ESC Learning ins and outs of ESC

[Eggy 71]

I thought I'd continue this in a new thread. I kind of high jacked the take off and landing thread. To recap, while trying to start my 450L in stunt mode mid stick (80% throttle) nothing happened except I fried the ESC or motor or both. Basically I'm trying to figure out what went wrong so I don't do it again. Everything was working well just prior with a slow startup in normal mode. Was it the ESC was applying to much current to a stopped motor that burnt things up or something else?
Part 2 of my lesson, what is the gov function all about that guys were talking about in previous threads. If my ESC was switched one way or the other would that have burnt it up?
Lastly part 3 what is this 'slow start setup' that's referred to in the takeoff and landing thread?

Setting up ESC is still quite a mystery to me so I guess I got some learning to do. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[trainrider06]

Hi Derek, ah the mysterious ESC (Electronic Speed Controller)!
Ok I'll try to answer in order here...
First off, an ESC will just burn out for no reason, so probably nothing else to blame in that case.
But I wouldn't rule out maybe the motor itself also possibly having an issue with a high resistance to where spooling it up like that reared its ugly head and helped create the failure. The good thing is it happened on the ground and not in the air!

Secondly, I am pretty sure there is no governor setting in that particular "stock ESC" with the 450L.
The governor is a case by case preference of people flying heli's. All governor is really is a set steady head speed. And is basically how a real helicopter flies, a set head speed and varied by the pitch of the blades. Myself only within the last few months have started flying in governor mode. I've found that I am preferring this more and more to say a flat throttle curve that I usually ran.
You'll still use the flat curve in governor mode but your RPM, and head speed is more accurate. Without governor mode you may have say a flat throttle curve of say 80 percent, but that can vary causing a less smoother flight experience than with governor.
The esc's most use that have a decent governor are Castle, Hobby Wing, and a couple others that I can't remember right now.
I highly recommend a Hobby Wing though, while Castle and others have good governors they can be a pain to get set up. Where as the Hobby Wing is pretty easy and straight forward as well an excellent governor function!

Right now, if I were you I'd get yourself a 60a HW ESC as a replacement for the 450L (that's what I run on mine, 60a Platinum Plus v4). And just set it up without governor first. Get the program box (it makes it very very easy to set up). If your budget is tight a Hobby King YEP ESC is a good alturnative also, but get the program card with that, really any ESC you buy, if it has a program dongle or card get it too. Way way better setting up verses the old beep and stick method! I think Smoogie has or does use that ESC on one of his heli's, and another member named holtneil. The YEP has a good governor also, but is a little more involved to set up. If I were you though, I'd just set it up without gov for now whatever ESC you get. Just use a flat throttle curve for now. Just get used to that.
Finally the slow start feature that has to be programmed in is where your preference of how long the heli spools up in the beginning. I try as set mine pretty slow, I like to let mine slowly turn over. It's more like a real helicopter. Those spool up rates vary from ESC to ESC.
If you go back to the stock ESC, those are pre programmed, and they are to be programmed with the beep and stick inputs.
Although I couldn't tell you how to get into the program mode for a stock ESC, am sure if this is possible at all to do the info is out there somewhere on how to.
Hope this helps at least some....

 

[D.O.G.]

Hi Derek, ah the mysterious ESC (Electronic Speed Controller)!
Ok I'll try to answer in order here...
First off, an ESC will just burn out for no reason, so probably nothing else to blame in that case.
But I wouldn't rule out maybe the motor itself also possibly having an issue with a high resistance to where spooling it up like that reared its ugly head and helped create the failure. The good thing is it happened on the ground and not in the air!

Secondly, I am pretty sure there is no governor setting in that particular "stock ESC" with the 450L.
The governor is a case by case preference of people flying heli's. All governor is really is a set steady head speed. And is basically how a real helicopter flies, a set head speed and varied by the pitch of the blades. Myself only within the last few months have started flying in governor mode. I've found that I am preferring this more and more to say a flat throttle curve that I usually ran.
You'll still use the flat curve in governor mode but your RPM, and head speed is more accurate. Without governor mode you may have say a flat throttle curve of say 80 percent, but that can vary causing a less smoother flight experience than with governor.
The esc's most use that have a decent governor are Castle, Hobby Wing, and a couple others that I can't remember right now.
I highly recommend a Hobby Wing though, while Castle and others have good governors they can be a pain to get set up. Where as the Hobby Wing is pretty easy and straight forward as well an excellent governor function!

Right now, if I were you I'd get yourself a 60a HW ESC as a replacement for the 450L (that's what I run on mine, 60a Platinum Plus v4). And just set it up without governor first. Get the program box (it makes it very very easy to set up). If your budget is tight a Hobby King YEP ESC is a good alturnative also, but get the program card with that, really any ESC you buy, if it has a program dongle or card get it too. Way way better setting up verses the old beep and stick method! I think Smoogie has or does use that ESC on one of his heli's, and another member named holtneil. The YEP has a good governor also, but is a little more involved to set up. If I were you though, I'd just set it up without gov for now whatever ESC you get. Just use a flat throttle curve for now. Just get used to that.
Finally the slow start feature that has to be programmed in is where your preference of how long the heli spools up in the beginning. I try as set mine pretty slow, I like to let mine slowly turn over. It's more like a real helicopter. Those spool up rates vary from ESC to ESC.
If you go back to the stock ESC, those are pre programmed, and they are to be programmed with the beep and stick inputs.
Although I couldn't tell you how to get into the program mode for a stock ESC, am sure if this is possible at all to do the info is out there somewhere on how to.
Hope this helps at least some....

I just recently started to use the Gov. mode my self . Well explain Rodney.

 

[Smoggie]

I'm sure that the stock Align ESC does have a governor, not a very good one but it does have one. The manual should explain how to use it but if the stock ESC is toast then it's a moot point.

'Soft start' or 'slow start' is a feature you should find on any heli ESC that causes the ESC to gradually and smoothly increase it's speed on startup. This is really important on a heli because if the motor just goes instantly to full speed it will strip the gears and damage the blades, or worse. For an ESC fitted to an airplane driving a prop the soft start would usually be disabled so that the motor speeds up almost instantly. On a heli it's important to make sure 'soft start' is enabled.

 

[trainrider06]

I'm sure that the stock Align ESC does have a governor, not a very good one but it does have one. The manual should explain how to use it but if the stock ESC is toast then it's a moot point.

'Soft start' or 'slow start' is a feature you should find on any heli ESC that causes the ESC to gradually and smoothly increase it's speed on startup. This is really important on a heli because if the motor just goes instantly to full speed it will strip the gears and damage the blades, or worse. For an ESC fitted to an airplane driving a prop the soft start would usually be disabled so that the motor speeds up almost instantly. On a heli it's important to make sure 'soft start' is enabled.

I've seen some of the hard core 3D guys use the quick spool, and I just cringe, but I guess time is of the essences when going for scoring points. I like how mine does the real helicopter spool up though.

 

[Eggy 71]

I've been doing a little research on ESCs. The stock one actually has governor and soft start settings but I didn't know that at the time. This is my first heli that wasn't bnf so I've been learning lots through the build. On the original setup of the 3gx gyro I did set the throttle limits but didn't know there were other settings on the ESC. Thinking back now I believe I ended up in the ESC set mode and left the stick at low position and altered all the factory presets. I was hearing 5 single beeps on power up but didn't know what that meant. I would have reset the startup to airplane mode. I'm kind of thinking that's what fried the ESC . Trying to start in stunt mode without a soft start . Any thoughts.

 

[trainrider06]

you'd might aught just try and spool up slowly in idol 0, set the esc to soft start, for now I wouldn't worry about trying to crowd the thinking about running governor. I'd just concentrate on getting the thing up in the air, the only thing about that is the 3GX I hear can be a little tippy on take off. Starting off in stunt, with a high spool up is a monster shock to the gears and motor, your liable to strip the main right off that way. If your bound and determined to use the stunt mode spool up use soft start.

 

[Eggy 71]

My normal startup was in normal and manually increasing throttle. I'm quite comfortable with that. I was just reading some threads discussing startups so I was trying to see the difference. Won't do that again for a $50 fix.

 

[Tony]

Starting the helicopter in IU1 or 2 is how I do it every time and I have never had this issue. I think this was just a fluke and nothing you did. Just a bad FET.

 

[Smoggie]

Starting the helicopter in IU1 or 2 is how I do it every time and I have never had this issue. I think this was just a fluke and nothing you did. Just a bad FET.

+1 Starting in idle up by releasing throttle hold is how i start every heli I own every time. Providing you have set the ESC for slow start this wont cause any problem for the ESC. Even if you didn't have slow start set the ESC would be ok but the gears and blades would be probably damaged. The fault most likely is something unrelated, maybe just bad luck, maybe some other issue like a bad connection on one of the motor bullets.