Quote:
Originally Posted by micke_b
Hi, thanks for the Answer Patrick. Of course I've should have asked you, just took the chanse of asking here since BrianG made me curious with all the pictures. ;-)
Im asking since Im trying to learn how these things works and I have a goal to try and build a esc of my own, but based on a AVR MCU. Sice I really like your products and it seems like you guys know what parts to use I thougth I save myself that trouble. I still have a lot to learn, but Im getting there.
Thanks for sharing.
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The AVR MCU is a decent platform.
Building a good quality ESC isn't an easy thing. We have years of experience with it (Castle has been in business for 12 years!), and are still learning new things every day. Before starting Castle I worked designing avionics for Honeywell and Garmin.
A few things I didn't point out -- the main FET board is eight layers, six ounce copper each layer. Just tooling for a circuit board like that costs several thousand. You don't want to know how much we pay for each board.
The control board is .005" track/track, 2 oz copper, four layers. (that's an expensive board to tool too...)
The heat sink is a custom made for us by Aavid.
If you are planning to build your own ESC for your own interest, great. If you are thinking about getting into the business -- let me warn you. The margins are terrible, the competition is fierce, the distributors make you jump through hoops so they can make more money on products than you do.
Most of the manufacturers in this business don't do anything new -- they just wait for new products to come from their competitors, then they clone them, steal the ideas and designs, and then undercut your (already very thin!) margins. And that's just the western companies -- the asian companies steal your ideas, cheapen up the designs by using cloned parts, recovered parts, sub-par materials (whatever they can do to make it cheaper to manufacture.) There are asian companies selling ESCs in the air market that have selling prices BELOW my BOM costs... Think about that... Their selling price is lower than my material costs ALONE.
It isn't a business you want to get into unless you are doing it simply because you love the hobby. You won't get rich doing this.