Can you control a 3 wire PC fan with an ESC?

Описание: ragav e asked "can i use a 3wire pc fan with a esc?" so I found a 3 wire PC fan in my junk box and tried it, I don't know what the third wire is for but I found it worked as a normal DC motor by connecting a battery direct to it and I could not get it to work using a brushless ESC so the answer is NO.
UPDATE 1 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Craig Nehring has helped with this explanation (thanks Craig)
2 wire fans are just 12 volt, well most all PC fans are 12 volt but how they are controlled varies.
3 wire fans and 4 wire fans all have a red/black for +/- input respectively.
For the 3 wire fan the 3rd wire is a tachometer output. The voltage to the fan can be controlled if enabled in the PC BIOS. These 3 wire fans usually, at start up, bang on at 12 volts to get them going and the fan controller then ramps the speed down for quiet operation. So... fan speed is controlled via reducing voltage from a max of 12v.

4 wire fans, same as 3 wire but then what does the 4th wire do? This wire is for digital speed control, most 4 wire fans can be controlled with the 3 wire method if the BIOS has a setting for that. The 4th wire can also (in most cases) can be used by varying the voltage between the black terminal and the 4th wire between 0 to 10 volts DC, or as a digital pulse mode modulation.
So to summarise, 12 volt in to black and red, 3rd wire tach signal output, 4th wire pulse modulated OR analogue 0 to 10 volt speed control.
I have seen where a special PWM signal can get 4 wire fans to scream past 20,000 RPM
UPDATE 2 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You might find this video interesting "What's inside: ESCs" by RC Model Reviews    • What's inside: ESCs  
or this video "PC fan BLDC driver circuit reverse engineered" by randomtronic    • PC fan BLDC driver circuit reverse engineered  
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