Controlling brushless DC motors

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

Hi there,

I've recently got an arduino Uno and begun playing around with it. I love the endless possibilities it offers and have developed a particular interest in powering motors with an arduino.

For the extra reliability and durability they offer, brushless motors are my main interest however I have a few problems.

1: I am a student and therefore have 0 money to spend on expensive motors
2: I am a student and can't afford the electric speed controllers that said expensive motors require

So my solution to the motor issue is to butcher an old HDD or CD player for its BLDC motors as I can definitely find one laying around. However getting the ESC to make it work is troublesome. Do hard drives and CD players have an ESC built in? If so can I use this with my arduino?

If not surely there is a way to make my own ESC? As I understand it all an ESC does is send timed pulses through each set of electromagnets to keep the motor chasing itself. Can I not wire the motor to 3 inputs on my arduino and send a current through them in a pattern?

Thanks in advance

2

It is possible, but a real ESC will probably be a bit more reliable and run more smoothly.
That being said, here's a discussion that a well-formed Google search could have yielded :wink: .