When looking for ESCs, there are many criterion one must first consider before even comparing one ESC to other ESCs. Our combat robot ESC selection must first start by narrowing down the search pool to ESCs that follow our design requirements. The first design requirement, is that this ESC MUST be reversible. Many, if not all ESCs for drones and toy airplanes are usually not reversable. The motor must be able to go forward or backward for turning while in place and going in reverse to maneuver the arena. This creates a requirement of a bidirectional brushless ESC or an H-bridge for a brushed motor. Since the team selected brushless motors, bidirectional brushless ESCs are necessary. The next constraint is the battery power supplied to this ESC. Since the battery selected is a 5S voltage battery pack, the ESC must have a range including 5S. The next design requirement for the ESC is the amperage going into and out of this ESC. The ESC required for the motor selected is about an 80A ESC. This is approximate as the ESC CAN operate less than the 80A, but will have less power, or can operate at slightly more as then the ESC is just not regulating the full potential of its larger amperage rating. However, the closer to 80A the better. Some of the desired functions of this ESC include: cost, closeness to 80A rating, shipping time (as construction needs to start as soon as possible), size/weight, and braking/programming capability.
Here are the functional requirements for the selection processes. Not one solution was selected to be the baseline for all functional requirements since there was a lot of variance across solutions:
| Functional Requirements | Weight/Priority | ESC1 : ZMR 80A Bidirectional
|
ESC2 : YEP 120A LV (2-6S)
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ESC3 : Jocestyle 2-6S 80A
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ESC4 : ZTW Mantis Slim 80A
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ESC5 : DYS Aria 70A Blheli_32
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ESC6 : HobbyKing X-Car Beast Series ESC
|
| Closeness to 80A rating | Medium/High | Perfect | 40A over | Prefect | Perfect | 10A under | 40A over |
| Reversibility percentage | Medium | 100% | 100% | 25%/50% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Braking capabilities | Medium | none | EMF brake, F3A brake, signal lost for 3 seconds power off, safe power mode | Power off from signal error | brake on/off | has braking | programmable breaking |
| Delivery speed | High | 17-25 days | 2-4 days (+$6.80) (only 1 left in stock) | 15 days | 14-19 days | 3+ weeks | 2-7 days |
| Size/weight | Low | ~40g | 100g | 76g | 57g | 9.5g | 145g |
| Cost | High | $22.02/ea | $60.27/ea | $36.09/ea | $53.99/ea | $38.98/ea | $55.38/ea |
Now, plusses and minuses to indicate pros and cons in each section to find a most viable ESC:
| Functional Requirements | Weight/Priority (out of 100) | ESC1 : ZMR 80A Bidirectional | ESC2 : YEP 120A LV (2-6S) | ESC3 : Jocestyle 2-6S 80A | ESC4 : ZTW Mantis Slim 80A | ESC5 : DYS Aria 70A Blheli_32 | ESC6 : HobbyKing X-Car Beast Series ESC |
| Closeness to 80A rating | 15 | 0 | – – | 0 | 0 | – | – – |
| Reversibility percentage | 10 | 0 | 0 | – – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Braking capabilities | 10 | – – | ++ | – | 0 | 0 | + |
| Delivery speed | 35 | – – – | – – | – – | – – | – – – | + |
| Size/weight | 10 | 0 | – – | – | 0 | +++ | – – – |
| Cost | 20 | + | – – | + | 0 | + | – |
| Total Plusses: | 20 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 50 | 45 | |
| Total Minuses: | 125 | 160 | 110 | 70 | 120 | 80 | |
| Total Score (Plusses – Minuses): | -105 | -140 | -90 | -70 | -70 | -35 |
CHOSEN ESC:
The ESC 6: HobbyKing X-Car Beast Series ESC was chosen. Although this ESC is not perfectly 80A rating, it has been recommended that sometimes it is better to have a higher rated ESC rather than one lower or closer to the specified rating to prevent ESC blow outs. If we deem this current to be too high for the motor, we can always give less current, and we most likely will only give around 70-80 amps. On the good side, this ESC offers a fast shipping rate of about 2-7 days, a cheap price, a breaking feature included, and programmable reversibility making a great choice for this design.
specification sheet:
https://cdn-global-hk.hobbyking.com/media/file/264719761X1465900X55.pdf
Links:
ESC 1 – https://www.ebay.com/itm/174539580387?chn=ps&var=473742365017&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=473742365017_174539580387&targetid=1493508405745&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9006948&poi=&campaignid=15434774774&mkgroupid=128740808805&rlsatarget=pla-1493508405745&abcId=9300764&merchantid=433606182&gclid=Cj0KCQiArt6PBhCoARIsAMF5wahmtrGyGR3ZXFsEbF964Yw38hRTjr9ICR8aPFvdPJNt_kSO1L0-VDcaAlwfEALw_wcB
ESC 2 – https://hobbyking.com/en_us/yep-120a-lv-2-6s-brushless-speed-controller-with-selectable-sbec.html?wrh_pdp=2&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google_us_shopping&countrycode=US&gclid=Cj0KCQiArt6PBhCoARIsAMF5wag7XEvBhqIXsdX8TfWPvj7rPfW0kgTUWRNoG-934GIvdPx5sm1-O58aAvhyEALw_wcB
ESC 3 – https://www.walmart.com/ip/Jocestyle-2-3S-2-6S-30A-50A-80A-125A-200A-Boat-ESC-RC-Brushless-Speed-Controller-D/875127484
ESC 4 – https://usa.banggood.com/ZTW-Mantis-Slim-80A-SBEC-8A-Brushless-ESC-Speed-Controller-For-RC-Models-p-1245344.html?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc_organic&gmcCountry=US&utm_content=minha&utm_campaign=minha-usg-pc¤cy=USD&cur_warehouse=CN&createTmp=1&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc_bgcs&utm_content=sandra&utm_campaign=sandra-ssc-usg-all-newcustom-ncv90-0420-19cov&ad_id=432153545270&gclid=Cj0KCQiArt6PBhCoARIsAMF5wagKt6IIvSLrap19bWpODMieF8M73-ZzEtIV4Lw0AK_ow7dS151m5oEaAjXwEALw_wcB
ESC 5 – https://robotmatter.com/products/dys-aria-70
ESC 6 – https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingr-tm-x-car-beast-series-esc-1-8-scale-120a.html?wrh_pdp=3