Nanoflite's nanoESC Is an Ultralight, Ultra-Compact Electronic Speed Controller for Brushed Motors
Supporting up to a 3A continuous current draw and with 5-bit PWM, this ATtiny4-based ESC runs a custom firmware written in assembly.
Nanoflite has launched an ultralight, small-footprint electronic speed controller (ESC) designed for use with brushed motors in indoor remote-controlled aircraft: the nanoESC.
"Small brushed ESCs are hard to come by, and the small ones I tested just did not work that good or were too heavy," Nanoflite's Johan Van den Brande explains of the board's creation. "This ESC weighs around 0.2 grams [around 0.007 oz] (my scale only has 0.1 grams resolution), and can drive a continuous current of 3A."
The compact speed controller is based around a Microchip ATtiny4 microcontroller, running a custom firmware Van den Brande wrote directly in assembly — eschewing the use of a higher-level language. 278 words of the microcontroller's flash are taken up by this firmware, which offers a five-bit resolution — meaning 32 steps to speed control.
"The motor is driven by a 4kHz software PWM [Pulse Width Modulator]," Van den Brande adds, while the board can run at between 1.8-5.5V. As well as its extremely low weight, the NanoESC also boasts a compact footprint: 7.62mm (0.3") on a side.
"Its intended use is for indoor airplanes," van den Brande explains — though with support for a continuous current draw of 3A, it may well find uses outside that field as well.
The nanoESC boards are now available fully-assembled from the Nanoflite Tindie store, priced at $28.