ESC questions & why not USA shipping

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minionhunter
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ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by minionhunter »

I am going to use this thread to ask some esc questions. I apologize for the simplicity, I've written and rewritten this and I've stalled now, having read back through 2015 all the esc posts in this questions forum.

1. The top question is why do so few ship to the US?

ARC, Rory, BBB - don't ship to the US, why is that? I thought it might be they were too small and couldn't cover repair/replacement or lost or damaged shipments. Meaning just not worth the hassle. However after trying looking at the UK eBay auctions that Kyro listed in another thread, those Chinese guys don't ship to the US either.

While I haven't scanned US eBay yet it seems like a weird pattern that it is nearly impossible to buy an esc and get it shipped to the US. Is it something more than small shops not worth it to ship or is it something else? Tons of drone stuff gets shipped everyday so it doesn't seem sensitive or restricted. Is it trade law? I just don't know why.

If it is just the hassle part, if I order enough to make it worth it, exempt you from the worries (lost/damaged packages, returns) AND sent you a FedEx prepaid label with the customs form mostly filled out (might have to add the weight/dimensions) would that help?

2. It is looking like my choices for esc are either:
A. the dasmikro (cheap, not really reliable, less than ideal programming)
B. two of the fingertech tiny esc (good, but expensive and they are not dual so that adds weight and volume and complexity)
C. Randomly see if there is something on US eBay that matches Kyro's UK eBay links
D. Fly to an AWS and beg someone to sell me some while I'm there (not really practical)
E. Follow Rory's example and spend 4 months learning to make my own (or see if I can pay/bribe Rory to teach me how to make my own or pay him to license me to make some of his esc's for my own personal use). I do like the challenge, however with three kids my time where I can focus and concentrate on intricate tasks is at a premium.

I fear that choice E may be the best bet in the long run with a mix of A - C for a stop gap to get started immediately.

I just don't understand why some Chinese company hasn't filled this seemingly wide open niche. Maybe that was the purpose of the dasmikro, but why haven't they improved it to include breaking? With all the seeming interest in fingertech's tiny esc why haven't they made a dual esc like it or someone copied it as a dual esc. It seems like there is a market there.

Is there any outside the box solution I'm not thinking of? Are there companies that someone could hire to create one? If we were to blue sky the cost for now, where would someone go for that?

I'm sorry if these are simplistic questions or are just me raving, it is frustrating that I can't find what I want in an esc the US when it seems so broadly available in the UK. Also I apologize if I stepped on someone's toes without realizing it or have made an error in my assumptions.

I'm grateful for your time and help. I'm open to any suggestions you may have for me. Thank you again. Sincerely.
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jes
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by jes »

minionhunter wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:00 pm While I haven't scanned US eBay yet
I'd start by looking on US eBay. Just type in search terms based around the product descriptions of the items you want from UK eBay. I'd be surprised if equivalent products didn't show up.

Failing that, in principle I'd be happy to buy in the UK and ship to you in the US if you paid for the shipping.
minionhunter
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by minionhunter »

jes wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 8:40 pm
minionhunter wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:00 pm While I haven't scanned US eBay yet
I'd start by looking on US eBay. Just type in search terms based around the product descriptions of the items you want from UK eBay. I'd be surprised if equivalent products didn't show up.

Failing that, in principle I'd be happy to buy in the UK and ship to you in the US if you paid for the shipping.
Thank you very much for your generous offer. I may take you up on it. I'll search eBay tonight and see what I can find. I want to make a big purchase on banggood while their sale lasts so I'll need to order the rest of the components too.
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GeorgeR
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by GeorgeR »

If you're looking for an antweight esc in the USA, I'd suggest either the Endbots DESC, or a pair of the fingertech tinyESC's.

The DESC is functionally the same as the nanotwo's, they come in two versions, one with the receiver built in (like the nanotwo v2/v3) and one without (like the nanotwo LT). I've not seen one used over here, but they are popular and well regarded your side of the pond.

The fingertech's are a single channel esc so you'd need one per side, but they are a high quality product and very reliable. A few UK ant roboteers use them and I've only ever heard good things.

In the cheaper end of things you could order direct from China, these appear to be the same as the BBB ones;
https://a.aliexpress.com/_TIXzS
I suspect if you searched 1.8a brushed esc into ebay you might find them on there too.
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Kyro
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by Kyro »

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-8AX2-ESC-Bru ... Sw3SdeAFMm

about $10 all in on the slow boat from china.

there also appears to be something simmilar rated for a single cell lipo, i would avoid that one.

there is also https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Way-ESC-5 ... Sw9mtd90gz which is a little bigger and can take 3s
about $13

used both, only ever had 1 fail (the bigger one) and that was loss of half a h bridge (drives forward fine steers fine but 1 wheel refuses to reverse)
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minionhunter
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by minionhunter »

GeorgeR wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:53 pm If you're looking for an antweight esc in the USA, I'd suggest either the Endbots DESC, or a pair of the fingertech tinyESC's.

The DESC is functionally the same as the nanotwo's, they come in two versions, one with the receiver built in (like the nanotwo v2/v3) and one without (like the nanotwo LT). I've not seen one used over here, but they are popular and well regarded your side of the pond.

The fingertech's are a single channel esc so you'd need one per side, but they are a high quality product and very reliable. A few UK ant roboteers use them and I've only ever heard good things.

In the cheaper end of things you could order direct from China, these appear to be the same as the BBB ones;
https://a.aliexpress.com/_TIXzS
I suspect if you searched 1.8a brushed esc into ebay you might find them on there too.
Thanks George! I had not seen endbots, that looks like a good solution

I did find some on ebay too
minionhunter
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by minionhunter »

Kyro wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 2:54 am https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-8AX2-ESC-Bru ... Sw3SdeAFMm

about $10 all in on the slow boat from china.

there also appears to be something simmilar rated for a single cell lipo, i would avoid that one.

there is also https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Way-ESC-5 ... Sw9mtd90gz which is a little bigger and can take 3s
about $13

used both, only ever had 1 fail (the bigger one) and that was loss of half a h bridge (drives forward fine steers fine but 1 wheel refuses to reverse)
Thank you! I had found one on ebay identical to that one before you posted. This was cheaper.

With these cheap Chinese ones, should I assume that they have no brake and they don't have mixing? Also what do you look for when looking for the cheap Chinese type?
minionhunter
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by minionhunter »

jes wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 8:40 pm
minionhunter wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:00 pm While I haven't scanned US eBay yet
I'd start by looking on US eBay. Just type in search terms based around the product descriptions of the items you want from UK eBay. I'd be surprised if equivalent products didn't show up.

Failing that, in principle I'd be happy to buy in the UK and ship to you in the US if you paid for the shipping.
Looks like I have some lines on esc's that I can get over here now. However if I get lucky enough to catch a nanotwo on sale sometime I might take you up on that offer. Just to compare to the endbots esc.
minionhunter
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by minionhunter »

Is it common for the esc to get "hot enough to burn"? This was just something in the endbots site and I was curious if this was just common to esc's..

Thank you!
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Shakey
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Re: ESC questions & why not USA shipping

Post by Shakey »

minionhunter wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 10:12 pm Is it common for the esc to get "hot enough to burn"? This was just something in the endbots site and I was curious if this was just common to esc's..

Thank you!
All electronics produces heat as a by-product, power electronics especially so.

It isn't uncommon at all for ESCs to heat up and with ESC's generally higher voltages mean more heating. Electronics can be burning hot to touch and still working but I wouldn't say it's great. That's probably at the max voltages and really should probably have the ratings rolled back a bit to safer (even just to itself) levels.

At standard N20's on 2S I doubt anything significant would happen.
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