Andy Kunz writes:

> Have done several [RC speed controllers].  What features are you
> looking for?

Hmmm, good question. I will post this reply to the PIC list because a
lot of people have responded to Jason Brown's offer of code for a
speed controller and so there must be a lot of interest in what you or
anyone else may say, Andy. My apologies to people who have no interest
in RC hobbies.

I have a cheap forward/reverse controller already and now I want to
make one for racing (it's a Losi XX). So forward only, with low
resistance, below 10 mohms. I will probably use two or three of the
MOSFETS that have 11mohm channel resistance. I have a stock motor at
the moment but it is possible I will go to modified in the future. Are
there any hints on the maximum and continuous current ratings a good
ESC should have? I don't know whether I should bother with braking
because the car slows down quite quickly after setting the control to
neutral. I don't know about using a temperature cutout because the one
on the ESC that I already have has never operated yet. I don't know
about torque limiting because 1) I don't think I need it and 2) it
would require extra components (Op amp, pot, comparator?) to include
it. And I don't know if my Futaba RC controller is so instable that I
should use the one-touch setup system (like Novak's) or whether I can
just use a fixed set of pulse times for zero and full forward. Also, I
don't know if it useful to have an LED output that indicates when full
power is being applied. Basically, the only thing I know that I want
is the forward only MOSFETs with low resistance.

        1. Forward only
        2. braking
        3. over-temp cutout
        4. torque limiting
        5. one-touch setup
        6. LED indicator

I am tending towards features 1, 2, 5 and 6.

Mal Goris
-- http://www.nfra.nl/~mgoris/