Large Scale Central

Cheapest way to reverse this

Electronics
#1

I have several of these ESC’s ordered for critters and Bachman xmas 10 wheelers was wondering if there is another way to reverse the motor other then a servo hooked to a switch.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__9090__Turnigy_20A_BRUSHED_ESC.html

and another question for probably Tony, if 2 ecs are turned on at the same time with one tx then the tx would control both (MU)ing them correct??

if that is true if one esc is in channel 3 and the other in say 1-2 or 4, why couldn’t the two trains then be controlled at the same time in different directions?? or does an ESC have to be plugged into channel 3??

#2

Wow! Only $4.95. Doesn’t get much cheaper than that. Here is my mini- product review …

Limited to 12V max, so with voltage drop in the controller, you will see at best 11V to you loco’s motor. OK with many small critters. Bachmann 10 wheeler will be a bit slow.

2KHZ PWM frequency, so you will hear your motor screaming 2KHZ at you all of the time. (Turn up the sound system - but if you are only going to spend $4.95 on a controller, you likely don’t have a sound system. Now you do … 2 KHZ constant whistle !

Since the unit has a loss of throttle failsafe (nice for aircraft), you will need to keep the transmitter turned on at all times, thus consuming TX batteries on a regular basis. Not so good for continuous running.

How to reverse? DPDT switch wired into the motor output ( but this isn’t radio controlled, it is manual). See my Simple Critter Control manual for wiring diagrams.

And speaking of manuals, as simple as this device is, it still has two options and they don’t tell you how to configure those options.

#3

layout is point to point operations layout for the most part, doubt there will be many times when the controller would be turned off anyways.

as for the other part of my question, I found the answer here - http://www.gscalecentral.co.uk/f/tm.aspx?m=38253

oh and the guys from across the big pond are using 14v with no problems with this esc

#4

Mark: there is a pretty simple way to reverse the motor direction using the ESC that you have. It will require a 12V DPDT Relay and a R/C switch circuit. The R/C switch circuit would plug into the receiver on one of the channels that would normaly be used for landing gear operation, which is usually a toggle switch. The output of this switch would ve wired to the coil side of the relay along with a blocking reverse diode across the coil terminals. You would then wire the output of the ESC through the contacts of the relay like you would for a manual DPDT switch.

This method would just require you to flip the toggle switch on your transmitter to reverse the polairty of the motor to change direction of your train. Total cost would be about $15.00 of less, depending on who you purchase the R/C switch from.

Dan S.

#5

Dan is correct.
I would urge caution though as it would then be possible to slam the loco from full speed forward to full speed in reverse, and believe me children will do it just to see what happens, no matter how carefully they are monitored.
You can imagine what that does to loco gearboxes.

#6

I went with using a servo to flip a dpdt switch, made the connection so that in order for the switch to throw all the way you have to move the fine tune bar under the throttle over then use the throttle lever left or right to change the direction. Just throwing the throttle switch over actually isnt enough to change the direction. Dan I still will look at this device at Hobby King cause if it is about the same prices then it might be easier to wire up :slight_smile: Thanks for the advice

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