WORKING AND APPLICAIONS OF ESC

(ELECTRONIC SPEED CONTROLLER)

Mini Project Report

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

of
Bachelor of Technology
in
Electrical Engineering

Submitted By:
Jay Manek (17BEE046)
Navin Khatri (17BEE054)

Under Guidance of:

Prof. Chirag Raval

Department of Electrical Engineering

Institute of Technology, Nirma University,
Ahmedabad – 382481
April - 2019
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I must acknowledge the strength, energy and patience that almighty GOD bestowed upon me to
start & accomplish this work with the support of all concerned, a few of them I am trying to
name here under.

I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my Supervisor, Prof. Chirag Raval,
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Department for his valuable guidance and
motivation throughout my study.

I would like to express my sincere respect and profound gratitude to Prof. (Dr.) S. C. Vora,
Professor & Head of Electrical Engineering Department for supporting and providing the
facilities for my seminar work.

I would also like to thank all my friends who have helped me directly or indirectly for the
completion of my seminar.

No words are adequate to express my indebtedness to my parents and for their blessings and
good wishes. To them I bow in the deepest reverence.

Navin Khatri
Jay Manek

|Institute of I
Technology, Nirma
University,
Ahmedabad
 ABSTRACT
Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) is nowadays popular in Motor Control Application to control
the speed and position of motor. After the invention of Brushless DC Motor, ESC demand was
increased like anything as Brushless motors are used in many applications of Quad-copters and
Robotic drives. There are different ESCs are available in market but from that very few are
capable of doing traction control application in ESC. As the Traction Control is difficult to
implement in the Hardware that is why most ESCs come without Traction control in it. Field
Oriented Control (FOC) is the method of implementing Traction Control in Brushless Motors.
Also the FOC specifications changes with change in the specifications of motor and the FOC
specifications should be calculated accordingly.
Here, we have focused on the generalized ESC that can perform all the operations. A ESC,
which could be able to Calibrate that specification of motor and set the PID according to the
Motor and ESC which is able to Control position as well as speed of the Motor. Moreover the
ESC which could also control the Brushed DC Motor by utilizing the same Hardware, but just
little Change in the Firmware of the ESC. In this report everything is discussed about designing
aspects and hardware Problems while designing the same.

|Institute of II
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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure No: Name of the Figure: Page No:
Fig. 3.1 Pipelining in ARM architecture 06
Fig. 3.2 Exception Handler 07
Fig. 3.3 Operation Mode Process 08
Fig. 3.4 Operation Mode Block-Diagram 08
Fig. 4.1 Selection of Microcontroller 10
Fig. 4.2 Programmer 11

|Institute of III
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University,
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 LIST OF NOMENCLATURE
Vi : Input Voltage
Vo : Output Voltage
ih : Harmonic Current
:

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 LIST OF TABLES
Table No: Name of the Table: Page No:
Table. 1.1 ARM Microcontrollers manufacturer 02
Table. 2.1 Peripherals 04
Table.4.1 Functions of GPIO in LPC1769 13

|Institute of I
Technology, Nirma
University,
Ahmedabad
 LIST OF ACHRONYMS
ESC :Electronic Speed Controller
BLDC :Brushless DC
MOSFET :Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transister
PWM :Pulse Width Modulation
PID :Proportional Integral Derivative
:
SPSR :Saved Program Status Register
CPSR :Current Program Status Register
PC :Program Counter
SP :Stack Pointer
GPIO :General Purpose Input Output
CMSIS :Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard
IDE :Integrated Development Environment
ICs :Integrated CIrcuits
SRAM :Static Random Accesss Memory
DRAM :Dynamic Random Access Memory
CU :Control Unit

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I
ABSTRACT II

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LIST OF FIGURES III
LIST OF TABLES IV
NOMENCLATURE/ABBREVIATIONS V
TABLE OF CONTENTS VI

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Microcontrollers 1
1.2 ARM 1
1.1.1 What is ARM? 1
1.1.2 ARM Family Tree 1
1.3 ARM Microcontroller Manufacturer 2
3
CHAPTER 2: CORTEX-M: CORE + PERIPHERALS
2.1 Core 3
2.2 Peripherals 4
5
CHAPTER 3: ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW
3.1 Core Architecture 5
3.2 Pipelining 5
3.3 Exceptions 6
3.4 Operating Modes 7
3.5 Load-Store Model 9

CHAPTER 4: PROGRAMMING 10
4.1 Prerequisite 10
4.1.1 Selection of Microcontroller 10
4.1.2 Programmer 11
4.1.3 Software 12
4.2 Examples 12

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE 14

REFERENCES 15
APPENDIX 16

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1: ESC -(Electronic Speed Controller)
Electronic speed controllers are used to control the speed of different types of motor. And based
on types of motors, there are different types of ESCs available in the market. So to understand
the ESC mechanism we will first go through the operation of different types of motor and based
on that we will classify the ESCs. After the classification of motors and ESC we will go towards
the actual circuitry. We have mainly focused on the Brushless motor ESC as it is most recent
trend and it is difficult to implement so we took it as challenge to make it on our own circuit
board. In the Actual circuit we will discuss about the different driver circuits and how to choose
between different driver circuits of Mosfet and we will also discuss the problems faced during
developing the circuits. Also we will discuss the control strategies and feedback used in the
ESCs. At the end we will also discuss about how can we combine all these things to make a
generalized solution. The solution product to control so many different types of motors in just
single ESC. So we will go step by step in this report according to our discussion above.

1.2: Different Types of ESC based on Different Motors

1.2.1: Main Types of Motors:
(1) Brushed DC Motor
(2) Brushless DC Motor
There are sub-types also in this motors but that is not the main point of discussion in this report.
There are different Motors for different applications but the Brushless motor is the new
technology. As it does not have brushes in it it has lower losses as compared to brushed dc
motors. Brushed Motors are electrically commutated where as the Brushless Motors are
magnetically commutated.

1.2.2: Types of ESCs:

As we have discussed the type of different motors we can classify the ESCs and go towards the
basic overview of these ESCs.
1.1.2.1 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

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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 we increase the duty cycle of the conduction of Mosfet the Voltage across the motor
terminals also increases and vice-verse is also true.
1.2.2.2 Brushless ESC:
These ESCs are used to control the speed of BLDC motor. BLDC has several advantages over
conventional brushed motor, which are as following: BLDC motors has less vibration, high
efficiency, less noisy. The weight to power ratio of the BLDC motor is also good compared to
conventional brushed motor. in conventional brushed motor , spark may produced due to
commutation problem, but in BLDC motor this problem overcomes.
Working Principle of BLDC :
When DC supply is applied to coil, the coils are energized and create electromagnet. the
operation of BLDC is based on attraction and the repulsion between electromagnets and
permanent magnets. when coil A is energized, the coil A and magnet pole are attracted. In coil A
the current should be in such a direction that it produces direction of electromagnets ( N and S)
pole different than the Permanent magnet pole, which comes nearer to coil. In other words the
opposite poles of electromagnet and permanent magnet are attracted. when Magnetic pole rich to
coil A ,the next coil B must be energized, so again the electromagnets(stater coil) and permanent
pole are attracted.
But here draw back in this operation is that only one coil is energized 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 energized, but in a such way that it will push the rotor

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to perform repulsion 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
compared to previous operation. Hence by applying this operation the BLDC produced higher
torque.

To operate BLDC how to know which coil is energized 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. So we get to know when to energize which coil. In Most of the cases
hall 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 waveform we can operate this motor directly. This types of waveform are
similar to 3 phase inverter. We have to use 120 degree conduction mode as it is most preferred in
the BLDC motor because of conduction time is such that it fits in all the operations.
To control the speed of the BLDC motor we need to know the position of the rotor and to find
the position of the rotor there are two techniques that can be used :
1. by using hall sensor or rotary encoders
2. by using back emf in free coil.

So according to the techniques used in controlling the motor there are also sub-types.
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1. Sensored ESCs
2. Sensorless ESCs

1.2.3: Sensored ESC:

In this section we will discuss how Sensored ESC perform the Speed control action in the ESC.
The Sensored ESC can control the speed of Sensored motor by getting the position of rotor from
the hall sensor. These hall sensors are mounted on the Brushless motor on the stater part of the
motor. So when the rotor rotates, the hall sensors detects the change in the magnetic field. And
According to the hall principle the voltages are generated across the hall sensor and these
voltages are given as a signal to the microcontroller to process further. And that is how the rotor
position is estimated in the Brushless ESC. Moreover there is voltage generated in the hall
sensors has at particular pattern with clockwise direction and the anticlockwise direction (as
given in figure below). Now these rotor position is given a reference of time to calculate the
speed of the rotor. In this method we also get to know the speed in clockwise as well as anti-
clockwise direction. After calculating the speed of the motor and required speed of the motor the
switching actions are taken according to the PID control constants and the error is corrected with
that particular speed.

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 As we can see clockwise direction from 1 to 6 has some hall sensor output which is different
then the anticlockwise direction from 6 to 1 as given in below table.
Step Anti-clockwise Clockwise
1 (0,0,1) (1,0,1)
2 (0,1,1) (1,0,0)
3 (0,1,0) (1,1,0)
4 (1,1,0) (0,1,0)
5 (1,0,0) (0,1,1)
6 (1,0,1) (0,0,1)
Table

1.2.4: Sensorless ESC:

The Sensorless operation can be performed in two manner. one is just based on the delay and it
just work without any type of feedback, but there is another one technique available which is
based on the feedback of the back emf of the motor.
It is used to control the Sensorless as well as Sensored Brushless DC motor. It uses Back emf
produced by the permanent magnet to estimate the position of rotor. This ESC can be used to the
BLDC motor with high speeds only whereas the Sensored ESC can be used with low as well as
the high speed of motor.

1.3: Important parameters of ESC:

Components Used in ESC:
Mosfet / IGBT, Microcontroller, PCB To place Components, Capacitance Filters, Resistors,Buck
Converters, Voltage Regulators, Battery
ESCs are designed under some important parameters.
Voltage rating of ESC
Current rating of ESC
Selection of Electronic Switch
Driver and Feedback circuit.

1.3.1: Voltage rating of ESC:

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If ESCs are supplied with batteries then Battery voltages should not be higher than the maximum
voltage that ESC can withstand. Continuously output of battery’s current need to be greater than
the ESCs Continuous current. Voltage ratings mainly depends on the 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.

1.3.2: Current rating of ESC:

Current rating of ESC mainly depends on current rating of an BLDC motor. Means up to
which maximum of current BLDC can withstand. and also bldc current rating provided
according to requirement of torque. Because current can control the torque of BLDC motor.
Current rating of ESC also 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 ESC is 10 A. which means that it can carry current up to 10 A, not
more than that. If current is higher than 10 A ,ESC is burned out suddenly. and if 10 A current is
flown for longer time then it will heat up the ESC and damage as well.

1.3.3: 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 Mosfet are preferred. Whereas IGBT are used where there is high voltage,
high current and lower switching frequency operation.

CHAPTER 2: Driver Circuit

2.1: Selection of Driver circuit:
P-MOS and N-MOS combination (C-MOS configuration) that is complimentary Mosfet
configuration. Easy to design driver hardware. But less likely used as it can only be used in low

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current devices due P-MOS current limitations. In this configuration both p MOSFET and n
MOSFET are used in the driving circuit of ESC. The limitation of P-Mosfet is less likely used as
it can only be used in low current devices due P-MOS current limitations.(refer figure )

Figure
And we can also use all the N-Mosfet instead
of the 3 P-MOS and 3 N-MOS. But Problem
with N-Mosfet is It requires VGS greater than
threshold Voltage as shown in figure. Which
is creating problem for the high side Mosfet
because the high side Mosfet does not have
source voltage is at floating voltage instead of
ground. so we use C-Mosfet configuration as
it is easy to implement.

Figure

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There is Solutions available for this problem to use all 6 N-Mosfets for driver circuitry.

2.1.1 Using Isolated Power Supply for High side MOSFET driver:

Figure
Here Isolated Power Supply for high side Mosfet driver is used in the Figure which shows that
when the input to the high side Mosfet will be given with different power supply which is
connected to give VGS voltage greater than threshold voltage to gate of the high side Mosfet.
But this technique uses 2 power supply which is not applicable in every scenario or 2 power
supplies is not always a option to select. Where it could be done with single power supply so for
that purpose we will see another driving circuity which uses single power supply to drive 6 N
channel Mosfets which is Boot-strapping.

2.1.2 High side MOSFET driver using Boot-strapping:

Boot-strapping is the technique of booting up the voltage of Source in the Capacitor and adding
some VGS voltage required to turn on the Mosfet in it and the total sum of voltage is then
supplied to the gate of the Mosfet. This Phenomena is called bootstrapping. This bootstrapping
Phenomena is applied here as shown in the circuit below(Figure). The IC IR2110 is used for
boot-strapping of the high side Mosfet. this IR2110 can drive one High side Mosfet and one Low
side Mosfet. Total 2 Mosfet can be driven by IR2110.
There are Certain calculations required for calculation of bootstrapping circuit. Which are as
follows:

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 Figure

Calculation for Boot-strap Capacitor:

Where Cg = gate Capacitance of the Mosfet.

Bootstrap Capacitor value is approximately greater than or equal to 10 times gate Capacitance.

So the minimum value of Bootstrap Capacitance is Cboot.

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CHAPTER 3: CONTROL FACTORS OF
ESC
Most Challenging task in ESC is to implement the Field oriented Control (FOC) for Traction
Control Application. Traction control means Keeping the slip of motor nearly equal to 0.
In order to control the torque of dc motor, we have to 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.

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 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 synchronized speed. So
desired current represented in two vector.

Direct axis and quadrature axis. Means IS current represented 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 discussed above we have to
compare desired current and measured current. But these 2 are done separately. Means desired Iq
is compared with measured Iq . And desired Id is compared with measured Id .and also desired Id
is equal to zero.  And we have to provide desired current according to desired torque and speed.

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 | |Institute of
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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 Vd 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 Vd 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.

7
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 Process is Repeated 1000 times in 1 second to calculate the output. The Output of the result
is utilized by the microcontroller and the signal is then converted to the PWM pulses so these
pulses are fed to driver circuitry and this is how whole process works to control everything

7
CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION AND
FUTURE SCOPE

Electronic Speed Controller are used in many applications like Quad-copters, Airplanes, UAV,
Electric cars, Electric bicycles, Drones, Robotic Drives, Mobile Robots etc. So from this aspects
we can conclude that the applications are so wide that it is used every where. In other words
every application which contain the use of motor, ESC is required there. if it is Brushed DC
motor then Brushed ESC is required and if it is Brushless DC motor then Brushless ESC is
required.
According to our study as Brushed ESC use 4 Mosfets and Brushless ESC uses 6 Mosfets to
control respective Brushed or Brushless motor. The control of Brushed motor can also be
performed by Brushless ESC as it is having 6 Mosfets and we only required 4 out of that, but the
only change required in the ESC is of Firmware. If we change the Program of the ESC it should
be able to work for Brushed DC motor.
Moreover ESCs could be revolutionize if there is only single ESC to control all the types of
motors that should include Brushed DC motor as well as Brushless DC motor. The Final Product
formed from the ESC is such that it has certain hardware and only Firmware change is required
to move from one motor to another motor. That kind of advanced product can revolutionize in
the world of ESC.

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 REFERENCES
(1) http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slyt762/slyt762.pdf

(2) http://www.ti.com/lit/gpn/ucc27714

(3) http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/FAN7081_GF085-D.PDF

(4) http://tahmidmc.blogspot.com/2013/02/n-channel-mosfet-high-side-drive-when.html?m=1
(5) https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/power/gate-driver-ics/high-side-drivers/
(6) https://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/brochure/BB3PHCRMSRART.pdf
(7) ti.com/lit/an/sprabq2/sprabq2.pdf
(8) https://www.electrical4u.com/field-oriented-control/
(9) http://vedder.se/2015/01/vesc-open-source-esc/
(10) https://www.switchcraft.org/learning/2017/3/15/space-vector-pwm-intro