Anybody here using brushless RC motors?

Yes, I know pwm is trivial these days and I've done it a few times in other projects, but we had just finished making a board with a pic and spi 12 bit dac to generate a 0-5v signal to drive the motor that we planned to use because that's what that controller wanted, and I had hoped that the rc motor and esc would drop into that without any extra fiddling. If the rc motor had worked out as a lower cost alternative we would have redone the board, but it didn't.

Thanks, Roger, for the explanation of why the odd timings. I knew I was close but not quite right on the timings, but the point was to make sure Eric knew what an rc esc needs to be fed for control so he wouldn't get the same surprise I did after buying the motors, instead of before :-).

I don't know anything about your controller, Carl, but pulse width modulation is really fairly trivial (these days!).

Reply to
Carl Ijames
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It looks like Hobby King has a motor or two that will work. Along with an ESC and a servo tester. I also found a circuit for building my own servo tester. I could hook up my Basic Stamp too. But for 5 bucks I'll get the one that comes in a box. Thanks everyone so far for the replies. I know the inrunner motors will overheat if run at high currents for too long. I will need to come up with some type of cooling scheme. I am amazed by the power of these little motors. A

20mm diameter motor thats rated at 330 watts! Of course the motor would melt if not kept cool. Maybe I should connect a coolant hose and run LN2 from a thermos through the thing. Eric
Reply to
etpm

Coffee-cup-sized Segway motors can deliver something like 1 HP continuously without air cooling. They are completely enclosed in a tight space and lose heat only through their mounting flange.

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Doug Field, near the bottom, was Segway's chief engineer. The factory is isolated and it's unlikely an imposter would know that we were outside flying planes at lunch.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Yeah right. Like my vacuum cleaner really has a 5 HP motor. It says so on the side!

Reply to
Richard

Segway didn't advertise the power of their motors. They are adequate for their task, with a good margin that we tested frequently on the rough trails and railroad track along the river behind the factory.

We knew what their battery voltage and current limits were, though I can't reveal details. Accept whatever Doug Field wrote.

I was an electronic tech working with the control boards, gyro and batteries and never tested a motor on the dyno that was 20' from my bench.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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