I was playing at connecting wires to 'get the feel of it' when I accidentally connected the servo connector red wire to the arduino 5V pin while the arduino is connected to my comp, (and hence powered). I did not connect a battery to the ESC though.
Did I just effectively ran 5 V through my BEC and risk damaging it?
What I only managed to find online is I shouldn't have done that when the battery is connected because I will burn out my Arduino. But since I didnt have my battery connected to the ESC, will my BEC get damaged instead?
I couldn't check my ESC now because I don't have any suitable batteries with me right now and I have to wait till Monday to get my batteries. Just thought I can find a quicker answer here.
It is an Aoxan AE-30A. The manual doesnt mention it has BEC, but the online product page of my local dealer says it does.
If just "the servo connector red wire to the arduino 5V pin " then no but if you also had the servo connector black wire hooked up to the arduino gnd pin then that's another matter. Probably the ESC is OK but get it in your head NOT to plug wires in when the circuit is LIVE!
unfortunately I connected the gnd pins as well..so did I damage my esc?
trawling through blogs and threads, I read that the arduino outputs a pretty low ampere, like 20-30 miliamperes while the BEC outputs roughly 3 amperes. I am hoping that 20-30 miliamps is inconsequential and the BEC can just 'shrug it off'(?) Is there even a diode somewhere that prevent these things from happening?
Which wire in the 3-pin servo connector is the "red wire". The colours are not standard, but the locations are. The centre pin is the power pin (5v) and one of the side pins is for GND and the other one is for signal. It is designed that way so that no harm is done if it is connected the wrong way round.
If you connected the centre pin to 5v and the GND pin is connected to GND no harm should be done. That s the normal way it should be connected.
On the other hand connecting 5v to either the GND or signal connectors while either of the other pins is connected to 0v could cause damage.
A reverse-protection diode is unlikely because the voltage drop across diodes would be a significant energy loss for a low voltage device.
...R
The middle power wire to the 5V pin Arduino, the ground wire to the Arduino's ground. I had my arduino plugged in the entire time...
Student91:
The middle power wire to the 5V pin Arduino, the ground wire to the Arduino's ground. I had my arduino plugged in the entire time...
See the 2nd paragraph in Reply #3.
Clearly you had some worry in your mind that caused you to start this Thread but it is not clear to me what that was. Perhaps you can explain what you thought might have been a problem with incorrect connections.
...R
I do really hope its misplaced worry as well. What is going through my mind is I am worried that I may have inadvertently attempted to 'power' my BEC as opposed to the BEC powering my arduino and this somehow damages my BEC/ESC.
The online tutorials I read are telling me that I can power my Arduino with the wires connected in such a way but the thing is that they had a battery connected to the ESC, and the arduino disconnected from the computer.Therefore current is flowing from the BEC to the Arduino under the mentioned circumstances.
What happened in my case was I did not have a battery connected to the ESC, and the arduino connected to my PC. What I think happens when my setup is connected this way is then the Arduino attempts to push 5V to the ESC middle red power wire which is meant as a voltage output and the resulting current causes carnage along its way.
I opened the same thread in a RC group forum as well and I got a reply saying it shouldn't get damaged as well.
You need to post a link to the datasheet for the BEC. And if the "red wire" is not actually a permanent part of the BEC wiring then you also need to post a diagram showing how you had everything connected. A photo of a simple pencil drawing will be fine. Please DO NOT use Fritzing.
...R
I have attached the diagram and the manual it comes with in the OP. The manual is an almost useless generic one anyway. I will update any info I come across to the OP
Student91:
I have attached the diagram and the manual it comes with in the OP. The manual is an almost useless generic one anyway. I will update any info I come across to the OP
Nothing attached.
...R
it is in the original post on top, I'm not sure how to embed the picture using tags,it doesn't show (at least in the preview)
Student91:
it is in the original post on top, I'm not sure how to embed the picture using tags,it doesn't show (at least in the preview)
Don't put new material in old Posts. I can't remember now which images were in your Original Post and which ones were subsequently added. See this Image Guide
...R
Thanks, That diagram seems clear. I presume the intention is to power the Arduino from the ESC in normal use.
I have no idea (without the datasheet and specifications) whether the ESC can survive having power provided through the 5v wire.
My guess is that it will have been designed so it does not cause a problem - otherwise the user manual would have (should have 
) dire warnings because lots of RC gear will have another power source.
...R
I think the makers of the ESC and the manual expects the ESC to be connected to a regular RC receiver hence the lack of warnings. I have opened a thread in a RC forum asking the same thing and they think it's not that big of a deal. I hope their confidence is well founded.
Just a quick update, my BEC is working fine! Thank you everybody
That was the answer. The answer was to find out to see if the esc was damaged or not...... by just testing it.