Can you run two brushless esc's in parallel to one motor?

[justinspeed79]

Was tinkering with some airplane stuff yesterday, and it got me wondering about this. I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work. Anyone ever tried it?

[Coelacanth]

Sorry, I can't answer if it's possible or not, I'm just trying to understand what's the goal for doing this? I could understand running multiple batteries, or just a higher LiPo like a 3s or more, and even why some people would run multiple motors, like in a crawler...but why run two motor controllers to control one motor?

[justinspeed79]

Because I have several matching low amp esc's that aren't much good to me, and I need something more powerful. Specifically I want to combine two thirty amps to make a sixty amp.

[Coelacanth]

If you ran them in parallel, wouldn't you still have 30 amps? Seems to me like you'd need to run them in series...or just buy one of the many cheap Hobbywing 60A ESCs on eBay.

[justinspeed79]

Well, my theory is that each esc would still be putting out 30 amps, so together it would be 60. Of coarse buying one is an option, but if I can save some money using what I already have then why not.

[justinspeed79]

No one has any input on this? I guess I will just have to try it.

[Stumpy]

No one has any input on this? I guess I will just have to try it.

The only problems/concerns that I can see is matching them, and then how each individual ESC will deal with sensing the rotor position from the non-energised phase..

If it were only a matter of increasing the output of one ESC by adding more Mosfets, then that would be easy... But doubling your output by using twice the mosfets, but having separate drivers / processors may be tricky..

[jwscab]

I would say you might have a fighting chance with BRUSHED motor esc's, but definitely NOT with brushless. If the two esc are out of sync(and they most likely will be), you will apply voltage/shorts to the FETs in a damaging way.

actually, the brushed motor esc's would be affected the same way, so I think either way, I wouldn't attempt it.

[justinspeed79]

Thanks for the input guys. So, this most likely will not work then, but I think I will try it anyway just to see what happens. Maybe I will get it on video just in case there are fireworks.

[Coelacanth]

Of course, fail vids are always entertaining!