10S custom skate ESC: testers wanted!

hey,

Just wanted to try my two VESCs. I went for a 6S to be sure everything would be fine.

The VESCs have been prepared by Marcin, he has soldered them so I can use them on my dual setup (the discharge wires are soldered together). I added the capacitors as displayed on the photos. The wiring seems to be adequate.

As soon as I powered on, one of the two rods of the second capacitor started to burn (no smoke), same sound that when you light a match. I stopped immediately and removed the battery. This capacitor was really hot. Everything was fine with the first capacitor.

I am officially stuck :) Do you have any ideas of what could be wrong?

1439997460-img-3547.jpg

1439997460-img-3548.jpg

1439997460-img-3549.jpg

1439997460-img-3550.jpg


Thanks! I am also going to send this info to Marcin, in case he has an idea.
 
measure the resistance of the capacitor (from positiv pin to neg. pin) - is it a shortcut?
 
The photos suggests that you have connected the negative side of the capacitor to plus (red).

Also, try to keep the leads as short as possible. I.e. Try to mount the capacitor closer to the cables.
 
Yeah.
It is quite certain that the cap is in bad shape.
better get a new one (selectronic shop at nation).
Ask for the same capacitance AND voltage.

If both caps were wired the wrong way, I would replace both.
 
I think you also need Low-ESR type capacitors. And be careful with the two ESCs so near together, if I remember correctly, there was somebody here who killed them by letting them touch each other accidently and shorting something out.
 
okp said:
1439997460-img-3549.jpg
Click to expand...

Any reason you went with 16 AWG wiring? I see most are using 12 AWG here; personally I put on 10 AWG, and would have gone with 8 AWG if my solder skills would have accommodated that :). Compared to 10 AWG, 16 AWG has about 4 times higher Resistance and thus 4 times higher losses and Voltage drop.
 
Okp, first of all I'd like to apologize for not informing you how to solder the capacitor correctly, it appears to be soldered backwards.
Here is a link to the capacitor that is included with every VESC: http://uk.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=UVR1J222MHDvirtualkey64700000virtualkey647-UVR1J222MHD

I'm afraid that the capacitor is indeed damaged and needs to be replaced.
 
Hey everyone.
Still waiting for my VESC, but because I build on the battery box I' think about a powerswitch.
I wanted to do something like that:
a2278808-118-anti-spark-schem.gif

Then I have read a bit about anti-spark circuits and found that:
Code: 
The spark is your friend. If ever you plug your pack into your controller and you don’t see the spark, contact tech support at support@castlecreations.com or (913) 390-6939 and send the controller in for repair. Your capacitors will need to be changed. NEVER fly if you do not see the spark, especially with high voltage applications! The higher the voltage, the bigger the spark should be. Remember, the spark is your friend!!!
http://www.castlecreations.com/support/faq/faq-phoenix_hv.html
What do you guys think? Should I use a anti-spark or better enjoy the sparks and let them eat away my switches?
 
Nordel said:
Hey everyone.
Still waiting for my VESC, but because I build on the battery box I' think about a powerswitch.
I wanted to do something like that:
a2278808-118-anti-spark-schem.gif

Then I have read a bit about anti-spark circuits and found that:
Code: 
The spark is your friend. If ever you plug your pack into your controller and you don’t see the spark, contact tech support at support@castlecreations.com or (913) 390-6939 and send the controller in for repair. Your capacitors will need to be changed. NEVER fly if you do not see the spark, especially with high voltage applications! The higher the voltage, the bigger the spark should be. Remember, the spark is your friend!!!
http://www.castlecreations.com/support/faq/faq-phoenix_hv.html
What do you guys think? Should I use a anti-spark or better enjoy the sparks and let them eat away my switches?
Click to expand...

On 12s and 4400uF, the spark is getting closer to being a small explosion that will make the connector difficult plug in the next time already. On 8s or less, you can deal with the spark. My xt60 connectors have survived on 8s for a year now before I built an anti spark switch. Your circuit would work. You can also use my anti spark switch that I uploaded yesterday:
https://github.com/vedderb/SparkSwitch
 
Your anti-spark exceeds my abilities :?:
I will run mine on 6s, the Spark definitely shouldn't damage the VESC then? I don't care about switches or plugs they are cheap;)
Just want to know what's the best for my controler, that's the part I want to protect. Preferably simple and cheap methods :wink:
 
okp said:
back on track.

IMG_3564.jpg


Finally got my VESCs detected, firmware is 1.8 . BLDC tool tell me to upgrade the firmware via the firmware tab.

Worth it ? where can I get 1.10 firmware?
Click to expand...

1.8 - 1.10 had mostly changes made for the open source remote that Vedder is building (NRF). No significant changes were made besides that:

1.10: Nunchuk speed control glitch fix
1.9: NRF updates, better servo output support
1.8: NRF fix

You can either upgrade the firmware (You'll have to compile it) or you can use my windows version of BLDC tool that accepts the 1.8 firmware: http://ampcite.com/downloads/

Regards
 
thanks.

I am now trying to make the motors rolling with CAN

- I unsoldered the brown wire as you told me.
- got the CAN bus connected between both VESC
- I go to motor detection, got my motor rolling.
- I input the parameters detected on each VESC
- I go to App Configuration, put each VESC a different controller ID (0 / 1)
- App to use : PPM on VESC ID 0 - No App on VESC ID 1
- PPM Control Mode : Current no reverse with brake
- Send status overs CAN : Enable for VESC 1 (slave)
- Multiples ESC over CAN selected
- Enable traction control checked

Works OK. My motors detection provide me with Integrator limit of 106.86 and BEMF Coupling of 782.72 - Which values should I put ? rounded ?
 
Okp: Make sure you tick "Send status over CAN"

Also, can you take a picture of the CAN connection? Regards

EDIT: Seems like you've solved your problem :) Round the values to the nearest integer (4.55 -> 5)

Regards
 
Seems i have something to read really soon on our french forum from okp :lol: .

Congrats.
 
okp said:
here it goes. Just one weird thing is my the fact that I don't have something happening in the first instants when I engage the trigger.

[youtube]kw-gw5gI6do[/youtube]
Click to expand...

Lower the deadband number :)

Regards
 
Guys, please have a look at how I mounted the cap on my VESC, just to double check I did not make some dumb mistake, thanks! Soldered according to the picture above (long leg=positive) and put a bit of hot glue on it to prevent sharp edged and give stability.
uc
 
furp said:
Guys, please have a look at how I mounted the cap on my VESC, just to double check I did not make some dumb mistake, thanks! Soldered according to the picture above (long leg=positive) and put a bit of hot glue on it to prevent sharp edged and give stability.
uc
Click to expand...

Nice way to mount it and looks correct to me. As long as the white/grey "stripe" is to your negative you should be fine. I don't recall mine having a long leg, but likely wasn't paying that close of attention. I just made sure the white stripe leg was to the negative wire.
 
Hooray it lives! I tested it in my scooter, using the ppm input coming from a modded servo tester, but it seems to work only on duty cycle mode, not on current. Current mode just turns the motor on/off and no speed adjustmend is made. Most of the stuff in the BLDC too I don't understand, but I hope it will just work like this.

One thing I noticed while rewatching vedders video is that even for uploading the firmware per stlink, the VESC is already connected to a battery. When I programmed my first VESC (which tuns out DRV error now), I used only the stlink v2 for flashing it but no external battery power, could that have been the problem?

Lastly, I don't really understand what file to download to get the latest firmware/bldc tool. I can probably just do the download and install commands for bldc tool again and it will get the latest one, right? But I don't know which file to download and chose for updating the firmware via bldc tool.
 
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