Help : i dont understand ESC's fully.

Jnr Kuzi

Senior Member
Before i get into building. I would like to understand the electronics fully.

Questions

01. What do the amps in an EsC do? Whats the difference between a 10amp & 60amp esc apart from the amperage ofcourse

02. If an esc sends 5volts to the reciever & a reciever is what distributes power to all the electronics. Does this mean that if im using a 7.4 volt, the remaining 2.4 volts is Getting dumped/wasted?
 

c172ae

Pro plane crasher
1. it's bigger and heavier

2. depends. if you are using a linear BEC, it is getting wasted, but if you use a switching BEC, it won't
 

bitogre

Member
Before i get into building. I would like to understand the electronics fully.

Questions

01. What do the amps in an EsC do? Whats the difference between a 10amp & 60amp esc apart from the amperage of course

I most cases, just size, weight, and cost.

02. If an esc sends 5volts to the reciever & a reciever is what distributes power to all the electronics. Does this mean that if im using a 7.4 volt, the remaining 2.4 volts is Getting dumped/wasted?

In the case of ESCs that typically use Linear BECs, yes, the remaining 2.4 volts is turned into heat. A very limited number of ESCs include a switching BEC which is a nosier but more efficient way of converting the voltage (often using a coil to convert the excess voltage into current). Other ESCs do not have any sort of BEC. Read the specs on the ESC to figure out if and what type of BEC the ESC has.
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
The ESC also performs another function. It converts DC voltage to AC. Brushless motors operate an AC current, which is why they have 3 leads to the motor instead of just a positive and negative.
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
I don't know how much you understand about the electronics, but the ESC is like a water hose, it's not the water pump. The bigger the amp rating the thicker the hose is, and the more water can be supplied. A higher amp ESC will not shove even more electricity into the motor, it just makes more available. In the water analog, the motor it's self is the water pump. That is, it's the motor that draws in the electricity and is what determines the rest of the electrical system.
 

joshuabardwell

Senior Member
Mentor
01. What do the amps in an EsC do? Whats the difference between a 10amp & 60amp esc apart from the amperage ofcourse

The ESC's amp rating determines the amount of amps that can be run through the ESC without it overheating and damaging itself. The actual amount of amps that will be drawn depends on the motor kV rating, prop size and pitch, and battery voltage and C rating. The ESC's amp rating needs to be higher than the amps that the motor will draw. If your motor is drawing 23 amps, for example, you might want about a 30 amp ESC. If you were to use a 40 or 50 amp ESC, it would run cooler, but it would also be bigger, heavier, and more expensive. So with ESC's, it is usually a case of, "enough, but not too much". Still, if you had a 40 amp ESC laying around and your motor only drew 15 amps, you would be fine to use the 40 amp ESC.

02. If an esc sends 5volts to the reciever & a reciever is what distributes power to all the electronics. Does this mean that if im using a 7.4 volt, the remaining 2.4 volts is Getting dumped/wasted?

This depends on whether the ESC's BEC is switching or linear. If it is linear, then yes. The additional power is wasted as heat. If it is a switching BEC, then no. The way a switching BEC works is, basically, it turns on and off rapidly to produce an "average" voltage that is lower than the input voltage. So, for example, if you wanted 6v output and you had 12v input, the switching BEC would turn itself on 50% of the time and off 50% of the time (but very, very rapidly--like, hundreds or thousands of times a second) to produce an average voltage of 6v. There is a little bit more to the circuit, but at a high level, that's a good basic description of how it works.
 
Last edited:

Balu

Lurker
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
I don't know how much you understand about the electronics, but the ESC is like a water hose, it's not the water pump. The bigger the amp rating the thicker the hose is, and the more water can be supplied. A higher amp ESC will not shove even more electricity into the motor, it just makes more available. In the water analog, the motor it's self is the water pump. That is, it's the motor that draws in the electricity and is what determines the rest of the electrical system.

And if the motor sucks more water than the hose (ESC) can handle, the hose will break.