FC and ESC Wiring

This page covers the steps to make sure the FC is connected properly.

Connector Pinout

For Phase 1 we are only concerned with indoor flight in a stabilized flight mode. This will make our wiring incredibly simple. In Phase 2 we will add some additional connections that will allow us to hold position and fly autonomously in a GPS-denied environment. The image below shows all the ports and servo connections available on the FC.

Port locations and servo connections for FC

Connect the power module cable to the port labeled POWER. Then connect the receiver cable to RC IN. Power will come from the 4S Lipo battery plugged into the power module and stepped down to a voltage that the FC can handle. The receiver will receive wireless input from the FlySky transmitter and pass signals to the FC. This will allow you to manually pilot your VRC drone!

FC connected to power and receiver

ESC Wiring

The servo rail pinout is shown in the diagram below. The ESCs should be connected to the first four sets of pins on the right side. You will notice the ESC servo leads are black and white, which means they only contain signal and ground wires. The ESCs will be powered from the power distribution board when the battery is plugged in.

FC servo rail

The order in which the ESCs should be connected to the servo rail is important and given by the diagram below. The red arrow indicates the front of the drone.

Motor numbering and rotation

Because the ESCs are mounted in a very tight space, it might be hard to find which wire is coming from which ESC, and which ESC is connected to which motor.

To more easily identify the correct motor you can pull out the extension cables and follow them to the ESC. On the other side of the ESC will be the black/white servo cable that you'll plug into the corresponding port in the FC's servo rail.

Use the extension cables to identify the right ESC

It is extremely important to connect your ESCs in the proper order. Failure to do so can cause problems on takeoff and will lead to your VRC drone flipping over.

Be sure to connect all four ESC servo leads with the ground wire (black) on top and signal wire (white) on the bottom.

ESC servo connections with ground (black) on top and signal (white) on bottom

Motor rotation is important to make sure the drone can gain altitude and hover. This will be covered shortly, but know that swapping any two of the three motor leads will reverse the motor rotation.