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I have a Raspberry Pi 2 model B. I would like to be able to control a motor with a regulator and PI4J.

I put the black cable to a ground pin and the PWM pin to pin 26. I've worked with servos before, so I tried to start the motors like a servo. It didn't work.

The ESCs: Kontronik CYBEC 40-6-12

The motors are Brushless: I'm sorry but I don't know what make.

public static void move(int power) throws InterruptedException
{ 
    System.out.println("MOVE_ENG"); 
    Gpio.wiringPiSetup(); 
    SoftPwm.softPwmCreate(26, 0, 50); 
    SoftPwm.softPwmWrite(26, power); 
}
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  • A picture of your setup, and your code would be very helpful in answering your question.
    – Jacobm001
    May 10, 2016 at 15:48
  • Here is the code that i use on the Rasp: codepublic static void move(int power) throws InterruptedException{ System.out.println("MOVE_ENG"); Gpio.wiringPiSetup(); SoftPwm.softPwmCreate(26, 0, 50); SoftPwm.softPwmWrite(26, power); }code
    – cy8berpunk
    May 10, 2016 at 16:00
  • Thank you for the code. For future reference though, please add information via an edit. It's much easier to read! ;)
    – Jacobm001
    May 10, 2016 at 16:39
  • Ok sry....Can you help me anyway?
    – cy8berpunk
    May 10, 2016 at 16:53
  • Not really. I've never worked with programming motors or pi4j. I was just trying to make sure your question was setup for the inevitable questions of those who can.
    – Jacobm001
    May 10, 2016 at 16:54

1 Answer 1

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If I understand correctly you want to control a brushless motor which is being driven by an ESC (Kontronik CYBEC 40-6-12).

ESCs are controlled in a very similar way to servos. However they often require a particular start sequence for safety reasons (you don't want your model plane to fly off when the ESC is energised).

I suggest you try something like

one second at 1000 µs pulse width

followed by

one second at 2000 µs pulse width

That may initialise the ESC. You can then send pulse widths in the range 1000 (stop) to 2000 (full throttle) to control the speed.

If you are planning to do this seriously you'll need to use something like my pigpio or servoblaster to send the pulses, or buy external PWM hardware,

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  • Thank you :D Can please edit my Code so that it would work.....
    – cy8berpunk
    May 11, 2016 at 8:22
  • I have used wiringPi but am not that familiar with the detailed workings. You will need to look at the wiringPi software PWM functions and work out which dutycycle means 1000, which 2000 etc.
    – joan
    May 11, 2016 at 8:42
  • Note that this answer assumes the ESC is using PWM control, and not OneShot, MultiShot, DShot or any other variation of control signals. This should be checked in the ESC spec before one tries to operate it.
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Dec 6, 2022 at 8:14

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