This May Not Be Possible? Trying To Set Up A Circuit To Push Amps Through A Board. Any Suggestions?

Thread Starter

ShockyHere

Joined Mar 2, 2021
2
I want to test an Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) it's a board of MOSFETs and MCU's that drive brushless motors. I want to solder one up to a circuit of some sort and on the other end connect motors and force amperage into it (force may not be the correct term) and see how many amps can it handle. Basically, I want to power test it. I will put a link for the ESC and I don't know if I can hook it up to a PWM signal generator and tell it to go to 100 meanwhile it's connected to a battery or power supply or what, then monitor with an amp meter that can handle 50, 60, 100 amps! The more the better.

ESC: https://www.racedayquads.com/products/transtec-25a-3-5s-20x20-4in1-esc?_pos=13&_sid=89e7e408e&_ss=r

A friend said I can purchase this https://www.racedayquads.com/produc...wbsacjFG58-qKgxPv7ekv-KO50riCPvMaAnM9EALw_wcB

and use this to turn the ESC on and off. And then use this: https://www.racedayquads.com/produc...lv8W8Qcp9qL6RL4rdmJ77mVqGOt4l0NAaAg1GEALw_wcB
to see how many amps it is pulling, obviously, i can't use a multi-meter most of them only do up to 10 amps.

The concern was that the ESC would only accept the amount of amps that it can handle comfortably, and then stop. Even at 100 PWM, I want to be able to push its limits and give it more amps than it can handle even if it does blow up, I have plenty of them.


We were trying to figure out what device, load, circuit, like what would actually allow me to put X amount of amps into the ESC and see how it does. Maybe I could monitor the power through an oscilloscope as well.

Hopefully, someone has more knowledge about this subject than we do and can lend some advice on how to pull this off. Maybe it isn't possible, Like the ESC is only going to accept the amount of amps it can handle. There may not be a device or tool or power load that can push amps into something. It may be a supply and demand thing where you offer the voltage and the ESC will produce what i can. But then maybe on the other end, the motor end i can put a bigger motor, or higher KV or a propeller with more pitch to pull more amps. I dunno, looking for some guidance, i really appreciate your time, and help.

Thank you in advance!
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,674
The motor will draw its rated current when it is driving its rated propeller at max PWM. If you overload the motor with a propeller too large then at full power the motor and the ESC will draw more than their rated current, overheat and fail. The spec for the ESC says 10s which is 10 seconds max at its 35A rating.
 
Last edited:

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,028
You need to start with going online and getting a thorough understanding of how "Ohms-Law" works.
It's really not that complicated, and once you learn it, everything will start to make more sense.

The ESC has a Maximum Voltage Rating.
Unfortunately or not, they are usually Rated for what sized LiPo-Battery you can use,
such as, 3-S, 6-S, 12-S, etc.
If you apply more Voltage than it is rated for you may instantly SMOKE-IT, even with zero-Load.

After you supply a stout Battery of LESS-THAN the maximum Rated Input Voltage,
you can attach "Dummy-Load" Resistors to the ESC-Outputs.
Proper Power Resistors this size are not cheap, they have to dissipate a tremendous amount of heat,
and may require Fan-Cooling to survive.

The other option is to select a MUCH larger
Motor/Propeller-Combination than pulls more Current than the ESC is Rated for.

All the Motor Manufacturers supply charts indicating Thrust-Figures compared with
the amount of CURRENT that the Motor will require to produce a given amount
of Thrust at a particular RPM, with a particular Model of Propeller.

If you don't understand Ohms-Law,
then you can't understand these Performance-Charts, and you are going nowhere fast.

The biggest problem with ESCs is that so many Fooolish-Bois wrap them up tight
in Electrical-Tape or Shrink Tubing,
which cuts-off every bit of cooling Air
that all those MOSFET Transistors so desperately NEED to survive..

THEY MUST HAVE COOLING AIR FLOW, on TOP AND BOTTOM
for maximum Life-Expectancy, and Performance.

EXCESSIVE HEAT IS THE ENEMY !!!!!

You have a Prop blasting Air all over the place,
and NONE OF THAT AIR is COOLING THE BLAZING HOT ESCs !!!!
They can only withstand around ~250-F degrees before FAILURE.

Also, people are desperate to brag on how light their Quad is,
so they install the smallest ESCs they can find, that won't immediately FRY and Smoke.
Dumb Move !!!!!

A Motor and Prop Combination that will pull ~25-Amps of Current,
will run BETTER, and more responsively, on a ~50-Amp ESC, ( even if it weighs 4-Grams more),
because the ESC won't generate as much HEAT,
and HEAT is 100% WASTED POWER.

NEVER use "Printed-Circuit" style Wiring between your ESCs and Motors,
again, wasted heat energy.

The same goes for Motors.
If your Motors are on the edge of SMOKING HOT,
then you would go FASTER with BIGGER, HEAVIER, MOTORS.
Because as the Motors get extremely HOT,
their DC Resistance goes UP,
this also makes the Magnets get weaker,
and both of these factors make the Motor produce EVEN MORE HEAT, until the Motor FAILS.

Your PID-Tuning can also over-heat EVERYTHING if not tweaked just right.

If you want a Top-Quality ESC, get an "APD' Brand ESC from Australia.

If you want a Top-Quality Motor, stick with the "T-Motor" Brand.

If you can tolerate slightly less Yaw Authority, (Yaw Responsiveness),
go with a 2-BLADED-PROP,
they are roughly ~30% more efficient than any 3-Blade Prop,
but you have to spin them faster, so a higher KV rated Motor will be required..
That ~30% efficiency bump means that you can run a Smaller-Battery,
now THAT'S real weight savings.

If you provide plenty of Cooling-Air-Flow to you ESCs,
just about any brand will usually perform quite well within its Specifications.
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Thread Starter

ShockyHere

Joined Mar 2, 2021
2
The motor will draw its rated current when it is driving its rated propeller at max PWM. If you overload the motor with a propeller too large then at full power the motor and the ESC will draw more than their rated current, overheat and fail. The spec for the ESC says 10s which is 10 seconds max at its 35A rating.
That
You need to start with going online and getting a thorough understanding of how "Ohms-Law" works.
It's really not that complicated, and once you learn it, everything will start to make more sense.

The ESC has a Maximum Voltage Rating.
Unfortunately or not, they are usually Rated for what sized LiPo-Battery you can use,
such as, 3-S, 6-S, 12-S, etc.
If you apply more Voltage than it is rated for you may instantly SMOKE-IT, even with zero-Load.

After you supply a stout Battery of LESS-THAN the maximum Rated Input Voltage,
you can attach "Dummy-Load" Resistors to the ESC-Outputs.
Proper Power Resistors this size are not cheap, they have to dissipate a tremendous amount of heat,
and may require Fan-Cooling to survive.

The other option is to select a MUCH larger
Motor/Propeller-Combination than pulls more Current than the ESC is Rated for.

All the Motor Manufacturers supply charts indicating Thrust-Figures compared with
the amount of CURRENT that the Motor will require to produce a given amount
of Thrust at a particular RPM, with a particular Model of Propeller.

If you don't understand Ohms-Law,
then you can't understand these Performance-Charts, and you are going nowhere fast.

The biggest problem with ESCs is that so many Fooolish-Bois wrap them up tight
in Electrical-Tape or Shrink Tubing,
which cuts-off every bit of cooling Air
that all those MOSFET Transistors so desperately NEED to survive..

THEY MUST HAVE COOLING AIR FLOW, on TOP AND BOTTOM
for maximum Life-Expectancy, and Performance.

EXCESSIVE HEAT IS THE ENEMY !!!!!

You have a Prop blasting Air all over the place,
and NONE OF THAT AIR is COOLING THE BLAZING HOT ESCs !!!!
They can only withstand around ~250-F degrees before FAILURE.

Also, people are desperate to brag on how light their Quad is,
so they install the smallest ESCs they can find, that won't immediately FRY and Smoke.
Dumb Move !!!!!

A Motor and Prop Combination that will pull ~25-Amps of Current,
will run BETTER, and more responsively, on a ~50-Amp ESC, ( even if it weighs 4-Grams more),
because the ESC won't generate as much HEAT,
and HEAT is 100% WASTED POWER.

NEVER use "Printed-Circuit" style Wiring between your ESCs and Motors,
again, wasted heat energy.

The same goes for Motors.
If your Motors are on the edge of SMOKING HOT,
then you would go FASTER with BIGGER, HEAVIER, MOTORS.
Because as the Motors get extremely HOT,
their DC Resistance goes UP,
this also makes the Magnets get weaker,
and both of these factors make the Motor produce EVEN MORE HEAT, until the Motor FAILS.

Your PID-Tuning can also over-heat EVERYTHING if not tweaked just right.

If you want a Top-Quality ESC, get an "APD' Brand ESC from Australia.

If you want a Top-Quality Motor, stick with the "T-Motor" Brand.

If you can tolerate slightly less Yaw Authority, (Yaw Responsiveness),
go with a 2-BLADED-PROP,
they are roughly ~30% more efficient than any 3-Blade Prop,
but you have to spin them faster, so a higher KV rated Motor will be required..
That ~30% efficiency bump means that you can run a Smaller-Battery,
now THAT'S real weight savings.

If you provide plenty of Cooling-Air-Flow to you ESCs,
just about any brand will usually perform quite well within its Specifications.
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Thank you so much! You are the man! I am going to begin to learn Ohm's Law immediately. This is very helpful for me, I do understand that each ESC has a rating and a tested and expected amount of performance, but I am not trying to find the perfect fit for the ESC, I am trying to test them, Manufacturer says "50 AMPS!" Well I want to create an apparatus on my bench where I can strap the ESC in (solder it up) and really find out, can this ESC handle 50 amps like advertised. And if it can, how long can it handle it? Will it pop at 51 Amps, will it go to 100 and this company is great, will it pop at 20 and they are liars. Etc. Etc. I am probably explaining this horribly.

I believe with-in your message it did answer my question, I need to set up an ESC, some how give it PWM signal, and then strap a bigger motor and propeller than what is designed to run with it, and then I should be able to push extra amps and current through it for testing to experiment and see how it does, how it handles it etc.

In this controlled environment i want to create, with a supply, a load, and a way to test and see I can also play around with the heat and cooling, maybe put a fan on it, and show how with X amount of cooling it can handle X amount more amps etc. etc.

Im sorry if i explained poorly, and thank you so much for your response it really did help me understand a lot more.

I need to look into these load resistors you speak of, maybe i can find them online.

Thanks again!
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,028
The Huge Power Resistors that I mentioned are really not a practical idea,
since you would have to have multiple matched sets of 3, all with different ratings.
Then there would be the issue of the Resistors not accurately "acting-like" a real Motor would.
You also would not be controlling the Cooling Air-Flow over the ESC,
you would not be duplicating the Battery Voltage Sag,
you would not be duplicating the Resistance in the wiring,
you would not be duplicating the incredibly abusive, instantaneous accelerations and stops,
you would not be duplicating the build-up of HEAT over TIME,
the list goes on.

There are so many uncontrollable factors that must be considered,
that would make the type of testing that you are proposing completely meaningless.

THERE IS NO "NUMBER" THAT YOU CAN ASSIGN TO A PART THAT WILL ACCURATELY
DESCRIBE ITS MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE UNDER ANY AND ALL CONDITIONS.

Why do you think that nobody else has done it ???????

What you are proposing is similar to setting-up a Government agency that spends
stupid numbers of hours abusing Electronic Parts,
under specifically CONTROLLED-CONDITIONS,
and then claiming that you are the "Authority" on the subject.

The reality of the situation is,
that these types of "Authority" organizations exist for ONLY ONE REASON,
and that reason is that,
THEY CAN MAKE HUGE MONEY BY TELLING LIES AND MANIPULATING THE NUMBERS.

Manufacturers would pay huge money if they could get any "respected" information source
to say their product is the best.

Any reasonably sharp person,
(and remember, HALF of the population of the World has a below average I.Q.,
and average is pretty low to start with )
is well aware that you can't believe 98% of the advertising CRAP that you see everyday.

What's going to make YOU more believable ??

There is a really simple system that has been in place, basically forever,
for determining which competing product you should buy.

Find out who has an income that is dependent on the performance of a particular product.
As long as they are free to choose any product available,
you can bet your life they will be using the best product that can be found.
Just be aware that Manufacturers know this as well,
and would be willing to pay Stupid-Money to that person to use their product,
so that YOU will think it must be the best.

Then there's the factor of COST.
If you have many competing products in a particular field,
and one or two of them are substantially more expensive than the others,
you can bet that there is a good reason WHY they can charge more, and still stay in business.
That reason can simply be a "perceived" value, or,
it can be a "PROVEN", and/or, "PERFORMANCE" value.

Now you know how to choose the "BEST" ESC.

And now you need to learn exactly WHAT FACTORS will destroy Electronic Parts.

There are basically 2 things that will destroy Electronic Parts,
Too much Voltage,
and too much HEAT.
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LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,028
Audioguru

It is very easy to make a fool out of someone,
and virtually impossible to get them to realize that they have been made into a fool.

The Whole World is crammed full of Propaganda ( Lies ) ........... and fools who believe it.
But not a single solitary one of those fools thinks that
they have been fooled in even the smallest way.

People don't ever question what they THINK they ""know"",
because it might turn-out that they were wrong,
and sometimes it might be in a massive way,
so, we just won't go there.
EASY, SEE !!! It's all so simple really !!!!!

Man are you in for a rude awakening.
I hope that you deal with it in a calm and constructive manner.
Best of Luck ....... Jim
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Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
The concern was that the ESC would only accept the amount of amps that it can handle comfortably, and then stop. Even at 100 PWM, I want to be able to push its limits and give it more amps than it can handle even if it does blow up,
If the ESC has in-built self-protection circuitry you won't be able to exceed its limits.
If you are planning to test ESCs against their published ratings, then you would need to know under what conditions those ratings were established, e.g. heatsink temperature, energisation duration etc.
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,028
It doesn't bother me,
because I don't consider that I have a "Right" to an "Opinion",
without first doing some serious and extensive research on a subject.

( everybody has at least two things ......
an opinion, and a rear-end,
and they usually both stink ).

And even then, it's still just my opinion.

You have to be careful to not make people "wrong",
even when you are quite sure that they are.
Making someone "wrong" is never productive.

So,
when anyone makes a foolish statement,
and the content of that statement proves beyond a shadow of a doubt,
that they are just being foolish,
I simply give them some interesting and obvious points,
that "should" make them think a little more before doing the same again.

It seems that this philosophy might have worked ..........
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metermannd

Joined Oct 25, 2020
343
I have nothing against people's personal political views, but I come here to read, discuss, and maybe even learn something new relating to electronics.

I DO NOT COME HERE TO DISCUSS POLITICS.
 

LowQCab

Joined Nov 6, 2012
4,028
I have nothing against people's personal political views, but I come here to read, discuss, and maybe even learn something new relating to electronics.

I DO NOT COME HERE TO DISCUSS POLITICS.
It would seem that you are attempting to create a problem where no problem exists.

The subject matter of this thread has already been exhausted,
which is evidenced by the fact that YOU are not contributing any of your experience,
nor asking any questions regarding this subject.

Your SCREAMING IN ALL CAPS is only likely to get this tread deleted.
So, your point of vehemently opposing what you refer to as "Politics",
(which in this case, is not Politics at all, but Life "Philosophy", a totally different thing),
is only going to detract from this thread.

Please do not impose your personal issues on everyone else here.
Life is too short to waste time on being upset.
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