DJI Takyon Z318 and Z420 ESCs

DJI, the leading drone company, has announced two new electronic speed controllers – DJI Takyon Z318 and Z420. It has been a long time, since DJI lastly offered DIY drone parts. Obviously it is going to enter the rapidly growing FPV racing market and these two ESCs are just the beginning.

The DJI Takyon Z318 and Z420 feature the standard OneShot125 throttle signal mode as well as the active braking feature, a.k.a. “BLHeli Damped Light”. I like the real-time motor protection feature, which I miss on my XRotor 15A ESCs. In case of crash and motor block, it will prevent the ESC or motor burning.

The Takyon Z318 is rated for max. 3S LiPo and the Z420 for 4S LiPo battery. The maximum continues current on the Z318 is 18A and 20A on the Z420.

 DJI.Takyon.Z318.Z420

There is still no word, what the MCU of the ESC is as well as the type of the MOSFETs. But I am pretty sure, that these will be able to handle much more continues current that the maximum ratings in the specs.

Both DJI Takyon ESCs have almost the same size: about 42mm x 18mm. The Z420 is a bit thicker than the Z318: 8.80mm vs. 7.10mm.

The new DJI race ESC do not have integrated BEC, like most race ESC. I admire that DJI did not labeled the ESCs as “OPTO” instead of “No BEC”, unlike many others.

What seems interesting to me is the DJI Assistant 2 software. It will help you, change the following ESC settings:

  • acceleration
  • timing
  • active braking
  • throttle range
  • motor rotation direction
  • firmware update

The official price on the DJI website is 10$ for the Z318 and 11$ for the Z420.

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