Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Chameo]

I've got a lot of projects running which make use of good old brushed motors. Unfortunately with all the brushless stuff getting cheaper and cheaper the variety of brushed ESCs melts like ice in the sunshine.
So I was looking for a simple forward/reverse brushed ESC on the internet. Here in Germany the cheapest ESC is about £16. It get's even more difficult if you are looking for an ESC which can handle 12V or more.

There are few DIY projects but it's often hard to find the used FET transistors or all the parts together aren't much cheaper than a complete ESC.
Luckily I came across a website where someone reprogrammed a brushless ESC to work as a brushed ESC. Unfortunately he used an old ESC which isn't available any more. But this took me to right lane. I found someone in downunder who did something similar for several different ESCs to get cheap controllers for each robotwar weight class. Currently there is firmware for 4 different ESCs available.

I focussed on ESCs with an Atmel microcontroller because I have a programmer for these. As ESC I chose the HK F-20A which is available for about £5.50 in the HK european warehouse.

Programming was quite easy. Figuring out the pinning and soldering a 6-wire programming cable wasn't too difficult. Flashing the firmware was done in seconds.
After that it became a little more tricky. There are no instructions which motor connections to use or how to configure the ESC. So I browsed the well documented source code to figure out.

After all you get a 20A brushed ESC with reverse, brake and 3A BEC which can handle input voltages from 6V to 15V (I even read about over 20V). Endpoints, slew rate, expo and temperature cut off can be programmed.

Thread:
http://robowars.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1581&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Source:
https://launchpad.net/brushed

[ACTion]

Why not just buy the appropriate item? Warranty, pedigree, after-sales service et al?. Far easier than mucking about for an hour to save the price of a McD.
DM

[malcolmfrary]

Why not just buy the appropriate item? Warranty, pedigree, after-sales service et al?. Far easier than mucking about for an hour to save the price of a McD.
DM

For equivalent power handling, there probably isn't all that much in it, but it could be that the small size and light weight are attractive.  Then there is the challenge for the questing spirit.  Then there is ....just because........
I used to knock up my own ESCs in the past, using servo innards for the front end, and available power transistors for the output.  Time went on, and store bought ones were very much smaller and very comparable in price.  Even etched my own resistance controller to plant on top of a servo, but its ready made for me now. 
Its enough of a challenge getting upright after picking my boat out of the water....

[Chameo]

@Dave
If I only needed one esc buying an appropriate would have been an option. But there are half a dozen models in my workshop waiting for escs. An esc like the ones I modified would cost about £25 and I'm not willing to pay that much money when there is cheaper but comparable solution.
By the way, do you know this esc and the firmware? I guess not, so I won't talk about mucking. I understand that you like to sell your own escs and I'm sure there are still enough people which pay more attention to warranty, pedigree, after-sales service et al.

[RAAArtyGunner]

For equivalent power handling, there probably isn't all that much in it, but it could be that the small size and light weight are attractive.  Then there is the challenge for the questing spirit.  Then there is ....just because........
I used to knock up my own ESCs in the past, using servo innards for the front end, and available power transistors for the output.  Time went on, and store bought ones were very much smaller and very comparable in price.  Even etched my own resistance controller to plant on top of a servo, but its ready made for me now. 
Its enough of a challenge getting upright after picking my boat out of the water....

 

[ACTion]

@Dave
If I only needed one esc buying an appropriate would have been an option. But there are half a dozen models in my workshop waiting for escs. An esc like the ones I modified would cost about £25 and I'm not willing to pay that much money when there is cheaper but comparable solution.
By the way, do you know this esc and the firmware? I guess not, so I won't talk about mucking. I understand that you like to sell your own escs and I'm sure there are still enough people which pay more attention to warranty, pedigree, after-sales service et al.

You'll appreciate that "mucking about" is a well-known and oft-used English expression and implies nothing about the quality of the items being "mucked about" with - good or bad. I have no knowledge of the ESC and firmware you have used as I neither use, supply nor repair them; we use Microchip processors.
I admire your technical ability and your enterprise but you must realise that very few people on this Forum have an Atmel PIC programmer or the knowledge to use it properly, so what works for you wouldn't be viable for the vast majority.
DM

[Chameo]

@Dave
Sorry, if I got you wrong but the german translation from dict.leo.org of "to muck about" has quite a bad touch in it.

Well, I know that most people do not have knowledge about microcontrollers, but in fact you don't need to know anything. Simply follow some instructions.
Soldering a cable, connecting the programmer to the PC, connecting the ESC to the programmer, starting the software, loading the firmware and pressing the "write" button cannot be to complicated for anyone who owns a PC and is into rc modelling.
That's exactly what I did when I flashed the new firmware to my FlySky GT3B transmitter. I don't know anything about ST microcontrollers. I wanted the firmware, so I followed the instructions and got it. It's that simple. And if there are any questions there are forums like this to get them answered.

@all
Don't be afraid, try it!

[HS93 (RIP)]

I always thought this site was for people to build things and converting things come in to that category, if we all bought the same we may as well buy ready to run , this site was about people showing the boats they had built be it ready to run or from an old wardrobe or from timber bought in a model shop and a plan, all are welcome I thought , a lob of the ready to run are customized, and that is great because you see the same person then attempt a kit , so no we all don't want the same equipment some want different , oh and I can programme any Pic that is available to us messing about crowd and have been able to for a long long time  , some just want to be different

Peter

[Norseman]

It's really nice to read how people approach problems differently.
Especially if they follow up with a good report - their successes and the failures too.
Though I couldn't do it, I know there are some clever blokes on Mayhem who could easily. 

Dave