Wiring of Wiiceiver & Torqueboard Opto-ESCs

[whitepony]

I feel a little stupid asking these questions, but Ive never really fiddled with these things before, so maybe someone here with the same setup can help me out.

what I got is:

* 1x Wiiceiver 1.5.1 with ESC1 and ESC2 outs
* 2x torqueboard 12S escs, both have 2x 3-pin cables that you would usually use to connect to a receiver. any idea why it could be 2? in total i have now 4x 3-pin cables coming from the 2 ESCs :?
* 1x y-splitter for 3-pin receiver cable, 1x 3-pin in, 2x 3-pin out
* 1x 12S ubec

so i understand, that opto ESCs draw their power from the receiver (or an external ubec/battery source?). if i connect the ESCs to the main power of my DIY battery, their green LEDs light up, so something is happening, even without any 5V ubec power source. does that mean the ESC is fine already?

if i connect one of those ESCs now with the wiiceiver, the wiiceiver stays dark -> check, no 5V on the ESC 3-pin cable red to power up the receiver as expected.
so i plugged in the ubec into the wiiceiver in one of its ESC ports -> it powers up and connects to my nunchuck. coolio, great plug'n'play!

now one of the ESC ports of the wiiceiver is blocked, how do I connect it to the 2 ESCs now? use the 2x 3-pin splitter cable to connect both ESCs on ONE of the wiiceiver outs and use the other for ubec? or should I connect each ESC in ESC1 and ESC2 of the wiiceiver and add 5V ubec to red? or is this where the magic 2nd 3-pin cable per ESC comes in?

*confused*

I wish i fiddled more with RC cars in the past, but I only had 1:8 scale petrol engines, jumped the electric train very late

2nd problem I got is: I feel like the ESCs do something, but so far I didnt manage to connect the ESC programming card. mine has an USB port, 1x 3-pin input and the other slot does not have any pins - not sure if thats how its supposed to look. it didnt come with instructions and following the torqueboards youtube video didnt work for me just yet.
maybe the esc needs to be connected with the motors for that? didnt try that so far cause the bullet connectors didnt fit and I cant solder around just yet.


some input really appreciated, wanted to see some spinning motors this weekend and laminate a case for the electronics
Simon

 

[torqueboards]

Sorry for not including as much documentation as I should have...

So the way the ESCs are connected are with the Y Connectors. There is a red Y connector, black Y Connector, 3pin or 3wire Y connector for the receiver.

The On/Off Switch LED is always facing the battery which you have as correct.

The short 3 pin wire on ESC is the ESC Programming Wire (this is plugged into the 12S ESC).
The long 3 pin wire on ESC is the ESC Signal Wire (this is plugged into the RC Receiver Channel 2, Wiiceiver and/or Y Splitter.)

1. Find the long 3 wire ESC Signal Wire. Use ferrite ring and wrap it around the ESC Signal Wire as shown below. Do this for both ESC Signal Wires.

2. Plug the ESC Signal wire into the Y Connector for signal wires. Match the colors. Add another ferrite ring around this one if you can.

3. You can plug in the ESC Signal wire from the Y connector into the wiiceiver with the black/neg wire facing the left side.
http://diyelectricskateboard.com/electric-skateboard-wiiceiver-wireless-nunchuck-instructions/

4. You can plug in the UBEC wire from the Y connector into the (2nd) 3pin connector on the Wiiceiver. Both 3 pin areas are the same.

Be careful as the Wiiceiver can cause a lot of interference and malfunction which depends on your terrain and such. This is due to the Nyko Kama design for the wii nunchuck.

 

[whitepony]

thanks dexter, I figured you were really busy so I didnt want to bother you. guess more experienced people wouldnt have needed these instructions (I really tried on my own though, read the wiiceiver google docs, read about opto esc wiring, checked your youtube vids for the programming card and checked all pictures on your homepage to find examples of how to wire sutff). In the end I was still a little puzzled cause of "2x receiver 3-pin cable per ESC" vs "2x ESC outs on the wiiceiver and no 5V on red from ESC" vs. "where to connect the goddamn ubec then". wasnt sure if signal splitting was a good idea for the ESC inputs - seemed sensitive to RF noise & co.

What about that programming card? I connect the short ESC wire with it and the USB cable for power supply and I should be able to access the ESC settings? do they have to be connected to the motor? so far this always failed, programming card lighted up and showed some firmware code, but I wasnt able to leave that screen into some menu. at work now, Ill give it a little more fiddling when Im at home.