interface DYNM3876 ESC with Raspberry Pi credit to https://elinux.org/RPi_GPIO_Interface_Circuits for help

ESC power button was removed and is now controlled by GPIO 23: the ESC power button is has 4 wires in this order: A red - carries 12v when the ESC has power B red - if the ESC has power, no voltage until button pressed C white - unimportant rn D black - unimportant atm Connecting wires A and B turns on the ESC

because the wires run at 12v, a relay is used to control them with the Pi: at present, the relay is a JS1E-6V, (janky current setup with parts I have) wire A is connected to pin 3 of the relay, which is Normally Open wire B is connected to pin 1 of the relay, aka COM pin 5 of the relay, one side of the coil, is connected to 5v supply the other side of the coil is pin 2, and is connected to the collector of a transistor

pins 2 and 5 are connected with a diode to theoretically isolate the pi from the inductive load of the relay the cathode of the diode is connected to the positive supply rail this diode is currently Zener diode N5817 but I would use 1N4001 if i had it

the transistor is an NPN 2N3904 its base is connected to GPIO 23 of the pi through a 1k resistor its collector is connectd to pin 2 of the relay its emitter is connected to the ground of the 5v supply