Does anybody know how to wire this little ESC to a brushless motor please ?

[Bonzo Moon]

KInd of bought this by mistake without noticing  it wasn't  like a 'normal' ESC with a power input side, 3 wires to a motor and a 5v BEC that would go on channel 3 on a receiver.  I'm assuming the 3 terminals are to the brushless motor.  Power is red and black and it shows signal on the white.  But how do you connect to a receiver?  I've tried using white and blue and a common ground on the black to rx  but that didn't work? 

 

It was only a couple of quid, though small and light and great for my lightweight foamie rc conversions so might be nice to get it working!

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005431131171.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.11.13381802eNPShQ

 

Any advice welcome please. . 

[RottenRow]

The Ali Express photo shows battery positive (B+) as the second solder pad from the bottom and negative (B-) as the bottom one. Your red and black wires seem to be the other way around.

I would imagine the receiver PPM signal would go to the top solder pad, the +5V supply to the receiver on the next pad down, and the negative supply to the receiver on the bottom pad along with B-.

I would check the receiver voltage with a meter before connecting the ESC to a receiver to make sure it is correct.

If you have powered up the ESC with the battery connected backwards you might have damaged it.

 

Brian.

[Bonzo Moon]

1 hour ago, RottenRow said:

The Ali Express photo shows battery positive (B+) as the second solder pad from the bottom and negative (B-) as the bottom one. Your red and black wires seem to be the other way around.

I would imagine the receiver PPM signal would go to the top solder pad, the +5V supply to the receiver on the next pad down, and the negative supply to the receiver on the bottom pad along with B-.

I would check the receiver voltage with a meter before connecting the ESC to a receiver to make sure it is correct.

If you have powered up the ESC with the battery connected backwards you might have damaged it.

 

Brian.

 

 

Well spotted Brian, I missed that, I went by what is actually on the board that was supplied.  The sad thing is the Ali Express image is wrong!  Can't trust these Chinese sellers. Check out this close up pic of mine which shows better the info on the small board.  pos+  is actually opposite to their picture.  (I'm an electronics engineer and I even checked if the electrolytic capacitor was connected the right way.)  The power supply neg  and the cap neg side were both on the  neg on the board.

 

Their picture is wrong.

 

Those black and red leads power leads were presoldered and were correct when it arrived.  I've killed things before with reverse polarity (you can't always rely on there being a diode for protection,)  My power leads are correct with the info on the board. 

Next pad down from the blue , ie white lead, is marked SW which I though would be the signal wire, ie no 3 on a BEC . Bec leads red, black, white or yellow.

 

But to clarify you suggest PPM signal, no 3 on the normal BEC would be on the top pad  marked PWM, 5v ie red bec lead, on the one marked SW and the neg/ground on the input power supply black common ground? 

 

 

 

But to clarify you suggest PPM signal, no 3 on the normal BEC would be on the top pad  marked PWM, 5v ie red bec lead, on the one marked SW and the neg/ground on the input power supply black common ground? 

 

Edited January 21 by Bonzo Moon
pics wrong

[RottenRow]

That's strange about the swapping over of the battery connections between different versions of the board, but it looks like yours is correct going by the B+ and B- markings on the board you have. If you look at the part number printed on the board, you will see that yours is V2 and the one in the Ali Express photo is V3. None of this is surprising for Chinese stuff!

 

Yes my suggestion for the correct way to connect it was as you have written. I was thinking that SW perhaps stood for switching regulator output. That SW pad doesn't appear to connect to anything on the front side of the board, but no doubt it does on the back, and it could be traced.

 

If you have a voltmeter, you can check between the SW and B- wires for 5V dc when the battery is connected. If you don't have a voltmeter a battery checker of the type used for flight batteries will do.

 

I have found another seemingly identical ESC here:

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006113220552.html?

 

This one has a connection diagram, which shows the SW connection as being for a switch, with an odd description. Perhaps it's for an arming switch? If that is the case, perhaps the ESC doesn't have an inbuilt BEC at all, and you'll need to power the receiver via a separate 5V supply. Or perhaps it just another poor translation? Even this advert shows a mixture of V2 and V3 photos.

 

Without better data, all you can really do is experiment with it and see what you get.

 

Brian.

[Bonzo Moon]

50 minutes ago, RottenRow said:

That's strange about the swapping over of the battery connections between different versions of the board, but it looks like yours is correct going by the B+ and B- markings on the board you have. If you look at the part number printed on the board, you will see that yours is V2 and the one in the Ali Express photo is V3. None of this is surprising for Chinese stuff!

 

Yes my suggestion for the correct way to connect it was as you have written. I was thinking that SW perhaps stood for switching regulator output. That SW pad doesn't appear to connect to anything on the front side of the board, but no doubt it does on the back, and it could be traced.

 

If you have a voltmeter, you can check between the SW and B- wires for 5V dc when the battery is connected. If you don't have a voltmeter a battery checker of the type used for flight batteries will do.

 

I have found another seemingly identical ESC here:

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006113220552.html?

 

This one has a connection diagram, which shows the SW connection as being for a switch, with an odd description. Perhaps it's for an arming switch? If that is the case, perhaps the ESC doesn't have an inbuilt BEC at all, and you'll need to power the receiver via a separate 5V supply. Or perhaps it just another poor translation? Even this advert shows a mixture of V2 and V3 photos.

 

Without better data, all you can really do is experiment with it and see what you get.

 

Brian.

Thanks Brian, I appreciate the input!  And yes, weird that that they'd switch something as important and +  -  power input ???

 

Think I'd trawled and  seen the other pic in my searches too thanks.

 

I was curious about SW too? 

 

Yes, basically I just experimented last time, nothing to lose at that price,  and at the moment 92 mph wind gusts on the coast not far from me.  Not much chance of flying for a while.  

[Dale Bradly]

Note the unit that RottenRow linked to specifically states "without BEC" so presumably Bonzo Moon's is the same

[Allan Bennett]

Having an arming switch on an ESC used to be quite common.  Some needed to be left open (i.e. disconnected) for the ESC to arm, whilst others needed to be connected to ground.  In either case I permanently wired them so that the ESC is ready to go as soon as battery power is applied.

[RottenRow]

4 hours ago, Dale Bradly said:

Note the unit that RottenRow linked to specifically states "without BEC" so presumably Bonzo Moon's is the same

I can’t see where it states that, but there again it doesn’t say that it has a BEC either. I suspect that it doesn’t. Perhaps it’s intended to multi-motor applications where several ESCs would be installed and there would be no need for a BEC on each one.

I’d still do a check for 5V on the SW pad, and if there is nothing then connect it to B+ and see what happens.

 

Brian.

[Bonzo Moon]

5 hours ago, Dale Bradly said:

Note the unit that RottenRow linked to specifically states "without BEC" so presumably Bonzo Moon's is the same

Yes, when I was searching for info on this I did see one advert that said without BEC.   As you say Perhaps it’s intended to multi-motor applications where several ESCs would be installed and there would be no need for a BEC on each one.  Like drones?

 

I'll have another play with it today!  Thanks again for inputs guys.

[Max Z]

17 hours ago, RottenRow said:

I would imagine the receiver PPM signal would go to the top solder pad

A signal from the receiver to a servo or esc would be a PWM signal, not a PPM signal. PPM used to be the input to the receiver in the 27 MHz and 35 MHz days , coming in via the antenna. Nowadays this is all digital transmission. So the blue wire would be the signal from the receiver, as it is indeed marked as PWM.

The red and black wires are most likely the power lines from the drive battery, providing the oomph to the motor via the ESC.

As for the BEC, it's unlikely that there is one, as that would mean that the supply to the motor would be the same voltage as that to the Rx.

 

So, hook up the black and red ones to the power supply for the motor, hook up the signal port (your channel 3, usually white or yellow, but blue in this case) at the Rx to the PWM pad , and hook up the ground connection on ch3 to the same pad as the black power wire. No connection from the Vcc of the Rx required (do not connect the red wire coming from your Rx to anything).

 

As for the SW pad, it's anyone's guess, but the link in RottenRows post seems to suggest that connecting it to Vcc (the red wire?) arms the ESC.

 

Max (everything above without guarantees, sorry).

Edited January 22 by Max Z

[Bonzo Moon]

48 minutes ago, Max Z said:

A signal from the receiver to a servo or esc would be a PWM signal, not a PPM signal. PPM used to be the input to the receiver in the 27 MHz and 35 MHz days , coming in via the antenna. Nowadays this is all digital transmission. So the blue wire would be the signal from the receiver, as it is indeed marked as PWM.

The red and black wires are most likely the power lines from the drive battery, providing the oomph to the motor via the ESC.

As for the BEC, it's unlikely that there is one, as that would mean that the supply to the motor would be the same voltage as that to the Rx.

 

So, hook up the black and red ones to the power supply for the motor, hook up the signal port (your channel 3, usually white or yellow, but blue in this case) at the Rx to the PWM pad , and hook up the ground connection on ch3 to the same pad as the black power wire. No connection from the Vcc of the Rx required (do not connect the red wire coming from your Rx to anything).

 

As for the SW pad, it's anyone's guess, but the link in RottenRows post seems to suggest that connecting it to Vcc (the red wire?) arms the ESC.

 

Max (everything above without guarantees, sorry).

Thanks for that  Max,  you've given me something good to work on there.   I got this idea The red and black wires are most likely the power lines from the drive battery, providing the oomph to the motor via the ESC.     It was indeed the signal bit I couldn't figure.  I'll have another go later. Thanks.

 

I've just been making a start on repairing last nights storm damage to my garden fence.  90 mph wind  gusts last night on the coast not far away from me. 😳