I’m looking forward to using this new found knowledge in some projects in the future! Hopefully this helped you too, have you had any fun remote control project ideas?

This is a fantastic breakdown of all these things which cannot be found in one place elsewhere. Thank you!!!!

Hi Matt, just wanted to say I love your persoanlity and seemingly limitless enthusiasm for learning new things. Keep up the amazing work! Xx

In the future, could you try to place on-screen explanations somewhere other than right underneath where the closed captioning goes? You can’t move the CC on mobile, and turning it on and off is a multi-tap+swipe/wait process that disrupts the viewing experience somewhat.

Woah! This is a great format for educational content, I'd gladly watch a whole series about you learning new skills from other creators!

I too have a tangential interest in all of this, but the terminology and what-bit-does-what stuff always baffles me.

So much info and the added benefit of Jimmy B and Matt Gray in a video 🎉

You're a hero for making this video. Finally somebody explains it in one go and not spread over multiple project videos! I understand batteries now, yay!

Your professional composure during 'moves your flaps' was admirable 😊

Thats a very Gary Brannan shirt :D I love everything about it and need one for my girlfriend

10:34 it's that face from that image from that video!

Ok, cheesy transitions... BUT this was VERY USEFUL!!!! Thanks!

Cool video! Clear explanation. Nice to see James on the chan. :)

Loved it!!

This feels like a Matt Gray Plus episode, if Tom let Matt nick his format.

Such a nice surprise to see you guys collaborating. And I really did learn a lot from this video about the electronics side, so thank you! Looking forward to what you come up with in the future.

This could have been a citation needed adventure

I've been looking to do an RC project or at least a project with a brushless motor for quite a while, this video is the perfect starting point to actually get the basics down and understood. Thank you Matt & James

KZfaq fed me this video because I'm subscribed to James' channel, and I think Matt does a perfect job of covering James' weak points. Which is to say, James is very knowledgeable and a good KZfaq presenter, but like many people who are good at something, he does a lot of steps without being aware of them and so the viewer needs a certain degree of expertise to follow along. Matt, on the other hand, should consider a career in teaching or tutoring or libraries, because he does a good job of taking James' knowledge and repackaging it in a form understandable to a beginner. There are a few places where details that are fairly specific to the parts and approaches being used here are presented as a general case, but overall I think this is a very good introduction to what is happening when one hooks a remote control to a motor. I've shared this video on the Astromech Builders' Club forum. A huge percentage of new builders arrive at the forum confident they can do the physical build but utterly intimidated by the electronics. I think this will be a useful resource for those folks.

Good stuff. Also good luck with patreon and new efforts for youtube. Been following for years and can't wait to see what you come up with. o7

I learned stuff that I did not know I did not know. Thanks Matt

I like that, at 10:40, Elmo looks like he also doesn't understand.

25:56 : "I said hop in."

Thanks Mat and James! I was comfortable with the battery side of things, but the rest was a mystery to me. It is awesome to have a good single place to come back to, or to point friends to, as a good starting point for remote control fun.

I had to learn all this the hard way when making combat robots but this really helps me understand it a little better and getting hands on with the components is always good.

What a FANTASTIC refresher course! I’ve done a lot of RC stuff but mainly mess with 3D printing now. I constantly have to go back and re-learn several items in this video. I’m saving and downloading this video so I can refer back to it! Thanks guys!

James' work is great! I've been enjoying his robot dog work and diversions into heath Robinson contraptions. Constantly amazed by his excellent teaching style, brilliant collab!

I can't believe this vid exist. Thank you so much for your efforts to seek knowledge from the robotics king himself. About the basics and fundamentals of what makes a robot.

that was a brilliant vid Matt (and James) I dabbled with drones and some r/c aircraft a few years ago and it took ages to understand about the S, P & C ratings of batteries along with how to match motors, ESCs and then the appropriate radio gear. Wish I'd had this as a resource, would have been a lot simpler (read that as cheaper) experience 👍

whatever Matt does with this knowledge in the future, the only proper way to judge it is with the classic Robotwars criteria of Style, Control, Damage and Aggression

Another thing to know is that there are different and incompatible radio transmission protocols - the way the transmitter (controller) talks to the receiver. So you have to have a transmiter and receiver that use the same protocol. ELRS is probably the best choice as it's open source, readily available, long range and cheap.

This is definitely the sort of thing that's best explained by someone else! I love how it seems like the basics are just plug things together and it works - if you match all the protocols, currents, voltages etc correctly anyway!

This was an unexpected collaboration. Fun stuff!

Loved the detail and overall discussion. Thanks so much for revising the points and making it all (somewhat) simple to digest. Keep up the great work, Matt! Sending well wishes from South Africa.

I loved this one! Especially the bit's where you clarified the bits you did not get at first. better than scripted, this is cool.

good to see you guys collaborating :) looking forward to more crazy projects

I learned so much! I too have a degree in electrical engineering (power distribution, but still) but since I haven't done any RC, a lot of my knowledge stops at the flow chart stage, without knowing a lot about what's in those boxes in real life. Thanks for patching my knowledge! 😁

I can't tell you how grateful I am for this explanation. I'm a mechanical engineer and didn't learn this in any of my classes, but I've always been fascinated by it. Did combat robots in a club once and was confused af, and we were on a deadline so no one was able to take the time to really teach me. Now I watch a bunch of ro otics and rc channels (like James!) and it felt approachable, but still beyond my reach. This was truly the introduction I needed. Thanks!

Wellp, that's me educated on the whole CSP shebang. Thanks Matt, thanks James! Bookmarked. I used to know how to multiplex PWM over a radio signal with nothing but resistors, capacitors, and a 4000-series CMOS counter at each end. It's all different now, I suspect. :) For those interested, the CMOS counters weren't binary, they had 1-of-N outputs; 1 of 10 at the transmitter and one of 8 at the receiver if I remember right. You couldn't use all 8 outputs because some were needed for the synchronization pulse in every frame. I think 5 or 6 channels were usable. 4000-series CMOS was used because it doesn't need a voltage regulator; it's very slow but will run at anything from 3 to 15V if I remember right. Battery eliminators were just starting to come in when I was learning all that. It was a long time ago now. I didn't understand why a separate battery was needed in the first place. My face probably looked very much the same as Matt's here. :) I was just too new to the subject to have put all the facts together, such as the fact that the suddently-changing heavy power draw of the main motor causes changes in the voltage of the battery powering it. Batteries have internal resistance -- everything does -- and so drawing a high current means a higher voltage drop through that internal resistance. There's also the issue of charge being distributed throughout the battery and taking time to chemically transfer from parts far from the contacts. Neither of those were much of a problem with the nickel cadmium batteries I learned on, but I think sudden speed changes could still cause power surges which you'd want to keep away from the electronics. I *really* didn't understand power surges back then; it took me years to understand inductance, but inductance is the one part of this I'm sure Matt does understand as a qualified electronics engineer. Still, depending on which field of electronics Matt works in, (RF? Audio?) he may not have reason to refresh his memory on the electrical effects of suddenly sending a motor from no power to maximum with a silly grin on your face. :D 21:08 It'll move my legs!!?!! :O XD The slightly spooky music triggered that joke, bringing back creepy classic sci-fi from when I was a kid. I love the way Matt just takes the babysitting bit in his stride. :D I like to think I would too; I have good times when my pride doesn't get in the way, but sometimes it does. Oh now I remember, we didn't use 3-phase motors in RC in those days, only brushed DC motors, but we did have _stepper motors_ which were _4_-phase and designed to be controlled by a computer. Nowadays, the motor controller is a computer probably more powerful than our old 8- and 16-bit devices, and I guess they figured 3 phases was enough. "Shall we get in the boat?" XD XD XD It's not often you get a coincidence which sets up a joke so well. :)

I learned a lot. Thanks!

That's cool! I know I'm focusing on such a minuscule part of the video, but weird thing is: while on university, I had some classes about Hall effect sensors, and some lectures on motor encoders- and at no point anyone mentioned how to use the magnetic field of the DC motor to determine its position... So, thanks Matt and James! Now I have an interesting subject to read on, and hopefully apply in a future project. Cheers! :)

This a bit too nerdy for Tech Dif? Love it Matt ❤

When I see your T-Shirt. All I can think of is Garry Brannan and goose on a train. 😁

i am so happy to see this video :D this looks so fun!

this is an unbelievably good explaination of everything. thank you for doing this

#goals! Great video Matt!

Super informative video - to the extent I feel like I could actually start messing around with these sort of projects. Thanks Matt!

Matt's t-shirt game has totally improved like 8000 points!

No way! I've just subscribed to your newsletter and been reading through all the previous issues (is that the right word?). Was in the middle of rewatching some old park bench videos. What a nice suprise.... Should be a cool video! Edit: it was!

Thanks Matt and James for this informative video. RC has changed a lot over the last 10+ years and it is interesting how digital systems have come in and taking over to reduce the wiring load in the model.

Saw you in ElectroBOOM's video. :)

Cracking video. Nice to understand what these things mean :-)

First time I’ve ever watched one of your solo videos (I.E. first time KZfaq has served one to me!) but this was a great breakdown. I too am an electrical and electronic engineer with a similar level of experience but in a wildly different sub-specialism and whilst I’ve always wanted to tinker have always been quickly overwhelmed by the different parts and what is needed when. If I ever do take the plunge, I will be straight back to this video as a quick reference, so thank you both!

Bag adventure!

This is a fantastic format!

Great video guys, well explained by one of the best in its simplistic form, Great job and Big Thumbs up, also just hit all your buttons, Bruton brought me here :o)

Another great video to watch for learning remote control vehicles, good job matt and james, If you want another video to watch for this kind of stuff "Hyperspace Pirate" did a really good video on an RC Airboat.

That was great, thanks Matt and thanks JAMES! *subscribed*

Elmo looked engrossed at the first pause.

I've always wanted to know how to make remote-controlled things with James Bruton, but I could never figure out how to get in touch with him. Thanks for the tutorial!

This was really interesting! I learnt so much, thanks Matt!

Hallelujah! Man I've been looking for exactly this! Next collaboration video the Arduino step? 😊

Nice! I think RC stuff is something you could have a lot of fun with, Matt!

Small correction: At 16:01 it should say, "Rather than using one PWM connector for each output, you can get all the remote control data in one go." Serial connections send all the data over one wire but they do need to go into a separate controller of course, like a Flight Controller for a drone, which then decodes that signal and send the correct amount of power to the correct ESC/motor(s).

I am now going to build be a steerable fan with this new found knowledge. I may even do auto tracking using some arduino bits.

crossover of the century

It is worth noting that brushed motors often don't like running reversed, that can damage the brushes and significantly reduce the lifespan of the motor. There are some that can handle it just fine though. And brushless usually don't have that issue, and some ESC's can be programmed to run brusheless motors both ways.

thank you this helped

awesome, i badly needed this becuz i m onto making my graduation project

This is amazing. I've only known you as the funny pun man, but you can do genuinely good educational content too! That's a sub from me, looking forward to more!

Very cool video! Thank you! Been wanting to have a video like this for me to learn RC for my 3d printing future projects. Could you please add links to all parts needed?

If you use blheli or blheli32 or am32 escs for multi rotor you can reverse the propellers and also use bidirectional. Could be useful for something

Thankyou 👍👍

Drone ESCs unless they are really cheap ones can usually be connected to a PC where you can update the firmware, change settings, etc. For the most common drone ESC firmware, BLHeli32, there are a lot of options. Drone ESCs can also take different protocols since the control needed for drones is more complex, with RC cars you don’t need stabilisation or any of that and even when you do it is simple. Drones however need flight controllers and fast reaction times so the standard RC protocol isn’t good enough. You get protocols that are just faster versions of the standard RC or servo protocol which is really just a pulse between 1 and 2 ms, one shot and multi shot are faster variants, one shot has multiple speed variants but multishot is faster. A problem with these protocols is if the clocks in the esc are different than in the drone you can have issues since the communication depends on the length of a pulse. Then you get a digital protocol called d-shot which is harder to implement but allows more precise control with no timing issues and also allows for telemetry, the ESC feeds back how fast the motor is actually spinning which can help with control loops in the flight controller and things like rpm filtering.

OMG! Two of our fav content creators together!

Thanks for this. Clear simple explanations with out making me feel like an idiot. Like many i have a basic knowledge of this subject and this filled it out so o can safely say i understand these things now. Maybe oneday i will try and put it into practice and find out how every bit of this info only helps me understand what i don't know😂

19:11 Metal Gear?!

Can someone be bothered to turn the bag rolling in the wind. in to a wholesome somewhat fantastical story. I would love to read that.

Oh no, Now I want to build something Remote Controlled in time for EMFCamp 2024.... :D

stepper motors are the most complex (and hardest to control)

Using S for batteries rather than voltage has advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is that different types of cell have different voltages per cell, most people just use lipos now though, but in the past they used NiCd and NiMH, which have very different cell voltages to lipos. Some advantages of using S is that you can be sure the batteries are compatible, with voltage the battery does not stay at the same voltage as it discharges and the manufacturer can pick any voltage they want out of the range really, for example in a 5 S lipo it can vary from 15 V (3 V per cell) to 21 V (4.2 V per cell), so it all depends on what cell voltage you choose to do your calculations with, standard or nominal voltage is 3.7 V which would give you 18.5 V, but some manufacturers, especially power tool manufacturers will just bump that up to 20 V because bigger number = better. Also I have seen some components list voltage rather than number of cells. If you have a servo rated for 7.4 V then can you use it with a 2 S lipo? If you take the nominal voltage 3.7 V per cell then a 2 S battery is 7.4 V, but if you take the fully charged voltage 4.2 V per cell then it is 8.4 V so can the servo handle it? It just makes it far easier to say a part works with this number or range of numbers of cells, you avoid all the faff of having to decipher what numbers and voltage the manufacturer used and what they actually meant, a part rated for 2 S will be fine with a 2 S battery. It also makes charging easier, especially since the batteries need balance charged. You plug the battery into the charger, tell it how many cells it is (some chargers can detect it themselves) and what type they are and the charge current and it can charge them fine, no worrying about what voltage you need to set it to or anything like that.

Am I mistaken or should the white arrow from the Radio receiver in the diagram actually be coming from the ESC? Assuming that the white arrows represent power from the battery, that is.

*receiver *propeller OMD, I can't leave a comment only cosplaying as a spelling police officer, Matt's gonna think I'm a nag! So let me add that I really enjoyed the video, I love James's electronics antics and Matt's curiosity. Still miss The Park Bench, but this is a fair replacement.

I had a toy submarine as kid, I wonder if I could turn it into a remote-control one… 😀

Ignore c rating the manufacturers make that up in most cases unless I'm thinking of something else. Chris Rosser or Mads Tech have a video about it. Can't remember which channel

now do a part two with odrive

I'm still not understanding the reason to give voltage in "S", especially when different types of cell have different voltages per S.

Something that has always annoyed me about those battery ratings is that they are have their "capacity" in mAh but really you should use mWh as energy is a product of current as energy over time not just current over time. So a 4000mAh battery at 5V is 4 times less capacity than a 4000mAh at 20V so might as well use 20Wh and 80Wh which is their actual energy rating.

I need that T-Shirt

I need that Tshirt! *Honk*

I got most of that. I still don't get how not James Bruton people use the motor with the hall effect sensors. Do speed controllers have a location for the sensor wires?

Programming cards! wow

Something broke with closed captions. In second one, I'm getting cc for the WHOLE video, ending with bye-bye. Then it's gone and no more cc.

Next up 3d print a boat.

Matt was never taught about "C" rating because the measurement is entirely proprietary and is very often completely untrue

i must be stupid, as i couldn't understand most of it.

In 2023 were a engineering and electrical engineering degree mean nothing😂

_METAL GEAR?!??!_

Yeah I’m electronics technician also an I am not super great at stuff like this either : ). I get confused easily. There is no way James could help you. 😂. I dare you to take a nap Matt; you wake up with a little robot staring at you.

Dude I'm so stoked you're digging into making and engineering-type content..... and I hope it continues! Much love from the USA!