DShot1200 ESC Protocol

What is DShot1200? DShot1200 is an ESC protocol similar to DShot600 but twice as fast, offering reduced delay. While there are benefits to using DShot1200, it also has its downsides.

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Overview

For an overview of what DShot is, please see this guide: https://oscarliang.com/dshot/

Like DShot150, DShot300, and DShot600, the number “1200” in DShot1200 signifies the bit rate in kilobits per second. This means DShot1200 is twice as fast as DShot600.

DShot1200 is also faster than Multishot. Multishot has a variable signal length between 5μs to 25μs, depending on throttle level, while DShot1200 maintains a constant signal length of about 13μs. Unless flying at low throttle, Multishot typically exhibits delays between 15μs to 25μs (50%–100% throttle).

To run 32K looptime, you must use either Multishot or DShot1200 since other protocols are not fast enough.

Advantages of DShot1200

Compared to analog ESC protocols such as Oneshot and Multishot:

• Higher resolution and more accurate, reliable data
• Built-in data error rejection
• Higher speed offers even more reasons to transition from analog to digital ESC protocols

Compared to other DShot protocols:

• DShot1200 is faster, and faster is always better—provided your system can handle it.

That said, many users wonder if DShot1200 is noticeably better than DShot600. Personally I didn’t notice any difference in flight. However, if you want to run 32K/32K looptime, DShot1200 is a requirement, as DShot600 is not fast enough for it.

What ESC/FC Can Run DShot1200?

DShot1200 has been implemented and tested on KISS flight controllers and ESCs. We hope to see broader support for Betaflight and BLHeli systems in the future.

However, not all hardware is compatible with DShot1200. Any ESC that struggles with DShot600 will not be able to run DShot1200. The latest 32-bit ESCs with STM32F0 processors and BLHeli_32 firmware should support DShot1200 when available.

Update (Sep 2019) – DShot1200 Removed from Betaflight

DShot1200 has been officially removed in Betaflight 4.1. The latest firmware no longer supports 32K looptime, and developers have determined that DShot1200 offers no significant advantage over DShot600 when running the maximum 8K looptime, so it’s become redundant.