12
votes
What does BEC, SBEC, UBEC, and OPTO mean for brushless motor ESCs?
BEC: Battery-eliminating circuit. Basically just allows you to use the ESC to power the controls circuit, servos, etc. (hence eliminating the need for a battery)
SBEC: Switched battery-eliminating ...
- 121
10
votes
What happens if i select the wrong number of motor poles in BetaFlight?
This is a setting that is needed for RPM sensing and RPM filtering. An ESC can not sense the RPM of your motors directly, but can sense how often the magnets in the motor bell pass by the coils in its ...
- 2,997
9
votes
Accepted
Can I run two motors off of one ESC?
Technically, you could connect 2 motors, and it will probably work if they're exactly the same size and model, and have identical props on them. However, if the motor-prop combinations are ...
- 2,997
8
votes
Accepted
ESCs for inverted flight?
ESCs loaded with recent versions of BLHeli (BLHELI_S and BLHELI_32) will support reversible motor direction, either through ...
- 6,063
8
votes
Accepted
What does BEC, SBEC, UBEC, and OPTO mean for brushless motor ESCs?
This is an understandably confusing topic because of how the names evolved, and some of those acronyms have become more of a marketing label rather than an actual term. So I'm going to dive a bit ...
- 2,997
7
votes
Accepted
When I power up my flight controller and ESC's, I hear a series of beeps. What do all of the beeps mean?
So normal startup sequence is three short beeps followed by two long beeps with different tonality.
First three beeps means that ESC is powered and activated.
Then if the throttle signal is detect ...
- 610
7
votes
What does BEC, SBEC, UBEC, and OPTO mean for brushless motor ESCs?
A BEC is a Battery Eliminator Circuit. This provides a way for you to power other components, such as servos from a source that is more regulated than VBAT.
An SBEC (Switching Battery Eliminator ...
- 4,432
7
votes
Accepted
Motor will not go above half thrust. Why and how to fix?
This sounds very much like like a PWM/analog ESC miscalibration issue to me. PWM ESCs required signal calibration to ensure that both the RC receiver and the ESC are on the same page about what kind ...
- 6,063
6
votes
Accepted
Effect of motor load on ESC?
The primary thing that high torques affect in a brushless motor is the current flowing through. It obviously affects your ESCs, but also the motors themselves: high currents have been known to melt/...
- 2,997
6
votes
Accepted
What is DSHOT in ESCs?
DShot is a protocol that flight controllers use for communicating with ESCs. It stands for 'Digital Shot'. It is a new digital communication protocol developed by Flyduino in collaboration with ...
- 599
6
votes
Is there a method to wire a brushless motor to an ESC so it spins in the required direction first time?
Without disassembling the motor, and figuring out how the ESC is designed, there is no other way then simply testing it.
From my experience, the motors spinning clockwise has usually been the ones ...
- 2,674
6
votes
Accepted
Wiring a 4-in-1 ESC to an Arduino Uno
If you must use dshot then try this library https://github.com/gueei/DShot-Arduino
However, for just playing around, it would be much easier to use PWM protocol and the servo library for Arduino. ...
- 761
6
votes
Accepted
Brushless Upgrade for RC Car
The important points are:
The physical size. One of these is labelled 'BL3650', which probably means that the can is 36mm diameter and 50mm long. Of course, it doesn't have to be exactly the same ...
- 7,418
5
votes
When I power up my flight controller and ESC's, I hear a series of beeps. What do all of the beeps mean?
The normal blheli startup tones are similar to beep beep beep... boop. boop
The first 3 beeps are the ESC's powering on and initializing then there's a pause followed by two more beeps which means ...
- 291
5
votes
How to determine the lowest safe ESC current rating for a drone build?
I think most people just copy other builds, and step up a size if they burn out any ESCs.
If you want to be more scientific you could test one motor with a watt-meter to measure the current draw. ...
- 7,418
5
votes
Accepted
Grinding sound on FPV motor but no apparent damage
It looks like a bad phase to me. Check the resistance of each phase, wire 1 to wire 2, wire 2 to wire 3, and wire 1 to wire 3. If one of those is much higher resistance or shows no continuity, then ...
- 1,220
5
votes
Accepted
How to measure the RPM of a drone motor using Betaflight?
Bi-directional DShot can help you here. After updating the BLHeli firmware on your BLHeli_32 ESCs to the latest version (support was added only recently) and the firmware on your flight controller to ...
- 6,063
5
votes
Accepted
What happened to DSHOT1200 support in Betaflight?
As is explained in this forum post, support for DSHOT1200 signaling was indeed removed from Betaflight due to its primary use case being devalued starting in version 4.1.
DShot1200 is officially ...
- 6,063
5
votes
Can I run two motors off of one ESC?
From a technical standpoint it is possible, but there are a number of considerations:
Only need one ESC so lighter
ESC needs to have a higher current rating to fully power the motors
Motors must be ...
- 6,081
5
votes
Unrecognised ESC motor connector
I agree, it looks like a Micro Deans plug. They're good for about 10amps. A red JST plug is good for about 5amps. A speed 400 is pretty inefficient over about 5amps.
Personally I'd junk both the ESC ...
- 7,418
5
votes
Accepted
Estimate safe ESC curerent for 4108 600kv motors?
Myriad factors contribute to the current draw of a drone motor including supply voltage, motor kV, the propeller geometry (i.e. diameter, number of blades, pitch), ambient atmospheric conditions, etc.
...
- 6,063
5
votes
Is it common to break ESCs?
Aside from quality control issues with the product, the only real way to destroy an ESC faster than the effects or normal wear and tear (minimal) is to mistreat it:
Using it with a voltage higher ...
- 6,063
5
votes
Why can't quadcopters handle failure of one rotor?
I saw a TED talk from a guy who had written quadcopter software to handle losing one motor. Perhaps you can find it.
With nothing to counter the unbalanced torque, the quad spun in yaw quite rapidly. ...
- 7,418
5
votes
Accepted
Lipo battery with an ESC and a BLDC motor
The motor part number (Turnigy L2210C-1200) tells you two things: The 2210 is the physical size and the 1200 is the Kv rating. The Kv rating tells you the RPM (revolutions per minute) per volt applied....
- 501
4
votes
Can I run two motors off of one ESC?
You can, but it's not recommended. First of, you will need an ESC that can handle twice the current of what one motor consumes. The motors will also be seen as one single motor by the ESC, so of one ...
- 2,674
4
votes
How hot should an ESC get?
Like you said in your answer, it does depend on the ESC... so you definitely want to look into the specifications for your particular components. However, to be safe, a good rule of thumb suggested ...
- 1,053
4
votes
Accepted
How to prevent an ESC from overheating?
Under normal conditions operating on the arms of a multirotor, ESC temperature should be well-controlled by the airflow passing over them from the propeller exhaust. It isn't a good sign that your ...
- 6,063
4
votes
What happens if i select the wrong number of motor poles in BetaFlight?
The rpm filters in betaflightwill be off the correct frequency by about 14%, and the rpm reported in the motors tab will be incorrect also.
When the rpm notch filter centres are not exactly at the ...
- 301
4
votes
Effect of motor load on ESC?
I feel like it's important enough to mention this to create a new answer even though there's a ton of good information here already, as you mention it's the transient currents that kill ESCs. To be ...
- 1,220
4
votes
How to determine the lowest safe ESC current rating for a drone build?
You can calculate the rating using one or both of the following equations; just rearrange and/or substitute values as needed:
P = I x V
Power (Watts) = Current (Amps) x Voltage (Volts)
V = I x R
...
- 6,081
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