Simple rc brushed motor driver

I’m looking for a simple lightweight brushed motor driver (ESC) for 1S+ rc models (one way).

input: PWM 1000-2000 uS; output motor power: 0 - 100 %

For rc planes, helicopters and quadcopter

Those boards were available, but nowadays hard to get. Only the two way driver boards (forward, brake, reverse) are still available, which are useless for planes, helis and quads.

It would be great if Pololu would develop/sell those simple (inexpensive?) drivers (brushed ESCs).

Hello.

Although that is something we are interested in, we do not currently have any boards that are solely intended to work as an ESC like you described; however, we do have several motor controllers that can be configured to behave as such. You can see which of our motor controllers can be configured to accept RC inputs in the comparison table on our Motor Controllers category page. However, none of them will run off of a 1S LiPo. If you can use a 2S LiPo or an appropriate step-up voltage regulator, the G2 Simple Motor Controllers or Jrk G2 motor controllers might be options for you. You can configure the scaling to work in one direction throughout the pulse width range the way you described, and you can limit the maximum duty cycle to 50% so your motor is essentially being run from the same voltage as a 1S LiPo.

Brandon

Thank you very much for the infos, very helpful. I looked a bit into the subject building one and it seems only a mosfet and a simple controller (+ diodes, caps, resistors) are needed for such a simple motor driver. But I would rather buy one in Pololu quality.

Cheers

I get your point @van. Hopefully pololu will release one soon.

I just checked out the “Pololu RC Switch with Small Low-Side MOSFET” and this circuit might work as a brushed ESC by just replacing the controller firmware (if the 6 pin chip is a programable controller)

Hello.

It could be doable in some sense, but the RC switch is not a good starting point for variable speed motor control. We expect to develop some smaller, lower-cost RC motor controllers at some point, though we were not expecting to target unidirectional applications and such low-voltage operation. What kind of current do you need, and how much space do you have? Would a multi-channel version be interesting?

- Ben

Thanks for the reply Ben. The circuit should be small and lightweight (1S can’t lift much) like the mosfet circuit (maybe smaller with components on both sides?). Most simple 1S brushed toy helis, quadcopters & planes use simple 3A mosfets, which mostly work, but might fry if a motor stops abruptly on a crash, when the throttle is still on a high value. 2S-3S vehicles uses often 5A to 8A .

I like the design of the “Pololu RC Switch with Small Low-Side MOSFET” circuit with the two bridges on the back to connected VCC to other parts of the circuit, if someone wants to power anything just from one source. Which is usally the case on 1S brushed ESCs (I think).