ESC vs Robot Motor controller

[the21robot]

Hi,

I was looking to buy a motor controller for a robot I was building and saw that the price for an hour bridge 2 amp motor controllet is about $10. I thought that this was reasonable until I saw the price of a rc car esc. The rc car esc costs about the same, but can handle much higher amps. What are the limitations of rc car esc and why are they so much cheaper??

 

Robot motor controller:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CAG6GX2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1460827894&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=motor+controller&dpPl=1&dpID=51E1FfDgELL&ref=plSrch

 

Rc motor controller:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00URCLWLW/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1460827967&sr=8-2&pi=SX200_QL40&keywords=esc+brushed&dpPl=1&dpID=51AJVMkRl5L&ref=plSrch

[werto165]

I'm not 100% sure about this but I think that ESC's can't be used with stepper motors so if you want that sort of control you will need the other one. 

[Hackentosher]

What kind of motors are you trying to control?

[the21robot]

5 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

What kind of motors are you trying to control?

Brushed dc motors, not stepper motors. The one I linked is for dc motors, and wil NOT work with stepper motors.

[Hackentosher]

1 minute ago, the21robot said:

Brushed dc motors, not stepper motors. The one I linked is for dc motors, and wil NOT work with stepper motors.

Well if it's a brushed DC motor, the brushed ESC is probably the right choice. Any pics of the motor?

[Enderman]

Car ESCs are just the same thing marketed differently

 

robot motor controllers sometimes have different types of logic inputs, while RC motor ESCs just have the regular receiver PWM

 

rc motor controllers are usually made for higher currents as you mentioned

 

get whichever is cheapest and has good reviews

[Huntsman]

The "robot motor controller" is just a normal standard H-bridge motor driver. It can do both direction drive and much more useful means of controlling it. Also, it can control two motors at the same time. Although I think the current per motor is 1A.

 

The ESC is a throttle controller. Input PWM and it will control the motor to go as fast as the duty cycle. However, it doesn't do reverse direction drive. It's pretty basic. And since it only does one direction, it can go higher amps for the same price. Only one motor can be controlled per module.