Air Land Sea Hobbies

Like most of my friends, I developed a love of remote control cars at a young age. When some of our classmates started buying their own life-sized cars and driving them to school and work, they questioned why we should remain so fascinated with “toys.” To me, RC cars are more than just a hobby – they’re a creative outlet. I like to customize and hand-paint each car, focusing more on the aesthetic aspect than achieving impressive speeds.

Some RC enthusiasts I know are hell-bent on winning races – it’s all they think about. I find the pastime to be more relaxing than anything; I don’t worry so much about putting a high-quality electronic speed controller on the car or purchasing long-lasting lipo batteries. I’d much rather build tall jumps and racing tracks for the cars and having friendly competitions with my old buddies.

How many times have you sat there reading and re-reading the instructions that came with your Electronic Speed Control commonly called, the ESC, trying to program it for a different motor or application.  I have been there, turn the radio on, move the throttle X times, oops got the wrong tone.

I recently found a ESC Programming Card, This little unit takes all the work out of setting up or programming your ESC for its electric powered Plane, boat, car, glider or any EP hobby toy. you simply hook these up to the lead that normally goes to the throttle port of your receiver and then apply power to the ESC.  The LEDs on the Programming Card show you your current setting and with the three Buttons you can change the setting to match your current needs.  Wow, these save time and are great to have in your flight box.

I got mine at www.airlandsehobbies.com, they are reasonably priced, fast shipping and I love that the price includes all Shipping and Handling charges. No surprises here when you get to the checkout and see what shipping cost are.

You will want one of these for your flight box and work shop! 

The Brushless Motor used in many of today Electric Power Airplanes is a great source of power. When installing the motor you will need to connect it to the ESC. The ESC will have three wire coming from it to be connected to the three leads of the Brushless Electric Motor. The wires from the ESC are usually all the same color, this sometimes confuses people on how they should be connected to the three colored wires coming from the Brushless Motor.

The best way to connect them is with gold plated bullet connectors. Just solder the male half to either ESC or Motor, and the female half of the connector to the other device. Connect your wires and try the motor for the correct rotation. If the motor runs the wrong way for your current installation, all you have to do to reverse it is change any two wires of the three that you connected. By changing any pair of wires it reverses the motor, it is very simple to do and allows you to install the motor and ESC, then easily change the motors rotation by just changing a couple of wires. Be sure to use heat shrink tubing on the connectors to protect them from shorting out. It is simple so just give it a try.

There has been a lot of talk and controversy about this subject. “Long Wires, Battery to Electronic Speed Controller or ECS to Motor?” 

With the large assortment of EP Airplanes available today it may be necessary to move the battery far away from the motor to achieve the proper center of gravity (CG) of the airplane.  It is best to connect the Electronic Speed Controller as close to the battery as possible and then run longer leads to the motor. 

According to the authorities in this Electric Powered RC Hobby, the reason for this is the inductance in the wire.  It is recommended that you keep the leads to the ESC from the Battery as short as possible. Short meaning 12” or less, and this applies to both Brushed and Brushless motor setups. It has been found that the inductance of leads totaling more than 12 inches in length may cause voltage spikes that can kill the mosfets in your ESC and may even take out the capacitors in the ESC also.

It is also said that wire inductance will not damage your motor! Wire resistance may rob you of a little power but will not damage you motor or Electronic Speed Controller.

Because wire inductance will not damage your motor is another reason why it is best to use short wires to the ESC and longer wires to the motor if need. Your motor will not be able to tell the difference in inductance of the wire even if the wire is excessive in length. Some industrial applications have hundreds of feet of wire from the ESC to the motor. 

When setting up your model it then is always best to keep the Electronic Speed Controller as close to the battery as possible, then run what ever length of wire needed to connect it to the motor.

May your landings not bounce!