I'm attempting to set up a proboat marine ESC as a pump control, and connect it to the landing gear toggle switch, and am not having any luck getting it to work. I'm assuming that it's because it thinks there is no "off" position. The radio I'm using is a 75 mhz skyport 6, a non computerized radio. If I plug the ESC into another channel (say the one usually used for sidemounts) it kicks the pump on as expected, so I know my wiring is correct and the ESC is operational. Is this one of those deals that it's not going to work because of the radio or some other issue and I'm wasting my time trying (on this channel), or am I doing something wrong?
I'm not the electrical type so I can't tell you why the ESC won't work but I know what will, a simple electronic on/off servo board from either Team Delta http://www.teamdelta.com/products/prod2.htm item RCE 210 or Pololu http://www.pololu.com/catalog/category/53 items 1210 or 1211 Either one is plugged into your gear channel and works as a on/off for the pump and can be scotchcoated so it can be left in the free-flood area of the boat. The Pololu's are surprisingly robust, we've been using them in MD this past season with no failures. Tom T.
Check the endpoint ajustment (if availble) on the transmitter and any. if the ESC you are using is a reversing one, you may have problems getting it to arm if you can't set one end of the travel to where the esc thinks 0%throttle is. It sounds like an arming issue to me, but I have never used the proboats
That's what I thought the problem might be. There is no endpoint adjustment on the throttle, so my thought is essentially the ESC doesn't know what to do. I gave up on it last night and just put the servo/micro-switch combo back in which works exactly the way I want it to. Why fix what isn't broke?
Have you considered a cheap aircraft ESC? That's what Gascan and I use for all our pumps now. Potted in epoxy and completely waterproof. And, since it's FWD only, no reverse issues. It probably won't be confused by your switch.
Sorry for the long delay in answering. Not sure why the Proboat doesn't want to work on channel 5 but suspect you may be correct on the EPA part of it. I vageuely remember trying out a Proboat on the pump and not getting it to work. Now, I tend to use low cost aircraft or marine ESCs for pumps in formats that have GPM limits.
Proboat ESCs have always been quirky imo. I remember one causing some headaches pondside and it ending up on the bottom of the pond via a swift flick of the wrist. Das Butts
I've got 4 of them I picked up a while back. All of my ships until now have used MAG throttles, so I'm experimenting. I imagine if I used my 2.4g radio I could get it to work since everything is computerized. Since I want to use the old skysport in the light carrier, that's not an option. I have everything working the way I want it to work with servo and micro switch, so I'll just stick with that for now.
The ProBoat ESC might be too smart for it's own good. The ESC I use for my pump requires a bit of programming when first turned on each time. When powering up, I have to make sure the TX control is set to it's lowest position, when first juiced up, the ESC will beep indicating it needs to be set by cycling the TX channel so it can read the high/low range of the signal. After this it works great. Maybe the ProBoat is looking for a similar start-up sequence? FYI, I'm using the cheap $10 brushed unidirectional motor controllers from Hobby King.
