Yes... another ESC question!

[brokenenglish]

Good evening gentlemen,

I've been flying electric for 5 years now and I've just come across something "new".

I'm assembling a HK Tundra. The ESC has the normal power cables to the battery, and also the throttle cable that goes in the Rx throttle port, but it also has another cable, that I've never seen before, with just two wires terminated with a Rx type connector... WHASSAT?
I can't find any reference to this cable in the assembly instructions.

With apologies for my ignorance!

[rcaddict]

reverse !!

[Don Fry]

Yes, wonderful. Put it into a spare channel and you can do three point turns on the runway. Read the instructions about allowing the motor to stop before reversing. If done in the air, have some spare hight. It's interesting.

[brokenenglish]

Thanks OG and Don, I found it in the instructions! Apparently it's particularly useful for floatplane operations.

That may explain why HK didn't bother too much about the ESC connection. I'm setting the plane up on the dining room table and I haven't put the prop on yet, but I get the impression that the prop shaft is turning in reverse and, of course, there's no colour coding on the wires... Oh well, it's all good fun!

Thanks again for your answers!

[Don Fry]

Reverse the channel.

[brokenenglish]

I knew I was right to post the question!!!

Thanks Don!

I remember when I first started dabbling in EP, about 5 years ago, Mod Pete B sorted me out on the plug wiring colours, and a very wise gentleman "Ollie P" wrote "If you're not sure of what you're doing, remove the prop first!!!".
I've always remembered that and I'm sure it's saved me a few times!

Edited By brokenenglish on 05/03/2018 21:07:58

[John Robertson 3]

X-jet illustrated another use for a reversing ESC in mid-air:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY9idZsHoLA&t=10s

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Erm, I think we are in danger of causing confusion here.

Do not reverse the direction of the throtle channel! Its potentially very dangerous and it won't reverse the direction of rotation.

If the motor is spinning the wrong way al you have to do is swap any two of the three wires going to the motor. It doesn't matter which two you swop over - any two will do. Your motor will then spin the other way. This will work for any ESC.

BEB

[Dave Hopkin]

Posted by brokenenglish on 05/03/2018 21:07:19:

and a very wise gentleman "Ollie P" wrote "If you're not sure of what you're doing, remove the prop first!!!".

Personally I tend to think "the more you think you know what you are doing the more reason to remove the prop before tinkering"

[Keith Sharples]

BEB is totally correct.

I can vouch for it. I have a Tundra and did exactly the same but realised that it didn't reverse the rotation. I had already stored in the grey matter after doing some research, about changing any two of the motors feed cables and it's sorted. The tundra flys like a dream by the way straight out the box.

Happy flying

[brokenenglish]

Yes, after hastily replying last evening (SWMBO making herself heard), I realised that reversing the throttle channel won't reverse the motor rotation, and that Don probably meant using the reverse function that was the subject of the OP, and that I don't want to mess with...

However, this discussion did cause me to have closer look at the instructions. I hadn't realised that the Tundra instructions include much detail on the new ESC, so now no problem.

To close, there's one hilarious error in the Tundra instructions. In the trouble shooting table, there is a problem: "Model moves backwards", the cause is given as ""Prop installed backwards" and the solution is to "Swap the prop around"... UNBELIEVABLE!!!