Speed controller

[Vapouriser]

I have an IP trallee and Dingle pick up which I am trying to radio control. Never heard of speed controllers till recently sand IP had none at the time. My lical radio control shop couldnt help as its an old unbrudhed motor. Someone said they had used mtronics micro viper which I bought. I finally fitted today. The controller lit up and that was all. I went back to the model shop where I bought the Futaba 2er from and they were not familiar with mtronics. How many batteries does it take. Good question I thought. No idea. 4 on the r/c As far as I knew you bought these things , plugged them in and that was that. I dont now even know which way to put the current through. Its a bit of a problem this as its for a youngster who has waited long enough and I would be very grateful for help.

[Vapouriser]

I think I ve learnt a lesson. Dont tinker with things I know nothing about. I m going back to the model shop , I ll buy a motor and controller which suit each other and thats the end of it. A very expensive lesson but I wont be doing it again.

[Chris Cairns]

As far as I knew you bought these things , plugged them in and that was that.

Sadly not quite the case but these are good ESCs.

You said its an old unbrudhed motor - it is either a brushed motor or a brushless motor and each type uses a different ESC. I assume the IP Eng motor is a cheap brushed motor and that you bought the Mtronics brushed ESC. Did this not come with an instruction sheet? If not you can download it here - http://www.mtroniks.net/resources/MICROVIPERR_2.pdf Unfortunately myfreeforums will not let me attach the PDF file to this posting for some reason or other.

So the minimum input is 4.8V and your IP Eng motor is designed for 3V so I would not use a higher voltage battery pack than 4.8V. The ESC is fitted with BEC (Battery Eliminating Circuit) so you do not need to supply power to your receiver (I suspect you may be plugging the receiver pack into your receiver). Having wired up your motor and battery pack to the ESC you need to calibrate the ESC to your transmitter - the procedure is laid out in the instructions - please note the ESC must be plugged into the right channel of your receiver for the throttle control (normally Channel 2).

Having completed the calibration procedure the ESC is now ready for use.

If you are still having problems either post it here or sent me an PM - a photo or 2 of your wiring set-up would help fault finding.

I use an earlier version of the Mtronics Loco ESC in my IP Jessie and it works great.

Chris Cairns.

[Vapouriser]

Chris. Youre good! I fiund out something very similar to what you have said in my model shop. Ha tested the motor at 4.8 volts and said that was probably a bit much for it. But the cheap betteries I had were not suppling enough voltage to get past the esc and make the motOr work at all. I am waiting for some enepool batteries. Still not sure if it will work as by using small openings on the r/c so the railcar is only travelling slowly things should be ok. If it really too slow then I ll have to invest in a lower powered speed controller. Unfortunately being on holiday till 3 October I ve got a long wait! Thank you for your help. Jonathon

[Chris Cairns]

Hi Jonathon,

You have found one of the functions of the BEC. When the voltage gets below a preset level it will cut off the power to your motor. Whilst not applicable to your loco application this function still supplies power to the other channels which allows you to land an aeroplane, etc. just with no engine power.

One way to reduce the power you are giving to your motor is to reduce the amount of transmitter stick movement during the ESC calibration procedure. For example instead of going to fully forward then back to neutral, try only going half way forward then back to neutral, and repeat for the reverse calibration as well. This works well when you are setting up a loco so it will not be too fast for inexperienced drivers. You can experiment with how far to move the stick during the calibration procedure to get an authentic scale speed.

Chris Cairns.