The Complete Guide to RC Electronics

Hello, my friends.

I have often found hobby RC electronics to be of interest in my projects due to their apparent simplicity and ease of use. However, it took me a while to figure out how to put together all the different components, figure out where to get all of the stuff, and read all of the (rather peculiar) ratings when I was trying to build something. Therefore, I hope that this guide will speed things up for you and lead to successful projects.

Quick reference:
1 - Where to obtain parts
2 - Transmitter
3 - Reciever
4 - Servos
5 - Motor controllers
6 - Motors, Propellers and Gears
7 - Batteries

Step 1: Where to Procure Components

After much research, i have found the following to be reliable, have a reasonable price, and have good selection:
 - Hobbyking: A Chinese-based distributor with a huge selection of motors, controllers, and everything else. mostly flying things. Shipping takes forever.
 - Horizon Hobby: Based in the USA, also have a large selection of items, but mostly ground-based vehicles.

There are other, cheaper websites, (like GoodLuckBuy) however I have heard that the reliability and customer service of these is often compromised.

Step 2: Transmitter

Also often abbreviated as Tx, this is the thing that actually takes your commands and sends your receiver the commands for the servos and the motors.

There are many Transmitters available on the market nowadays, and the low-cost ones start around $30. However, remotes for RC airplane or helicopter pilots, with programmable features, model memory, and computer simulators can start around $150 and go to nearly $3000.

All RC Remotes have a certain frequency that they operate on. Older, analog remotes operate on lower frequencies, which were determined by a crystal. Modern, digital, remotes usually operate in the Gigahertz Range, often at 2.4GHZ.

RC airplane and helicopter remotes have control sticks, which are mostly self explanatory. Usually, one of the two control sticks on an airplane remote is the throttle control stick, and is not spring loaded in the vertical direction, which means it will not spring back when you let go. Remotes are usually available with this stick on either the left or the right side, and are sold as mode 1 or mode 2. RC car remotes have a trigger and a knob to control different things.

Most RC remotes have something next to the Control sticks called the trim. this basically slightly alters the position of your control sticks, and is useful for finely altering the position of the servos, or the starting point of a motor controller. Transmitters also often have reversing, which reverses the output signal of the control sticks. this is usually controlled by a series of switches at the bottom of the transmitter.

The number of channels a remote has shows how many things it can control. For example a three channel remote could control three things, such as three servos, three motors, or a combination of any of those. Motor controllers and servos receive the same type of signal.

Expo, Telemetry, Limited travel and Model memory are all things seen on better, more expensive transmitters, but are not necessary for the average project. Expo stands for exponential rates, so that linear movement of your control sticks will result in an exponential output signal curve. Telemetry transmits information from the vehicle (such as battery voltage, altitude, motor temperature, etc.) back to the transmitter and displays these on the transmitter. Limited travel means that by moving your control sticks to their maximum will only send out a 30% signal, or whatever you set it to. both of these features are beneficial to sensitive mechanisms and airplanes, so that one can maintain better control over them. Model memory simply allows you to store your trim settings in the transmitter, so that you can recall them for later use, or eliminate the need of having to readjust with every time if you have multiple devices. RC car remotes are often equipped with dual rates, expo, memory, and even telemetry.

Most Transmitters need to bind to your Receiver to ensure proper communications. How to do this depends on your Transmitter/receiver.

Many transmitters need 12v to operate, usually supplied by 8AA batteries. this is 8 batteries too many for me, so i got a small, 0.8Ah battery and hooked it up to my remote, so that i only have one battery to worry about, instead of 8 small ones.

A cheap, beginner-level Transmitter that i can recommend from personal experience is the HobbyKing 6S.

Step 3: The Reciever

The receiver, abbreviated as Rx, receives the signals of the transmitter, and sends them out to the individual channels through PPM, or Pulse Position Modulation commands.

The Receiver must operate on the same frequency as the transmitter, and the two will usually be sold together.  Replacement or extra receivers are commonly available, so that they do not need to be switched out if one has more than one devices requiring a receiver.

The receiver usually receives power from a motor controller, simply by plugging it into one of the signal ports. Servos receive power from the receiver.

The Polarity of the plugs is usually found out by trial and error, in one way it will work, and the other way it probably will show a flashing light or something similar. Make sure to never connect one wire one way and another with opposite polarity to that wire, because depending on what those two things are, they will most likely be damaged, because one is going to be reverse polarity.

Some servo or motor controller connectors have a small plastic tab on them, and can therefore only be used with RC car receivers that can easily be removed with wire cutters.

Be careful with the antennae of digital receivers, because they are rather difficult to reattach.

Step 4: Servos

Servos are geared motors connected to potentiometers that are usually capable of 180 degree rotation, but with RC control usually only rotate 90 degrees. They take the receiver's commands in PPM form and rotate to a set position. they will attempt to hold this position if f force is applied. Although normal servos have a limited range, there are extended range servos, which rotate 360 degrees or more, and even continuous rotation servos, which have no control electronics and function as a normal gear motor.

They all have the standard three pin connectors, with ground (black), +4.8 to 7.4v (red), and signal (white).

Servo s are usually classified by weight, and also have a torque rating. This rating is usually given in Kg.
What this means is that the servo has x Kg force one centimeter out from the axis of rotation. So a 50Kg servo could supply 50Kg of force 1cm out from the axis (or 25kg 2cm out from the axis, etc...).

Some Large servos need a separate power supply because of their current demands, and would most likely just burn through your speed controller's power supply or your receiver's PCB traces. Use an UBEC with these. this is basically just a step down voltage regulator that provides a constant voltage to your servos.

Step 5: Motor Controllers

Motor controllers, also known as ESC's (Electronic Speed Controller) are very simple to use. Their purpose is to take a low power input signal in the form of ppm, and the battery voltage, and convert it into something useful for the motor. They also have a voltage output through the signal wire, and are often used to power the receiver.

There are essentially two types of motor controllers: brushless and brushed controllers. Brushed motor controllers only work with brushed motors, and send them a PWM, a Pulse Width Modulated (not PPM, Pulse Position Modulated) power input. These are simple and cheap, and can also be used to control lights and anything else that requires DC power. Brushless motor controllers are quite different. They switch power between the three combinations of two of the three poles of a brushless motor, and modulate the speed of this according to the PPM signal.

The difference between Car ESC's and Airplane ESC's is that car ESC's usually come with a power switch, heat sink and a reversing ability, while airplane ESC's have no reversing capability (Switch any two of the motor wires to reverse spin of the motor), no power switch and usually only a minimal heat sink.

ESC's are also programmable, usually through a programming card or through the reciever and transmitter. This will vary depending on the ESC, but usually they have programmable braking, starting, and battery voltage cutoff settings.

Step 6: Motors, Propellers and Gears

Motors come in two variants: Brushed motors, which have small brushes that switch the power through the coils, and brushless motors, which need an external controller to do the switching for them.

Brushless motors are usually more efficient, can handle higher speeds and torques, can handle huge amounts of power, and are longer lasting because they do not have brushes to wear out. they usually come in out-runner or in-runner styles. Outrunners have the permanent magnets on the outside, and their housing spins with the axle. Inrunners have the permanent magnets on the inside and have a non-rotating housing. Outrunners have more torque, but less speed, and are usually used with larger propellers. Inrunners have less torque, but can reach very high speed, and are therefore used in geared applications, such as RC cars, or with small propellers.

Motors in the RC world often have an interesting rating called Kv. Although one would expect this to mean Kilovolts, it actually means rotations per minute per volt. A 300Kv motor would, in theory, rotate at 900rpm at 3 volts. the lower the Kv rating, the more torque but the less speed a motor has, and the higher, the more speed but less torque a motor would have.


When looking for a suitable propeller, the prospective buyer may be confronted with such things as "1247" or "12x4.7". These define the propeller's size and pitch. in this instance, one would be looking at a 12 inch diameter, 4.7 inch pitch propeller. Pitch is defined as the distance a propeller would move in the air under ideal conditions in one full rotation. Propellers are also often classified into "slow fly" and normal propellers. Slow fly propellers are usually for geared applications or low speed applications, and have a curved leading edge for more efficiency. Normal Propellers have a straight leading edge for better efficiency, and are usually used with faster motors.

Gears in the RC world are usually only sold as a replacement for RC car gearboxes. they are never sold by diameter, but only by the pitch (spacing of the teeth) and the number of the teeth. A Spur gear is usually a large gear, that is turned by the pinion, a smaller gear directly attached to the motor. 

Step 7: Batteries and Chargers

Batteries come in many different Shapes and sizes, chemistries, and ratings.

The two most common chemistries for RC applications are NiMH or NiCd and Lithium polymer batteries.

NiMH (Nickel metal hydride) and NiCd  (Nickel-Cadmium) batteries are heavy, weak and outdated. the only benefit is that they may be marginally cheaper, and less sensitive to shock, vibration, overcharging, and deep discharge.

Lithium Polymer Batteries are lighter, smaller, can deliver huge currents, and have a very large capacity for their size. A 5000mAh Lipo battery is about as big and heavy as 2500mah worth of NiMH batteries. however, if pierced, discharged too far, or charged too far, they will "puff", or expand. This means that the battery is close to exploding. do not use this battery anymore, and dispose of it safely. If you keep going, it will most likely erupt in a large ball of flame and launch chemicals and burning things everywhere. Never short these batteries, they will most likely explode.

Charging: get yourself a good charger, I can recommend the Turnigy Accucell-6. Most chargers do not come with a built in power supply, so make sure you have an adequate power supply for your charger. Follow all the charging instructions that come with the charger, and place your battery in a fireproof container or bag. Never leave it unattended while charging.

Batteries have a number of different ratings:

mAh or Ah:  Stand for milliamp hour or Amp hour. this is the capacity of the battery. 1Ah=1000mAh, which means a battery can supply one amp for one hour (or 1000milliamps for an hour)
S and P:       Stand for number of Series cells and number of parallel cells. the number of cells in series determines voltage, parallel determines capacity.
C ratings:     This is how much current the battery can give you. Multiply the battery's capacity in amp hours by this rating to get the current in amps.  There are usually two specified. the lower one is the continuous rating, and the higher one is the pulse discharge rating.

I usually use one standardized connector for all of my batteries, so that I can use any battery with any device, and can interchange them easily. It doesn't matter what you use, I use the XT60 connectors, just make sure that you have one type of connector for all of your batteries.

Get some silicone wire for your power connections, because it is a flexible, multi-stranded wire that will in general make your life many times easier.

Step 8: Final Comments

Thanks for taking the time to look at this guide. I hope you enjoyed it and that i could be of some help. I am by no means an expert in this area, and would love to get some tips on how to improve this guide, things to add, questions or comments. 

Please VOTE FOR ME in the Remote Controlled Challenge!

Comments

[Borg101]

For a complete RC noob, like myself - This guide was very helpfull.

[dlsnoonian]

Same!

[biolethal]

Awesome, thanks!

[RobbieGoodwin]

Sadly for me, that excellent introduction stopped short of my two main queries:

Is it just me, are there no variable-frequency receivers or transmitters, do such things exist and they're just very expensive?

Is it just me, do all receivers need to pass power through their circuitry, or are boards available which can control more power than they could tolerate - as when people before have asked about 18V motors?

[centralcodigo]

NOT near a complete RC tuto ,lacks technical issues

e.g A drain from a motor&proper ESC

[RobbieGoodwin]

That seems a bit harsh. I agree, "Complete Guide" might be too great a claim and "Simple Introduction" more suitable…

Biolethal, would you consider changing the title?

[pakiboo]

Hello
I can use the same transmitter and reciever for the brushed and brushless motor controller,or I have to change..............thanks

[lorlopez1510]

On my remote control car the gear on the motor which one would be better a big one or small one

[tpace3]

I'm trying to add a motor, battery esc, and receiver (Not using steering for now) onto an existing build.

Do you know if there are any cheap kits I can buy and drop into it? I'm looking around $50 - $70

A very high torque motor, rechargeable battery is the only real important parts.

[tactical.tech203rd]

Hobby King like he said.. look up high torque motors and LiPo battery.. if you're going to go lipo got to get a decent charger though..

[elijah02]

I'd like to start out by saying thank you for this helpful article...it helped me out a ton. However, I still have a couple questions. First of all, I have an 18v drill battery and its corresponding drill motor, switch, and clockwise/counter-clockwise switch. Along with this I own a 3d printer. With these and some other parts I'm hoping to make a fast, torquey rc car/truck with what I have. As I'm new to the hobby, I need some advice on what I need to buy. Should I buy 18v compatible parts separately or, I was thinking, is it possible to use a cheap car and use the power originally going to the cheap motor to regulate power going from the 18v battery to the 18v motor. If so, what do I need to look for? Going through with this plan, I could just use the original steering motor to steer. That way the Tx trigger would activate a switch to the drill motor. My only problem then would be how to reverse....hehehe a slight problem. Anyways, if you could help me out a bit with this I would forever be in your debt lol.

Thanks in advance!
-E

[tactical.tech203rd]

This sounds like a really cool project !! I actually have a rather cheap (not hobby store) radio-controlled snowmobile that my parents gave me years ago.. It's pretty large, probably the size of a 1/8 size car/truck with full suspension and nice drive track.. Only thing is it's got a kitty itty bitty motor and only moves.. I was considering using a motor I took out of a cordless drill also to make it rip !!
As far as your project goes.. I think it's really cool if you are able to create your own remote-controlled vehicle out of stuff you have laying around and a 3D printer.. The main things that stuck out to me you might not be aware of are..
- Definitely a great way to have a killer power supply (battery) at no cost..
- If your going to go the route of cannibalizing an old RC car with 2-Way radio, steering servo, receiver, electronic speed control like I have laying around still from 15-20 years ago..
+The potential problems I see start here for 2 people that aren't electronic genius's..(us)
- Back in the day you ran a 9.6v nicad.. Now there probably using up to a 11.1v Lipo battery.. I highly doubt the input can take all 18 volts and feed it to the motor.. Which I think you didn't intend on which brings me to my next potential problem.
- The drill "variable" speed switch.. In my opinion, it's useless for your project unless your gonna go real old school RC car days with out a ESC when they had a servo going to a crappy "variable" speed switch..(maybe 3-4 speeds not variable) Then you would have to figure out a way to make a servo push the trigger in and out, probably have to figure out a way to remove or c
It's all possible and would be an awesome project for you to actually completely create and build your own RC car with just a 3 way radio with three servos and a 18v drill !! 👍
- Lastly the motor.. We tend to assume the drills got all this torque so the motor must be Awesome !! All that torque is coming from the insane gearbox in the drill, a plain Jane high RPM rather large DC motor capable of 18 volts.. And if it's 18v of Lipo it's gonna be snappy.. ( Just an example, I had a 12 volt Craftsman drill that when new surprisingly worked really good, powerful but the batteries were garbage.. So I took it apart thinking project snowmobile.. When I put the parts with the snowmobile I realized I already had the Exact same motor.. Literally the same numbers on it everything and it had come out of a cheap portable cigarette lighter car vacuum !! We both know vacuum motors spin a fan and have no torque..)
My point being.. Or my suggestion.. Unless it's strictly going to be a RC car for flat pavement.. 🤔 That would be fast !! If your going to use the drill motor Keep It Connected to the gearbox.. Hey if it's a 2 speed drill you could run 4 channel and have a 2 speed tranny !! Or even High and Low on the fly manually.. Like back in the day getting out to lock your four wheel drive hubs..
My Summary..
-18v Drill Motor could be used the way I said or for not much money you could get a smaller motor designed for RC cars with a ton more torque so you don't have to come up with such a complex gearing system..(Less windings/Neo Magnets)
- Option B if you get ahold of a 2 channel setup with electronic speed control.. THAT would obviously simplify so much for you and get rid of that trigger switch. It will have built in reverse..
Just Simply remove cells from the battery until you get down to the voltage it can handle...
Good luck.. If you end up seeing this please email me and let me know if you started working on it or made any progress.. I didn't intend on writing this much but now that I did I want to know how you made out.. Ken.. [e-mail]

[bgriffgriff]

Hi , I like your article on setting up the plane , however the one problem I have remained unanswered . I have an in plane receiver with a three pin male connection for the power input . Howevever the Turnigy 1300mah 3C battery has a four pin female connector ! Have I got the wrong battery or do I need some sort of adapter ?
thanks if you can help .

[tactical.tech203rd]

I'm not sure if my coment was erased or going through review.. It sounds like you're referring to the male balancing lead coming off a 11.1 volt LiPo battery when you're referring to the 4 wire female plug on battery..

[AdnanA101]

I am completely new to RC i have two questions whether we can change frequency of transmitter and receiver or not and can we make ESC at home?

[DuaneN5]

I would like to thank you as a newcomer to the hobby I found your article to be very informative .
I am a retired mechanic and as such I was thinking of things I might have mentioned but then I thought about where would a person draw the line as to what information you would share. After thinking about that I think it was almost perfect.It is not like you were writing a manual but simply sharing some of the basics(although if you were to write a manual I think you would do a great job) I was thinking I would warn of loose connections or changing wire gauge could cause resistance & or heat but you gave just the amount of info as you intended without specializing on a particular perspective.
Thank you for the hard work & keep it up.

[ijeee]

Hey bro? can i ask you a question? I have a esc here bought from lazada a 20A esc with brake the thing is after testing it on channel 1 and channel 2 the motor works fine and the esc but aftwe changing it to. channel 3 as soon as i throtle the tx the motor starts spinning and when i stop throttlingmotor wont stop so i remove the source and when trying again on channel 1 the esc malfunction constantly flicking red light do you know what caused this problem?

[Fatfreddyscat70]

What 2 sites for people that want to purchase in the USA.

I’m dealing with planes. Ele planes

[CHEFBOYAUBOY]

I am having problems with the hook up of my MiniBipe with a FlySky 10 channel 2.4 GHZ transmitter and receiver. It is bound, the brushless motor works fine, but when I plug in the two servos for the rudder and elevator they make a noise and rotate in one direction only and do not respond to the transmitter

[raghu4414]

Hi,

Guys I am not into electronics, and I have bought a RC car running with batteries from hobby king,, and the problem I am facing is without going for the on bottom which is below the car, and plug in the battery with car ,,the wheels are moving,, and a kind of spark comes as soon as the battery connector is joined to car,, and all this is happening with the car in off condition..

Please help.