12. Designing an Arduino-Based Electronic Speed Control (ESC)

Chapters 9 through 11 explained how to control motors using popular boards such as the Arduino Mega and Raspberry Pi. This chapter puts aside existing boards and explains how to design a motor control board from scratch. To be specific, the goal is to design an electronic speed control (ESC) capable of controlling a brushless DC motor (BLDC). As discussed in Chapter 3, “DC Motors,” an ESC receives low-voltage signals from a controller and generates the high-current pulses needed to drive the motor.

For the sake of simplicity, this chapter’s ESC will be constructed as an extension board for Arduino family of circuit boards (particularly the Arduino Mega). This means the extension board ...

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