Help! Inexpensive ESC?

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Ya'll, these options are exactly what I'm looking for. $4.34? Pretty hard to beat! Thank you everyone for your input. Over time, I might just try all of them, and see if there's a noticeable performance difference. Meantime, U.S. Warehouse wins for my mig build and I'm definitely ordering a batch of the ones that @Bricks posted!

If anyone tries an esc that someone else posted, please feel free to post your thoughts and findings on this thread. :)
 
M

MCNC

Guest
Admin
Hangar yours show this
Item size: 13 * 8 * 4cm / 5 * 3 * 01.6in
Item weight: 110g / 3.9oz

speedbirdted shows this
Weight: 25g
Dimensions: 45 x 24 x 11mm

What is up with that?
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Hangar yours show this
Item size: 13 * 8 * 4cm / 5 * 3 * 01.6in
Item weight: 110g / 3.9oz

speedbirdted shows this
Weight: 25g
Dimensions: 45 x 24 x 11mm

What is up with that?
The second set of dimensions is right. Not sure why it’s wrong, but they are definitely not 13cm long!
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
I have had great luck with these and they are a 3 Amp BEC if you do not mind waiting.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33001916991.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.7a624c4doKU41u
I bought 4 of these and used one for the first time in my Spitfire yesterday. It worked perfectly! @Wildthing got some as well and he said they worked for him as well. A real winner in my opinion. 40 amps and 4s capable for under $5. You can’t really go wrong! Lol, I got all four for less than I paid for my one turnigy 40 amp lol.
B66A5C08-441B-4281-825C-3AF2FD5563B8.jpeg
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
I start my next build tonight. I've got a motor, props, batteries, receiver, servos. Everything I need, except I'm out of esc's. I've had good luck with the Turnigy Plush 30amp, but I'd like to find a reliable and less expensive esc. I've bought several of the four for twenty bucks yellow esc's off of Ebay and Amazon. They seem to be hit or miss. Some of the batch will work and some not.

Has anyone found a source for really inexpensive and reliable 30 amp esc's?
Having had issues with a cheap ESC in the past I have gone the opposite way, I buy decent makes these days. Its not worth losing or damaging a model for the sake of a small amout of money saved on cheap ESC's.
I can see the logic of cheap ESC's for small foamboard models of low value, but decent planes and anything you have placed any amount of time and effort building. I would pay the extra and buy decent makes, I use Turnigy plush can't rate them highly enough. However, I also use Hobbywing Skywalker ESC's they are also excellent quality and reliable.
In the past I use to buy cheap packs of x4 Simon K ESC's from China, these where great to begin with until I got one faulty one. My Bixler 3 suffered 3 nasty crashes until I eventually tracked down the culprit as being a faulty ESC. Fortunatley the Bixler wasnt at great altitude and being a fairly robust foam plane, didn't sustain to much damage.
In a balsa plane that would have been a different story, in fact several of my foambord planes would not have survived one of those crashes let alone 3.
At the end of the day its your decision but weigh up the cost savings versus the price/value of your model before fitting cheap equipment ;)
 

Intashu

Elite member
That's my struggle IanT. I have a few models i DON'T want to risk crashing, and a few that need more than 40a to be content (getting into EDF)

so far the most reliable I've seen are the fliteTest ones. I've litterally burned through a couple cheaper china esc's. One actually started on fire, two have just outright burned out mid-flight and stopped responding. I've been fortunate to not lose recievers and the one on fire I was able to rip the motor pod out with the esc and get everything disconnected and removed before too much damage was done to the actual plane.

Trying to source reliable (and in the 60a range) esc's seems much harder to do. I only currently fly 3s but plan to go into more 4s next spring.. and with better and better planes on my build list I'd prefer not to lose any due to electrical failure!

I should note, I tend to push my planes a bit. most of them I fly near full throttle most of the time. a couple I intentionally harass to see how much abuse they can take before something folds. I expect with 4s next spring I'll start breaking more things. (just means more to build!)

But I'm still trying to source reliable esc's, and am willing to throw a *little* cash at them to get something better. I mean, the alternative is I stick with Flitetest ones afterall.
 

TheFlyingBrit

Legendary member
That's my struggle IanT. I have a few models i DON'T want to risk crashing, and a few that need more than 40a to be content (getting into EDF)

so far the most reliable I've seen are the fliteTest ones. I've litterally burned through a couple cheaper china esc's. One actually started on fire, two have just outright burned out mid-flight and stopped responding. I've been fortunate to not lose recievers and the one on fire I was able to rip the motor pod out with the esc and get everything disconnected and removed before too much damage was done to the actual plane.

Trying to source reliable (and in the 60a range) esc's seems much harder to do. I only currently fly 3s but plan to go into more 4s next spring.. and with better and better planes on my build list I'd prefer not to lose any due to electrical failure!

I should note, I tend to push my planes a bit. most of them I fly near full throttle most of the time. a couple I intentionally harass to see how much abuse they can take before something folds. I expect with 4s next spring I'll start breaking more things. (just means more to build!)

But I'm still trying to source reliable esc's, and am willing to throw a *little* cash at them to get something better. I mean, the alternative is I stick with Flitetest ones afterall.
I go for the Turnigy Plush as they tend to have 5amp BEC's, if your using metal gear servos or doing 3D aerobatics. With all your servos acting at once in aerobatics then you need a minimum of 5amps for your BEC, plus the current draw on metal gear is higher than for nylon gear servos.
When I converted my WOT trainer I fitted a Hobbywing Skywalker 80 amp ESC with a 2s-6s battery range and has a built in 5v, 5amp BEC. Used this make for a long while now and trust them on my decent models.
Although when I start getting confident with my WOT trainer and start doing some aerobatic manouvers, I may swap over to a seperate BEC just in case (although the HobbyWing would probably be fine, its just me being over cautious).
The Hobbywing Skywalker 80 amp for example will cost you around £23.60 which is the equivalent of $31.65 incl P&P from Banggood. They do a range 20, 30, 50, 60 and 80 amp, take your pick.
The Turnigy Plush I buy from Hobbyking and are a bit more expensive, but as I said previously compared to the price of a decent plane its a drop in the ocean.