Programming the ESCs

The electronic speed controller controls the motor and therefore a lot of options are available and it is up to you to customize your ESC so it behaves as you wish.

You can, for example, make the ESC brake up the motor and the propeller when it is shutdown so the propeller don't spin until it decelerate naturally and stops. You can also set at which speed your motors start and if you want the ESC to cut off the power when the voltage is low (meaning that you don't have enough battery anymore).

All the different modes that can be configured are in the ESC's manual.

Here we will just set up the throttle which indicates at the ESC the range of power that it can give to the motor from the transmitter command. This is essential otherwise you cannot use your ESCs.

The following process has to be done with each ESC.

Make sure you don't have any propeller attached to a motor.

1) Connect only one ESC to power (to the distribution board in our case) and make sure the battery is disconnected.

2) Put the ESC pin's in throttle channel of the receiver (in our case channel 3).

3) Power up your transmitter.

4) Put the throttle to maximum position on your transmitter.

5) Power up the distribution board by connecting the battery to it. You can also use some alligator clips and connect directly the battery to the ESC.

6) After some beeps, you should hear a musical tone with 4 beeps. After this first music put throttle at minimum position on your transmitter.

7) Wait confirmation from the UBEC, given by a beep.

8) Close the transmitter.

9) Remove the power (disconnect Li-Po battery)

To test it:

1) Power up the transmitter with minimum throttle position.

2) Connect the battery.

3) Gradually increase the throttle to maximum power. The motor should spin faster when you increase throttle.

The first motor is now configurated, you can repeat this process for each motor.

Next, connect the ESC's pin to the right multiwii pin that give commands to the motors.

The D3 channel is actually the second set of pins from the left.

The - should be connected to the black wire of the ESC's pin.

You should have something like this:

Complete and Continue