Whenever I begin a conversation with "I've been thinking", by wife gets a certain fearful, nervous look...

Hmmm....

I have a bunch of brushless motors and aircraft ESCs...
To reverse the direction of a brushless motor, you reverse two wires...
I like having full stick travel for forward throttle...
I have several unused channels on my receiver...

It would be pretty easy to wire a remote switch to reverse two motor wires. (A DPDT relay would do the trick.

That way throttle is throttle, and one of the switches (gear) shifts the motor into reverse.

Anyone done this?

Seems doable... but easier to just get a reversing brushless esc...

its worth a try! just try to keep the wiring as short as possible, and make sure all three leads have the same length, you don't want to create a different resistance between the poles. The ESC relies on EMF feedback from the motor to gauge speed, if its a sensorless motor and controller. complicating the motor leads could confuse it, or even burn it out. maybe use a fuse to limit the esc, in case something goes wrong.

might be possible to work out a mechanical reverse, like a transmission, that way the motor always runs the same direction.

If you want to go the mechanical rout this post should offer a “maybe” solution!

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=148

By the way RGinCanada for me it's the wife who says " I've been thinkg" that gets me nervous! Last time we ended up with a baby!

Originally Posted by patmat2350

Seems doable... but easier to just get a reversing brushless esc...

Easier.. bah!

The appeal is that the throttle stick is 0-100% throttle, with idle or off at the low position, rather than being idle at center, with 50% throw for reverse, and 50% throw for forward.

I might breadboard this just for fun, testing for functionality, and to see if anything blows up when I flip it into reverse at full throttle

It's really just a software issue. A lot of ESCs have been hacked. You might want to ask around, DIY Electronics maybe, and see if your ESCs have been.

Any electrical means would need to be able to handle the power you'll feed your motor.

As for the length of the leads being an issue, that's not true. The unpowered lead goes into a high-impedance input on the ESC. All the EMF effects are within the motor - the ESC is just watching the voltage on the line to detect the zero-crossing, and it has special logic to account for the pulses crossing 0 before the real zero-crossing.

Andy

Originally Posted by Rmay

If you want to go the mechanical rout this post should offer a “maybe” solution!

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=148

By the way RGinCanada for me it's the wife who says " I've been thinkg" that gets me nervous! Last time we ended up with a baby!

I hear you. Of course, you can do much, much worse than a baby

Duncan's work is art. I had forgotten about that gearbox.

Heer, I've tried a Savage (HPI) reverse module as a mechanical solution on an IC engine, definitely doable, have a pic somewhere I think... Boo

RG, hereby the pics I have of my concoction, the boat as it was didn't go that far, trial on the water was one of seconds because I had a prop lock, ....don't ask I've turned much wiser

At the second run the pull rope of the motor broke and I gave up doing that PT hull on IC The trick is the push and pull off the servo on the module, I've attached mine with a spring like push rod with a lever. The push rod acts as a servo saver but also lets the gears, when switching, mesh somewhat gently!

I'm sure you'll come up with something if you go this way! Boo

pkboo: That's a pretty cool setup.

Seems like an awfull lot of work, but hey it's your prodject and if you have the room mand all the other fun stuff.....go ahead. I prefer the K.I.S.S. approach though.

I will be the first to admit that my biggest experience with brush-less goes back to my old life as an industrial Automatons techniction, and the Brush-less set ups I worked with where called Variable frequency drives and typically where these giant things running off of 480v

I think, if pressed, I could still program a Allan Bradley 1305 VFD....

in any case, yes, flopping the wires would "work", but at the very least, I wouldn't slam it into reverse at full throttle.

Hi RG,
I used an old mechanical speed controller in my logging barge to forward and reverse the windshield washer pump to flood and empty the ballast tank. If you have a 3 way switch on your transmitter, you can control the mechanical speed switch reversing your leads. Really simple and cheap. (speed control switch is operated by a servo)

If fitting an electrical reverser, relay or wiper board, it is important to make sure that the contacts can handle the current, and that there is some form of interlock to ensure that the motor is stopped at changeover.