What are ESC, UBEC and BEC

by Oscar

In this article we will discuss what ESC, BEC and UBEC are, what the advantages are using UBEC, and linear VS switching.

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Check out this post about how to choose ESC for quadcopters.

What are ESC, BEC, UBEC?

ESC stands for Electronic Speed Controller. It converts the PWM signal from the flight controller or radio receiver, and drives the brushless motor by providing the appropriate level of electrical power.

BEC stands for Battery Elimination Circuit. It’s just a fancy name for voltage regulator, which converts main LiPo battery pack voltage to a lower voltage (e.g. 2S 7.4V, 3S 11.1V or 4S 14.8V to 5V). BEC is usually built into ESC, and as the name suggests, it eliminates the need for a separate battery to power the 5V electronic devices.

What does “S” mean in “2S, 3S 4S”?

UBEC stands for universal BEC or sometimes ultimate BEC. It’s used when ESC doesn’t have built-in BEC, or standalone power system is required. They generally are more efficient, more reliable and able to provide more current than BEC. The UBEC is connected directly to the main battery of the multicopter, the same way as an ESC.

ubec

You might sometimes also see “LBEC” and “SBEC”. LBEC stands for Linear BEC, and SBEC stands for Switching BEC. I will explain what they are in the last section in this article.

Why Use UBEC over ESC BEC?

In layman’s terms, UBEC has the following advantages over ESC built-in BEC:

  • UBEC are more power efficient
  • BEC tends to overheat with large input/output voltage difference, or large load; UBEC doesn’t have this problem and thus more reliable
  • UBEC generally can provide more current safely

The reason behind these are due to the way how voltage is regulated. Most BEC are linear type, and UBEC are switching type. For a more technical insight, please carry on to the next section: Linear BEC VS Switching BEC.

If your ESC don’t have BEC, you can use an external UBEC to power your FC and RX. The UBEC’s input cable should be connected to the LiPo battery, and the output cable to the RX and FC. No change is required in the ESC connection.

But if you want to power your FC and RX with an UBEC, while your ESCs have built-in BECs, those BECs first needs to be disabled/disconnected from your system. Simply remove the red wire (5V) from the output servo lead of the ESC.

Linear BEC vs Switching BEC

There are two types of BEC; linear and switching. They are basically the two type of voltage regulators: linear and switching voltage regulators , which have been covered before, but here is the summary of differences.

They are sometimes also referred to as LBEC and SBEC.

Linear BEC

Most ESC’s built-in BECs are Linear type.

Linear BEC reduces the voltage from the main Lipo to 5V by converting the excess voltage into heat. This is not a very efficient way of voltage converting as you can imagine.

As input voltage gets higher, or current draw gets larger, more power will be wasted and converted into heat. That’s why this type of voltage regulator is not ideal for high input/output voltage difference or high current application. It’s generally only used on 3S or below (some works on 4S, but very rarely recommended)

Linear BEC VS Switching BEC

Overheated BEC will enter thermal-shutdown, and cause loss of power to the flight controller and radio receiver, and eventually a crash.

When the main battery pack is fairly low (e.g. 7.4v 2S), wasted power is relatively small because there is not much voltage difference, so efficiency is better. But as you use higher cell count lipo efficiency drops right down. Lots of power is wasted and converted into heat.

This is something you should bear in mind, but I just want to assure you that I have been running 4S on my Blue series ESC (rated 2S to 4S by manufacturer), and using the built-in BEC to power my FC and RX, I have not had a single problem with it. Although it gets a bit warm, it still runs reliably with good good amount of air flow. This leads to another argument, where to mount your ESC on quadcopter frame?

Switching BEC

Switching BECs reduce the output voltage by switching the supply on and off several thousand times per second. They don’t heat up like linear BEC, and they generally handle higher input voltages and higher current much better.

They have a very consistent efficiency across a wide range of input/output voltages, which is around 85%. This is also the choice for running on 4S or above system if you are after reliability.

One drawback with switching regulators is the noise they produce due to the nature of voltage regulation, that’s why they are not used on ESC’s. Some people put a LC filter at the output and it seems to clean up the power pretty well.

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21 comments

Paul Blase 9th June 2021 - 1:47 am

You might want to define “S”, as in 3s. Not exactly electrical standard terminology.

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Paul Lowkater 15th October 2021 - 3:37 pm

You might want to do your research before you talk correct someone. S is a comon term when dealing with Lipos. ?

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Hugh Davis 7th February 2020 - 6:22 pm

Hey everyone.
Oscar I have seen one of your videos on YouTube and when I did I search on Google about UBEC’s I saw you had an article about them so hear I am. Great info but I’m new to all of this and it can be confusing. I have a project ahead of me and I’m building a very light foam racer RC plane. I’m using the Geprc 2306.5 2450kv motor with a 6×4.5 carbon fiber GF prop. This motor is advertised at 2300g thrust at 100% throttle. My plane should weight about 800-900g all up weight. I want the most power from my battery going to the motor w/o waisting it into heat. I want this plane to be fast. Can you or anyone here suggest a setup for me? I have two versions of this plane one version has lots of extra room in the fuselage and the other I have narrowed it to reduce frontal area and drag. I’m not looking for a lot of flight time but I am looking for the best reliable setup. and I’m honestly having a hard time picturing the wiring in my head and how everything should connect. I know they are diagrams on Pinterest that explain pretty much everything so maybe I’ll look there but in the meantime could someone suggest a UBEC setup. Thanks a lot. Or even a better motor…but for the power/weight ratio the on I’m looking at seems to be the best…so far. Ok, thanks in advance for any information.
Hugh
Columbia SC

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RAYMOND CARON 23rd November 2019 - 3:31 am

i HAVE BUILT UP TWIN PLANE I IUS USCE SPEED CONTROLLER W/ITH A SHORT LIVE SHOULD I USED SBEC

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Gerry van Grevenhf 18th April 2018 - 11:48 pm

Hi to al

This is my first time dealing with a rc airplane radio trans mitter system
Here are my questions
I have a bec (esc) 30 amp which I bought with a A2212 brushless motor and bought a separate ubec. 20 amp.
Now I am stuck, they look exactly the same, they have the same amount of wires. Every schematic I have seen does not fit my wiring.

Q: is there a speed control included in ubec device?
Q: can I install a pn ubec with a bec ( esc) system?
Please help me out if that is possible

Gerry van Grevenhof
Gvang0608 gmail.com
Thank in advance

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Gus 4th March 2018 - 8:54 am

Best article I have read on the matter. I actually understand now. I have a 40amp esc with a bec 3-5v and a Air3 Inav which came with a UBEC. So just to clarify as this will bw in a plane and the ESC has a large heat sink on it and will be mounted outside the plane to keep cool it should be fine to power the inav without the hassle of soldering on the UBEC then? It also cam with a capacitor so having that plugged in will also help?

Or have I Totally misread the article. Using 3s batteries.

Thanks in advance.

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Alexandros 11th September 2017 - 2:32 pm

Hi i want to use a 4 in 1 esc (without bec ) i have to buy Ubec or bec and connect it or i can fly my project without bec, ubec ? thanks Alex

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Oscar 18th September 2017 - 4:05 am

BEC and UBEC are a way to provide power to your other components such as FC and RX, if you can find power elsewhere then you don’t need UBEC/BEC.

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Narmadha M 15th December 2016 - 10:07 am

Can I connect a 5V battery directly to ESC .Will it run the BLDC motor without problems?

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vern 27th September 2016 - 8:09 pm

can i power the fc and rc w/ one esc bec and use the other 3 esc bec to power leds, fpv system, etc that use 5v?

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Oscar 3rd October 2016 - 3:57 pm

yes that should work :)

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JonDrones 23rd August 2016 - 2:15 am

Here’s setup. 4s battery, seriously pro f3, little bee 20a option esc’s. Now my 5-1 power hub has bec 12v and bec 5v. My battery leads solder on the VCC inputs, could I use one of the bec outputs either 5v or 12v to accomplish what’s needed for the esc’s to operate correctly? Option newb

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Oscar 26th August 2016 - 2:49 pm

Yes you can, as long as the voltage and current rating meets the requirement.

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Adam U. 1st August 2016 - 4:53 am

Hi! I’d like to build my rc quad on 210 BeeRotor frame. It’s a cool PDB board with 5v 12v outputs! :) then I’d like to connect my opto mini 20a esc so I need Ubec? I Think no. I connect esc directly to 5v outputs on PDB end to FController. It’s good?! Ghanie for answer. BR

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LV Chong 11th April 2016 - 6:42 am

Hi Oscar,

Good blog !!, thanks for sharing.
I also have a quadcopter..
i use a 4s batt to power the motor and esc (emax esc with bec)
I also put in a 2s batt to power up my tx, gimbal & camera (gimbal pit roll control also have red wiire to FC)
when i connect anyone of the battery, the FC will lights up and working.
if i connect 2 of them, you think it will overload the FC? my FC is APM2.6.
also, does the 600mw fpv tx, 2d gimbals & camera consume battery?
the reason i put in extra 2s battery is to get longer fly time.

Thank you.
LV Chong

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Nate 19th February 2016 - 2:50 am

I have a 5 volt soldering port on my PDB. Can I use it for both my 5v flight controller input and my 5v CMOS camera?

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Oscar 22nd February 2016 - 11:30 am

yes that should be fine, just make sure it can provide enough current for your devices.
by the way, I recommend joining this forum, it’s very useful and there are lots of helpful people there. I am a daily user too :) http://intoFPV.com

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Tom 3rd August 2015 - 6:15 am

I currently have one motor with BEC connected to FC and all others are without bec, would this cause any problems?

BTW I love your blog I have used many times you are a star for this :-)

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Oscar 6th August 2015 - 12:37 am

no that’s absolutely fine, just make sure you are connecting the Ground with ESC signal as well! Otherwise you could potentially have ESC sync issue.

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Simon 18th June 2015 - 1:29 pm

Where do you put a UBEC if you have opto esc. Between the ESCs and the Flight Controller? Or between the Battery and the Flight Controller?

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Oscar 19th June 2015 - 1:02 pm

just between battery and FC… basically it’s like connecting 5 ESC, but the UBEC isn’t connected to any motor :)

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