BeagleConnect QuadESC

What is BeagleConnect QuadESC?

Put four motors under your control with open hardware you can inspect, modify and build upon. BeagleConnect QuadESC is a four-channel brushless DC motor-control board for robotics, drone propulsion and real-time control development. BeagleConnect Torque comes installed, combining a 200 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor with dedicated math and neural-network acceleration to coordinate four three-phase power stages.

Go beyond commanding motor speed. Each channel includes three-phase current sensing, phase-voltage sensing and a nearby board-temperature sensor. The feedback routes and dedicated PWM time base for each motor provide a hardware foundation for field-oriented control, synchronized measurements and custom control algorithms. Onboard CAN hardware connects your controller to a wider system.

BeagleConnect QuadESC brings the controller, power stages, sensing and regulated controller power together on a 60 × 48 mm PCB. Editable KiCad designs, firmware sources and detailed hardware manuals support learning, experimentation and custom system development within the BeagleBoard.org ecosystem.

Build with BeagleConnect QuadESC

Explore coordinated robot drives, multi-motor mechanisms and drone propulsion, or study the relationship between switching waveforms, current measurements and motor torque. Each motor’s three phase-current inputs are distributed across three analog-to-digital converters, allowing firmware to sample that motor’s current triplet simultaneously. Four motors share those converters, with acquisition timing arranged by the application.

Use the flight-controller connection for command and reporting signals, or develop a CAN-connected controller through BeagleConnect Torque. The processor’s trigonometric math unit supports control calculations, while its TinyEngine neural-network accelerator provides a resource for application-specific fault and anomaly detection.

Factory ROM provides TI’s bootstrap loader. Load suitable application firmware before operating motors. Field-oriented control, DShot command decoding, telemetry and AI diagnostics depend on the firmware you install; match the application to your motors and connected controller. Programming and debug documentation includes TI XDS110 setup.

Chipset Features

Installed BeagleConnect Torque: TI AM13E23019 microcontroller with a 200 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor, 512 KB flash and 128 KB SRAM
Control and inference acceleration: Floating-point support, trigonometric math unit and TinyEngine neural-network accelerator
Real-time peripherals: Three 12-bit analog-to-digital converters and motor-control PWM resources with synchronization and ADC triggering
Gate drivers: Four TI DRV8323SRTAR devices with current-sense amplifiers, SPI configuration and fault reporting
Power switching: Twelve TI CSD88599Q5DC half-bridge devices across four three-phase channels
Onboard regulation: TI TPS54360B buck regulator and TPS7A4701 analog regulator
CAN connectivity: TCAN844 transceiver on BeagleConnect Torque

Board Features

Four motor channels: Four three-phase power stages, each with its own PWM time base and separate gate-driver SPI chip select
Phase feedback: Twelve low-side current-sense signals and twelve divided phase-voltage signals
System monitoring: Four board-temperature sensors near the power stages and battery-voltage measurement
Battery input: Intended for 3S–6S batteries, 9–25.2 V, with onboard regulated power for the controller and analog circuitry
Current design targets: 40 A continuous and 70 A burst per motor, subject to thermal validation
Flight-controller interface: Eight-pin connection carrying four command routes, telemetry, current reporting, battery power and ground
Motor connections: Three solder terminals per motor, plus dedicated battery solder terminals
Development connections: Carrier debug header, two-pin buzzer interface and access to BeagleConnect Torque communication and programming connections
PCB dimensions: 60 × 48 mm, with additional clearance required for the installed module, components and wiring

The current figures are design targets rather than established operating ratings. Allowable current depends on cooling, ambient temperature and load duration; a burst duration has not been specified. Gate-enable signals are shared across all four channels. Consult the specifications and compatibility guide when planning your application.

Resources

Put four motors and your ideas in motion. Explore the open hardware, follow the first-use guide and build your next motor-control application with BeagleConnect QuadESC.