10S custom skate ESC: testers wanted!

[jamesonotc]

VESC 1
The issue I am having with the first controller is that during the parameter detection sequence the motor initially spins slowly (maybe 10 revolutions in 6 seconds) and is very rough. After the initial spin up the motor vibrates loudly and moves at best 10-20 degrees. It does this twice before returning bad detection results and failing to detect the motor parameters. Both the blue and green LEDs stay on during the detection process and the red LED doesn't appear to flash. No faults are returned in the terminal window of the BLDC Tool. I have tried adjusting the low duty value (to a max of 0.20), and the current (up to 6 A) and min ERPM (up to 750) with no significant change. I have also tried a solution from this forum (I think 777arc, is to credit) to ensure that no application is selected for the VESC in the application window.

VESC 2
When I start the parameter detection process on the second VESC, the motor will initially give a quick kick, and then quickly coasts down to a stop. After this you can hear a weak noise from the motor but the motor doesn’t move, this happens twice. The red LED flashes 3 times during the process, once each time the motor starts (or tries to), and then the parameter detection fails. When I check the 'faults' log in the BLDC Tool, I get:

Scoobie, try adding a nice amount of no clean flux to the pins of the DRV8302 on both sides and drag the pins with a clean solder tip. This issue you're encountering is more likely due to a solder bridge connection between two pins on the DRV8302. I have build a lot of VESC and have experienced this many times with newly built chips causing the motor detection to go very ruff and fail detection. Clean up the DRV pins and motor detection will go smooooth as butter. If this doesnt fix the issue then clean the pins on the stm32 (very unlikley if you were able to program the VESC that the STM has grounded pins) but while you're at it you should redrag them and make sure they're clean..

If you need to... use solder wick to pick up the excess solder.

 

[vedder]

G'day All

Sorry to bust out with a post like this in one of my very few, but I have been building my longboard for a long long time now and am having some difficulties with a couple of VESCs, and was hoping some of you could help me out.

I have two VESCs that I setup following all of Vedder's steps in his tutorial. I had no major issues with the process of uploading the VESC firmware, and the setting up the BLDC Tool (great tutorial Vedder). Both boards are rev 4.7 and have version 4.6/4.7 firmware @rev 1.13. I initially started testing of the VESCs using a 12V power supply but have since moved onto a 48V power supply, both rated at 10A. I have had a good look at the soldering and components on the VESCs and cannot see any issues that would be causing the problems I am having. I have never made it past trying to detect the motor parameters on either controller. I have tested 2 190kV R-spec motors and one SKM3 5060 (240 kV ??) with each VESC.

VESC 1
The issue I am having with the first controller is that during the parameter detection sequence the motor initially spins slowly (maybe 10 revolutions in 6 seconds) and is very rough. After the initial spin up the motor vibrates loudly and moves at best 10-20 degrees. It does this twice before returning bad detection results and failing to detect the motor parameters. Both the blue and green LEDs stay on during the detection process and the red LED doesn't appear to flash. No faults are returned in the terminal window of the BLDC Tool. I have tried adjusting the low duty value (to a max of 0.20), and the current (up to 6 A) and min ERPM (up to 750) with no significant change. I have also tried a solution from this forum (I think 777arc, is to credit) to ensure that no application is selected for the VESC in the application window.

VESC 2
When I start the parameter detection process on the second VESC, the motor will initially give a quick kick, and then quickly coasts down to a stop. After this you can hear a weak noise from the motor but the motor doesn’t move, this happens twice. The red LED flashes 3 times during the process, once each time the motor starts (or tries to), and then the parameter detection fails. When I check the 'faults' log in the BLDC Tool, I get:

The following faults were registered since start:

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : 110.1
Current filtered : -1.7
Voltage : 8.03
Duty : 0.00
RPM : 1.1
Tacho : 8
Cycles running : 6
PWM cycles : 6
TIM duty : 263
TIM val samp : 131
TIM current samp : 26505
TIM top : 52747
Comm step : 5
Temperature : 27.10

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : 1.5
Current filtered : 70.2
Voltage : 6.01
Duty : 0.03
RPM : 4769.5
Tacho : 11
Cycles running : 109
PWM cycles : 8
TIM duty : 1160
TIM val samp : 609
TIM current samp : 21453
TIM top : 41687
Comm step : 2
Temperature : 29.86

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : 20.4
Current filtered : 100.4
Voltage : 5.43
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 4862.1
Tacho : 137
Cycles running : 94
PWM cycles : 11
TIM duty : 657
TIM val samp : 325
TIM current samp : 24277
TIM top : 47904
Comm step : 2
Temperature : 30.07

I'm guessing this might be a faulty DRV8302, but it seems a little different to the normal DRV fault descriptions I have read.

Thank you to you all who have contributed the VESC and this forum and thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers,,

Scoobiext

Sounds like you are having typical soldering issues, I've also had very similar behavior and solved that with flux and re-heating the solder joints. For VESC2 I think some of the FETs are not driven and once a FET pair that works gets driven the current control loop has driven the duty cycle so high that the current rises instantly and generates a fault (see the currents in the printed faults). For VESC1 you probably have more working FETs, or all of them are working but the current measurement does not work.

 

[vedder]

I just tested hw4.8 on my rc buggy with lizards 1717 motor (the most difficult testing platform I have access to right now) and it is a big improvement over 4.7 for sure. I have changed the shunts to 0.5mOhm to allow higher current and set the current limit to 120A. Even without extra capacitors there were no drv faults. With 4.7 I would get drv faults at that current now and then even with extra capacitors (these were nor permanent though and got reset after one second). The bad news is that the current offset is still there, but it is better than before. This means that v4.8 is better than 4.7 in every possible way, so if you want to order something now I strongly recommend 4.8.

Regarding the current offset that is not solver completely yet, I have an idea about a routing update. If I have time I will fix that tomorrow and order v4.9 tomorrow for testing. It should then arrive in a few weeks.

I also have a BLDC motor with an encoder now, so I will try to get started with FOC this weekend. The plan is to first make it work with an encoder then implement a sensorless observer.

 

[chaka]

I just tested hw4.8 on my rc buggy with lizards 1717 motor (the most difficult testing platform I have access to right now) and it is a big improvement over 4.7 for sure. I have changed the shunts to 0.5mOhm to allow higher current and set the current limit to 120A. Even without extra capacitors there were no drv faults. With 4.7 I would get drv faults at that current now and then even with extra capacitors (these were nor permanent though and got reset after one second). The bad news is that the current offset is still there, but it is better than before. This means that v4.8 is better than 4.7 in every possible way, so if you want to order something now I strongly recommend 4.8.

Regarding the current offset that is not solver completely yet, I have an idea about a routing update. If I have time I will fix that tomorrow and order v4.9 tomorrow for testing. It should then arrive in a few weeks.

I also have a BLDC motor with an encoder now, so I will try to get started with FOC this weekend. The plan is to first make it work with an encoder then implement a sensorless observer.

Thanks for the update vedder!
Do you have the part number for the 0.5mOhm shunt you used?

 

[jamesonotc]

I just tested hw4.8 on my rc buggy with lizards 1717 motor (the most difficult testing platform I have access to right now) and it is a big improvement over 4.7 for sure. I have changed the shunts to 0.5mOhm to allow higher current and set the current limit to 120A. Even without extra capacitors there were no drv faults. With 4.7 I would get drv faults at that current now and then even with extra capacitors (these were nor permanent though and got reset after one second). The bad news is that the current offset is still there, but it is better than before. This means that v4.8 is better than 4.7 in every possible way, so if you want to order something now I strongly recommend 4.8.

Regarding the current offset that is not solver completely yet, I have an idea about a routing update. If I have time I will fix that tomorrow and order v4.9 tomorrow for testing. It should then arrive in a few weeks.

I also have a BLDC motor with an encoder now, so I will try to get started with FOC this weekend. The plan is to first make it work with an encoder then implement a sensorless observer.

Thanks for the update vedder!
Do you have the part number for the 0.5mOhm shunt you used?

I'd highly suspect he stuck with vishay 4 terminal and used the following:

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-Dale/WSLP4026L5000FEA/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtlleCFQhR%2fzdb8S36%2f2OXx3gAe3Snne7E=

 

[chaka]

Yeah thats what I was thinking but it's not in stock, 9 week lead time

 

[silviasol]

Nice! Is there a link for the bom and gerbers? I want to get an order put in asap.
Is the current offset the boost that happens at a certain speed? Didn't mind that too much interested to see the difference.

The bad news is that the current offset is still there, but it is better than before. This means that v4.8 is better than 4.7 in every possible way, so if you want to order something now I strongly recommend 4.8.

Regarding the current offset that is not solver completely yet, I have an idea about a routing update. If I have time I will fix that tomorrow and order v4.9 tomorrow for testing. It should then arrive in a few weeks.

 

[jamesonotc]

Nice! Is there a link for the bom and gerbers? I want to get an order put in asap.
Is the current offset the boost that happens at a certain speed? Didn't mind that too much interested to see the difference.

They have been updated on vedders github repositories.

https://github.com/vedderb?tab=repositories



VESC 4.8 BOM: https://github.com/vedderb/bldc-hardware/blob/master/design/BLDC4.8_BOM.ods
VESC 4.8 Gerber Files: https://github.com/vedderb/bldc-hardware/tree/master/design/Gerber

 

[boesi]

Sorry to hear that :-( With 6s the VESC will run hot since it is far from optimal, but it should not fail on your setup.

What were the current limits? Did you run the motor configuration? Where did you get the vesc? What kind of capacitor were you using and how close did you put it?

Current limits:
Motor max: 60
Motor min: -60
Batt max: 40
Batt min: -20
Absolut max: 130

VESC supplier: Enertionboards / Jason

Capacitors: 2200 µF 63V (was delivered with VESC), soldered near to the VEC at the cables, like on oher pictures

Faults:
The following faults were registered since start:

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : -1.5
Current filtered : -0.2
Voltage : 24.51
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 49.0
Tacho : 10
TIM PWM CNT : 5865
TIM Samp CNT : 5871
Comm step : 2
Temperature : 23.18

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : -0.3
Current filtered : 0.1
Voltage : 24.51
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 7.8
Tacho : 23
TIM PWM CNT : 23818
TIM Samp CNT : 23824
Comm step : 5
Temperature : 23.55

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : -0.6
Current filtered : 0.2
Voltage : 24.54
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 2.8
Tacho : 26
TIM PWM CNT : 29044
TIM Samp CNT : 29050
Comm step : 2
Temperature : 23.68

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : 0.0
Current filtered : 0.2
Voltage : 24.52
Duty : 0.02
RPM : 4.2
Tacho : 39
TIM PWM CNT : 42631
TIM Samp CNT : 42637
Comm step : 5
Temperature : 23.93

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : 1.0
Current filtered : -0.2
Voltage : 24.54
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 2.0
Tacho : 40
TIM PWM CNT : 28995
TIM Samp CNT : 29001
Comm step : 6
Temperature : 24.08

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : 0.6
Current filtered : 0.2
Voltage : 24.52
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 1.9
Tacho : 41
TIM PWM CNT : 3299
TIM Samp CNT : 3305
Comm step : 1
Temperature : 23.98

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : 0.2
Current filtered : 0.1
Voltage : 24.51
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 1.9
Tacho : 42
TIM PWM CNT : 7149
TIM Samp CNT : 7155
Comm step : 2
Temperature : 24.10

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : -0.2
Current filtered : -0.2
Voltage : 24.52
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 2.6
Tacho : 45
TIM PWM CNT : 12516
TIM Samp CNT : 12522
Comm step : 5
Temperature : 24.23

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : -0.0
Current filtered : -0.1
Voltage : 24.52
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 171.9
Tacho : 53
TIM PWM CNT : 4412
TIM Samp CNT : 4418
Comm step : 1
Temperature : 24.18

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : -0.1
Current filtered : -0.0
Voltage : 24.51
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 2.4
Tacho : 57
TIM PWM CNT : 38637
TIM Samp CNT : 38643
Comm step : 5
Temperature : 24.28

Seems like scoobiext has the same problem, isn't it? Than I also should try to resolder the DRV?

Thanks for your help Vedder, you did a very great job :lol: . I'm so happy to have the chance to try the VESC there are so many options to adjust it, the BLDC toll is great... and the control of the board is so smooth (before the DRV fried :wink: )

Best,
boesi

 

[scoobiext]

Cheers Vedder and Jamesonotc.

I'm in the process of re-doing the soldering around the DRV and the FETs. I'll let you know how I go.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[vedder]

Nice! Is there a link for the bom and gerbers? I want to get an order put in asap.
Is the current offset the boost that happens at a certain speed? Didn't mind that too much interested to see the difference.

The current offset is exactly what causes that boost. The BOM and gerbers are on github, but I'm already working on 4.9 with new current shunt traces. I will try to finish and order them today.

Current limits:
Motor max: 60
Motor min: -60
Batt max: 40
Batt min: -20
Absolut max: 130

VESC supplier: Enertionboards / Jason

Capacitors: 2200 µF 63V (was delivered with VESC), soldered near to the VEC at the cables, like on oher pictures

Faults:
The following faults were registered since start:

Fault : FAULT_CODE_DRV8302
Current : -1.5
Current filtered : -0.2
Voltage : 24.51
Duty : 0.01
RPM : 49.0
Tacho : 10
TIM PWM CNT : 5865
TIM Samp CNT : 5871
Comm step : 2
Temperature : 23.18

That really sounds like a hardware problem. Is the PCB from the old enertion batch or from the new one? Did you run the sensorless motor configuration?

Seems like scoobiext has the same problem, isn't it? Than I also should try to resolder the DRV?

not at all. scoobiexts faults are under high current, you barely have any current at all. That's why scoobiexts DRV probably is fine and he has some other error while your DRV is bad and you have some error that caused that.

Thanks for the update vedder!
Do you have the part number for the 0.5mOhm shunt you used?

It is the one from mouser that may be out of stock. I ordered mine more than a year ago, so I had some lying around. However, you should use the same 1mOhm shunts from before. I just used these on my RC car to get very high peak currents for testing purposes.

 

[vedder]

Another small update (I will write a blog post about this when I have made more progress):

I have been using a VESC on my ebike that I have been working on for a bit now and then. It is an old mountainbike that I had since I was 12. A few days ago I made the first long test ride (50km), and it worked nicely.

It has a 12s5p battery pack with NCR18650PF that I spot welded. The motor is a 1kw cyclotricity motor and currently it only has a thumb throttle.

I have also made small PCB with a nrf transceiver, instrumentation amplifier for strain gauges, gyro and accelerometer, a stm32 and a cp2102 usb-to-uart chip for programming. I will put one of them on each pedal arm with strain gauges to measure the force (strain gauges) and rotational speed (gyro) on the pedals and transmit it to the VESC for controlling the motor based on that. To goal is to make it feel like having strong legs. Another project for the ebike will be a BMS and charger built into the battery pack.

pedal PCB:

Schematic:
http://home.vedder.se/public/pictures/pedal_board.pdf

The ebike will be a nice platform for experimenting with FOC. I also got a motor with pulse encoder that I will start working on this weekend for implementing FOC. First I will make a sensored implementation and the write a sensorless observer.

I bought all these parts from VESC donations and I also got the motor with pulse encoder for working on the VESC. I also got some FOC implementations to base mine on. It is really nice that there is so much interest for this and support from the community. Thanks everyone! Hopefully we will gain a lot of momentum and make open high quality motor controllers available for everyone. That kind of impact is my personal goal with the VESC project

 

[onloop]

I'm glad the donations are coming to you. It is well deserved.

Please let us know if you need anything more to help your work.....

A post about your BMS would be interesting.

 

[scoobiext]

Hello All

Some good news and some bad news, I managed to fix my second VESC as per Jamesonotc and Vedders advice. Unfortunately I completely screwed the other VESC whilst I was trying to re-solder the DRV, some of the finer techniques of SMD soldering got the better of me. Looks like I might have to get a V4.9 board of Vedder when they become available. On that note, will a V4.9 and a V4.7 board be able to be configured in master/slave arrangement for a dual drive longboard?

Thank again for the help.

Scoobiext

 

[jamesonotc]

I managed to fix my second VESC as per Jamesonotc and Vedders advice.

Great Job! Glad to know you had the skills to get the fix on this one!

Unfortunately I completely screwed the other VESC whilst I was trying to re-solder the DRV, some of the finer techniques of SMD soldering got the better of me.

Would you mind sharing what you did to the board to render it useless?

Maybe you can share your experiences with others so they can better know how to avoid them.

If you need someone to do repairs and your board is fixable I can assist you.

 

[scoobiext]

Would you mind sharing what you did to the board to render it useless?

Shear incompetence would sum it up nicely. Ultimately I have managed to pull a few of the DRV pads of the board.

The first problem I had was solder bridges on the pins of the DRV, from drag soldering the pins of the IC. I think this was due mainly to a bit of excess solder on the tip of my soldering iron, and too large a soldering tip (I also think I pushed my soldering tip a little to high up the pins of the DRV). I tried to clean the excess solder of using some solder wick but I accidentally let the wick/solder cool a couple of times before moving the wick, this malpractice ended up bending a few of the pins on the DRV. It was at this stage, I decided to replace the DRV and things went wrong.

I removed some solder off the DRV with some solder wick and the attempted to use a rework gun to try and remove the chip. Sometime later I had snapped the chip into about 9 pieces and lifted at least 4 pads of the PCB, blown (pneumatically, not electrically) one capacitor of the board and damaged inductor L1. I did a lot wrong here (too much heat in the wrong place, didn't secure the PCB properly, used the wrong hot work nozzle, got a little too impatient, etc.) and would appreciate any advice on how to remove these chips properly.

I did manage to learn a few things from this process which helped me repair my remaining VESC. I somehow bridged a few of the pins of the VESC again, but with a bit more caution (mainly with the soldering wick and careful placement of the soldering iron) and a much smaller soldering tip. I eventually got the bridges removed and the VESC working.

Most of the advice and tips on this forum cover enough not to make the mistakes I made, but these would be my top tips for the novice:

- Match the soldering tip size to the pin/track size.
- Make sure the soldering iron is hot, My tip temperature lags well behind the digital readout of my soldering station.
- Always tin and clean the soldering iron tip before every use.
- Flux, not just once but every time, especially when the flux has burnt off.
- Be really careful when using solder wick, remove the wick as soon as you remove the heat.
- Be mindful of soldering iron and PCB positioning, make sure you can get you soldering iron into where you need to, with out damaging surrounding components.


Scoobiext

 

[silviasol]

Another small update (I will write a blog post about this when I have made more progress):

I have been using a VESC on my ebike that I have been working on for a bit now and then. It is an old mountainbike that I had since I was 12. A few days ago I made the first long test ride (50km), and it worked nicely.

It has a 12s5p battery pack with NCR18650PF that I spot welded. The motor is a 1kw cyclotricity motor and currently it only has a thumb throttle.

I have also made small PCB with a nrf transceiver, instrumentation amplifier for strain gauges, gyro and accelerometer, a stm32 and a cp2102 usb-to-uart chip for programming. I will put one of them on each pedal arm with strain gauges to measure the force (strain gauges) and rotational speed (gyro) on the pedals and transmit it to the VESC for controlling the motor based on that. To goal is to make it feel like having strong legs. Another project for the ebike will be a BMS and charger built into the battery pack.

pedal PCB:

Schematic:
http://home.vedder.se/public/pictures/pedal_board.pdf

The ebike will be a nice platform for experimenting with FOC. I also got a motor with pulse encoder that I will start working on this weekend for implementing FOC. First I will make a sensored implementation and the write a sensorless observer.

I bought all these parts from VESC donations and I also got the motor with pulse encoder for working on the VESC. I also got some FOC implementations to base mine on. It is really nice that there is so much interest for this and support from the community. Thanks everyone! Hopefully we will gain a lot of momentum and make open high quality motor controllers available for everyone. That kind of impact is my personal goal with the VESC project

That is awesome! My next year project will be an ebike.

 

[jamesonotc]

Would you mind sharing what you did to the board to render it useless?

Shear incompetence would sum it up nicely. Ultimately I have managed to pull a few of the DRV pads of the board.

The first problem I had was solder bridges on the pins of the DRV, from drag soldering the pins of the IC. I think this was due mainly to a bit of excess solder on the tip of my soldering iron, and too large a soldering tip (I also think I pushed my soldering tip a little to high up the pins of the DRV). I tried to clean the excess solder of using some solder wick but I accidentally let the wick/solder cool a couple of times before moving the wick, this malpractice ended up bending a few of the pins on the DRV. It was at this stage, I decided to replace the DRV and things went wrong.

I removed some solder off the DRV with some solder wick and the attempted to use a rework gun to try and remove the chip. Sometime later I had snapped the chip into about 9 pieces and lifted at least 4 pads of the PCB, blown (pneumatically, not electrically) one capacitor of the board and damaged inductor L1. I did a lot wrong here (too much heat in the wrong place, didn't secure the PCB properly, used the wrong hot work nozzle, got a little too impatient, etc.) and would appreciate any advice on how to remove these chips properly.

I did manage to learn a few things from this process which helped me repair my remaining VESC. I somehow bridged a few of the pins of the VESC again, but with a bit more caution (mainly with the soldering wick and careful placement of the soldering iron) and a much smaller soldering tip. I eventually got the bridges removed and the VESC working.

Most of the advice and tips on this forum cover enough not to make the mistakes I made, but these would be my top tips for the novice:

- Match the soldering tip size to the pin/track size.
- Make sure the soldering iron is hot, My tip temperature lags well behind the digital readout of my soldering station.
- Always tin and clean the soldering iron tip before every use.
- Flux, not just once but every time, especially when the flux has burnt off.
- Be really careful when using solder wick, remove the wick as soon as you remove the heat.
- Be mindful of soldering iron and PCB positioning, make sure you can get you soldering iron into where you need to, with out damaging surrounding components.


Scoobiext

Im so glad you decided to share your experiences. My intentions are not to beat you down but bring transparency to the process for others seeking to attempt the same thing.

Learning curves are learning curves!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[boesi]

That really sounds like a hardware problem. Is the PCB from the old enertion batch or from the new one? Did you run the sensorless motor configuration?

I don''t know whether the VESC is from the old batch or not, maybe you can check the attached pictures...

Yes, I run the sensorless motor configuration before, and as I said the motor runs very good. I have made some test drives one day before the DRV was fried... in total round 4-5 km, with out problems.

Do you think I can just replace the DRV and than the VESC is okay again?
What do you think was the reason that the DVR is fried? Could it be that the fully loaded battery was an issue? Maybe the regenerative current from the down hill ride could not flow back to the battery and cause the problem
THX for your help. And have a nice weekend 8)

 

[silviasol]

Seems there is a bunch of dv8302 errors again. If anyone wants the drv8302 professionally replaced I will do it for $25 plus shipping($5 US, $12 International).

 

[jacobbloy]

[youtube]b8ArQwF0vwI[/youtube]

Hi guys, I have two vesc that where working for over 200km of riding on FW1.10 I update the firmware to 1.13 and this started happening, I was getting a motor detection error in fw1.13 but then I down graded to 1.12 and then 1.10 and I can motor detect again fine but I still get this strange slow motor spinning. I have tried 4 different motor types, I don't get any faults, so I don't think it's drv. The problem is both of the vesc at the same time had the problem after fw upgrade.

Any ideas? Maybe shunt or fet or should I reload the fw using stlinkv2? This has fixed problems for me before.

 

[vedder]

That really sounds like a hardware problem. Is the PCB from the old enertion batch or from the new one? Did you run the sensorless motor configuration?

I don''t know whether the VESC is from the old batch or not, maybe you can check the attached pictures...

Yes, I run the sensorless motor configuration before, and as I said the motor runs very good. I have made some test drives one day before the DRV was fried... in total round 4-5 km, with out problems.

Do you think I can just replace the DRV and than the VESC is okay again?
What do you think was the reason that the DVR is fried? Could it be that the fully loaded battery was an issue? Maybe the regenerative current from the down hill ride could not flow back to the battery and cause the problem
THX for your help. And have a nice weekend 8)

Can you check which capacitors you have? I have a photo where you can compare them here:
http://home.vedder.se/public/VESC_Beta_Jacob/tmp/capacitor.jpg

If you have the smaller capacitors the DRV is likely to fail again after replacing it.

 

[hexakopter]

Hey Benjamin,

first of all thanks for your great work. It is amazing to see what you have done and what you are planning for the future.
The VESC is definitely one of the best ESC on the market.

I am planning to build an ebike in the future and its great to see that you are now also working in the ebike sector. My plan was to build a VESC version 4.8 when you get yours and give the go that the new version fixed the problem of the older versions. Sad to see that the problem looks difficulter then expected. So now I want to wait for the 4.9 version, because now the winter is coming and the new ebike should be shift till next year.

Now I see that you also working on an pedal PCB and find the idea very interesting. It would be interesting to see a comparison to a normal PAS and what advantages you will have with your system. I looked shortly over your PCB and the first finding was that you will use an MPU9150. On the Invensense website i found the note: "NOTE: Not recommended for new designs". Maybe you will switch to the mpu9250 (also smaller package) or to an mpu6050 (6-axis don't see an advantage to use a mag, but cheaper and better available). The MPU6050 just works over I2C, but it looks like you are also using I2C and not SPI. (maybe SPI would also be a opportunity when using the mpu9250)

Next thing is the VESC 60V limit. I think it is recommended to use an buffer so 12s (50,4V) is the highest voltage one can choose. Do you have plans to built a higher voltage version for ebike use? I think the best power results you will get is in the 80V range. Sad that the internal switching regulator of the DRV8301/8302 is limited to 60V. But that will also imply to not only found a solution to bring down the 80V to under 60V for the DRV, but also to find different high current FETs with a low RDSON.

And before I forgot. Do you use blind and buried vias in your layout, because as an example the iteadstudio website told me "Blind via and buried via are not within our capability for the moment. In other words, only through via will be accepted."

Regards
hexakopter

 

[chaka]

Thanks for the update vedder!
Do you have the part number for the 0.5mOhm shunt you used?

It is the one from mouser that may be out of stock. I ordered mine more than a year ago, so I had some lying around. However, you should use the same 1mOhm shunts from before. I just used these on my RC car to get very high peak currents for testing purposes.

I tend to pull a lot of current on my personal builds, would it be safe to run the 0.5mOhm shunts? Would it cause any issues for a lower output system? I will likely be running some sort of heatsink on the fets and I would like to eliminate any weak links if possible.

 

[jacobbloy]

FW1.14 is know out so i have update windows and OS X bldc tool to work.
as always i have left v1.13 available and the others.
https://drive.google.com/folderview...drLThCY01HY3BPOXpqYVRHUlQxS0R5ZlU&usp=sharing

i had a problem with v1.13 not allowing me to do motor detection but I'm yet to test if v1.14 fixes this.