Hi, in my project I will have 5 of these little brushless motor thrusters:
U01 Underwater Thruster with 45A Bi-Directional ESC
They come with their own ESC, and will be powered from a Dewalt Battery.
Each one will need a PWM pin, and I'm using the Adafruit Feather Sense. Adafruit Feather Sense Board It has 12 PWM outputs, but it's GPIO pins are 3.3 volt. I've worked with servos a lot, when using the Atmega328P chip, which is 5V, but I'm unsure about if the 3.3V from the Feather will be enough to run the ESC's?
Also, the ESC is just looking for a PWM input, so it won't be much draw on the feather, so the feather should be fine to handle 5 PWM outputs? They will actually never all be going at the same time, but it would be possible I suppose?
Please post a link to the datasheet, not to the sellers site, to avoid guesses that could be wrong.
You can try the 3V3 driving the esc input, it probably will work. If not you can use a 74HCT device as a level translator. The lower voltage into the input will not damage anything but trying to put a 5V signal into a 3V3 device will damage it. This should help: Logic Levels - SparkFun Learn
The 74HCT series logic devices are designed to accept lower voltage inputs (as low as 2V) and output at higher voltage levels, making them suitable for level shifting from 3.3V to 5V. For instance, the 74HCT14 hex inverter can be powered with 5V, accept 3.3V logic inputs, and output 5V logic levels. This ensures that your 3.3V microcontroller can safely and effectively drive a 5V ESC. Additionally, the 74HCT14 provides hysteresis, which improves noise immunity and signal integrity. Placing two inverters in series will eliminate the inversion.
Unfortunately I can’t find any datasheet on their site or any like it for that model name. 
Do more ‘typical’ servos consider 3.3v enough to be the ‘on’ state?
Why don't You adjust the mechanical position to make the pointer straight up at a certain servo position?
Is the situation that in reality You have a servo motor? Real servos are seldomly, or never, used together with encoders.
The PLD You mentioned is built in in a true servo internal electronics.
I bench tested 3 of these thrusters being controlled at the same time with the feather sense on a breadboard, and they seem to work fine, so I’m going to good forward with the PCB design for the project, assuming the ESC’S are okay with only 3.3 volt input on the PWM.
Almost certainly,, if you have five outputs. The servo library doesn't need any special pins.
aS for the 3.3 volt logic, maybe it would work, trying woukd not hurt.
I wrote the above hours ago.
I left off before an adding a briefer version of @gilshultz's response, to which I would only add there are 74HCT chips that don't invert. So one package would suffice. I think. <googles> Yes, The 74HC7014 provides six precision Schmitt-triggers with non-inverting buffers.
And this
is no a good idea. You might just be getting lucky. To do a PCB with an outstanding issue like this is insane.
What you tested might be just barely working… unless you can find documentation or analysis of the circuit, just add the IC.
a7
Well, that’s why I’m asking. If there’s a question, it won’t be hard to add smd logic level mosfets I. There to shift the voltage to 5 volts. Thanks.
You can put the IC on the PCB and add jumper pads if you do not need it.
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