Power_ESC

ESC - Electronic Speed Control

The ESC is a microcontroller that manages the switching of power to the magnets of the motors. The motors are three phase, brushless motors.

The ESC can be programmed, which also means that they can get out of calibration. This has been a problem several times. The biggest problem is the ESC not recognizing the servo (throttle) low point and completing its start-up cycle (indicated by the continuous beeping and motor stuttering). ArduRover should be able to calibrate the ESC, but I have not gotten these instructions to work. It should be as simple as turning on the motor power while the transmitter throttle stick is all the way up (full power). This may be a combination of all the motor settings: Max Throttle = 50%, skid steer, rover assuming reversable motors so the transmitter range needs to be adjusted for these motors. As an alternative, I have plugged the ESC servo lead into a separate radio receiver which is bound to a different transmitter, and initialized the ESC with this transmitter (via start-up with the throttle at full power).