ESC Testing and Comparisons
 

I'm not sure if you all seen my latest video. I am working on testing and comparing ESC's. Before I do, I need to put together some notes on what all you racers look for in an ESC. I will only be testing the stock class ESC's because, I have to limit the testing due to available funds. So you are all aware, I only have basic knowledge of ESC programming, So, I will keep the testing simple.

Here's what I want to test and need to know:

• Top Speed with a load
• Acceleration to top speed with a load
• What adjustments need an external programmer vs what can be programmed at the ESC.

If there is anything else you would like to see, let me know. It will be a month, or two, before I start. I'm working with WMH Racing on the equipment I will use for this project.

It's a noble idea but I think it may be a waste of your time and money. If the criteria for determining if an ESC is good or bad is how much power the motor it's hooked up to makes, they are all the same.

The reason they are all the same is two factors. First, they all have near-zero internal resistance, the second is that at full throttle an ESC is effectively an analog system, there is no drive frequency to consider, when the sensor says the motor is at the correct angle, it energizes the winding, then when it clicks over the next 120 degrees it clicks off. Things like drive frequency are part-throttle only.

You can select an ESC based on other features, or a higher capacity one if you want to race modified.

Max amp BEC? Just some variable load on it and a scope/voltmeter to see when the voltage becomes unstable.

This is my theory on ESC's as well, and the reason why I haven't been too anxious on getting into it. However, there are still way too many people claiming one ESC is faster than another and/or one ESC is too old to be competitive. It's exactly why I got into testing motors, but I know motors are all differently built.

goes back to what I l’ve mentioned previously. 90% of the racers locally dont know what benefits a tuned motor or esc settings actually do. Load or no load on a motor on the bench wont help if the actual gearing at the track is off. At best a racer will gear up one or gear down one and say it feels better one way and really not know why. Too many variables in esc settings to perform a which is better comparison IMO. Over the last year or so I’ve played with both Hobbywing and Tekin and I like them both but I feel I get much more useable info from the Tekin datalog that helps me fine tine the motor timing and gearing. I definitely need to be at the track the same time as you and observe your process and learn something new myself ………TICK, TICK, BOOM

I'd be interested to know the brake strength. Top speed is unlikely to be a factor.

Maybe interesting regarding the ETS rules, how well is the RPM limiter?

As I started to drive clubraces with FWD I did follow the club rules to get my electronics. Later it became clear the club rules were a bit outdated. I bought an HW juststock G2 while at the moment the G3 is used. I thought I was fooled but then some people said the G2 runs just a little bit more RPM giving a 1 to 2km more top speed so I was lucky.

I think it would be great to know which ESCs can be programmed without an external programmer, and what settings can be adjusted with and without one. It’s not the easiest info to find.

That should be in the instruction manuals which can be downloaded. It doesn't make a lot of sense to purchase a bunch of ESCs to check that part out.

The biggest difference I felt between various ESC was when running partial throttle. At the same frequency, some feel a little punchier and others feel a little smoother. Never felt a difference in top speed per see, but I think that in stock, an ESC with more punch at partial throttle helps to get out of the corner and navigate through technical sections quicker. I can definitely see that in mod, you would want more smoothness to help with throttle control. Now, I'm pretty sure that pretty much all high end ESC can be tuned and will end up pretty much equivalent.

Martin Paradis

I do believe that just about all ESC's will work the same if they are programmed properly. I also believe that the moto used will greatly affect the brakes. I have seen this by swapping motors on my buggy to test this. I found a torquier motor had stronger brakes.

I'm curious about this. In my very limited experience, one seems to have quite a bit more punch than the other. Speed is the same but I'm curious about time to target w/load

Can you check the accuracy of zero timing (blinky) and timing setting?

At this point, I cannot. I never thought of that, but maybe I should.

In case of blinky some degrees off in the positive direction could explain why some ESC's are more popular than others.