Electronic Speed Controls, Why they are better.

[Psman32@af]

The first part is quoted word for word from Radio Control Car Action and deals with the performance only of these little speed contorls. Thank you RCCA for printing this article to help all of the R/C guys out there. The second part will be other ways the ESC's are better.

Why is an ESC better?
To understand the benifits, of an ESC, you must first understand the basic nature of a battery: it's either "on" or "off" and thats it. As soon as your radio trigger moves from neutral to forward throttle-regardless of how far it moves-the pack pumps a full 7.2 volts. Now, we know the car doesnt just go at full throttle all the time, so where is the "extra" juice going? In the case of a mechanical Speed Control, battery power is sent through a resisotr on its way to the motor. As you might guess, that isn't an efficient way to control throttle.
An ESC works on an entirely different principle. Instead of wasting power with a resistor, an ESC switches the motor on and off very quickly to control a cars speed. The on/off pulses are very fast- 60 cycles per second (60 hertz) at the very least with switching rates as high as 4000 hertz. The higher the switching rate (better known as "frequency")), the smotther the throttle feels and the more effiecnt the ESC operates.
In addition to giving you longer run times and more precise throttle contorl, an ESC lightens and neatens your car or truck by doing away with the MSC and the throttle servo and linkage required to operate it. An ESC also requires much less maitance-as in none.
With the exceptions off the extra dough it will take to upgrade to an ESC, there's absolutely no downside to swapping your MSC for any one of the electronic units in this guide.




Thats all im gonna post out of the magazine for now.
This is something that me and MBTN came up with.
ESC's won't run away from you when the battery gets low, it just stops or barely goes. When you vehcile gets out of range, it will stop and not keep going (I've had that happen and just glad that the battery was low) You will have nothing to burn your self on because the resistor and its case get VERY hot. They are easier to use and do not need to be reset often if at all.
Thats all i can remember now (I closed the IM).

[carmaster]

Cool, this has really helped me out cause I'm gonna buy an electric car when I sell my truck!

[VR6ERS]

Step up to Gas powered cars and stop B.Sing:smoka:

[Psman32@af]

I have a gas truck, but my electric car can beat it any day of the week. Stop B.Sing bout what? its all the truth. In fact, im gonna go out soon and run my car somewhere, just not on my street cause there is too much glicthing on my road. last time i did my car slammed into the curb at about 20-25 mph. The only damage was a loose set screw in my axle.my gas truck would probaly have had more damage than that if the same thing happened. Well im gonna go run my car cause i just got a new motor and 8-cell battery so now this thing will really tear up the streets.

[Dave12345]

ESC's also have somthing called dynamic braking.

It depends how it's setup, but with the car in motion, and bringing back the stick (to slow down). The motor is turned into a dynamo.

The power from the motor is fed back into the battery (preserving power for racing), plus the extra resistance on the motor slows the car down.

There is usually 2 adjustments on the ESC to setup how the dynamic breaking works.

Now how many of you knew this about them!

I raced 12 scale carpet racers back in the early 80's for many years!
The poor mans F1 cars!

BTW In my day ESC's were called Electronic Speed Controllers, not ESC's

[Psman32@af]

Dave, I knew what you said, but the recharging feture is not standard on all esc's, yes most have them but all do not. Thanx for sharing that because I forgot to mention that. Also im not sure if I mentioned it above as I dont wanna read it again righ tnow, but MSC's dont offer braking.

[Dave12345]

Psman, I thought I would share that with the people here.

I raced 12 scale carpet racers in UK when I was a kid. They were very advanced for the time, had ESC, and diff. They also had suspension setup very similar to a F1 car of the day. To make them grip on the carpet we used somthing called Track Tight. This was basically an acid that melted/softened up the tyres so they griped better.

The cars were very expensive about £300 for somthing you could compete with, remember this was 16 years ago when I was 12, i'm 28 now.

I've never had any involvement in model cars since, however I wish I had kept doing it more, there great fun, and take real skill to setup and drive correctly.

Reading this forums has brought back the memories.

[Psman32@af]

Yeah they still have traction compoud additives now that are made for the different tires. I wish i could find someplace near me that raced pan cars . Everyone around me only likes the touring cars, I dont know why. I feel that pan cars are so much better. yes they dont have for wheel drive or gear differentials, but for the most part, the better driver wins, not the person with the most money.