ESC & BEC

by Adrian Horn
(Norfolk, UK)

Although I've been an aeromodeller for many years, I've recently gone over to electric only. Would you be able to explain the difference between Battery Elimination Circuits and Electronic Speed Controllers, how the two different units work, what the applications are for each type, under what circumstances I need to put an extra battery in the model for the receiver and how to wire it please? I don't want much, do I?!
Regards, Adrian Winco Horn

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ESC & BEC

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Feb 20, 2009

ESCs and BECs
by: Pete

It's all a bit of a minefield! Essentially, a BEC removes the need for a separate battery pack to power the receiver and servos, and hence saves a lot of weight. The ESC will have a BEC built into it, and so will syphon power from the main motor battery pack to power the rx and servos.
Applications will vary, to the best of my knowledge there are no hard and fast rules with using a separate BEC over the one built in to the ESC - in most cases the incorporated BECs do the job well enough. But, if the servos are going to draw a lot of power, for example your model has all digital ones, then you'll need a beefier BEC to cope - that's usually when a separate one comes in to play.
So, as you can imagine, it all depends on the model as to whether or not you can safely use the ESC BEC or not.

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ESC & BEC

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