10S custom skate ESC: testers wanted!

[tim.lawrenz]

Really awesome. Can they be ordered yet? Can I have two?

 

[onloop]

I could average data over the last 5 seconds or so and display things like Wh/km if this speed is maintained etc. I think that would be useful.

YES DO IT..... I think everyone wants to know (or at least try to estimate) how far they can travel on one charge, perhaps your ESC can store a historical average also. this way after some more months of testing we can know the true average Wh per KM of your system.

When those values reach the capacity of the battery, the battery has to be charged

YES, but we don't know your battery Ah... so if you do some extra calculations i am sure you can make it more like a fuel gauge, so it should show what is available to be consumed as well as what has been consumed... and furthermore it could report how many minutes/km/% of battery is remaining.

 

[austindavid]

In an alternate thread, I implemented this on one of my boards. I've found the live display to be most useful as a debugging function, and less as a critical part of the board. It's interesting and the fuel gauge is helpful, but I don't learn anything new. The guage is far from perfect with LiPo. My "9000mAh" packs are down to about 7500 mAh actual capacity after 50-100 cycles, so at minimum the controller would have to keep track of a minimum voltage or the time-until-last cutoff, in order to accurately represent "how much you probably have left." There are other fun actors like temperature which can make it harder to predict, depending on the accuracy you desire. You also need to know when to "reset" the gauge -- it's easy to tell if the battery has been fully recharged, but it's hard to tell if it's only been partially topped up.

The info is most interesting in the beginning. As you learn the board and its characteristics, it's less important to know "exactly how much mAh have I consumed", if you already know the board will go 7-10 miles. Ditto for speed and power, by now I can tell how fast I'm going just by feel, and the power consumption is closely related to speed. Very important to know when I'm setting up the board, but once it's built it doesn't really change much.

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

so at minimum the controller would have to keep track of a minimum voltage (...) Very important to know when I'm setting up the board, but once it's built it doesn't really change much.

I agree on that -
(similarly to an e-bike, you would monitor the minimum voltage rather than Ah or Wh, to guess when your ride is about to finish)

@Vedder : Impressivly cold ESC looking at the temperature variation of the video,
am I mixing up with the threshold values you mentionned ealier ?

 

[bandaro]

So, if one was after power for a dual drive board by the end of the year, what is the best option? Just wondering if getting one of these is an option (and thus design for higher voltage) or what? Is there any word on price yet? Are people having luck with a HV boat esc that I could use temporarily then replace with this in future? If this is close, I would be interested in getting a cheap 'in between' esc...

 

[austindavid]

"end of year" is 8 weeks away; VE-SC won't be ready by then. I would say to get two "Favourite" ESCs, they're cheap. We think this will come in at about $100 per side, so $200 for two motors. We won't know for sure until we price out the full parts list for a batch of 50-100.

 

[vedder]

@Vedder : Impressivly cold ESC looking at the temperature variation of the video,
am I mixing up with the threshold values you mentionned ealier ?

No, you are not mixing things up. The difference in this test is that I use 1:2.67 gearing instead of 1:2 and the ESC-box is open since the USB cable is connected. The gearing difference and the airflow from having the box open help holding the temperature down.

 

[speedfast]

I'm not sure if it is a good idea, a different PCB design with all the fets on the same side is a good idea ? (because when guys are using esc for rc use, the esc is enclosed, but for our practice the esc is sticked to the board and the radiator is exposed to the air)

 

[beto_pty]

Are people having luck with a HV boat esc that I could use temporarily

Nope they overheat, also the "brake" option in the hobbyking website is a typo. Brought it to their attentiion a while back and they ignored it. Id say go with the favorites meanwwhile

 

[furp]

Is there a way to make the ESC fit into external HDD cases? 2,5" ones for ESC and 3,5" for battery would open a whole world of great cases, maybe even with clip on options and cutouts for connectors and switches.

Could this work by replacing the heat sink with a small aluminum enclosure?

 

[dirkdiggler]

Furp-
Great idea to make the esc with some easy options for an enclosure. Mine as well make the form factor fit something we can use.

 

[torqueboards]

I guess, in the end. It's up to everyone who wants one. We could possibly fit it into an aluminum enclosure and/or make them with just heatsinks and shrinkwrap and/or just the ESC itself?

Overheating shouldn't be an issue and if so we can always use a bigger surface area for the heatsink aka the aluminum enclosure itself. I do prefer the heatsink w/ more fins. We could also attach it to the aluminum enclosure.

What do you suggest Vedder?

 

[furp]

While you are at it, make a plug and play version as well With integrated small wiiceiver and power switch. Just motor and battery wires sticking out with the typical connectors for lipos and motors presoldered (5mm bullets and 4?mm) and a port for programming. In a black or rough aluminum enclosure with easy mounting option of course! Do the same for your battery as well. Can I send you my wishlist for christmas?

 

[Hummina Shadeeba]

I like the idea of integrating the enclosure as the heat sink I stead of having a bulbous finned heats ink attached but sitting in a box without air circulating

 

[torqueboards]

The best setup IMO is similar to the current production boards.

Evolve, Boosted, E-go. You have your standard enclosure and a heatsink that mounts directly to that enclosure. That would be the most ideal. You get the heatsink w/ fins benefit + it's still attached to a larger aluminum enclosure which would provide additional cooling if needed but shouldn't matter then.

I believe, the Wiiceiver is built into Vedder's ESC.

The power switch is built into the battery pack and not the ESC. The battery pack will have a disconnect-able wire for charging plug and on/off power switch. They are easily replaceable and can be disconnected (easier to mount to the enclosure).

Would you guys like the enclosure's separate or together? Referring to the battery pack + ESC. I think in a way it would look a bit odd since you would have regular wires sticking out if you separated them.

Originally, I'm going with an aluminum extruded enclosure which will be about 7.4" width, 1.78" height and depending on the pack perhaps a 16" or 20" long enclosure. I want to go 1" in height but would have to make an entirely custom enclosure or it would be ridiculously long because the cells would have to be spread out. I'm also using plastic holders between these cells.

 

[Hummina Shadeeba]

Would this esc be capable of use with a 40mm motor that was only intended for, say 6s, and then limiting the amp draw to the motor's max? I'm reading the volt limit put on little motors is really there to keep the amps down and the volts alone are not a problem for the motor's enamel until maybe much higher.


What regen percent does this esc get?

Thanks for making this. People will be thinking fondly of you for a long time coming

 

[Azyx]

Hey vedder, have you thought about using Massdrop? I think it would be great for everyone. What do you think about it?

Hey im new here and I'm having a great read in this forum! Trying to learn everything i can for a future buy =D

 

[tuurb]

Hi,

Any more news?

(sorry for the impatience )

Regards

 

[torqueboards]

Hi,

Any more news?

(sorry for the impatience )

Regards

Still on the testing phase Should get a post shortly with testing and then we'll take it from there.

 

[brent]

Looking forward to that testing report!

If I'm starting a new build soon, think it's worthwhile to wait for one of these? Or assemble one myself, instead of buying a car ESC?
My board just got stolen, so I'm sort of bummed and itching to do a new build. Which I'll be more careful with, haha...

 

[torqueboards]

Looking forward to that testing report!

If I'm starting a new build soon, think it's worthwhile to wait for one of these? Or assemble one myself, instead of buying a car ESC?
My board just got stolen, so I'm sort of bummed and itching to do a new build. Which I'll be more careful with, haha...

Ouch.. How did you get it stolen? Might be a while still.. You could buy a car ESC and/or build your own.

 

[brent]

Ouch.. How did you get it stolen? Might be a while still.. You could buy a car ESC and/or build your own.

Left it out of my sight for something like 45 seconds and it disappeared. Lesson learned, I guess.. opportunity to start fresh and improve my motor mount design, too?

 

[torqueboards]

Nice Vedder.

Found someone who used your ESC.
[youtube]MBOQ6RMk6aw[/youtube]
[youtube]nJk0e-0Lp5E[/youtube]

 

[vedder]

Sorry for the delay. I have been away for a while, but now I'm back. Yesterday I assembled a later ESC with the termistor temperature sensor and tested it. I also tested the 40V FETs with half the on-resistance of the 60V FETs. Everything works well so far. Next week I'm probably going to receive yet another version of the PCB with a small current shunt trace fix, and that is hopefully going to be the final version for the first batch. I'm also going to send the ESC from my latest videos to Austin so he can test it as well. I was planning to to that two weeks ago already, but some things got in the way.

Found someone who used your ESC.

That is my very first motor controller for brushed motors back in 2008 It is orders of magnitude less advanced than the current one.

Would this esc be capable of use with a 40mm motor that was only intended for, say 6s, and then limiting the amp draw to the motor's max? I'm reading the volt limit put on little motors is really there to keep the amps down and the volts alone are not a problem for the motor's enamel until maybe much higher.


What regen percent does this esc get?

The cell limit on many motors does not really make sense. The are often versions of the same motor ranging from 200kv to 400kv and they are rated to have the same amount of cells. If the 400kv version can run on 6s, then the 200kv version can run on 12s because it is equivalent. The limit factor on motors is the speed they can rotate at, so low kv motors can run on more cells and vice versa. Regarding burning the motor, you can burn a motor rated for 6s on 3s if you overload it.

What do you mean by regen percent? How much power you get back depends on where and how you drive. My videos on youtube with logging are some examples.

Hey vedder, have you thought about using Massdrop? I think it would be great for everyone. What do you think about it?

I haven't heard about massdrop before, so I don't know.

I believe, the Wiiceiver is built into Vedder's ESC.

That is correct. The nunchuk can be connected directly to the i2c port. I have also implemented cruise control with closed-loop feedback for the c button.

 

[torqueboards]

WoooooooooooHOooooooo! I'm waiting patiently... Noooo mooooreee coggging no need to kick as much!!!!