Hand built esc

[Wattermellon22]

So im kinda new to the rc world and have noticed electronics are pretty expensive. Im decent with a soldering gun and after looking over a few esc comonents. i almost think i could start building them. Has anyone else done something like this and if so how'd it work for you?

[Voodoobrew]

There is an open esc post somewhere that talks more about software, but I think there is a link to a github or something like that with a wiring diagram.

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[jcanuck]

Originally Posted by Wattermellon22

So im kinda new to the rc world and have noticed electronics are pretty expensive. Im decent with a soldering gun and after looking over a few esc comonents. i almost think i could start building them. Has anyone else done something like this and if so how'd it work for you?

Uh I think it was easy everyone would be doing,if you have knowledge of about electronics a better options would be to find a broken unit and repair it.

[Druxus]

If your looking for a esc for a brushed motor you can get a hobbywing 1040 for 20$ for 40$ you can get a hobbywing 1080 that comes with a programming card and has bec powerful enough to run a high torque servo. For your time and parts I think you wouldn't be saving allot.

[nedmo]

An esc is far more than the sum of its electronic components. You could probably build a mechanical speed control.

But to truly provide a great crawler experience, its all about the programming

As mentioned, there is a really good thread about an open source ESC project. Have a read of that.

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[Alka]

My two cents..
Building an ESC is a great way to learn about electronics ! The advice the guys gave was excellent if the goal is to save a little money and you are starting from scratch. I have probably spent hundreds of dollars in prototypes over the years to be able to make a cheap esc now.
The firmware really is the more difficult thing (especially for brushless motors). Just making a motor spin smoothly is hard enough!

The cost in parts to put together a simple ESC that can do brushless and brushed motors is about 5-10 dollars. You would need to use an external BEC for the servo ( I actually use a 5 amp linear regulator for the servo, its not efficient but it somehow hasn't blown up yet ).
I think we can make a dedicated crawler esc in the 20-30 dollar range that does brushless or brushed motors, 8 amp BEC, 2-6s voltage range. I want to get more input from the community first on what features they really want to see.

This is the thread that was mentioned.

Open source ESC and firmware

Good luck, it really is pretty fun. If you want I can send you a blank pcb board that you can solder your own components on to.
I have 3 trail trucks that I use with my kids running stupidly cheap home made ESC's and firmware and we have an absolute blast with them!

[Greatscott]

Originally Posted by Wattermellon22

So im kinda new to the rc world and have noticed electronics are pretty expensive. Im decent with a soldering gun and after looking over a few esc comonents. i almost think i could start building them. Has anyone else done something like this and if so how'd it work for you?

There is more that goes into the whole mess than just gluing components together. There is a significant amount of engineering that takes place for power management and interference reduction. Along with these things are packaging of the ESC so that it is small, heat management and mitigation, and proper grounding/return. Plus, your are talking amount micro-miniature soldering, "decent with a soldering gun" simply will not cut it, there are a good number of techniques you'll have to learn to properly solder this stuff together without frying ICs. or shorting out their leads.

Unless you wanted to take this on as a pure learning experience, which is to be encouraged, it really is easier, faster, and less expensive to just buy something that is off the shelf. If you are looking at going down this path to save money, that is likely not going to happen. The ESD-friendly soldering iron you'd need will already negate any cost savings.

If you really want to dive into this, I would start at a higher level, and buy an programable kit, so you can experiment with programming and settings. If you are still interested after that, dive deeper into it.