bidirectional DShot # 32.8 #32.83