Basic ESC to 6 pin Bulkhead connector

General Discussion
1

Hello All,

Autonomous system connector
Autonomous system connector783×773 32.2 KB

I recently purchased the T500 Thruster and Basic ESC 500, I need to connect the ESC to a 6 pin bulkhead connector as my autonomous system (Not from BlueRobotics) has 6 pin bulkhead connectors.

I am new to building autonomous systems, So I wasn’t sure how to connect both together. I was unsure if there is any converter that I can directly attach or do I have to use an additional microcontroller like an Arduino or something.

Any help would be highly appreciated

2

Hi @rsd23
Welcome to the forums
Can you share what connection you’re trying to make thru those bulkhead adapters? If you have the ESC and control source inside an enclosure, you could run the 3 wires that carry the power to the motor through the bulkhead - running two motors thru the 6 total pins may be possible, but could lead to interference - best to test! You’ll also want to make sure the current capacity of each pin connection is high enough for the motor, so the connector doesn’t overheat!

I’m not sure you need any type of converter - the ESC needs power and a servo-style PWM signal, and outputs 3 phase power to the motor…

5

Hi Tony,

Apologies for the delay, I wanted to share our progress with our boat.. basically we have managed to get things working and had an initial test run. Which failed as the boat flipped and water seeped inside and Fried our batteries and ESC.

Nevertheless, during this we have observed there are some issues.. I am sharing our website for the project.. so you get an idea of the work we are doing, we have the competition in 10 days and we are now stuck with one esc and one battery..

https://www.navalengineers.org/Delaware

Issues:

  1. The polarity is revered, like when I control the boat using RC, the boat moves reverse [with forward velocity] when I move the joystick forward. And it moves forward [with reverse velocity] when I move Joystick reverse.
  2. The boat is unable to turn, left and right. I have connected, the 2 pins from the ESC to the 6pin bulkhead connector, as they have PWM input, but I am unsure why the boat is unable to take left and right commands. We are using AUTONAV [our Autonomous system controller, which also contains the RC Receiver].

Please let me know if you have any questions. I can also share our wiring diagram if that helps you.

Best,
Rushabh

6

Hi @rsd23 -
Cool update! I’m not surprised those hulls proved to not be the most leak tight… a lot of engineering went into making the BlueBoat robust to being flipped over - and even be able to recover from it!
Polycarbonate is an interesting choice for your frame - it is possible to buy BlueBoat cross bars as a pair…

Using WetLink penetrators to bring your cables from wet to dry is a good option, I wince to hear of waterproofing with hot glue!

I’m not familiar with AutoNav, but I assume you’re running ArduRover. If you are having issues with thruster direction, you can adjust the the Servo1/3 direction parameter (assuming you’re skid-steering the boat.) The ESCs should connect to power, the thruster, and the correct output channels of youru autopilot. If you want to reverse a thruster direction in hardware instead of software, you can swap any 2 of the three wires going to it.

Besides having the direction correct, it’s very important that the right and left thrusters are plugged into the correct channels. You may have them connected so that your transmitter configuration makes it seem all is well in manual mode, but if you switch to acro, guided or auto and it goes nuts, the autopilot isn’t connected to the outputs where it expects to be.

I hope you can source replacement parts easily, best of luck.