Does Naza need BEC?

[Jussi]

i have 4 castle ESCs. All but 1 says"no BEC" on it. I've read people disconnect the red servo wire from the one ESC with the BEC. Is this correct? Do you just tape it up and leave it? Do I need to do anything with the other 3 ESCs?

 

[PeteDee]

All Naza's come with a PMU of one sort of another that has a BEC as part of it, if any ESC's have a BEC then disconnect the red lead.

 

[AndyPG]

i have 4 castle ESCs. All but 1 says"no BEC" on it. I've read people disconnect the red servo wire from the one ESC with the BEC. Is this correct? Do you just tape it up and leave it? Do I need to do anything with the other 3 ESCs?

If you are sure only one ESC has BEC then you only need to disconnect the red wire on that one.
It won't hurt to disconnect all the red wires if you are unsure.
Just disconnect it and insulate it.

Andy.

 

[Jussi]

Ok so I got a problem. I just got to the build where I connected the ESCs and motor to the body and want to calibrate all the ESCs at once. As suggested, I cut all the red wires from the ESCs. I bought a esc hub and connected all the ESCs to it and connected the hub to the throttle lead of the receiver. I powered the receiver with a separate, stand-alone BEC. I went through the calibration process and nothing happens. Also when I connect the battery only the ESC that beeps is the one that has the built in BEC. I know the ESCs are working because when I initially got them I calibrated them separately just to get myself familiar with the process. But I wanted to do an all at once calibration so they would all be in sync with one another.

I couldn't figure out the problem so out of pure desperation I took out one of the ESCs (this one had no BEC) and motors and reattached the red wire. Viola! Calibration success. So what's going on here. I thought the red wire was not necessary if the flight controller has a separate power supply.

 

[AndyPG]

Sounds like the red wire is needed on those "non BEC" ESC's.
Do they have "OPTO" written on them per chance.

Andy.

 

[Jussi]

No. They look like these.

http://autonomousavionics.com/products/castle-creations-35amp-ecs-expansion-pack-without-bec

 

[jinly]

Ok so I got a problem. I just got to the build where I connected the ESCs and motor to the body and want to calibrate all the ESCs at once. As suggested, I cut all the red wires from the ESCs. I bought a esc hub and connected all the ESCs to it and connected the hub to the throttle lead of the receiver. I powered the receiver with a separate, stand-alone BEC. I went through the calibration process and nothing happens. Also when I connect the battery only the ESC that beeps is the one that has the built in BEC. I know the ESCs are working because when I initially got them I calibrated them separately just to get myself familiar with the process. But I wanted to do an all at once calibration so they would all be in sync with one another.

I couldn't figure out the problem so out of pure desperation I took out one of the ESCs (this one had no BEC) and motors and reattached the red wire. Viola! Calibration success. So what's going on here. I thought the red wire was not necessary if the flight controller has a separate power supply.

how are you powering the motors and esc with the flight battery? or another bec? (when you calibrated all four at once) So I assume you have power to the receiver and power to the motor and esc connected together. If connecting the red wire to the receiver that has power indicates there was no separate power source to the esc.

 

[Jussi]

When I tested the single esc and motor I powered them the same way as I did when testing all 4. The battery powers the esc directly through the distribution board on the the tarot frame. I also temporarily soldered a separate stand-alone bec to the battery to power the receiver

 

[Jussi]

Ok so I did a little experimenting. As I said when all 4 escs were connected via the esc hub, nothing worked. But when I reconnected the red wire on of the escs with 'no bec' it worked fine. Now I also reconnected the esc WITH the bec to the hub and now both worked. I then tried connecting a 3rd esc (with the red wire still disconnected) and nothing worked. I tried disconnecting the power to the esc but leaving the servo wires connected to the esc hub and still nothing worked. I disconnected that esc from the hub and the other 2 worked again.

So I'm assuming if any esc is not working properly, none will?

 

[jinly]

i have 4 castle ESCs. All but 1 says"no BEC" on it. I've read people disconnect the red servo wire from the one ESC with the BEC. Is this correct? Do you just tape it up and leave it? Do I need to do anything with the other 3 ESCs?

Did you purchase all of these ESC's together? or Individually? It seems strange that all but one says "no BEC." If calibrating them individually works I would do that. You calibrate the throttle limits exactly like I do . You probably have not attached your receiver to the build yet (explains why you needed a separate battery w/BEC). Maybe hook the receiver to the naza for its power source and then calibrate? If that makes any sense? I have the Hobbywing Platinum Pro ESC's They say OPTO ( which you probably knows means no BEC) I ordered them all at the same time. Never had a problem doing the Calibration with that hub. Even though they don't have a BEC, I still never attach the red wire to the Naza .

 

[jinly]

Ok so I did a little experimenting. As I said when all 4 escs were connected via the esc hub, nothing worked. But when I reconnected the red wire on of the escs with 'no bec' it worked fine. Now I also reconnected the esc WITH the bec to the hub and now both worked. I then tried connecting a 3rd esc (with the red wire still disconnected) and nothing worked. I tried disconnecting the power to the esc but leaving the servo wires connected to the esc hub and still nothing worked. I disconnected that esc from the hub and the other 2 worked again.

So I'm assuming if any esc is not working properly, none will?

I bet the red wire is needed for those ESC's. Maybe they were mislabeled. Many people use the red wire with the naza. It's not proven that it is bad. I think it's a personal taste. Even if just one esc is bad the rest of the esc's should calibrate using the hub, don't you think?

 

[Jussi]

They must be. Only reason why they stopped working. I reconnected all the red wires EXCEPT the one that has the BEC. Somehow that red servo wire must either be a signal or power because the ESCs without the bec won't work without them. And for some reason if it's disconnected it seems to interfere with any other ESC that's connected to it. Maybe I'll email Castle for an explanation.

Anyways I finally got everything rewired with all the ESCs connected to the hub and all the ESCs are calibrated.

I bet the red wire is needed for those ESC's. Maybe they were mislabeled. Many people use the red wire with the naza. It's not proven that it is bad. I think it's a personal taste. Even if just one esc is bad the rest of the esc's should calibrate using the hub, don't you think?

 

[jinly]

They must be. Only reason why they stopped working. I reconnected all the red wires EXCEPT the one that has the BEC. Somehow that red servo wire must either be a signal or power because the ESCs without the bec won't work without them. And for some reason if it's disconnected it seems to interfere with any other ESC that's connected to it. Maybe I'll email Castle for an explanation.

Anyways I finally got everything rewired with all the ESCs connected to the hub and all the ESCs are calibrated.

Great glad everything is working.