Plane electronics in a car?

[miksnake]

Can plane motor, esc, and/or servo be made to work in a RC car? Or are they just too underpowered?

[ElectricThunder]

Sure. Just hope you don't want "normal" brakes nor any reverse.:D

[egdinger]

Depends on the electronics in question, as Electric said, plane esc don't have brakes or reverse. The motors can if they are the right size, though your not going to get better performance really, maybe some brushless if your tinkering with those. And servos, they'll work fine as long as you get the right size again, they make ones smaller than your pinky to ones bigger than your hand, take your pick.

It should be said though that "Plane" radios operate on a different frequency, so you can't use those. Though you can order them on ground frequencies.

[Jayboy]

Plane servos are a good thing to use if you are short of space on your car, as they can come in very small sizes.

[miksnake]

It seems that most brushless car motors are about 100-160amp, but the plane ones I see are 25-60amp. What effect does this have?

Can a car receiver plug into a plane ESC (or more precisely, if it plugs in, can it control the ESC correctly)?

I'm really asking because I can get a brushless plane ESC, motor and servo for about $50 or maybe a little more. I thought it might be interesting to use these in a real old RS4 I have that is lacking electronics. This may not be any better than just getting non brushless car electronics and putting this thing together.

I thought it was an interesting thought though. I appreciate all the feedback, thoughts and comments.

[ElectricThunder]

I figured you were looking into cheaper brushless....:D (I'd like to note that...there are plane ESCs with some SICK ratings such as the castle creations Phoenix series of BL ESCs like their 110amp version)

The truth is, yeah, a brushless plane ESC will work fine (it will have brakes, but they will kick in at neutral basically; there's also an option for no brake at all on most plane ESCs, which means just freewheeling and is not good for a car). Anyways, you will most likely be disappointed.

For one, airplane brushless ESCs are rated a bit differently. Plane ESCs typically have much more airflow than car ESCs (strike one). Setting up the plane ESC is usually done with a stick radio/lever type radio (not pistol grip; strike two); however, there is an adapter I can link you to if you really want:). Thirdly..BL plane ESC firmware and stuff is just plain different from that of a car. Cogging will most likely rear its ugly head WAY more with a plane brushless ESC in a car than if you were to use a car ESC in the first place (strike three).

On to the motor... as long as it's a neodymium, 2 or 4 pole inrunner motor with a roughly "380 sized" rotor or a "540 size" rotor (or anywhere inbetween)....should be fine and dandy. Note; most "380 rotored" brushless motors for planes probably are in a 28mm can, which means you'll need an adapter plate. Kv (RPM per volt) is another thing to consider.

Now the servo. Well.....a servo is a servo. If the specs are good and its a quality servo....go for it.

If you want, I can probably find some cheaper brushless car systems for you (by cheaper....it's not going to be anywhere near 50 bucks...but will be more along the lines of 140-170 depending on the exact system).

There's some details I left out 'cause I got home from work not too long ago and am a little out of it to go in depth (I can go into more detail at your request if I know the answers to your questions though).

Any more questions?

[miksnake]

Thanks for all the information. I think you've convinced me that it's not worth the effort; at least not at this point in time.

I appreciate the help.