Hi, in a project for school I need to control a brushless motor with an ESC, but I couldn't afford the RC receiver.... Does anybody know how I can implement the throttle signal to control the motor through the ESC?

I've been searching on google to no avail... Thanks in advance!!

 

If ESC stands for electronic speed control, how, exactly, does it work? Is the controlling input a voltage or a changing resistance?

 

The ESC takes the same signal as any other model servo control. Look up servo tester. A pulse of about 1.0 to 2.0 mS with a repeat rate of 50 Hz will give you full on/off control (i.e., the center pulse width is about 1.5 mS).

Repeat rate can be increased to 150 Hz or so for many brands of servos, which makes it easier to use hardware PWM on a microcontroller, if you wish. Simple servo tester designs are based on the 555 chip.

John

Edit: Here are links to two designs that use only a single 555:

http://www.hobbyengineering.com/appServoTester.html
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/gadgets/servo3.htm