Incompatible ESC? Or is there anything I can still try?

[aesmith]

Hi,

I'm trying to get my RTF electric glider to work with a decent radio, in place of the supplied gear. The plane is a TW-742 "Sky Hawk". For testing I am using a 35MHz Futaba receiver, with an old Futaba Challenger transmitter and now with my newly acquired Hitec Optic transmitter.

The problem with both is that the ESC does not shut the motor off completely, it feels like it runs at 30% or so even with the throttle fully closed. With the Optic I set the throttle EPAs to 125% both ways, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. The ESC is unmarked for brand, and uses a push-button to arm it - ie after the plane is powered up the ESC doesn't respond to throttle until the arming button has been held down for a couple of seconds (a nice safety feature, but apparently no that usual so maybe that will give a clue as to the maker). All the other channels work properly, only throttle misbehaves.

Edit - I tried using the Optic with the original supplied receiver and that doesn't work at all, none of the channels respond in the slightest.

Anyone have any ideas? I would prefer not to have to replace the ESC, as its a brushed motor so replacing the ESC is putting more cash into old technology.

Thanks in advance, Tony S

[RCModelReviews]

ESCs for brushed motors are (or were) really cheap so I'd be tempted to just spend the $10 or whatever on a new one -- I suspect that is the cause of your problems.

[aesmith]

Cheers I think that's what I'll do. Its a bit more than $10 I think, as they all seem to come without connectors and it'll cost a few quid to add those. My favourite low budget supplier doesn't do any brushed stuff so I think it'll need to be an Ebay purchase.

[ransideous]

hobbyking .com, cheapest brushed lipo ready plane esc i've seen.