Arduino Controls

[lostcaggy]

My Arduino is in the rov, controlled at the moment from a pc. using usb over ethernet. I have ESC controllers driving brushless motors. Use the servo library for to drive the ESC's

[KR2_Diving]

Actually, I would like to use a motor controller for now. I went to my local hobby shop and they have ESCs, but they only have ones that work over RC, nothing that is direct wired. If I get a motor controller like an ESC, what do I need to use topside to control the speed of the motor?

Hey Sea-ker,
Dont know if you are still working on this project, or if you have solved this issue, but I first thought the same thing. All the ESCs in the local shop were for radio communication only, AND they fed voltage back through the control cable.

However, after a more in depth conversation with the guy at the shop, I learned that if you just ignore the red wire, you can control an ESC with the PWM pins on the Arduino.

I dont know if the following is the rule for all ESC, but for the one I bought, you have to be sure that the PWM pin you have the control signal wire (white) connected to is set to a minimum of 145 for the ESC to initiate properly. This gives you a range of 145 to 255 to control the ESC.

I have the White wire connected to ~9 and the black connected to the GND on my Arduino Uno.

I then connected a potentiometer to the Analog inputs. With a bit of fancy math, I was able to use the full range of the pot to control the PWM pin, thus having full control of my motor speed!

Hope all that above made sense... ask away if you have any questions, I'll gladly try to assist.

Ryan "KR2_Diving"