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Free Tool

RC Wiring Designer

Pick your battery, ESC, and servos — see exactly how everything plugs together, in the right order. Tap any part of the diagram to learn what it does.

Quick answer

Pick your battery, ESC and servos and this tool draws the exact hookup for your plane: which ESC wire goes where, which receiver channel each servo uses, and how the receiver gets its power. Free, no signup, and it prints.

Most beginner ESCs have a built-in BEC (a 5V supply for your receiver)
An opto ESC or a 5S+ pack means you need an external BEC
Channel numbering isn't universal — your transmitter's channel monitor shows yours

The diagram updates live. Click any component or wire for a plain-English explanation.

positive (+) ground (−) signal motor phase (any order) LED data

👆 Tap any part of the diagram

Every box and wire is clickable — it'll tell you what it does, which way it plugs in, and what happens if you get it wrong.

Hookup Order

Wire It In This Order

    Don't Fry Your Gear

    The 5 Classic Mistakes

    • Reversed battery polarity. Red to red, black to black — one backwards plug-in kills an ESC instantly. Polarized connectors like XT60 exist for this reason.
    • Two BECs fighting. If you add an external BEC while your ESC has one too, pull the red pin out of the ESC's receiver lead. One 5V source only.
    • Servo plug backwards. Signal (orange/white) goes to the inner/signal pin. Most receivers won't be damaged, but the servo won't move.
    • Prop on during setup. Take the prop off before the first power-up. ESCs can arm unexpectedly, and throttle calibration spins the motor at full power.
    • Undersized wire. Thin wire on a high-current run gets hot, drops voltage, and can desolder itself mid-flight. Check the gauge table above.
    Bench Stock

    The Wiring Parts I Actually Use

    Every connection in the diagram above uses these. Links are to specific products I've verified — as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    First power-up ritual: prop off → transmitter on → battery in → check servo directions → check motor direction (swap any two motor wires to reverse it) → power down → prop on → fly. Also see the RC electronics explainer if any part above is new to you.

    See exactly how your RC plane wires together

    A basic RC airplane is only five electrical parts and four connections, but the order you connect them — and a couple of easy mistakes — decide whether it powers up or lets the smoke out. Pick your battery, ESC, receiver and servos and this tool draws the color-coded diagram for your exact setup, in the right hookup order.

    How the connections work

    The battery feeds the ESC; the ESC drives the three-wire brushless motor and also sends a clean 5V back up its signal lead to power the receiver (that's the BEC — your receiver has no separate battery on a basic setup). Each servo plugs into its receiver channel with a three-wire lead: signal, positive, ground. Plug the battery in last, and unplug it first.

    The mistakes that fry electronics

    Reversed battery polarity, powering the receiver from two sources at once, and back-feeding voltage are the classics — the diagram flags them for your parts. If the prop blows air the wrong way, you don't rewire anything: just swap any two of the three motor wires. For the plain-English version, read RC Plane Connections, Simplified.

    Next in the Eric Robb Builder System

    Next: check it, then write it down

    Wiring sorted. Walk the preflight checks before the maiden, then save the setup so the next build starts from what worked.

    Run the preflight checks → Save a build sheet →