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[John W E]

KIT SPEED CONTROLLERS

Hi all, as we know, there are several kits on the market for speed controllers; the speed controller I would like to have a look at and build next comes from the Electronize stable.   It is the Type 43 HVR – this one having the built-in BEC (Battery Eliminating Circuit).   

We are not going to do a breakdown of what every component does; we are basically going to build it straight from the instructions.   The only comments I can make for anyone looking at this and attempting/thinking of attempting to build one – your only requirement is you must be pretty confident wielding a soldering iron about.  Also you must be able to produce a reasonable soldering joint competently, as in this kit there are an awful lot of components.

To give you some idea of the components; there are 33 resistors, 4 diodes, 2 variable resistors, 3 integrated circuits (I.C.’s), 8 transistors, 15 capacitors and then you have the main transistor plus a suppressor and a relay.  So, if we have a look, the first photograph will show you what you get.   A bonny plastic bag containing all the components required for the build, the only thing that is not included in these kits (which personally I feel there should be) – is an I.C. socket for locating your main I.C. into the circuit board rather than soldering the ic. onto the board.  So, we shall open up the packet and what have we got; we have another packet inside containing all the electrical components.  We have another plastic bag containing the fuse and the hardware; power supply cables plus motor cables the red power supply cable has a fuse holder fitted already.  You have your cable for your TX connection as well.

The terminals are crimped on the end of this cable, but the actual plastic socket is not.  This allows you to configurate the cables to match your particular radio system.  Also, we have a plastic case, an alloy base plate which is the heat sink as well and we also have the all important circuit board.   Next to that we have the instructions or the destructions  ::) as some people like to call them.    Inside these instructions you will find all the required information on building and operating plus you will find two enlarged photographs of the actual finished product.   Plus you will also find an enlarged print of the circuit board with the position of all of the components marked on it in the correct places.   This is because on the actual circuit board the locating holes obscure some of the component position markings.   I also helps ‘blind’ beggars like myself.

On the next sheet you will find a complete list of components for actually assembly and also for checking components off.   Enough waffle there then – let us open the bags and let us do some work.    The last time I built one of these, I acquired an old ‘tablet organiser’ – you know one which is divided into segments – say about 25 little squares.   It is sods law, when you want it, you cannot find it – they are ideal for sorting out all your electronic components and putting into individual compartments – then you will know exactly where components are.   Anyway, you can make do with finding some containers and the first thing to do is to separate all the resistors out from the rest of the components.

[John W E]

Then sub-divide them into the corresponding resistances in other words all the 2K2’s which are in fact red, red, red colour banded – etc., and so we actually have all of the resistors sorted out into the correct resistances. 

We then move on and what we did was to sort out the diodes.   Be careful here – because 3 of the 4 diodes are identical number 1N4148 and this is where you will require a good magnifying glass because this number is stamped on a tiny glass bead which is the diode.    The last diode of the 4 is the Zener diode – this again is stamped on the glass bead and looks identical to the other three but, it is stamped C51, the last 3 digits sometimes of the number.

We proceed, if we look, we also have a few what we call ICs and one of them which we have to locate and put to one side, looks similar to a small transistor but it has been complete spray painted silver all over the body, this is a small I.C.   There is then the main I.C. the one with 14 legs on it – it looks like an ‘elongated spider’  :) also there is the main transistor which has stamped on its body 2N06L07 and there again sometimes it may only be labeled L07.  This is not to be confused with the last I.C. which has the number LM2940 – if we get these mixed up in the build – they are blinking difficult to remove from the board once they are soldered in  and if power is applied to the finished board with these in the wrong position YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO FRY THEM make sure you identify them well .  The other thing we have to segregate and familiarise ourselves with are the transistors.   There are two types of transistor; one is an all black body and the other one has a silver face on it.

[John W E]

The one with the silver face is BC337.  There are five of these; the last three transistors, the ones that are all black are BC558B’s – these are not to be mixed up This leaves us with the capacitors to sort out between cylindrical and ceramic types.

So, we have all our components sorted; we know what is what; so, let us get the soldering iron hot and begin.

I have put a photograph here of the tools required – and again – basic tools – nothing fancy required,   the only thing is a neat 15 watt soldering iron; a pair of long-nosed tweezers; side cutters; long nosed pliers, crocodile clip a really good magnifying glass to identify some of these tiny resistors and also a good stiff toothbrush (an old one  :) ) for cleaning the board afterwards.

Now, before we commence attacking the circuit board there are one or two things which I would like to say; there is solder supplied with this kit.   Under the new laws yep its lead free – some of us can work with it quite happily and get away with it – and me, I just hate the stuff; I use the lead solder which I have left from long ago.

The other thing to remember ITS NOT A RACE THIS BUILD – TAKE YOUR TIME – the locating holes on the circuit board – some of them are very close together and can be bridged and blocked quite easily with a slip of the soldering iron.   

So we begin and we follow the instructions which begin soldering the resistors into the board first.   My own personal way of doing this – is I locate resistor 1 and I find its location on the board; fit it into its location and bend the legs slightly outwards to prevent the component from falling back out when I turn the board over to solder it on the trackside.    Before I hit the board with the soldering iron I DOUBLE CHECK I HAVE IT IN THE CORRECT PLACE – once I am happy then I will solder.  We work our way through all the resistors, soldering them in, which admittedly takes some time because as we have mentioned before there are 33 of them.

[John W E]

As you will see, these are very small resistors but they can and do take a bit of heat without actually destroying them.    Once we have finished soldering these resistors in, we move on to locate the diodes – now remember there are 4 diodes – 3 the same and 1 Zener diode – I personally solder this Zener diode in first – ensuring I have it in the correct way round .  Because remember its polarized and it can be only fitted one way round – fit it in the wrong way round and a) it don’t work and b) they are a right so-and-so to get out without breaking them.   So make sure you have it in the correct way.

The same goes with the three other diodes; they are polarized and only go in one way.   Black marks the positive – so we have fitted the 4 diodes and checked and double checked we have them in the right way, but, although these can tolerate a fair bit of heat – BUT REMEMBER TOO MUCH HEAT AND YOU WILL CRACK THE GLASS BEAD - .

We have actually finished locating and fitting the diodes and we go on now to what they call the potentiometer – to a lot of us – a variable resistor or the thing you stick the screw driver to make the motor go a little bit faster or a little bit slower or to find the off position.    They have 3 little legs sticking out of the bottom and they can only be fitted one way onto the board; these are not really heat sensitive but, like the majority of components if you mistreat them with too much heat, they will disintegrate.    Now, in the build we have come to the part WHERE WE HAVE TO TAKE CARE – BECAUSE WE ARE ENTERING INTO THE FIELD OF SENSITIVE COMPONENTS.   

[John W E]

We locate the first I.C.  This is the one that looks like a small transistor but it has been spray painted silver;   the one in the kit I actually had – they hadn’t sprayed it all that well and I had to double/treble check I had the correct thing because there was only a little speck of silver paint on it.   Once I was happy, I located its position on the board and this is where I use a heat sink clamped across the legs of the I.C.  This heat sink is a crocodile clip or yer grannies hair clip.   All this does really is removes or prevents a lot of heat traveling up the leg into the body of the I.C.     I do know some of you can solder without the use of heat sinks because some people can do it that quickly that there isn’t a lot of heat traveling into the body of the component and destroying the electronics.

Rather be a ‘belt and braces’ person and put some form of heat sink there – to prevent disaster.   Once we have soldered the component into place, we trim the excess legs off the component which I omitted to mention – I do it all the time - once I have soldered a component into the board and I am happy with the soldered joint, I trim the excess material off the legs with the side cutters.

[John W E]

Now, it tells us to put in the main I.C. here – this is where I deviate a bit from the instructions and instead of soldering in the main I.C. to the circuit board, I solder an I.C. socket in and leave the socket empty of the I.C. until I have finished the build.   

We then move on to the transistors.   Remember again, there are two different types.   We identify each type and solder it into place – starting at T1 and finishing at T8.   Remembering; to use a heat sink on the legs of the transistors and also ensure they are in the correct place and that you do have the correct transistor.

Once we have fitted all the transistors, we move on to fitting the capacitors which are slightly hardier with regard to heat tolerance.

The one thing I can never understand – on the cylindrical or electrolytic capacitors – they are polarized.  This time the negative leg is marked by a band running down the side of the capacitor – why they picked the negative side I will never know.    This band on the capacitor must correspond with the black shaded-in area on its marked position on the circuit board.  IF YOU GET THIS ROUND THE WRONG WAY – IT JUST DON’T WORK! 

So, we will start with C1 – locate its position on the circuit board and work our way through all the capacitors noting not all of them are cylindrical – a lot of them are what we call ceramic.   These are like a ‘little blue blob’ with two legs sticking out of them  :) and you will find an I.D. marking on them which sometimes can be difficult to read & so get a good magnifying glass.   The other thin is, the ceramic ones are not polarized so you can locate them into the circuit board in any way & it doesn’t matter as long as they aren’t upside down.  Apart from those other cylindrical and ceramic there are what they call ‘box capacitors’ one is white and the other is blue; these are not polarized either – so they can go any way round – ALL OF THIS IS EXPLAINED WELL IN THE INSTRUCTIONS – Hey up lads and lasses we are nearly finished mind.

I deviate a bit here from the instructions – it advises to solder the relay in next; well I miss this piece out – the reason for this is with the relay being tall; once it is soldered onto the board, it makes it awkward for you to work on the board for the rest of the project.   I miss this sequence of the build out and move on to fitting the power transistor TR9.  This we must remember to ensure it is the right one, because it looks very much like the other integrated circuit – IC3.   The other things to remember about this – is its position or where it is soldered onto the circuit board.   

The component TR9 is located on the opposite side of the circuit board to what we have been working on.   This is explained and I have added a couple of photographs because you must bend the legs at right angles to the body; so the component locates flat against the circuit board.   What I normally do here, I clamp the component with a crocodile clip into position on the board and with a felt tip pen; mark the position of the holes onto the legs of the component.   Then, where I have marked it, I bend it at right angles.

Before I actually solder it in place; I temporary locate it with the nut and bolt which is supplied with the kit.  I then solder it into place and yet again using the heat sink on the legs of the component.

I move on to fit the last I.C. using the same procedure and remembering its on the flip side of the board – the second but last component to go in is a suppressor – hey it looks like a ‘lollypop with two sticks for legs’  this is located and soldered into place on the right side of the board this time and it is not polarized, it can be fitted either way round.   At this stage, apart from having TIRED EYES – Its good to go back to check all the soldered joints we have done to ensure that there are no dry joints; or I have not bridged the tracks.     I then give it a good brushing with a toothbrush and some methylated spirit.   Once I was happy I then fitted the relay; then it’s a simple procedure of fitting the wires; I just followed the sequence on the plan, fitting the main supply cables first, along with the motor supply.   I then fitted the RX lead to the board;

The last cable/last lead to be soldered in are the orange and red leads; which will eventually have a switch on and this operates the BEC facility on the board.

It is now time to sit back and re-examine all your joints, because now we are going to fit the socket on the end of the RX lead.    I normally use a spare servo as a guide to ensure that I do not get the leads mixed up and the wrong way around in the socket.

The only other thing I have done or do as you may have noticed on these particular kits, the lead for your RX and also for your BEC is twisted cable and the prevent this ‘untwisting’ I place a short length of heat shrink over them at the ends to prevent them from ‘untwisting’.

It is now time to do the last thing; fit the main I.C. into the socket ensure that the notch in the I.C.  is the correct way round.

IT IS NOW TIME FOR TESTING  - I have a ‘naff’ battery which I keep just for this, it only holds a charge of only 4 volts; and I keep it purely for testing speed controllers and electronic components – because at 4 volts you cant do too much damage if you have something around the wrong way.

I connect the motor up which was a 540, connected the RX cable up and you may notice that I also plug in a servo on a separate channel on the RX – and when I have double checked all my connections - I do not connect the BEC up – I leave the BEC switched off and I connect an independent RX battery to the receiver then switch on the transmitter, moving the throttle stick back and forwards to see if I can see the relay moving in and out.   Do you want the honest truth – I got nothing.    The servo worked, but the speed controller did not! WHO FORGOT TO PUT THE FUSE IN?  and our survey said THICKET and so I put the fuse in and the relay clicked in and out quite merrily.   Right, happy now. 

Connect the main supply battery up and the motor began running.    I set the zero point for my transmitter throttle stick up on the speed controller, by adjusting the appropriate correct pot.   Let it run for 2-3 minutes ensuring that nothing was becoming too hot and the motor went into forward and reverse quite easily.

When I was happy I then replaced the main drive battery for a good 6 volt battery and then I let the unit run for 5-10 minutes constantly going from full ahead to full reverse and ensuring that everything was operating normally. 

When I was happy, I finished off by first of all securing the heat sink onto the bottom of the main circuit board and then fitting the outer casing.

I do hope you have enjoyed me rambling on; and I know there are one or two people who will be wondering -     why Electronize the reason I have already got two speed controllers from there which were sitting on my bench doing nothing and for my new project I require three speed controllers and is there any difference between Electronize speed controllers and ACTion

If you look at two together – yes there are differences between the two speed controllers – the obvious ones are the amount of components in them; how come ACTion only have 8-9 components in them; and Electronize have lots of components in them.

In ACTion – all of the components are in that little PIC chip.  Difficult to believe, but, it is true.

The other thing is; they are both speed controllers and as far as a modeller is concerned, as long as it makes the models go forward and reverse – and they are reliable and affordable - that is all we should be worried about.

For those who have never done a kit build; I would say go to an ACTion kit first; unless you are extremely confident in soldering. 

Then, contemplate taking on an Electronize kit.

Price wise – they are both about the same  :)

Aye
John e
bluebird

[John W E]

....... AND the final pics for the build

aye
john e
bluebird

[Stavros]

As usual a cracking piece of information,one thing I would add to what Bluebird has said with regards kit building is,if you want good practice of kit building why not buy some of the Maplins kit's,ie steam sound generator,multiple sound generator etc,why simple if you get theses wrong you have not lost a lot of dosh,get something like a speed controller wrong and you have lost a lot of money,only an added suggestion to Bluebirds


Stavros

[Martin (Admin)]

Excellent! It stuff like this that Model Boat Mayhem does best.

Thanks John.

 

[Bee]

This is good. I hadn't realised they were available as kits. Does it include a circuit diagram? It does help so much to have one for diagnosis and repair which means one can keep the things going instead of adding to landfill.

[John W E]

Hi there Mr Bee

As far as a circuit diagram in the instructions there isnt one.   I think this would give the game away of how 'they do it' too easily - for people to copy 

In my experience, normally when the Electronize speed controllers go BANG  -  through mis-use - it is normally one or two components which take the brunt - one is the power output transistor which we fry or we melt the printed track on the circuit board.

These speed controllers normally take a fair amount of abuse; before they actually fail.  I have one which I run in one particular model - it runs right on the edge of its power handling; and, on a hot day, it will only work for a matter of minutes and then its thermal overload shuts it down    so I tend to run this model on a cold day - and I do get about 20 minutes running time out of it, before it shuts down - it has been running like that for years - the only side effect is the bloke who runs it - TOO LAZY to upgrade the power output transistor and also the relay.

Aye
john e
bluebird

[Bee]

I don't see why some kit builders try to hide the circuit. Velleman always include it. Anyone wanting to  make one commercially can reverse engineer anyway,  make the one in the zn409 data shhet, or program their own PIC. For amateurs it makes sense to buy the kit for the pcb.

[John W E]

hi ya there Bee, I do know exactly what you mean.

I do believe - originally when Electronize first kicked off producing their kits - they used to include a circuit diagram.   That was when the ZN409 (chip) was readily available - now they are like hen's teeth to get hold of.   

I have a few circuit diagrams using those chips in the speed controllers - as far as programming the PIC chip - there is a lot more too it than meets the eye.   I looked into buying the software from Maplins, and they do a few deals.   I have also spoken to several people who actually programme the chips.   I think what you have to be is not only well up on the programme for the PIC chip, but, also you have to have a very good understanding of computer programming.   This is what put me off from going ahead with learning how to programme PIC chips, because, you spend more time tweeking the programme which you download onto the PIC chip; as apparently some PIC chips which are used in speed controllers are quite susceptible to electronic noises, which you have to have certain types of software to write into the PIC chip programme to clean these glitches out, and, then it becomes quite complicated to accomplish a smooth running PIC operated speed controller of self-build.  When I say 'self build' I dont mean the kit type - I mean one you would build from scratch from a circuit diagram.

I did a search a little while ago, when I was searching for info on programming and I did come across 1-2 companies who would programme the chips for the kit builder, but, this works out extremely expensive, when you are purchasing only 1 or 2.   

I dont think we will have to wait too long before the PIC chip is outdated with another chip, which will turn the corner again for speed controllers.

Let us wait and see what comes.....

aye
john

[cbr900]

Bluebird,

Great build sir very neatly done, my question will seem as if I am picking on what you have done, but this is not the case.

Why build the one you have just shown when the ACtion one appears to have a lot less parts and is very simple to put together, and is

repairable, and mine works floorlessly....................


Roy

[John W E]

Hi there Roy please remember these are just my thoughts  :)

To answer your question; to be honest, I would say that Electronize kits fit into what I would say is ‘the connoisseurs’ kit not because of the quality; but, because of the satisfaction of build.

ACTion kits fulfill the requirements quite adequately for those who acquire immense enjoyment from completing these kits in quite a short amount of time.

Electronize kits fall into the category of  ‘more experienced’ for those who have already built electronic kits and feel their skills need to be ‘tried’ that little bit more to which these kits adequately do.

As far as reliability goes – I would say that both Electronize and ACTion kits are very reliable – nine times out of ten, it is the operator i.e. the human error which causes the fault in both kits.  :) I would say both kits run flawlessly.   

Just to put peoples' mind at rest, because I know Electronize have had some bad publicity (admittedly I was one of these people who condemned the company) because of their after-sales service for repairs and also their response to emails etc., which was not existent  - after a lengthy conversation with Dave Mainprize from Electronize this morning, he assures me that they have now addressed the problems encountered by quite a few customers.   He did stress though that they have rather a large backlog – which they are rapidly diminishing – he also stressed that he was sorry but they had to put the cost of repairing speed controllers etc., up, due to the fact that there were a lot of people sending electronic items back with either no faults at all; or failing to read the instructions fully.

aye
john e
bluebird

[Colin Bishop]

Thanks for the heads up on that John - useful information for many.

[cbr900]

Thank you for the answer John, very understandable, keep up the great work mate..................



Roy

[BlazingPenguin]

I recently got my ESC back from Electronize with a note apologising for the delay...

AND....the circuit diagram for repairing and fitting a relay to ensure it dont get a slap again!
I'll scan it and get it uploaded asap....hopefully someone can point me in the right direction on how to fit the relay etc.

[John W E]

hi there Blazin Peng.   

I have been meaning to ask this question for a bit, but having a mind like a seive, or a senile moment..... what model electronic speed controller do you have?  The reason I ask this; is, if you are speaking about fitting the relays in the Electronize FR30HX (all singing and dancing one) the 30 amp - there is a twin auto relay in that particular model.

If it is the standard 43HVR or the 43HX; there is only a standard single relay in those particular models which should be quite easy to replace.   Unless of course, you have an upgraded version where there is a heavy duty external relay on the outside of the speed controller.

Please let us know

aye
john e
bluebird