2 ESCs 1 Motor - can two ESCs drive a single brushless motor?

Support my work / pawelspychalski
In the previous episodes of this series, we checked if you can connect two motors to on ESC. In this one, let's check the exact opposite scenario: what happens when you connect 2 ESCs (in parallel) to single motors and open the throttle. Spoiler alert: no, it does not work, and the motor stutters.

[@melihkarakelle7618]

Great video, 3 Phase Sensorless ESCs are not only driving the motors. They are also sensing the magnet positions by reading the zero-cross point of the floating wire. So, you cant connect them as parallel when internal comparator, power supply and the crystals have slightly different outputs. In your case, one of the ESCs are firing the different coil and the other ESC is thinking it's a generated EMF by the magnet and so on. Cheers :)

[@TheBaconWizard]

So you think a sensored setup mmight work ok?

[@joecrupi9381]

Quirky as usual Pawel - love it!

[@lurgy1]

When I first saw the vid title I wondered if u we’re going to use 1 esc for forward and the other for reverse

[@h2o-fpv623]

Great video andgood experiment thank u for the lesson.

[@maddercat]

Glad this video exists, I was totally going to try this. LOL

[@fabiom7078]

what if you use two independent power sources? one for each esc?

[@noelrojas-bq7el]

can you make the two esc in series connection to make it 4s?

[@Athiril]

Hmmm, is it impossible to use some diodes from one ESC to the other or to the motor so current can only be drawn towards the motor, and have that ESC as "dumb", while the other ESC can flow in both directions read position, and simply allow the motor to draw some of the current through the other ESC via diodes?

[@samaeltm]

Good , I think the same

[@bigpowerrecords923]

How will the dumb esc learn how to sync?

[@fjtoysaeromodels2176]

Can you do this with brushed esc and motor?

[@mihailgeorgiev1108]

What about sending the signal from 1 ecs direcrly to the transistors of the others

[@tkostang]

So what about in series? And have you tried this with a sensored setup?

[@MCsCreations]

Well... Not the smartest idea, let's say. 😬 Great work, Pawel! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@Rick-yf1lt]

Did u try calibrating the esc's maybe they r firing at different times

[@ThriftyToolShed]

My only suprise is no magic smoke. I really thought it would produce smoke quickly. Chances of the 3 phase fire in harmony not good.... I have had luck with some controllers being larger running more than one motor though....

[@13FPV]

Not the same fases were used by the ESC’s in this setup... Redo the test but make sure that the BLHeli settings on both ESC’s are set to normal or reversed direction... Still won’t work, but maybe for a bit longer than 3 seconds...

[@diveflyfish]

Dzien Dobry Pawel, I have a question for you. Would it be functionally possible to use two AIO boards Stacked Act in concert to drive each four motors either as a quad Octo set up four props up four down, or if in configuration to set one board 45 degrees offset, as a planar octocopter? Or would the FC's fight one another. Conceptually as a dual redundant FC as purpose and function. Just curious. Thank you for your videos!

[@FPVUniversity]

That is a very good question! I don't think it's a good idea and I will cover that extensively in the next Q&A video

[@diveflyfish]

@@FPVUniversity Dziękuję Ci

[@frasersteen]

LMAO, you absolute legend. Result was disappointing but not exactly surprising.

[@sharik_rahat]

Have you ever wondered what would happen if we replace the mosfets of a esc with higher rating mosfets to increase the current rating of the esc? Or what if we parallel solder additional identical mosfets to the existing ones to increase the current ratings?

[@KelkieFPV]

im on the edge of my seat squinting for the bang and nothing. disappointing really lol thx for doing stuff we dare not to mate!!!

[@poechudraco32]

What about this with sensord motors .. if it's all parallel wouldn't them sinc do to the polarity revived threw the sensor wires.. because30+30=60Amp would be interesting, or a 300Amp rc car.. motor won't survive it but be interesting

[@sprytnyfpvfreestyle5263]

Cześć Pawle. Ja taką właśnie akcję robiłem tak 2.5 roku temu. Oczywiście w afekcie ułańskiej fantazji bo miałem 20A a potrzebowałem 40A. No to myk jak by to zrobić. Spaliłem 2 esc. Skończyło się na tym że potrzebny by był synchronizator fazy i to przełączalny. Więc taniej wyszło nabyć nowe esc. Próbowałem jeszcze później rozkminiać temat ale z braku czasu porzuciłem temat.

[@Hyperious_in_the_air]

I wonder if you can pull the traces on one board to get the control logic of a single ESC to run the fets on both ESC's. That'd make issues with losing sync between the two a non-issue.

[@FPVUniversity]

No, not really. I mean it's technically possible, but then you just add additional FETs to the mix. Nothing survives of the second ESC.

[@sompongpire3027]

What about 2 motors with 2 ESCs on one signal line from flight controller? Will that work?

[@FPVUniversity]

That will work just fine

[@denilpt6792]

Bro please test ,modify cheap esc with external parallel mosfets ,,,current test

[@NOXFPV]

I was thinking about this the other day.

[@FPVUniversity]

so now you know :)

[@typxxilps]

Don't you have to sync the ESCs like you have to sync a solar power system to the grid if you want to connect them ? That is part of the phases games.

[@blise518B]

Yea if you want it to work you need them to be in sync. Some escs also support that but our Drone escs not.

[@dcabrick]

Not sure if this was asked in the comments below but can you then connect two escs to one motor but only use one esc at a time? Connect the two to separate channels on the receivers? Swap between channels via a switch? Thanks!! Asking for a friend! LOL!

[@FPVUniversity]

I seriously doubt it would work. I mean motor would spin most probably, but ESC will struggle to detect zero crossings and most probably efficience would go down

[@dcabrick]

Thanks, I am trying to come up with a solution for reverse thrust using ESCs that don’t have a reverse function! Any ideas?

[@FPVUniversity]

@@dcabrick two H-bridges between ESC and motor might work. But just buy a reversible ESC, might be actually cheaper more more reliable

[@dcabrick]

Dziękuję!! I am having a hard time finding one that works with Jeti and has telemetry. I am new to RC so sorry for the rookie questions.

[@neail5466]

I believe it's not only the phase difference or the trigger channel, it was due to cross talk* ( not what we mean true crosstalk,) it is -one esc is sensing other's signal as back emf and tries to compensate for that and same for the other so they miss the true backward signal from the motor . Thankyou for trying though.

[@mrdrone1386]

Maybe need a esc same beep... code??

[@dustinhoulihan6571]

Can you wire it in series

[@FPVUniversity]

How? It's a 3 phase motor, how to wire 3rd phase in series?

[@mrugrysek4201]

You may cut the gates on the one and drive them from the other ;-)))

[@MrGazhay]

Prepared to burn up two ESC's and a motor for science! (Or a YT video) but still, I like it! It makes me wonder though if it would be possible to make an ESC that could be upgradable in Amp rating like adding more fets and caps on a small board. The image in my head is similar to adding RAM to a PC, a small board with fet's caps etc that can slot into an expansion port on an up-gradable ESC. Just a thought! :-) :-)

[@thienvu4503]

How about connect in series?

[@FPVUniversity]

Let me answer with question: how to connect two 3-phase motors in series when every one of them has 3 wires?

[@thienvu4503]

@@FPVUniversity it's 6 wires because you forget the common wire. I am trying to increases the power of a LG washer motor by using 2 original washer controllers.

[@sparrow082]

Not that I expect you to try this experiment again but I think I have an idea what might have gone wrong. I think the 3 phases were out of sync on the ESC's . Even after you got both ESC'S spinning in the same direction, I think the read channel was out of sync. It makes sense to me that the motor would still spin because BLHeli uses a right before read function which would allow both ESC"s to pump energy into the motor before monitoring for the 0 cross. At low power this would theoretically still cause the motor to spin, Then cause D-sync as the power increases. If you used and an oscilloscope to align all 6 faces it might work better-ish. 🤷‍♂️

[@anthonyclark7290]

This can't work without phase synchronizing the 2 units

[@olafschermann1592]

Maybe sensored motors work better than sensorless with shunt to measure the correct position.

[@FPVUniversity]

There is no shunt only back emf detection

[@adansyahdan9319]

What if.... Make it 2 flight controller father than 1. What if... Just using servo tester, without using flight controller, but also parallel the ESC in-out voltage..😁 Great experiment.

[@batman_uwu]

You can try using 3 esc with only one wire connected to the motor each...

[@YuriuSSS]

I think, only one of two ESC's must be with microcontroller. It means you may just add mosfets from one ESC to another. Pain in a butt

[@denilpt6792]

I was searching that for a while, does any body have done that

[@DadsRCHangar]

Interesting idea 🤓

[@vapgames]

Connect 2 escs power in series! Wonder if the speed is gonna be divided in half.

[@shelbybrunhoeber2576]

How would you do that? It wouldn't like it, you can't because there are 3 phases, series might work if it's brushed, but this deals with electric pulses and phases. Probably would get magic smoke

[@vapgames]

​@@shelbybrunhoeber2576 I mean the power wires in series, not the phase wires.

[@ho-xo8my]

@@vapgames xD

[@hienkn360]

Cool experiment! What about connecting 2 ESC in one straight line instead of parallel? 🤔

[@MrLootshoot]

Nonsense