Someone please explain this - ESC Motor wiring matters?

[FighterCat57]

I thought brushless motor wiring didn't matter?

I have two separate controllers that ONLY operate brushless motors if wired in a certain order. If two of the three wires are reversed, it will just sit there and shake back and forth like it's retarded.

I've still got some more wire mixing, but I can confirm switching two wires is the difference between running and not.

This behavior is on outrunners. I have not tested with inrunners. If that matters at all. Suppo ESC and HeiFei ESC act this way.

I'm really

[danielplace1962]

I thought brushless motor wiring didn't matter?

I have two separate controllers that ONLY operate brushless motors if wired in a certain order. If two of the three wires are reversed, it will just sit there and shake back and forth like it's retarded.

I've still got some more wire mixing, but I can confirm switching two wires is the difference between running and not.

This behavior is on outrunners. I have not tested with inrunners. If that matters at all. Suppo ESC and HeiFei ESC act this way.

I'm really

When I have a motor that does the shake it has usually meant one connector wasn't making contact. ???? Sounds like a jackhammer. LOL

[FighterCat57]

It's not a hard shake, just a light shake and intermittent.

I switch the wires and it goes away, switch them back and it shakes again.

This is confusing, but very cool, as I now have 4 ESC's I thought were bad that are NOT.

[SweetAccord]

Did you try a different motor?

[LiPo Power]

When your cables are properly connected, is the motor spinning properly?
In normal case scenario when you reverse motor wires motor will spin backwards but it will still spin properly....
Go with SweetAccord quastion to try....

[FighterCat57]

Did you try a different motor?

Yep. Several different motor/ESC combinations. Not all motor/ESC combinations do it though.


Here's a video sample;



FAIL;
blue - red
red - yellow
black - black

FAIL;
blue - black
red - red
black yellow

FAIL;
blue - black
red - yellow
black - red

Run!
blue - black
red - red
black - yellow

Probably shouldn't have mounted the camera in the jet wash.

[LiPo Power]

That is weird... What if you can install motor only one way and the spinning is not the way you need to be? How would you reverse rotation of the motor? We do this by reversing ESC to motor cables... Strange.
What ESC is this?

Run!
blue - black
red - red
black - yellow
That is what I have on my UL-1 but if I reverse wires she will still spin properly but with reverse rotation.

[FighterCat57]

That is weird... What if you can install motor only one way and the spinning is not the way you need to be? How would you reverse rotation of the motor? We do this by reversing ESC to motor cables... Strange.
What ESC is this?

Run!
blue - black
red - red
black - yellow
That is what I have on my UL-1 but if I reverse wires she will still spin properly but with reverse rotation.

There's more combinations of wire colors that work, not just one, factorial possibilities.
blue - yellow
red - black
black - red

works as well.

[FighterCat57]

That is weird... What if you can install motor only one way and the spinning is not the way you need to be? How would you reverse rotation of the motor? We do this by reversing ESC to motor cables... Strange.
What ESC is this?

Run!
blue - black
red - red
black - yellow
That is what I have on my UL-1 but if I reverse wires she will still spin properly but with reverse rotation.

BTW- Remember the brand new dead ESC I was going to send you free? You should have coughed up the $5 for shipping... Turns out, all I had to do was switch the motor wires and it works... Think I'll keep it now though.

[FighterCat57]

AAAAAARGH! Confirmed on yet two more ESC's I thought were DEAD!

OK, so out of 5 ESC's I though were dead, only two are, because I hacked them up and used them as BEC's. Fortunately they were only the $15 ESC's.

The cool part is I now have a working Swordfish 120 for my little 24" mono. I think I'll try my epoxy cooling theory on it as I yanked the cooling plate when I thought it was dead.

Just a plug for these ESC's, it has been tossed around in a junk box, thrown across the garage and generally well mishandled and now works like a charm. =)

[tharmer]

I wonder if it's the timing?
-t

[FighterCat57]

I wonder if it's the timing?
-t

You may have hit the nail on the head! I haven't hooked up the HeiFei to the PC/USB to configure it yet, it was only being bench tested. That may be why. I think it ships low timing.

As for the others, they haven't been programmed yet either, just bench testing. Outrunners need 15degrees to start, perhaps having the timing too low could cause this intermittently?

[drwayne]

Yep. Several different motor/ESC combinations. Not all motor/ESC combinations do it though.


Here's a video sample;



FAIL;
blue - red
red - yellow
black - black

FAIL;
blue - black
red - red
black yellow

FAIL;
blue - black
red - yellow
black - red

Run!
blue - black
red - red
black - yellow

Probably shouldn't have mounted the camera in the jet wash.

you want to try that again ?

[drwayne]

Id hazard a guess these unprogrammed ESC have a LVC too close to the connect voltage of your batteries.
On inital spool up the lvc activates, rests, clips again.. stttttttutter .
The SF series have "limp home mode' which ignores lvc(V>90% of set lvc) if Th <10%... else dead.

[FighterCat57]

you want to try that again ?

Good catch, actually powered it off and then back on and it failed right after the vid.

I ended up using this combination.

blue - yellow
red - black
black - red

It's interesting that it worked, then failed.

BTW- The reason I finally caught this is because this is the first motor that I've had with multi-color lead wires. Typically they are all same color and the pattern is no so well pronounced.