Working and Applications of ESC-Electronic Speed Control:

Electronic speed controller. Used to control the speed of different types of DC motor.Based on types
of motors, there are 2 types of ESC: 1) Brushed ESC

2) Brushless ESC

1) Brushed ESC:

These ESC are used to control the speed of Brushed DC motor. These types of ESC were used in
early stages when Brushless DC motors were not so popular. The Brushed ESC are easily available
and cheaper compared to the Brushless ESC. As shown in figure when MOSFET 1and 4 are
conducted, the motor will rotate in one of the direction and when MOSFET 3 and 2 are conducted,
the direction of motor will changes. To change the speed of the motor we need to change the
voltages given to the motor terminals. PWM technique is used to control the voltages. So as the
higher the PWM duty cycles then higher will be the voltages and vice-versa is also true.

2) Brushless ESC:

used for control speed of BLDC motor. BLDC has advantages over conventionl brused motor as
following: BLDC motors has less vibration, high efficiency, less noisy. The weight of the BLDC motor
are less than the conventional brushed motor.in conventional motor or brushed motor , spark may
produced due to commutation problem, but in BLDC motor this problem overcomes.

Working prosses of BLDC:

When dc supply apply to coil, the coil are energised and create electromagnet. the operation of
BLDC is based on attraction between electro magnets and permanent magnets .when coil a is
energised ,the coil a and magnet pole are attracted. In coil a the current should be in such a direction
that it produced electromagnets different than the pole which comes to coil.in other words the
opset poles of electromagnet and permanent magnet are attracted .when pole rich to coil a ,the coil
b is energised, so again the electromagnets(stator coil) and permanent pole are attercted.

The draw back in this operation is that only one coil are energised at a time and other two coil are
free from supply. and hence output power of the motor is reduced.to overcome this problem,the
coil behind the pole are also energised, in a such way that it will push the rotor.means repultion
between rotor and coil.to make this kind of operation , we have to supply same polarity current in
next coil. This operation produced high torque and more power output from previous opration.
Hence by applying this operation the BLDC produced constant torque.

To operate BLDC how to know which coil is energised and when to energize? So, we use electronic
controller for this purpose. Sensor determines the position of the rotor, and based on that controller
designed which coil is energised. Most of hole effect sensor is used for this purpose. The out runner
and in runner BLDC are available in market.

As discussed above operation of BLDC motor, we have to create such types of wave form, so that
by applying waveforms we can operate this motor directly. This types of waveforms are made by 3
phase inverter. We have to use 120 degree conduction mode. Output of inverter is directly apply to
coils of BLDC motor.

To control the speed of the bldc motor we need to know the position the rotor of motor.to find the
position of the rotor two technique :

1. by using hall sensor

2. by using back emf in free coil.

There are two types of esc: the types of esc is classified according to the technique used to find the
position of the rotor.

1. Sensored ESC:

◦ used to control sensored Brushless Dc motor.

◦ uses hall effect sensor to get rotor angle.

◦ This ESC can be used to the BLDC motor with high as well as loquew speed.
 2. Sensorless ESC:

◦ used to control the sensorless as well as sensored Brushless DC motor.

◦ uses back emf to estimate the position of rotor.

◦ This ESC can be used to the BLDC motor with high speeds.

Sensorless ESC
Just changing the switching frequency of the inverter circuit ? No, sensorless ESC can also have
feedback. In Brushless motor, when the moving magnetic field of rotor pass through one of the free
coil of stator, the back emf will be induced in the free coil due to the magnetizing current. on when
this back emf becomes that.
Sensored ESC
These ESC are having closed loop system by using the hall effect sensors inside the motors.
Sensored ESC are used when the Back EMF is not so powerful to show significant change in the free
coil so the Hall effect sensors are used to take signals in the ESC. Hall effect sensor will give the feed
back of rotor position to the microcontroller from which we can control the speed.

Components Used in ESC:

 MOSFET / IGBT
 MICROCONTROLLER
 PCB TO PLACE THE COMPONENTS
 CAPACITIVE FILTERS
 RESISTERS
 BUCK CONVERTERS
 VOLTAGE REGULATOR
 Battery
Important parameters of ESC: ESC design under some important parameter. Voltage rating of ESC;
Current rating of ESC; Selection of Electronic Switch; Driver circuit; Control circuit; Feedback circuit.

Voltage rating of esc:

Battery voltages should not be higher than the maximum voltage that ESC can
suffer. Continuously output of battery’s current need to be bigger than the ESC’s.
Depends on components of ESC as well as power source. E.g. maximum voltage
withstand capacity of electronic switch. Voltage rating of power source like SMPS
and Ni-Cd or Li-PO batteries. As voltage on ESCs are sometimes given in the form of
number of cells to be connected in series. E.g. Input Voltage: 3S-6S Li-Po or 6-20s Ni-
Cd. Means its rated for 12-24Volts.Working voltage of the motor is depends on the
ESC, whilst the voltage of ESC is decided by the output of batteries. Hence the
voltage of batteries should be equal or less than the voltage of motor.
Current rating of esc:
Depends on current rating of an BLDC motor. Means upto which maximum of
current ,bldc can work. and also bldc cureent rating provided according to
requirement of torque. Because current can control the torque of BLDC motor.
Depends on current carrying capacity of electronic switch during on state. i.e. more current
means more heat will be generated according to I^2*R. Current rating of power
source like SMPS, battery. i.e. if current Rating of SMPS is suppose 2A and if we draw
higher amount of current without using proper filter circuitry then current chopping
will be there in the ESCs. Current rating of turnigy plush esc is 10 A. means it can
carry current upto 10 A, not more than that. If current is higher than 10 A ,esc is burn
suddenly. and if 10 A is flow for long time will heat up the esc and damage as well.
Selection of Electronic Switch:
Selection of Electronic Switch is Depends on the switching frequency of
electronic switch. Depends on Voltage withstand Capacity of electronic switch. Also
Depends on Current handling Capacity of electronic switch. In General, for low-
voltage, low-current and higher switching frequency operation MOSFETs are
preferred. Whereas IGBTs are used where there is high voltage, high current and
lower switching frequency operation.
Selection of Driver circuit:
P-MOS and N-MOS combination (C-MOS configuration) that is complimentary mosfet
cofiguration. Easy to design driver hardware. But less likely used as it can only be used
in low current devices due P-MOS current limitations. We use both p MOSFET and n
MOSFET in divining of ESC. Because due to limitation of p mosfet. The limitation of p
mosfet is less likely used as it can only be used in low current devices due P-MOS current
limitations. And Problem with N-MOSFET is It requires Vgs greater than threshold Voltage
as shown in figure.so we use C-MOSFET configuration.

Using Isolated Power Supply for High side MOSFET driver:

In order to control the torque of dc motor, we have control the current of the DC motor.
So to control the speed and torque of the motor. Following four steps must be done.

1) Measure the current which is already flowing through motor.

2) Compare the measured current, desired current and generate an error signal.
3) Amplify the error signal to create correction voltage.
4) Modulate the correction voltage into motor terminal.

 To control BLDC motor this process is done 1000 times in 1 second.

These are four main steps to control the speed of BLDC motor. 

Step 1: Measure current which is already flowing through motor.

   Measure current of two phase and by Kirchhoff’s law measure the 3rd phase current. So the 3rd
current is equal to sum of first two current and net current can be calculated as shown in figure .so
resultant flux is perpendicular to the resultant current.
 Step 2: Compare the measured current and desired current and generate an error signal.

In DC motor the flux is always perpendicular to rotor field axis. Angle between rotor flux and rotor are
constant. So once we know the position of rotor, we get position of the rotor flux in permanent magnet
motor. And to know position of the rotor we use some kind of sensor. The angle is always taken with
respect to a phase. And also desired current is also rotating with synchronised speed. So desired
current reprentetaend in two vector.
Direct axis and qurtacher axis. Means IS current reprentetend in two vector Iq
And Id. And this can be done by forward park transformation. 
And we need all current on d axis and q axis. Because as above all line current is perpendicular to
rotor flux. So we have to maintain value of Id equal to zero.
As say above we have to compare desired current and measured current. But this doen separately.
Means desired iq is compared with measured iq . And desired Id is compared with mesured Id .and also
desired id is equal to zero.  And we have to provide desired current accounting to desired torque and
speed.

Step 3: Amplify the error signal to create corrections voltage.

In this step we error signal are amplified covered into V by pi converter. and we get two voltage e.g. Vd
and Vq.

step 4: Modulate the correction voltage onto motor terminal.

Once this is done , we have to provide Vd And Vq provide to the The supply terminal. But the problem
is that we have 3 terminal at input. So we need to convert V d and Vq. into three terminal. and also Vd
and Vq. are rotor axis reference frame. But supply should be provide on stationary part. So these two
voltage should apply on voltage frame. So we have to provide V d and Vq to reverse clark-park
Transforms and it converts the rotor axis frame into stationary voltage frame. Stationary voltage
frame are Va and Vb. So Vq and Vd converted into the Va and Vb . this calculation can be done by sine
and cosine formulas. Va and Vb creates voltage vector V.
 Hence this V should be desired one to provide our wanted speed. And accordingly three phase
regulated supply voltage be apply by this hole controlling technique.
This technique is known as FOC (Field Oriented Control).