BBB Beetleweight Single Brushed ESC v3

(9 customer reviews)

£16.50

Designed and assembled in house by our very own Gareth we’re very excited to make our totally custom beetleweight brushed ESCs! All the specs you need in a brushed ESC – centre braking, safe start, failsafing, current limiting, higher voltage support, built in BEC and of course the signature startup tone! Each ESC will happily run two brushed 22mm or 25mm motors per ESC per drive side (these are single not dual ESCs). Pairs well with our BBB 22mm Planetary Gearmotors at 3-4S lipo – two of these ESCs will work well for 2 or 4 wheel drive. Example robot, more ESC info & wiring instructions below.

  • 4S lipo support – can happily run 2 x 25mm motors at 3S, 3 x 22mm motors at 4S
  • Small and lightweight at 6g – can save weight by shortening wires
  • Current limiting – high current motors (eg – nerfs) shouldn’t blow up the ESC
  • Center braking –  brakes motors when the sticks are centered for better control.
  • Failsafing – no unexpected movement when transmitter is off / loses signal
  • Safe start –  stick must be centered to arm (short beep/flash until stick is centered)
  • Built in BEC – enough current to power a receiver, use external BEC for servos etc

Also a great option for brushed weapons such as 37mm motors for lifters/axes/grabbers.
Do not use two BECs at a time – more info on this below. 

10 in stock

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Size

26x15x3mm (main pcb)

Weight

~6g (can save weight shortening wires)

Input Voltage

2-4S Lipo recommended (6-16.8V)
up to 6S (not recommended)

Motor Output

10A Continuous (Current limited)
13A Peak

Center Braking

Built in. Motors stopped by zero signal.

BEC

5V 0.15A

Example Robot: Abracagrabra by Rebecca Wilton

Rebecca built this magical lifter robot Abracagrabra – she runs two BBB Single Brushed ESCs – one per side each powering two BBB 22mm motors, see the wiring diagram below for how to add four motor drive to your robot.

More info about the ESC:

LED indicator light & beeps:
Start up beep = ESC has just powered on – it is receiving power and is connected to motor(s).
Solid LED = Powered on. Receiver ready, ESC is armed.
Flash & beep with short gap = Powered on. Throttle isn’t centred.
Flash & beep with long gap = Powered on. No receiver signal.

Mixing:
Check out our full mixing guide – to make it so you can drive your robot with one stick on the transmitter.

Firmware updates:

  • BN1 & BN2 on PCB 75% duty cycle (slower output speed)
  • 24/3/23: BN3 on PCB –  100% duty cycle – full speed output
  • 17/1/24: BN3 + 3 written on PCB – Improved resistance to motor noise. More ways to fix for noisy motors below.

Do not use more than one BEC at a time – see both diagrams below
Unplug/cut the red servo wire on all but one ESC if you wish to power your receiver with a built in BEC.
Cut the red servo wire or tape over the metal connector to prevent risk of shorting.
If you’re powering a servo or other higher current components use an external BEC and disconnect all other BECs.

Typical Beetle Wiring Diagram using these ESCs:

Please note: these are single ESCs and you will need one per drive side of your robot. You’ll need to set up mixing on your transmitter – Mixing Guide. We don’t recommend running 25mm motors above 3S, however our 22mm Planetary Gearmotors will run 4S lipos. Typical Beetle Wiring Diagram using these ESCs for two or four wheel drive:
Using external BEC – ESC’s BECS (red servo wire) are disconnected / cut:

Components in this example: 3S or 4S Lipo, Beetle Safety Kit, Breakout cable, BBB ESCsBBB 22mm MotorsBEC and Flysky Reciever.
Image made by Team DSC.

Using one of ESC internal BECs – other ESC’s red servo wire is disconnected / cut:

Fix for noisy motors causing glitchy movement above 50% throttle:

Almost all beetle sized brushed motors will work out the box with our single and dual ESCs, but a few nerf and 25mm style motors can produce enough EMI to interfere with the input signal from your receiver at high speeds. There are two things you can add to help fix this:
1. Solder 100nF (0.1uF) ceramic capacitors to your motors – if you use one per motor solder across the terminals, if you use two per motor solder from each terminal to the motor case, if you use three do both the below. (diagrams from Pololu – more info on reducing motor noise here)

2. Solder a 1Kohm resistor between the signal wire (yellow for dual, white for single) and the 5V wire (red) to help reduce interference at the input signal to the ESC.
Any questions or issues, please email us and we’ll happily help.

Microswitch End Stops

Useful for brushed weapons that don’t continuously rotate such as axes and lifters, you can attach a microswitch at each end of the range (as an end stop like a 3D printer or CNC) to help prevent stalling out of motors and damaging your gears  – connect up some microswitches like so:

image

9 reviews for BBB Beetleweight Single Brushed ESC v3

  1. Tom Farkas

    These new v3 ones are fantastic. I’m currently using them to drive a servo in Pawsitively Hissterical, and they are great. Plus, with the motor wires pre-soldered it’s even easier to get your beetle moving.

  2. Stuart (verified owner)

    Fantastic Product. I ran 2 of these on 2 of the Dragon motors (12 amp stall each) from Just Cuz and they’re performed perfectly 5 matches in a row. I took some decent hits on the day as well. The smaller form factor made fitting everything in so easy. Highly Recommend

  3. Stuart (verified owner)

    Reviewing v2:
    Work perfectly. I ran 2 of these on 4 x 22mm BBB motors at 4S for 11 minutes and didn’t even get hot.

  4. Thyrus (verified owner)

    Reviewing v2:
    Worked like a charm

  5. Reira Granger (verified owner)

    Reviewing v1:
    Worked beautifully at Rapture in Metis, work nicely on 4S and withstand some real punishment. Reliable, easy to use and set up, and great value. Highly recommend!

  6. Rhys (verified owner)

    Reviewing v1:
    Have not set fire 10/10.

  7. Chris Thompson (verified owner)

    Reviewing v1:
    Using these in my first beatle. Very quick and easy to set up and the start up tune is usefull for indicating everything is working well. Will end up getting another when the time comes to set up a weapons system using a motor rather than servo

  8. Jon-Luke Buckley (Igor) (verified owner)

    Reviewing v1:
    These are the ESCs I’m now using in Igor, and quite happily drive 2 of the 22mm motors each. I’ve had no problems so far, would highly recommend to any beetle builder.

  9. Greg Atkin (verified owner)

    Reviewing v1:
    I’m very new to the beetleweight scene but after dealing with VEX29s for my first build these things are a godsend. Light and simple to use and come pre-wired without needing to worry about chopping and changing. I’ve not exploded one yet (fingers crossed) but can honestly say these are great.

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