=== Let's Drone Out — Episode 482 ===
Title: LDO 482 - with special guest SKYSTARS RC
Recorded: 2024-11-21
Hosts: Stephen "Belrik" Howell, Jack "Brightontillifly" Nash, Koel "Koala" Anderson, Wayne "CurryKitten" Andrews, Andrew "Frank" Hyams
Guest(s): Sushmit
Total audience: 898
Platforms: YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwBI4uC712Q); SoundCloud (http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/1965287439-letsdroneout-ldo-482-with-special-guest-skystars-rc.mp3)
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Check out SKYSTARS RC online:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/367629557161416
https://skystars-rc.com

#LetsDroneOut #Podcast #FPV #FPVPodcast #SkyStarsRC #SKYSTARS

[0.0] Jack: Hello and you're listening to let's drone out and special thank you to our lovely patrons that help donate so that we can pay the editor to remove the swear words and silly things we say massive thank you to kolos campos art folk now sama dharma on with the show.
[20.58] Jack: Hello and welcome to let's turn out we have a special guest from sky stars who makes all wonderful amazing hardware is and that one of the very first supporters of am 32 which is very much appreciated and we are joined by the usual guest everyone favorites curry kitten.
[79.47] Jack: Hello.
[81.47] Jack: At the moment, Mr. Stephen.
[83.47] Jack: Good evening.
[85.17] Jack: HDO plus boy coal.
[88.87] Jack: Howdy.
[91.47] Jack: Cole.
[92.27] Jack: It's 2024 almost 2025 and Cole has got some new fat sharks.
[100.37] Jack: Yes.
[101.27] Koel: Should I go grab them?
[103.07] UNKNOWN: Yes.
[103.97] Stephen: Yeah.
[104.97] Stephen: Can you believe you like three models old fat sharks that he found from someone who hadn't quite destroyed them yet?
[112.17] Koel: No, these are sealed.
[114.27] Koel: These are sealed in the box.
[116.67] Stephen: You can't just be devalued them.
[119.67] Koel: Shout out to Roger.
[120.57] Koel: I am sure to fat shark for sorting me out.
[124.37] Koel: I love you guys.
[126.77] Koel: Yeah, I know looks very much alive in Canada.
[131.27] Koel: Oh, yeah.
[131.67] Koel: Actually not really.
[132.57] Koel: No, everyone's like why are you flying analog man like get with the program?
[136.47] Koel: Like no, I got lots of VTX is and apparently goggles now.
[140.47] Koel: So I'm sticking with analog.
[143.27] Jack: Yeah, so I've lined up a sort of ESC centric lineup as usual.
[152.37] Jack: This is seems to be an on-running fit theme that this is the last one.
[156.47] Stephen: So we had Alka and the AM 32 team, Andrew Alka and IKEA on a couple of weeks ago, the core developers of AM 32.
[165.67] Stephen: So following on from that talking to yourself, obviously Skystars have been in the drone business a really long time.
[172.37] Stephen: You don't just do ESCs right used to do.
[176.17] Stephen: Well, I remember Andy RC was reviewing some of your bind and flies and said they were some of the best drones that he was able to buy back then.
[183.67] Stephen: You've kind of moved on from that and specialized a bit more into FCs and ESCs.
[188.27] Stephen: It seems right.
[190.27] Sushmit: Yeah, like for like ready RTA for BNF or PNF for all of those things like the profit margin were quite low.
[199.47] Sushmit: And if there is like high degree of warranty like users used to get into a bit trouble setting up their RX or VTX and then the entire drone had to be replaced.
[211.77] Sushmit: So because of that, like costs were increasing.
[215.47] Sushmit: So we decided like it would be much better to go for the stack or other electronic stuff so that in case there is any warranty issue, we don't have to replace the entire drone.
[225.87] Sushmit: And Skystars is relatively new company.
[228.77] Sushmit: It is growing, but it hasn't reached that point yet where we can simply risk our business with PNF because a lot of things are going on and it's not suiting interest.
[241.57] Sushmit: So we are limiting ourselves only to the stack.
[245.67] Stephen: Harder to ship as well.
[247.07] Stephen: Right. Harder to stock, harder to ship, more space, more weight.
[251.47] Sushmit: And also, I think USA is the only country which allows easy import of drones.
[256.77] Sushmit: The rest of the country, be it Asia or like certain countries of Europe, they require a bit documentation.
[264.37] Sushmit: So I think it is not feasible.
[265.97] Sushmit: And also like dealers face a lot of issues.
[269.37] Sushmit: Not everyone can import RTF drone.
[273.97] Stephen: I didn't know that.
[274.87] Stephen: That's good to know.
[277.48] Stephen: Problems of modern business.
[279.68] Stephen: So with that said, you've done some quite innovative designs, right?
[284.08] Stephen: I think you're the guy who's doing a lot of layout and circuit design for FCS and ESCs.
[288.98] Stephen: If I remember correctly, I've seen a few of your ideas, some interesting stuff you put out there.
[294.28] Stephen: Do you want to talk through some of the ideas that you've brought to market?
[298.28] Sushmit: Yeah, so mostly my work is related to pad layout or overall layout of the ESC or FC.
[304.88] Sushmit: The electronic parts is managed by another guy who is an engineer specific in electronic engineering.
[312.18] Sushmit: So he's a Chinese guy while I manage the pad layout.
[316.48] Sushmit: My work is to make the FC pad layout in such a way that if you are someone who is on the field and trying to make a repair,
[324.88] Sushmit: then it should be easy for you to make any kind of repair.
[327.88] Sushmit: You don't really require any manual.
[330.28] Sushmit: All the pads have been grouped together into a single single group.
[334.28] Sushmit: So that way it is easy for you to wire.
[337.58] Sushmit: Like there used to be like days when we had old flight controllers like Airbus F4 and all that.
[344.88] Sushmit: So while them used to be quite confusing.
[347.58] Sushmit: So my work is to simplify that and make it as easy as possible and remove some of the old pads
[354.38] Sushmit: which are not required such as RSSR, SSI, ADC and PPM which are no longer in use.
[362.88] Stephen: So what have you done to the pad layout to make it easier then?
[366.18] Stephen: Does that remember you had quite a lot of different designs from other companies?
[369.48] Stephen: What did you change?
[371.78] Sushmit: Firstly, like making sure that the camera pad is at the front position and selecting that the pad should be a go-through pad
[380.18] Sushmit: and not surface pad so it doesn't easily come out.
[383.78] Sushmit: And then we have made sure to keep the gyro separate from the 5V and 10V BC
[389.18] Sushmit: making sure that the power lines don't go near the gyro and all that related stuff more.
[394.88] Sushmit: I can show you like when I have my flight controller which let me bring it here.
[400.88] Sushmit: Will it be visible to you?
[406.58] Stephen: So I think a lot of people just assume you just put the components on a board and it happens,
[410.88] Stephen: but there's actually a ton more to that.
[412.68] Stephen: And a lot of the problems that people walk into with flight controllers is really down to the board layout
[418.48] Stephen: that the pads, they can't read what's on the pads or they can't easily get to the pads
[422.88] Stephen: or they're trying to use a pad to do something together with the pad
[426.38] Stephen: that's completely the other side of the board and it's just very awkward to wire.
[431.38] Sushmit: Yeah, and also like we made sure that the pad size is like quite big compared to other competitors
[438.18] Sushmit: so it's easy for you to solder.
[440.18] Sushmit: And one thing that we made sure is that like you have frequency of ripping your pad away
[446.78] Sushmit: in other flight controllers, you're not going to face that like under normal circumstances
[451.78] Sushmit: with your Skystar flight controller.
[455.08] Sushmit: So we have made sure that there is no like possible same way for you to remove your pad or rip them.
[461.78] Sushmit: So this is one of the plus point of this flight controller.
[465.08] Sushmit: We are also working on some new designs, which I think I'm not allowed to share as of right now,
[471.28] Sushmit: but what it is going to allow you is that you can, it is for a specific ESC,
[475.98] Sushmit: which we are designing a 20 by 20 mm ESC on which you want to have some new tech
[482.28] Sushmit: through which you can like solder your XT60 and motor wires in a much efficient way.
[487.98] Sushmit: And we are also like making an ESC which has a flush down capacitor.
[492.78] Sushmit: So you don't really require to solder your capacitor.
[496.38] Sushmit: You simply need to put it like this vertically and then cut its ends off and you have to solder it.
[503.28] Sushmit: Something similar to iFlight but in a much better way.
[507.98] Sushmit: So it's going to be released this year only and then we're going to have a 60A version for that as well.
[515.48] Sushmit: And we are still testing it and James is the guy who is testing it.
[520.88] Sushmit: But as we are going to progress, more information will be shared with you guys.
[526.08] Stephen: That's cool.
[526.68] Stephen: Yeah, I heard a lot of people, they got those iFlight ESCs thinking,
[530.58] Stephen: Oh yeah, it's a really cool idea.
[532.08] Stephen: You've got the capacitor already mounted and they'd fly it one or two times
[536.18] Stephen: and the vibration would just knock the capacitor off.
[538.38] Stephen: It would fall off.
[540.18] Sushmit: Yeah, you need to manually solder it through some holes which pass through it.
[545.28] Sushmit: You can't simply go for a SIMD solder.
[548.48] Koel: Yeah.
[549.68] Koel: Yeah, we got some.
[550.28] Koel: Yeah, I was actually saying recently he purchased two different Skystar Stacks, 50A and 60A
[556.28] Koel: and yeah, they're working great.
[557.88] Jack: Awesome.
[558.58] Jack: I do appreciate the castellations on the ESC by the way.
[563.98] Jack: Thank you very much.
[566.28] Jack: I really do appreciate that.
[568.48] Jack: Yeah, that makes it a lot easier to reach, doesn't it?
[571.28] Jack: Yeah, big time and it just looks way neater.
[575.48] Curry: Oh, that's a bit small.
[576.38] Curry: I was just going to use this as an example of the layout where it talks about.
[582.28] Curry: Hopefully this is an up-to-date enough one.
[584.98] Sushmit: I'm sharing you some designs.
[587.18] Sushmit: Let me show you something, just read.
[590.58] Stephen: Well, while you're looking for that, I can't take credit for these questions.
[597.08] Stephen: Thanks for Jack, but I will push us on to them to keep the show moving.
[599.98] Stephen: So we've obviously really shown a lot of appreciation to Skystars
[605.78] Stephen: because you guys started with AM32 and you kind of got the hobby moving in that direction
[610.98] Stephen: and you did it early enough that when BLHeli32 stopped, there were alternatives already on the market,
[618.08] Stephen: which is fantastic, but were there any signs that that was going to happen?
[622.78] Stephen: What kind of started Skystars moving towards AM32, do you think?
[628.48] Sushmit: Well, for me personally, I think it was Jay Smith who introduced us to AM32.
[635.18] Sushmit: We were developing some Express LRS receiver and at that time, Jay Smith was the person who introduced us.
[642.58] Sushmit: He told us about the firmware and he told us about the features of it.
[648.88] Sushmit: He was the guy who personally used it and made his belief and we thought it is open-source software.
[655.78] Sushmit: There is no issue and already Express LRS developer is using it.
[660.38] Sushmit: So maybe we should go ahead and make some AM32 ESCs and let's see how the market response is going to be.
[668.08] Sushmit: Initially, it was a bit dry, but soon it took out and we are not selling AM32 hardware.
[676.18] Sushmit: Awesome.
[676.68] Stephen: Yeah, for those who aren't aware, Jay is one of the lead developers of ELRS.
[680.48] Stephen: It's one of the guys that set it up and he's a really enthusiastic race pilot as well.
[687.08] Stephen: So he crashes pretty hard and pushes things to the limit and he was a big fan of AM32
[693.08] Stephen: because he said it was making his ESCs last longer because when they would hit an obstacle,
[697.58] Stephen: the ESC was cutting power instead of just pushing more power and frying things.
[705.44] Koel: Yeah, so I pulled up that picture that you sent there, if you can see that.
[713.24] Koel: Nice.
[715.04] Stephen: Yeah, and you can see the user-friendly pad layout where you've actually, for audio listeners,
[720.04] Stephen: instead of having the pads side on, they're angled out at about 30 degrees, it looks like.
[725.74] Stephen: So they're kind of sticking the corner of the pad out where it's easier for you to reach with the wires coming in from each motor.
[732.24] Stephen: It makes so much sense.
[734.14] Sushmit: Also, you want to notice around battery pads, you have some holes.
[739.24] Sushmit: So you can place your XT60 wire between those holes and then we have a special wire through which you can tie your XT60.
[748.24] Sushmit: And once you have done that, then you can secure your wire and then solder easily.
[754.44] Sushmit: In the lower center part, you can see there are two holes for your capacitor which you can flush through.
[761.74] Sushmit: On the capacitor, we are still trying to figure out which capacitor to use so that the height of the capacitor is going to be lower
[770.74] Sushmit: so that it can fit inside most of the frame so you don't require a special kind of frame.
[775.84] Sushmit: So we are still working on that, but there will be a capacitor sitting over here.
[779.84] Sushmit: And in case if you want to do it traditionally, you can simply rip that part off and then directly solder onto those battery pads.
[788.34] Stephen: That's cool.
[789.04] Stephen: So your pads are safe for the audio listeners.
[791.54] Stephen: The positive and negative battery pads, they've got a couple of small drill holes below them that don't make contact with the pad
[798.04] Stephen: but allow you to thread a wire through so it's going to clamp down on your battery leads and stop them from pulling off.
[805.14] Curry: It's very interesting.
[806.24] Curry: I was having a conversation with Jack not too long ago about soldering very thick wires, especially like XT60 battery wires
[816.04] Curry: and the amount of heat needed.
[817.44] Curry: And if you're holding a wire, you will know a lot about that heat because suddenly you'll go,
[822.04] Curry: ow, you can't hold the wire anymore.
[824.14] Curry: So having something to secure it so you can get some real heat in there and actually get the pad nicely flowed onto the wire is a very good idea.
[832.14] Curry: I like that.
[833.64] Sushmit: Similarly, we are also working on some new flight controllers.
[838.34] Sushmit: So you'll also want to see some more innovation over there, but we haven't reached a point where like I can show you something,
[846.04] Sushmit: but we are working on that as well.
[852.24] Curry: So how did you get into the hobby?
[854.54] Curry: Were you always sort of a pilot before you got into designing for it or how did you start?
[862.84] Sushmit: Okay, so I have two versions.
[865.34] Sushmit: The first one is of the owner or the person who owns the Skystar.
[869.54] Sushmit: Well, I'm somebody who's representing the Skystars at the moment.
[873.74] Sushmit: So for the owner, I can tell that he was a young guy.
[878.24] Sushmit: He was like a Chinese person and when he was in high school, he saw his seniors flying RC planes at that time.
[888.24] Sushmit: There was, I guess, no electric plane or widely available.
[891.84] Sushmit: So gas engines were available at that time.
[894.94] Sushmit: So through that, he went into the RC hobby.
[898.04] Sushmit: He then started RC cars and related stuff.
[901.84] Sushmit: Over time, he transitioned into a drone industry into agriculture, drone and related stuff.
[908.34] Sushmit: And then FPV came and then he became part of the FPV.
[913.04] Sushmit: He used to work for some other brands in the past and then later decided to make his own brand and then Skystars came.
[921.84] Sushmit: So the person behind the Skystar has been part of the FPV since a very long time.
[929.54] Sushmit: But he has been through various brands and now he has opened his own Skystars brand.
[936.74] Sushmit: And for my case, I can tell that since when I was a young kid, my grandfather taught me how to repair electronics and related stuff.
[946.64] Sushmit: Through that, I learned a lot about electronics and soon I started trying RC cars, making my own RC transmitters and everything from some of the parts which I scavenged from old electronics and related stuff.
[965.64] Sushmit: And after that, I had a fascination towards anything which used to fly because when I was young,
[972.94] Sushmit: I did not know about Bernoulli or related principles which make things fly.
[979.14] Sushmit: Anything which used to fly, be it a RC helicopter, be it a drone, used to fascinate me a lot.
[984.54] Sushmit: And I used to think that this is the next level where I want to go.
[988.84] Sushmit: So I spent around two to three years trying to make RC planes, but all of them failed miserably.
[996.14] Sushmit: It was my high school when I finally made a working RC plane.
[1000.74] Sushmit: And after that, I never looked back and I've been learning more and more.
[1005.14] Sushmit: And as of right now, I'm learning about Skybrush, that is the open source software for drone show.
[1011.84] Sushmit: So I'm still learning.
[1013.94] Sushmit: I think this is my journey and it is going to be like this only, just keep learning about the new stuff.
[1020.64] Sushmit: That's fantastic.
[1022.14] Jack: Cool.
[1022.74] Jack: Was that the display Skyburst software?
[1028.66] Jack: Skybrush.
[1030.56] Sushmit: Yeah, it's based on autopilot.
[1035.46] Stephen: Okay.
[1036.56] Stephen: Skybrush.io for those who are interested and it lets you draw patterns.
[1041.26] Stephen: And then if you've got a fleet of drones, it looks like you just press go and they go and fly the pattern all coordinated.
[1047.46] Stephen: That's pretty fantastic.
[1049.46] Stephen: So you've got a laptop on the ground that basically lets you have each drone as a pixel and...
[1054.66] Jack: No way, that's very cool.
[1056.86] Jack: That's pretty fantastic.
[1058.26] Stephen: Well, maybe if you figure this Skybrush out, it would be great to hear you talk about that as well because that looks incredible.
[1067.26] Sushmit: Yeah, Skybrush is a bit complicated, but I'm still trying to learn it.
[1073.56] Stephen: Yeah, I mean, you've got to deal with having 30, 40 drones at least all in perfect working order before you can start doing anything.
[1081.36] Stephen: So yeah, that's just a little bit complicated.
[1084.86] Sushmit: Yeah, man, like you have to know the how to use a blender and everything and then like collecting all that hardware.
[1093.46] Sushmit: It's a bit challenge like transitioning to that, but still I want to learn that and maybe do something about that in future.
[1100.26] Sushmit: Maybe a business sort of regarding drone show.
[1103.96] Koel: Yeah, that's cool.
[1105.66] Koel: I've seen a few drone shows in real life and they're pretty spectacular.
[1109.76] Koel: Yeah, we're almost in 2025 now, right?
[1113.96] Koel: It's going to be more and more popular, I think.
[1117.06] Sushmit: Yes, day before yesterday, there was one in New York City, Disneyland, cruise world, something like that.
[1123.36] Sushmit: So they had a huge drone show and I think they are using their own software.
[1128.26] Sushmit: They are not using the open source version because it was in a very huge area.
[1132.56] Sushmit: We don't, that Skybrush doesn't support all that kind of hardware.
[1136.66] Sushmit: So I think we have some new software in this particular field, which aren't available to public as of right now.
[1144.86] Stephen: So the drones have to speak to each other or do they just talk to the ground station?
[1150.56] Sushmit: They talk to the ground station.
[1152.06] Sushmit: So it's some new kind of software or tech, which is just available to some like corporates, not available to public as of right now.
[1160.46] Sushmit: And that is what Disney is using currently.
[1164.06] Stephen: Yeah, that sounds like Disney.
[1166.66] Koel: Just like industry clothes, like, you know, nobody gets to nobody gets to know what we're using.
[1172.76] Stephen: We're using it's just like the early days of 3D with ILM where people weren't just taking existing packages.
[1179.46] Stephen: They were writing the software from scratch and guarding it closely.
[1184.26] Jack: Yeah, ILM, Industrial Light and Magic.
[1187.56] Stephen: Yeah, they've loaded all the effects for Star Wars and then went on to do effects for pretty much everything else for about the next 10 or 15 years.
[1196.16] Stephen: They were like the only people that could do digital compositing for many years.
[1200.96] Stephen: Something you take for granted and can do on your phone now.
[1203.96] Stephen: They were the only people who did it and they they wrote the software that did it.
[1208.16] Jack: Thanks a lot, but are you going to develop an all-in-one board then?
[1214.86] Jack: I'm guessing cheap all-in-one board with a massive LED driver on there.
[1221.76] Sushmit: Or this drone show.
[1225.66] Jack: Yeah, for yourself.
[1228.06] Jack: Yeah, you like scavenging everything you can.
[1231.96] Sushmit: Skystars is kind of developing kind of open-source related this drone chip, which you can simply like assemble together and then you can run multiple open-source software on that.
[1246.66] Sushmit: So we are talking with some of the developers, including Skybrush, but things are quite fresh as of right now.
[1254.96] Sushmit: So we can't say a lot about that until things solidify.
[1259.16] Stephen: Good luck.
[1260.06] Stephen: Good luck.
[1260.86] Stephen: The world needs people like this.
[1262.96] Sushmit: That's cool.
[1263.66] Stephen: We're making it happen.
[1264.46] Stephen: It's exciting.
[1269.6] Stephen: So we kind of looked at the board layout and another one of Jack's questions here.
[1275.4] Stephen: He was looking at ESCs like what's next and we've got field-oriented control that there was a bit of noise about this recently.
[1283.8] Stephen: Is Skystars and yourself, are you interested to follow on this?
[1287.2] Stephen: Do you think it's worth doing?
[1290.0] Sushmit: As of right now, we are not planning to do FOC because there is no demand in the market.
[1295.9] Sushmit: Most of the pilots aren't even aware of FOC.
[1299.9] Sushmit: I personally also have a limited knowledge of FOC because the main engineer guy who knows about the FOC speaks only Chinese.
[1309.6] Sushmit: But what I can tell you from my point of view is that FOC is not coming any soon in like our hobby industry because like there hasn't been any kind of specific advantage which we are going to get from FOC.
[1325.6] Sushmit: Maybe for larger motors, there might be some advantage.
[1328.9] Sushmit: But for our size motor, I don't think so.
[1332.2] Sushmit: There would be any advantage and added cost won't justify it.
[1337.7] Sushmit: Yeah, we are not going to bring that.
[1339.7] Sushmit: Some brands are testing like Diaton was testing.
[1344.5] Sushmit: Now, I don't think so.
[1345.5] Sushmit: They are in business and we have Airbot as well.
[1349.0] Sushmit: But again, I'm not sure about that.
[1351.0] Sushmit: But yeah, testing is being done.
[1353.8] Sushmit: But I can say that nobody is releasing it any soon.
[1358.6] Stephen: Yeah, I think that the stuff that FETEC was doing was simulated field oriented control.
[1364.0] Stephen: Right.
[1364.3] Stephen: So it's like approximating FOC but not true FOC.
[1370.6] Sushmit: We'll see how that goes about FETEC.
[1372.7] Sushmit: But like I do.
[1374.5] Stephen: They were the guys that did it for like micro sized drones.
[1378.5] Stephen: They put out this simulated field oriented control, which is kind of approximating the FOC.
[1385.4] Stephen: But doing it senseless with just looking at the zero crossing comparator data.
[1392.3] Curry: There's like scientific papers if you really want to read it.
[1395.1] Curry: I would just add when you say most pilots aren't aware of field orientated control.
[1399.9] Curry: I raised my hand to that.
[1401.4] Curry: I've never heard of the expression before this time.
[1404.5] Stephen: It matters if you've got like a massive e-scooter and stuff like this.
[1408.1] Stephen: But yeah, that's not really for quads less so.
[1412.8] Stephen: So yeah, that's kind of a distraction.
[1415.7] Stephen: But if we're looking forward to the future ESCs, where do you think we're going to be going?
[1422.1] Stephen: What are you excited about?
[1425.3] Sushmit: We have a new kind of MCU in market, which Airbot and like RTTEC has developed.
[1433.4] Sushmit: It's named F4A1, something like that.
[1436.6] Sushmit: So it combines the MOSFET driver along with the MCU.
[1440.7] Sushmit: So it's a single chip.
[1441.9] Sushmit: So it is going to replace a lot of ICs on your PCB.
[1447.6] Sushmit: So that is something new which is coming and also like new RTTEC MCUs are being supported as of right now.
[1456.5] Sushmit: So that's again something new which is going to come.
[1460.5] Sushmit: But rest, I think there is no new progression as of right now.
[1466.6] Sushmit: So that would be just.
[1470.14] Stephen: I was just rooting around, see if I could find an example of ESC, but people are probably used to seeing you've got like your four MCUs in the middle of the board.
[1477.84] Stephen: And then you'd have a collection of drivers that went out from those and then you'd have the MOSFETs.
[1484.44] Stephen: And so this is going to save space because you don't need those extra driver chips, right?
[1491.24] Sushmit: Yeah, it is going to save space.
[1493.24] Sushmit: Testing is being done by Pete, that is Alka Motors.
[1498.24] Sushmit: He's testing it, but like there had been some issues which I got to know, but I'm not sure about that.
[1507.72] Stephen: Yeah, I think it's out on one of the Airbot AIOs, which I did have around here somewhere, but I tied it up aka lost it.
[1518.42] Stephen: But yeah, it's great for AIO boards because all of a sudden you've got extra space and yeah.
[1524.92] Stephen: Space is at a premium on AIOs, which is why most of them have 8-bit ESCs, which are kind of limited in 2025, 2024.
[1533.82] Sushmit: The thing is that Airbot has invested a lot of money.
[1538.22] Sushmit: So that chip is going to be exclusive to Airbot only for some time, unlike other brands who get their stuff made through Airbot.
[1547.42] Sushmit: So only they are going to have that specific chip.
[1550.72] Sushmit: Other manufacturers won't be having access of that any soon.
[1555.52] Jack: Man, that sucks.
[1558.02] Jack: Yeah, I wondered.
[1558.82] Sushmit: Yeah, but it won't make any huge difference in anything except AIOs.
[1565.32] Sushmit: So maybe that's the only downfall.
[1568.52] Stephen: I mean, you've got to respect Airbot.
[1570.02] Stephen: They taped out a whole line of custom MCUs.
[1572.82] Stephen: They went to Artury Tech and literally got a custom MCU built.
[1577.02] Stephen: That's a lot of effort.
[1578.12] Stephen: That's probably like a million or so in costs to get through the testing and manufacturing phases.
[1584.82] Stephen: So yeah, I think it's fair that they make a little bit of return on it.
[1589.92] Stephen: Give them a couple of years.
[1591.52] Sushmit: Yeah, a lot of money has been put into that.
[1594.92] Sushmit: But yeah, Artury is also like something reverse engineered STM only.
[1603.66] Stephen: Yeah.
[1604.56] Stephen: So, has Artury Tech been easy to deal with because everyone kind of swapped over to this
[1609.66] Stephen: and it was like a silent change, but it's pretty big change, isn't it?
[1613.96] Sushmit: Yeah, see, we had options like CKS.
[1616.76] Sushmit: We had GD, that is key.
[1619.76] Sushmit: You can get advised.
[1620.46] Sushmit: And then we had Artury.
[1623.46] Sushmit: So with CKS, it was a direct replacement, but they were like, what do you say?
[1629.46] Sushmit: A lot of issues like quality control issues with that.
[1632.86] Sushmit: So ESCs used to randomly tie or ICs used to fry.
[1637.56] Sushmit: So we did try GD, but like again, the supply chain was not quite efficient.
[1644.56] Sushmit: And then we shifted to Artury Tech F421 MCU.
[1648.36] Sushmit: So it was available easily.
[1650.96] Sushmit: It was manufactured within China and like everything about it was most efficient compared
[1657.96] Sushmit: to all of the alternatives.
[1659.36] Sushmit: So we went ahead with Artury Tech.
[1661.76] Sushmit: So it is stable and the company responses to the engineer, they are available on call,
[1669.76] Sushmit: chat and everywhere.
[1670.66] Sushmit: So it's easy for everyone to deal with Artury Tech.
[1674.66] Stephen: That's cool.
[1675.26] Stephen: Yeah, if you were buying ESCs during lockdown, you kind of noticed everyone went and changed
[1681.46] Stephen: all their designs really quickly.
[1682.96] Stephen: And it was kind of a quiet change, but people were complaining, oh, my ESC doesn't work.
[1687.26] Stephen: Oh, it's got these problems.
[1688.56] Stephen: That was because people had suddenly couldn't source these STM32 chips and all of a sudden
[1693.06] Stephen: they're like, does this work?
[1694.06] Stephen: Does this work?
[1694.66] Stephen: Does this work?
[1695.36] Stephen: And a lot of them just didn't work as they were advertised, right?
[1700.16] Curry: Yeah.
[1702.16] Stephen: So we're back to stability now.
[1703.96] Stephen: Sorry, go ahead.
[1705.96] Sushmit: And also like some new ESCs which are being developed, which have a single MCU and then
[1712.46] Sushmit: you have all the MOSFET drivers connected to it.
[1716.46] Sushmit: And then you have your FETs.
[1718.56] Sushmit: So this is something new which is also happening.
[1721.36] Sushmit: I think Maytech already did that around I think two to three years ago, but it was not
[1728.96] Sushmit: quite successful.
[1730.26] Sushmit: They made their own protocol for that.
[1733.36] Sushmit: I don't remember the name, but it was a different protocol.
[1735.96] Sushmit: It was supported.
[1738.36] Sushmit: Yeah.
[1739.36] Sushmit: So again, we are visiting that concept, but let's see how it works.
[1743.26] Sushmit: We might be using some new MCUs available in the market, but more info about this would
[1750.36] Sushmit: be with the engineer guy.
[1752.66] Sushmit: Sure.
[1753.16] Sushmit: Yeah.
[1753.36] Stephen: I think we weren't down a rat hole.
[1755.96] Stephen: Perhaps I don't want to lose the audience completely.
[1760.06] Stephen: So the one thing we noticed about Skystars is while you're not like a massive company
[1764.56] Stephen: with huge budgets, you seem really responsive and you're trying out new ideas and you're
[1770.16] Stephen: getting feedback and improving things.
[1772.06] Stephen: So how do you do this as a company?
[1775.36] Stephen: How do you get this input from customers?
[1777.66] Stephen: How do you change so quickly?
[1781.9] Sushmit: Okay.
[1782.4] Sushmit: So the thing is the most of the FPV brands is that they are mostly consisting of employees
[1790.3] Sushmit: who are Chinese in nature or Chinese nationality.
[1794.1] Sushmit: So they don't have a lot of access to outside world.
[1797.4] Sushmit: They do have some representatives like you must have seen on Facebook, but the most of
[1802.5] Sushmit: them have no idea like what's going on.
[1805.6] Sushmit: They simply know that it's a drone.
[1807.3] Sushmit: It's a motor.
[1808.0] Sushmit: It's a AC.
[1808.8] Sushmit: It's a stat.
[1809.7] Sushmit: That's all.
[1810.7] Sushmit: So when they have like with Skystars, the unique thing is that they are connected to
[1816.2] Sushmit: some pilots who are outside China and who are quite passionate about it.
[1822.3] Sushmit: So Jimmy or James is one of them.
[1824.6] Sushmit: So he keeps us in touch with all the new developments and I also personally keep looking
[1830.8] Sushmit: for new stuff and like what people are talking about.
[1834.3] Sushmit: So when we hear all of that, I transmitted back to the Skystars owner or the engineer.
[1840.5] Sushmit: So they work upon that and like this way we are going to try to keep up with the competition
[1846.4] Sushmit: and like keep up with all the new trends which are coming.
[1850.7] Stephen: Looks good.
[1851.3] Stephen: Like for a small company, you're very fast at changing and yeah, something we'd expect
[1858.0] Stephen: from large companies with huge budgets.
[1859.8] Stephen: So it's kind of impressive.
[1862.0] Sushmit: And also like this is something which I want to tell you guys about is like recently you
[1868.9] Sushmit: guys are aware about the Russia-Ukraine war and everything.
[1872.1] Sushmit: So I think almost all companies have supplied their stuff through indirect means or direct
[1878.2] Sushmit: means and most of them are also where like this has happened with this stuff.
[1883.9] Sushmit: But for Skystars, I can tell you that not a single ESC or flight controller or stack
[1891.6] Sushmit: has been supplied from Skystar for any kind of war related stuff.
[1895.9] Sushmit: So we have kept the brand away from all of that stuff.
[1899.0] Sushmit: So that's again something we at Skystars are proud of it.
[1904.6] Stephen: Yeah, I think in a couple of years that's going to count.
[1907.4] Stephen: So everything is going to leak out eventually, isn't it?
[1911.4] Sushmit: Yeah, most of the brands are making quite a lot of money from all of that, maybe through
[1919.3] Sushmit: indirect sales and related stuff.
[1921.1] Sushmit: But Skystars have kept their hands away from that.
[1927.1] Sushmit: Well done.
[1927.6] Sushmit: Very wide zone.
[1930.0] Stephen: That's very brave because that's a lot of money to turn down.
[1932.6] Stephen: So congratulations.
[1934.8] Frank: Yeah.
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[1962.2] Koel: Well, you know what?
[1962.8] Koel: It's like it's weird to see like the crossover from the passion of the hobby.
[1967.7] Koel: And then, you know, it's the stuff we're using for fun is being used for not such fun things.
[1973.8] Koel: So it's better to keep it in the fun aspect.
[1978.0] Koel: But, you know, people make money, right?
[1979.9] Koel: So it's a tough one.
[1982.7] Jack: Is that how you're, I suppose, because Skystars is a is a Chinese company.
[1992.8] Jack: That's how you're getting around.
[1994.4] Jack: You don't have to worry about the embargo.
[1997.8] Jack: For the IMUs.
[2000.3] Sushmit: I didn't quite get the question.
[2003.0] Stephen: He was just saying Skystars isn't involved in any of the war efforts and they're keeping themselves
[2008.1] Stephen: completely clean.
[2009.6] Stephen: Unlike a lot of people who've been tempted by increased profits.
[2014.7] Sushmit: Because like eventually there is going to be something happening, be it from Chinese government or
[2020.7] Sushmit: be it from other agencies, something might happen or I'm sure it is going to happen.
[2026.1] Sushmit: So better be safe and like not support the war.
[2029.8] Sushmit: Like these equipments are meant for something and that is not war.
[2035.5] Stephen: We already saw like DJI is continually in the press continually being hounded by US department
[2042.8] Stephen: to trying to block them and sanction them because they claim that they're related to all sorts of issues.
[2050.7] Stephen: And it's definitely one thing to avoid.
[2054.3] Stephen: I think if you want a successful company, there's plenty of hobbyists out there who'll pay good money
[2058.4] Stephen: and increase your reputation.
[2062.43] Curry: It is interesting because there was some sort of restriction on export from the Chinese government
[2069.43] Curry: because obviously they're friendly with Russia and then one drone pass going to Ukraine.
[2073.43] Curry: So for a while it was like companies saying they couldn't send me stuff and then I have a 10-inch drone
[2078.33] Curry: turning up quite happily.
[2079.33] Curry: So I don't know quite what the workarounds are but suddenly very big drones with very big motors
[2084.33] Curry: are being built everywhere and they're getting shipped out of China very easily.
[2089.33] Sushmit: There has been some orders from Chinese government, some verbal orders which has been circulated here and there.
[2097.43] Sushmit: So basically most of the companies are now afraid to sell a drone like 7-inch or 10-inch.
[2103.73] Sushmit: And so anything which is having a higher payload or a propeller which is more than 7-inch,
[2110.23] Sushmit: so companies are a bit hesitant towards selling that and that has happened because of some of the orders which have been released.
[2118.93] Sushmit: So I think that's a legal issue over there.
[2122.53] Sushmit: So China is trying to control the misuse of the drone but it is not quite the rule.
[2128.63] Sushmit: You can get it through Alibaba and AliExpress but companies are striving towards that.
[2135.23] Sushmit: There are a lot of brands like Fox here, Rush FPV and Starstar itself who are adhering to those guidelines
[2143.63] Sushmit: and not selling large size drones.
[2147.33] Stephen: And let's face it, if we go back five years ago, no one was selling a 10-inch drone.
[2153.43] Stephen: You'd have to go and get it made custom built in order to get a 10-inch drone.
[2157.33] Stephen: And now all of a sudden, oh yeah, 10-inch drones are great because GoPros are 20 grams heavier.
[2163.03] Koel: Well, maybe like cine listers and whatnot.
[2165.03] Koel: But yeah, like use case for like film industry, not anything else.
[2169.03] Curry: All you have to do is go back 12 years and all drones were at least 10 inches and made it where you built them yourself.
[2174.83] Curry: Yeah.
[2176.13] Curry: So you were talking there about one of the problems with like selling an RTF is like a warranty issue in having to deal with users.
[2185.23] Curry: Is there a sort of a common thing that users have a problem with with either ESC boards or stacks?
[2192.23] Curry: And what is sort of your sort of go-to advice or your common issue you get reported to you, the top tips you need to explain?
[2202.63] Curry: What's the top tip?
[2205.76] Sushmit: Okay, so most of the time it's related to capacitor.
[2209.16] Sushmit: People usually don't install the capacitor.
[2212.56] Sushmit: And if they do install the capacitor, they install it in reverse polarity and then it's regarding soldering.
[2219.56] Sushmit: They use some plumbing solder, if you guys are aware of that.
[2224.56] Sushmit: It melts at a very low temperature and then the ESC heats up or it is having a high resistance.
[2230.96] Sushmit: So it melts during the flight and then like your drone crashes.
[2234.56] Stephen: This is sold as it's mainly tin, right?
[2236.36] Stephen: Almost entirely tin.
[2237.76] Sushmit: Yeah, the plumbing solder.
[2239.96] Sushmit: So they use a lot of that and regarding other issues, which I think they face is that they bridge a lot of parts which are placed together.
[2250.16] Sushmit: So while designing the pad layout, we try to give around 2mm, minimum 2mm of gap between each pad.
[2257.96] Sushmit: So the chances of you to bridge those pads is going to reduce.
[2262.36] Sushmit: But yeah, still people do that.
[2264.36] Sushmit: Most of the time it's a capacitor only, which is like causing a lot of issues, be it de-sings or be it noise related stuff.
[2275.26] Stephen: I thought pads just tended to explode if you put them on the wrong way around.
[2278.56] Stephen: Does anyone else just know?
[2279.56] Sushmit: Yeah, like usually they don't install it in a proper way.
[2283.96] Sushmit: They install it at the female part or the, what do you say, it is male or female.
[2290.26] Stephen: Negative, positive.
[2292.36] Sushmit: I'm not negative, positive.
[2294.56] Sushmit: I think at the end of the battery cable, they don't install it onto the battery pads of the ESC.
[2302.06] Stephen: Yeah, yeah.
[2302.66] Stephen: Okay.
[2303.36] Stephen: Okay.
[2304.06] Sushmit: So yeah, so that makes a huge difference.
[2307.46] Sushmit: Like we had few ESCs batch in which we were using the Giga MCU and it was prone to a lot of noise.
[2315.16] Sushmit: So if your pilots don't use to install the capacitor, their ESCs used to go into de-sings and also like you need to make sure that the capacitor was installed onto the ESC parts and not onto the XT60 cable.
[2331.66] Sushmit: So there are some MCUs which are like quite sensitive and we need to make sure that you need to install the capacitor properly.
[2341.16] Sushmit: And one more issue which I think a lot of pilots do is that they don't give a lot of clearance between the FC and ESC and due to that, when they take a power loop or something, something shorts out and then like their stack stops working and then we have a warranty claim for that.
[2361.16] Stephen: Separation is key.
[2362.16] Stephen: There's a lot of tips there.
[2364.16] Stephen: You might want to rewind that and listen to it again because I think we just had some top building tips there.
[2370.16] Curry: I like to think people would recognize if they'd bridge two pads together.
[2374.16] Curry: It's one of the things I always do often.
[2376.16] Curry: I look closely and if something looks dodgy, then I'm out with the multimeter to see if there's continuity and stuff.
[2384.16] Jack: This is your best friend.
[2386.16] Jack: This is better than a smoke stopper.
[2389.16] Koel: Yeah, that's the one thing I see everyone talking about smoke stoppers and, you know, doing the whole plug-in with low, whatever.
[2395.16] Koel: It's like just use the damn multimeter.
[2398.16] Koel: I mean, I don't know.
[2401.16] Koel: I've never owned a smoke stopper, but I definitely own a multimeter and it works.
[2405.16] Jack: This belongs here, these belong here, and this belongs in the bin.
[2418.16] Stephen: Yes, there's a lot that a smoke stopper won't catch.
[2420.16] Stephen: I mean, it's better than nothing, but at the same time, you have visual inspection and if you're new to soldering, then get out the multimeter and absolutely test.
[2430.16] Sushmit: I would say if people could solder their stuff properly in the way it is supposed to be done, then most of the issues are solved.
[2442.16] Sushmit: Because most of the time, people strip off a lot of silicone off the wire and then solder it and during flight, they connect with each other and they have a short circuit.
[2452.16] Stephen: Well, they don't have any cables to link, so they've got like 30 centimeters of cable and it's all just like shoved in there.
[2461.16] Stephen: Then you get noise and everything, it causes problems.
[2464.16] Jack: Just strip the wire.
[2468.16] Jack: The length of the pad.
[2470.16] Jack: And that is one of the teaching Cole.
[2478.16] Jack: He just now parrots correct information and it makes me proud.
[2484.16] Koel: Yeah, if I wasn't for Jack, I'm sure my soldering would look like, you know, doggy-doo-doo.
[2491.16] Jack: Are you trying to use a smaller Rubicon on that other design?
[2498.16] Jack: Because they're really tall, the ones that you guys normally use.
[2504.16] Stephen: But you want the high ASR ones, right?
[2506.16] Stephen: You don't want just any old.
[2508.16] Sushmit: Yeah, we want the low ASR one, like Rubicon has a lot of series, ZLH and FM series, FR series.
[2517.16] Sushmit: There's also the XYZ something series, so we go with the ZLH series because it has been most reliable for us and has the lowest ASR value.
[2528.16] Sushmit: If you're somebody who wants to upgrade or do it for your own personal build, then I would recommend going with the Panasonic FM series capacitor.
[2538.16] Sushmit: The thing is, we as a manufacturer can't supply Panasonic capacitor because they are not available at affordable price.
[2546.16] Sushmit: Or at a competitive price.
[2548.16] Sushmit: So we go with the second best option, that is the Rubicon ZLH capacitor.
[2553.16] Sushmit: So if you're somebody who wants to upgrade, then Panasonic FM is the capacitor you must try.
[2560.16] Stephen: If you're buying them on eBay and you're buying like five or ten, there's not really much price difference.
[2565.16] Stephen: But I guess if you're getting a thousand, it really adds up.
[2568.16] Sushmit: Yeah, just make sure they are the original ones.
[2572.16] Sushmit: Are those like the silver and purple ones?
[2574.16] Stephen: No, they're black.
[2577.16] Stephen: They're black, yeah.
[2579.16] Stephen: They have a silver stripe on the negative side.
[2583.16] Sushmit: Yeah, I think there is also a golden stripe as well on that.
[2589.16] Stephen: You want the low ASR ones, not just regular capacitors, you've got to get low ASR, otherwise they won't catch the capacitors.
[2599.6] Jack: Could we have a part number, please?
[2602.6] Stephen: It's going to depend whether you're 4S or 6S.
[2607.6] Jack: 35, you can always go up in voltage.
[2611.6] Jack: Just get something the size of a Coke can and just tie it in there.
[2618.6] Jack: Am I right?
[2620.6] Jack: A contradiction, people are probably going to correct me in the chat, but why would anyone solder the capacitor to where the XD60 connects to?
[2637.6] Jack: Because surely the battery acts as a capacitor, and you want the capacitor as close to the noise of the FC as possible.
[2645.6] Stephen: They don't know that, they're just putting it on wherever they can fit it, and they think, oh, there's no space in my frame, I'll just put it here and make it easy for myself.
[2653.6] Sushmit: Most of the time, because of the space, new racing frames are there, which don't have any kind of space left for them to install any capacitors.
[2664.6] Sushmit: Again, we are trying to solve this issue by having a smaller size capacitor, which flushed down vertically with the PCB, but we are still going on that.
[2675.6] Stephen: It's tricky.
[2677.6] Stephen: And then that capacitor lifts off if you don't solder it properly, and you're like, oh, why has my tune gone bad?
[2682.6] Stephen: But it's not gone bad.
[2683.6] Stephen: It's just your capacitors loose in sight, and it's disconnected sometimes.
[2687.6] Sushmit: And a lot of times, the leg of the capacitor pulls out internally, and we can't see that directly until we do some kind of action with that.
[2699.6] Sushmit: We kind of pull it apart, and then we notice that the leg of the capacitor has become loose.
[2705.6] Sushmit: So that might also cause a lot of issues, and we have diagnosed this in a lot of support stuff when we were troubleshooting some drones.
[2715.6] Sushmit: So again, that's something that you must look for.
[2719.6] Stephen: Yeah, if you crash, check everything.
[2722.6] Stephen: So we've looked at a lot of options here.
[2726.6] Stephen: You can make ESCs better.
[2728.6] Stephen: You can put the pads at an angle.
[2730.6] Stephen: You can put capacitors in there.
[2731.6] Stephen: But your ESC is just going to get bigger and bigger if you put all these nice features on it.
[2736.6] Stephen: So how do you strike a balance between putting all the features and making it easy to use and fitting the ESC in a sensible form factor with a small board thickness and a small weight?
[2749.6] Jack: Other than removing old stuff that we don't use, what else do you do?
[2755.6] Jack: Because you already said that.
[2757.6] Sushmit: Okay, so first thing we try to do is that we make sure, like if we are making an ESC for racers, we try to make sure that we use the full-size MOSFETs.
[2769.6] Sushmit: So if we are using a full-size MOSFET, then the size of the ESC is going to increase.
[2774.6] Sushmit: Like we have the AM55 ESC, that is 20x20, the red one.
[2779.6] Sushmit: So that is using a full-size MOSFET, which are same as 30x30.
[2784.6] Sushmit: So that's for somebody who's like into racing and doesn't want to compromise anywhere.
[2790.6] Sushmit: But that person can use that.
[2792.6] Sushmit: But if there's somebody who wants to have that shape in that specific way, like for Cinewoop or something other than that racing, then they can go with the smaller-sized MOSFETs, which are available on other kinds of ESCs.
[2808.6] Sushmit: So when we are designing something, we kind of pick up the niche on which we need to target.
[2815.6] Sushmit: For racers, we have specific ESC.
[2817.6] Sushmit: For others, we have specific ESC.
[2819.6] Sushmit: We don't really care for the weight because if we are going to use more copper, the weight is surely going to increase.
[2825.6] Sushmit: But we do a normal test where we take some of the best-selling frames in the market, racing frames.
[2833.6] Sushmit: Like we have Fly533 from HSPF PV.
[2837.6] Sushmit: So we take that frame because it's been used a lot.
[2840.6] Sushmit: And then we try to fit our components into that.
[2843.6] Sushmit: And we also try the Flyfish frame as well to see if everything fits into that.
[2848.6] Sushmit: And once all of that is done, then we can go ahead and release the stuff.
[2854.6] Sushmit: So this is our way of testing everything.
[2857.6] Sushmit: But yeah, it depends a lot on which kind of target audience we are focusing.
[2866.6] Stephen: How do you know how much copper is too much?
[2869.6] Stephen: Are you just doing crazy tests where you try and empty a battery in 30 seconds?
[2874.6] Stephen: How do you figure this out?
[2877.6] Sushmit: The person like the engineer who works on that for the testing,
[2882.6] Sushmit: he actually installs a BLDC fan, which is not a conventional motor.
[2888.6] Sushmit: And it is having quite a big propeller, something, again, which is not FPRC-related.
[2894.6] Sushmit: Just like a test fan, you mean.
[2897.6] Sushmit: Yeah, it pushes them to a lot of higher amps rating.
[2902.6] Sushmit: And then we discount it by 10, 20%.
[2905.6] Sushmit: And then we give that the rating.
[2909.6] Sushmit: With Skystars, I can surely say that the rating which we supply for the ESC is quite true.
[2917.6] Sushmit: Unlike some other brands who overrate their specs.
[2922.6] Sushmit: And also, with Skystars, our stuff is tested by the developers,
[2926.6] Sushmit: be it better flight developers or Express LRS.
[2931.6] Sushmit: Express LRS testing has reduced in recent years.
[2935.6] Sushmit: But better flight developers do use ESC and also a beat and unit.
[2942.6] Sushmit: I think you guys are aware about unit as well.
[2945.6] Stephen: IK, yes, he was on last week.
[2947.6] Sushmit: Yeah.
[2950.6] Sushmit: So he is also one of the testers who test our stuff before it gets released into the market.
[2957.6] Sushmit: So, yeah, a lot of developers use it.
[2959.6] Sushmit: So we are sure that it's going to work.
[2961.6] Sushmit: And regarding the copper, well, we just try to put in as much as we can while maintaining affordable rates.
[2970.6] Sushmit: So we have the option to use a better quality copper like the top of the line.
[2977.6] Sushmit: But again, it is going to increase the cost.
[2979.6] Sushmit: Some people have tried that.
[2981.6] Sushmit: But again, we try to maintain it at a ratio between the price and the performance.
[2988.6] Sushmit: So that's something which engineer manages.
[2991.6] Sushmit: But this is how we do it.
[2993.6] Stephen: That's cool.
[2994.6] Stephen: Yeah.
[2995.6] Stephen: Check out the beta flight partner page if you want to actually know who is bothering to talk to the developers,
[3001.6] Stephen: to sanity check whether things are going to work before they sell them.
[3004.6] Stephen: And you see Skystars there.
[3006.6] Stephen: We've got Airbot.
[3007.6] Stephen: We've got Team Black Sheep.
[3009.6] Stephen: You've got RadioMaster and the kind of names you'd expect there as well.
[3014.6] Stephen: So it's good to know.
[3017.6] Sushmit: Same goes for AM32 as well.
[3019.6] Sushmit: We are also supporting the AM32 financially through our contributions.
[3025.6] Stephen: On behalf of the community, thanks.
[3027.6] Stephen: That's cool.
[3028.6] Stephen: Thank you very much.
[3029.6] Jack: Appreciate it.
[3031.6] Stephen: So I keep stealing Jack's questions, I feel bad.
[3037.6] Stephen: That's fine.
[3038.6] Stephen: I thought this is a cool one to move on to,
[3041.6] Stephen: which is how do you balance meeting the needs of hobbyists and professionals while staying innovative?
[3047.6] Stephen: You could carry on just selling one model and market it and tell everyone it's best, like Coca-Cola.
[3053.6] Stephen: It's new.
[3054.6] Stephen: It's the same.
[3055.6] Stephen: But it's also new.
[3056.6] Stephen: But it by us.
[3057.6] Stephen: But you're taking chances.
[3059.6] Stephen: And the portfolio on Skystars.com is pretty wide.
[3063.6] Stephen: You've got a lot of products.
[3064.6] Stephen: So how do you know when to make new products?
[3069.6] Sushmit: OK.
[3070.6] Sushmit: So we have two kinds of series.
[3073.6] Sushmit: We have the KO series, and then we have the KM series.
[3076.6] Sushmit: Now, KM series is a quite professional series, I would say.
[3080.6] Sushmit: And KO series is more oriented towards the budget kind of stuff.
[3086.6] Sushmit: So KO stuff is for people who are getting into the hobby who don't want to spend a lot of money.
[3091.6] Sushmit: So you have a lot of inexpensive stacks over there.
[3096.6] Sushmit: And then you have the KM series.
[3097.6] Sushmit: Now, KM series includes our flagship ESC.
[3100.6] Sushmit: That is the red one, AM32 ESC.
[3103.6] Sushmit: So those are the ESCs which are meant for the professionals.
[3107.6] Sushmit: So they have the KM tag on that.
[3109.6] Sushmit: And then we have the ESCs which are meant for normal hobbyists who don't want to spend a lot.
[3114.6] Sushmit: For them, the KO series is there.
[3117.6] Sushmit: The main difference is of the amount of copper which has been used,
[3121.6] Sushmit: the quality of the PCB, and then the MOSFETs which we are using.
[3126.6] Sushmit: So those are mainly the differences which are there.
[3130.6] Sushmit: But again, not a huge difference.
[3133.6] Sushmit: Things work out quite great.
[3135.6] Koel: I just found a very, very high-end stack you have on your website there.
[3142.6] Sushmit: I think it's a discontinued stack.
[3145.6] Koel: I just noticed that, but I thought it was interesting.
[3149.6] Koel: But it is the KO series, so it's the high-end.
[3152.6] Stephen: I think that might be from a few years ago.
[3154.6] Stephen: But this is also a good thing because you can actually find docks for products that are a few years old.
[3160.6] Stephen: And one of the things, I've got some drones here that aren't nearly as old as other hosts on the show,
[3165.6] Stephen: but I'm already finding that I can't find docks for them.
[3168.6] Stephen: So it's good to actually be able to find pictures and board layouts where you're like,
[3173.6] Stephen: what is this one pad that is not labeled on my board and I want a diagram?
[3178.6] Koel: I have a buddy here in Canada who he swears by Skystar's ESCs and stacks in general.
[3184.6] Koel: He's been using them pretty much nonstop for the past, I think, couple years at least.
[3189.6] Koel: And he's like, I just keep getting them. They're working good, so why switch?
[3194.6] Stephen: I've got one of those red AM32 KM55 boards.
[3198.6] Stephen: It's behaved well.
[3199.6] Stephen: It was my like AM32 test candidate.
[3201.6] Stephen: It went through all the beta code releases, went through all the experiments with,
[3207.6] Stephen: can we get RPM telemetry like this?
[3209.6] Stephen: Oh, we're dropping RPM telemetry.
[3211.6] Stephen: Let's try that.
[3212.6] Stephen: And yeah, it's survived so far.
[3215.6] Stephen: So that's good.
[3216.6] Sushmit: It's hit a couple of trees.
[3220.6] Sushmit: We did have two torture tests done by two individual pilots.
[3225.6] Sushmit: I think three, Chris Rosser did test the ESC, the red one.
[3230.6] Sushmit: It was a normal test.
[3232.6] Sushmit: Then we have the Joshua Budwell running 6S on 4S motor using a 20x20 AM32 ESC.
[3241.6] Sushmit: And then we have James.
[3243.6] Sushmit: James did a test where he was running 7-inch 4S motors on 6S on a 20x20 AM stack.
[3252.6] Sushmit: And then he flew that over the ocean and recorded everything.
[3256.6] Sushmit: I think the video is available on my channel.
[3259.6] Sushmit: So yeah, we did a lot of testing with that and it can take a lot of beating.
[3264.6] Sushmit: So the main thing is that if we use a full-size MOSFET,
[3269.6] Sushmit: the ESC works more than what we advertise it for.
[3273.6] Sushmit: And that has been deployed in the Jimmy's video.
[3277.6] Koel: I understand that on paper.
[3279.6] Koel: That way, you're good.
[3281.6] Koel: You don't set too high of an expectation, but it is actually rated for more technically.
[3287.6] Stephen: It's like with audio call.
[3289.6] Stephen: You've got that bit of extra headroom.
[3291.6] Stephen: You're not running the meters in the red.
[3293.6] Stephen: It's going to be good.
[3295.6] Stephen: Just tell them it's less, but really it's more.
[3297.6] Koel: They'll be safe.
[3300.6] Sushmit: Personally, I feel that anything above 45 amps is overkill for a 5-inch drone or below that.
[3307.6] Sushmit: So 45 amps is like if a hardware can do 60 amps under ideal conditions,
[3315.6] Sushmit: then we can rate it for 45 or 50 amps.
[3319.6] Stephen: How many times are you pulling more than 100 amps from your battery?
[3322.6] Stephen: And you've got to be driving at least two motors hard.
[3326.6] Stephen: Come on.
[3328.6] Stephen: This is a lot of power.
[3330.6] Sushmit: Unless you're somebody who's quadmover, you don't really need that amount of stuff.
[3334.6] Stephen: Unless you're like MCK.
[3337.6] Stephen: You're throwing the batteries away after that drone.
[3340.6] Stephen: You push it that hard.
[3342.6] Stephen: Well, after catch fire, they tend to be done.
[3346.6] Koel: I'm still on 25 amp ESCs, but I'm running 4S.
[3350.6] Stephen: I actually saw the Bardwell video that you mentioned.
[3353.6] Stephen: I thought he was kind of unfair because he'd taken the 6S ESC
[3359.6] Stephen: and then he'd put 4S motors on it and he was just like,
[3362.6] Stephen: right, punch out.
[3364.6] Stephen: And then he's punching back and forth, back and forth.
[3366.6] Stephen: Oh, it's still flying.
[3368.6] Stephen: Seems okay, but I don't know.
[3370.6] Stephen: I'm not really that impressed.
[3372.6] Stephen: But you've just tried to kill it.
[3374.6] Stephen: What more do you want?
[3375.6] Koel: You just flick the throttle and just leave it there and start like,
[3378.6] Koel: I'll just fly around.
[3381.6] Sushmit: Just to add the PID values were not also correct in that.
[3386.6] Sushmit: So Pitt had to be tuned in that,
[3389.6] Sushmit: but he was using the 4S Pitts, I guess.
[3392.6] Sushmit: So the flight was not quite efficient.
[3395.6] Stephen: Right.
[3396.6] Stephen: So it was just like overcorrecting all the time and lots of vibration
[3399.6] Stephen: because it was overtuned.
[3401.6] Stephen: Yeah.
[3403.6] Stephen: Bardwell has his moments,
[3405.6] Stephen: but sometimes you just wonder what he was doing on that video.
[3409.6] Stephen: That was one of them.
[3410.6] Stephen: But you tried to kill this thing and it's fine and it survived
[3414.6] Stephen: and you're just still not impressed.
[3417.6] Stephen: So what do you want?
[3421.6] Jack: You make it sound like your engineer overruns everything
[3427.6] Jack: to the point that the solder starts reflowing on the ESC
[3432.6] Jack: and at that point he satisfied.
[3436.6] Koel: Well, that's why they have the two millimeter spacing between pads.
[3440.6] Jack: Yeah.
[3441.6] Jack: I suppose, yeah.
[3443.6] Jack: I mean, yeah.
[3444.6] Curry: This is going to be fun.
[3446.6] Curry: There's too many companies that put things together
[3450.6] Curry: and they hover it and say that works.
[3452.6] Curry: You need stress testing, system verification testing is what we used to call it.
[3456.6] Curry: It puts things under pressure, puts it through the hard edge cases
[3460.6] Curry: that you wouldn't normally expect.
[3462.6] Curry: And if it all still works, then it's good.
[3464.6] Stephen: And that was the old E-Sheen thing that Andy found right where he was like,
[3467.6] Stephen: oh, this is an amazing value quad.
[3469.6] Stephen: It looks great.
[3470.6] Stephen: It's an interesting frame, cool paint job.
[3472.6] Stephen: All the components are specced up and then he would go up
[3474.6] Stephen: and try and do a flip or a roll and it would just desync
[3477.6] Stephen: and force the ground because they hadn't actually flown the thing.
[3481.6] Stephen: Yeah.
[3482.6] Stephen: So yeah, it's good for testing.
[3484.6] Stephen: It's good to test.
[3485.6] Stephen: And by the way, I was going to say,
[3487.6] Stephen: if you're trying to solder very hot things, that's my tip.
[3491.6] Stephen: Like cross-locking tweezers, so you have to press them to open them
[3495.6] Stephen: and then you can just put the wire and drop the tweezers down.
[3498.6] Stephen: And yeah, it's useful.
[3501.6] Sushmit: Also, there's a new kind of solder which has been available in China only.
[3507.6] Sushmit: So it is quite, what do you say, a smooth kind of solder.
[3511.6] Sushmit: It's a lead-free solder, which they have released.
[3515.6] Sushmit: I guess you guys should try that one because it's really easy to use with
[3520.6] Sushmit: but it is also lead-free so it's good for you and nature as well.
[3524.6] Sushmit: Interesting.
[3525.6] Stephen: Is that a lower melting point then?
[3527.6] Stephen: Because the traditional lead-free is a very high melting point.
[3530.6] Sushmit: I think it has lower melting point compared to other lead-free
[3535.6] Sushmit: solders available in the market.
[3538.6] Sushmit: But it is not as low as the lead solder.
[3541.6] Sushmit: But again, since you're working a lot on your drone,
[3544.6] Sushmit: so you must opt for lead-free solder and now there are better alternatives.
[3549.6] Koel: Jack's like, he's like shaking in his chair right now with lead-free.
[3554.6] Koel: I thought it was the flux that got you.
[3557.6] Curry: The flux that messes the nose.
[3559.6] Curry: Jack makes the bridge lead just survive.
[3562.6] Sushmit: Yeah, you're touching lead everywhere and then you're doing it on your work desk.
[3568.6] Sushmit: Don't lick your fingers.
[3570.6] Sushmit: Yeah, if you're not cleaning your hands, then it's an issue like not for us
[3574.6] Sushmit: but for kids and for animals and everyone.
[3577.6] Sushmit: We are adults, we are not going to get that most effective
[3580.6] Sushmit: but for kids, it's going to matter a lot.
[3583.6] Koel: Yeah, it's good to be mindful. That's true.
[3585.6] Koel: Absolutely.
[3586.6] Koel: Very smart.
[3587.6] Jack: I don't want kids. I don't like kids.
[3593.6] Koel: He's got lots of leaded solder everywhere.
[3598.6] Jack: I accidentally went in my mouth.
[3601.6] Jack: Whoops. It's been nice knowing you guys.
[3605.6] Stephen: And on that note, it's time to end the show.
[3608.6] Jack: Yeah, that was a dumb thing to do.
[3612.6] Jack: Don't, hang on, safety notice.
[3616.6] Jack: Do not be on fire. Be careful.
[3619.6] Curry: Do not lick accidentally.
[3622.6] Jack: Do not chew your solder.
[3625.6] Jack: Thank you.
[3626.6] Jack: Unfortunately, that is all we got time for.
[3629.6] Jack: And we have very much appreciated having you on.
[3636.6] Stephen: Thank you. It's been amazing.
[3639.6] Jack: Yeah, supporting the hobby, doing great things.
[3643.6] Jack: We appreciate you and thoroughly enjoy your products.
[3649.6] Jack: If you want to give a shout out to your YouTube,
[3656.6] Jack: there's a link to call and you can add it into the description.
[3660.6] Jack: You want to say if you have any updates for us or new products,
[3667.6] Jack: please feel free to send us over an email and we can give them a mention on the show.
[3673.6] Jack: You're always welcome back on.
[3675.6] Jack: If you've got any big releases or something new happens that you want to share,
[3680.6] Jack: you're very much welcome. You've been lovely.
[3685.6] Jack: Yeah, the show has been sponsored and supported by our lovely Patreons.
[3689.6] Jack: Thank you to everyone who appeared and showed up in the chat.
[3692.6] Jack: Numskull, you were first. Well done. Thank you, Caroline.
[3696.6] Jack: Always lovely to see you.
[3697.6] Jack: Every, it's good to see you.
[3699.6] Jack: Hex, thank you, Tailspin and Swanee.
[3702.6] Jack: Cheers, guys.
[3703.6] Jack: Hopper Flies here.
[3705.6] Koel: What's going on, dude?
[3706.6] Jack: As well. Excellent tunes. Thank you.
[3710.6] Jack: You've been joined by everyone's favourite Curry Kitten.
[3714.6] Jack: Goodbye.
[3715.6] Jack: The stealer of my lovely question, Stephen.
[3720.6] Jack: I'm joking.
[3721.6] Jack: Such lovely questions. Thank you.
[3723.6] Jack: I know.
[3724.6] Jack: Thanks for your time, Josh, mate. That was cool.
[3726.6] Jack: My buddy, Karl.
[3728.6] Jack: See you.
[3729.6] Jack: And our guest, Shasmit from Skystars.
[3735.6] Jack: Thank you, everyone.
[3736.6] Jack: And I've been right until I fly. Thank you. Good night.
[3740.6] Jack: Telemetry lost.