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Permalink Reply by Ken on April 30, 2012 at 6:17pm

You may connect 2 ESCs to one RC channel using a Y-cable.

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Do NOT connect 2 motors to one ESC. The ESC needs feedback from the motor to know the rotor position in order to know when and what phase to drive next. With 2 motors providing feedback, the controller has no idea of the shaft position and very likely will destroy a motor. Or both.

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Permalink Reply by James Y. on April 30, 2012 at 6:27pm

You can't connect two brushless motors to the same speed controller. They just don't work that way. The ESC relies on back-EMF from the motor to tell it if the motor is turning in phase properly with the signals being sent to it from the ESC. If you wire up two motors to the one ESC, something's going to go badly wrong.

You can however wire up multiple ESCs to the same radio channel, but don't expect them to produce exactly the same amount of power. However, going from your previous posts, I believe there's something about your understanding of how a tricopter flies that needs resolving.

A tricopter does not produce the same amount at each of its motors in a fixed manner. It just can't fly like that. It would almost instantly flip and fly out of control. Instead, the flight controller (you do need one, you cannot get around that) adjusts the amount of power going to each motor to stabilize the tricopter and permit it to ascend in a level fashion. In addition, a servo is used to control the yaw (left/right lateral movement), which again needs to be constantly adjusted by the flight controller.

The very fact that you need all three motors to be running at different thrust levels all the time means you need three ESCs. You can't get around that by wiring, sorry.

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