Aikon SEFM 30A 6S Review

A few days ago I received the brand new Aikon SEFM 30A 6S BLHeli_S ESC. Many thanks to Aikon Electronics for sending me samples, so I can be able to push it to its limits. It should be available soon, so check the reseller webpage, to find a one in your region.

The great thing about this new BLHeliS ESC is, that it is 6S LiPo capable! At the moment there are not many 6S BLHeli_S ESCs on the market, so it is very welcomed. The size is not much bigger than the old non-6S Aikon 30A ESC, which is important for all 180mm or 210mm builds.

Specification:

Silabs EFM8BB21F16 MCU

Size: 28.5mm x 14.8mm

Weight: 7g without motor wires

No BEC

2-6S LiPo

The Aikon SEFM 30A 6S ESC features the same BusyBee2 50MHz MCU as the old one. This is the most common MCU for BLHeliS based ESCs right now.

Note: This type of MCU generates a three channel PMW output signal for more precise motor control, so they run more smoothly.

The manufacturing quality of the new Aikon ESC is great. Soldering looks perfect and all electronic components are on place. Additionally, to the ESC itself, you get 3 motor cables, a sticker and shrink tube. It is much more practical to have these separately and use them when you are building your drone.

For those of you, who are interested in what exactly are the electronic components: the MOSFETs are IRFH5300 and gate drivers are MP1907. The 8 capacitors should be enough to prevent voltage spikes, but it needs to be checked in a real test. Additionally, there is a 78M12G voltage regulator, which makes it possible to use the Aikon 30A with up to 6S battery.

Let´s get now to the real tests and how the ESC performed. I used the T-Motor F40 2300kv, so I can easily compare the performance of the ESC to all other previously tested BLHeliS ESCs. The second motor I used was the bigger brother F60 2200kv.

Aikon 30A – F40 2300kv – 4S LiPo – HQ5045

I was a bit surprised that the Aikon SEFM 30A 6S was outperformed by the old normal Aikon 30A (30g more thrust). I haven´t checked if both ESCs have exactly the same BLHeliS firmware, so it could be the reason for the difference. In the table below you can have a complete overview of all the numbers during the thrust test.

ESC signal (µs) Thrust (gf) Voltage (V) Current (A) El. Power (W) Efficiency (gf/W) 1300 77 16,79 0,97 16 4,78 1400 181 16,76 2,53 42 4,29 1500 308 16,71 5,09 85 3,63 1600 436 16,64 8,89 148 2,95 1700 668 16,52 15,10 249 2,68 1800 820 16,38 22,50 368 2,23 1900 914 16,33 24,33 397 2,30 2000 915 16,31 24,18 394 2,32

The ESC seems to be very efficient up to 50% throttle, which is good. However, I am not really sure if you are going to notice a big difference in the flight time.

Aikon 30A – F60 2200kv – 6S LiPo – HQ5045

Here we go to the actual 6S LiPo thrust test 🙂 I haven´t pushed the motor to more than 80%, because I was aware that I can burn it.

ESC signal (µs) Thrust (gf) Voltage (V) Current (A) El. Power (W) Efficiency (gf/W) 1300 155 24,98 2,11 52 2,97 1400 380 24,65 5,39 132 2,87 1500 661 24,09 10,66 257 2,58 1600 870 23,43 16,58 388 2,24 1700 1165 22,55 24,28 547 2,13 1800 1395 21,57 32,61 703 1,99

The current reached 32A, which was perfectly fine for the ESC and it was barely warm at the end of the test. Maximum thrust was almost 1.4kg, which is amazing. Imagine a drone with AUW of 500g and maximum thrust of 5.6kg! It would be a beast.

Summary

The new Aikon SEFM 30A 6S ESCs offers great quality, small size for a 6S ESC and very good performance. I haven´t experienced any desync problems so far, but I need to test these ESCs in the air on my next FPV racer. The Aikon SEFM 30A is available here.

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