Brushless and ESC help

I’m using a BP brushless motor and BP ESC with a 3S Lipo battery, and I use a microprocessor to generate a PWM signal (1ms – 2ms rate) for the ESC(with a BEC). The PWM generates 100% duty for the ESC, but the motor sometimes spins, and sometimese doesn’t spin at all. The motor spins 7 out of 10 times. I have tried to switch the motor cables (3 wires) to connect to the different ESC outputs, I couldn’t get the problem resolved.1. Does anyone have these kinds of experience, or any suggestions?2. If you have successfully used a PWM from a microprocessor to control a brushless motor through an ESC, could you tell which brand motor and ESC are? I have another ESC (Volcano 30A), but this ESC can’t make BP motor spin at all.Best,

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  • Hello, I know this post is quite old and maybe you won't answer but I still have to try.

    I'm a mechatronics student and I'm currently working on a kind of important project. A few weeks ago I learned about brushless DC motors and decided I would use one of those for the project. I started investigating and saw that they have a very complicated control. I COULD make it myself but I'd spend lots of time and I'm in a hurry. I've now decided to buy an ESC even though it's more expensive than the BLDCM itself but anyways...

    I was just wondering what should I "give" the ESC and "where". By this I mean, I know I have to introduce a PWM signal but at what frequency? what duty cycle? through which cable? Because I understand they have like 7 input cables, 2 of which are for power input, 2 of them are for an ON/OFF switch and then there are 3 unknown cables. Manuals just mention that they have to be plugged to the reciever but the point is, I'm not using one. I need to control the speed and direction of the motor.

    How do I do this?

    I see that you've already done this and I'd like some pointers. I hope you can answer soon :)

    Thanks!

    Alex
  • If anyone is having problems driving a servo/ESC then you try the Old Arduino Servo library and the frequencytimer2 library
    http://www.arduino.cc/playground/ComponentLib/Servo
    http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Code/FrequencyTimer2

    They take a little work setting up and (this may have been fixed) I can't get the set max/min pulse command to work.
    You set up the Freqtimer2 lib to call a refresh function every 40ms and then you can write lots of servos at once (2ms for all of the pins)!
  • Hi all and Abhishek Jain, I have a Mystery 30A ESC, and connect to the arduino, it did not work at all, no spin, no verberation, nothing ! If I directly connect a servo to the arduino, it works perfectly.

    What's your code for Adruino ? and How should I connect three wires from ESC to the brushless motor ? does it matter or I have to connect them accordingly ? Thanks

    Jack
  • Hi all
    I was facing exactly the same problem while I was using my arduino to route signals from my RC to ESC. I read wayne garriss' post and tried specifying a delay such that the ESC would get a signal after exactly 50ms interval and it worked perfectly!!

    Earlier I wasn't even being able to run a servo and now I can run both servo and ESC. Thanks a ton wayne!!

    P.S. Dunno too much about how delays and all are implemented in the BS2 but an ESC can definitely be run via arduino if the 50ms length of signal is kept in mind.
  • 100KM
    in order to run a servo ect you have to apply 5v to the input for 1 to 2 ms every 50ms . duty is the ratio of the high and low times in each cycle so a 1ms pulse would have a duty of 2% . if you truely are running 100% duty cycle then we are talking about a constant 5v . the BS2 can put out 1 to 2 ms pulses but it cant do it every 50ms . and as to why a srvo works but not a speed controler is because servos tend to be more tollerent then an ESC . again i recomend you get a servopal or one of the many serial servo drivers out there you will be much happier
  • Wayne:

    Did you use RC Receiver/Transmitter to control GWS motor/ESC, or microprocessor to control ESC/Motor?

    Best,
    David
  • You may just want to try a cheap GWS controller. I usually order from here as a combo motor/ESC pack. Pretty good deal.
  • Yeah, I have this problem with jeti ESCs, except occasionally it just starts smoking and I have to replace it. It is the same IC every time. About the same start success rate as well.
  • Hi,

    i just gave it a try and learnd something. Maybe it helps you.

    I connected my esc with motor to my arduino. Servos worked well, but the ESC worked a litte bit weird... i run each time i gave the command. (I route the receiver signals "through" the arduino).

    1. The esc calibrates it self to max and min settings. This is especially important while startup of the arduino

    2. My ESC chose the min. level always relatively high (about 30%). When the motor was spinning, and i cut down the throttle completely it didn`t stop instantly. This was always when i moved the throttle far below the min. level. When i cut it down to exactly to min level, it worked pretty well.


    So first of all:
    Check when and why your ESC set's its min and max values.

    I hope i could help...
  • i had similar problems with a veryvery cheap ESC and my remote control receiver! it simply didn't work well.

    i can try to connect my arduino to my ESC and try it. it works well with servos, but i didn't do any tests with my esc. (just becouse it "should" work..)

    if i find time today, will give it a try... all hardware is sitting around and waiting to be plugged in....
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