ESC Sanity check

[voorsk]

There appears to be 1.8A versions that're ever so slightly cheaper (than 5A versions from China).

They're using a mixture of images, so who knows what'll actually turn up (I bought one) .

[Wigs]

Nice one,

Please let us know if it's a winner

[voorsk]

I'm using the 1.8A version in a thwackbot. Seems okay so far, but I'm not exactly stressing it out.

I was hoping the terminals on the PCB had holes through the board, for sausage-fingered soldering, but they seem to be single sided.

edit: huh.. kyro's 3A board appears to have holes through the board. I'll take photos of mine when I get home.

[Kyro]

my one does indeed have through holes...

weird that the smaller version has this feature missing...

maybe get a little experimental with a drill

[voorsk]

Here be photos!

Chip in the bottom-right is a STC 15W204S



I did try getting a wire through to the other side, but couldn't seem to manage it. I was running out of time before bed, so didn't try too hard before switching to the other ESC. I'll have to see if I can remove the solder for a closer look.

That's not a shorted wire on the RX connections, btw - it's fluff.

[voorsk]

In case anyone's interested, there is also a 3-way version of the ESC: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32946648379.html

Mine arrived yesterday, and I'm gonna try sticking it in my axebot to control drive and the axe, rather than the DasMikro and Vex29 that it currently has. Should save a bit of space and dodgy wiring!

Here's a couple of closeups of the board (not embedding photos, as it might be confusing): https://flic.kr/p/2h9YWYo & https://flic.kr/p/2ha1G5K (through-holes! yay!)

[Ocracoke]

I'll be interested to see this at BotFest, I am curious as to how robust it will be.

[MarkR]

Not bad, I notice:

* Yay, through-hole pads for the motor wires
* Boo, surface pads for the battery connector (would be super-bad if it comes loose and shorts)
* They use my favourite chip, rz7899

Did it come with the big electrolytic cap or did you add it?

[voorsk]

The big cap came attached. That's like a top-up tank for the battery, isn't it? Evens out voltage sags during sudden load, or something. I think I need space more than I need to worry about voltage sags, so I'm gonna lop it off.

[MarkR]

Yes, in general capacitors are usually there to even-out spikes in load caused by motors turning on and off. There may be some smaller caps on the PCB which will do well enough.

Usually there is a capacitor on the 5v regulator too, which is where you mostly need it, because it's vital that the electronics supply isn't interrupted. If the RX microcontroller reset itself due to a power brownout during battle, your robot would be a sitting duck for possibly a few seconds until the rx restarted and got a signal again.

EDIT: PS: Good luck with your axe-bot. We need more axe-bots. I love axe bots, especially if they are rediculously powerful and fast.