10S custom skate ESC: testers wanted!

benj said:
Hey kwoolf1 - maybe - I can check later. If I said Yes, what would you recommend?
Click to expand...

I had the faint clicking problem with no detection. 777arc helped me and here's what worked in this order:
1. Disconnect everything from the VESC - motor wires, power cables, usb, everything.
2. Hook it all back together.
3. Launch BLDC_Tool.
4. Select "Connect" in the upper right corner.
5. Open the 'App Configuration' tab
a. Select "No app" but it should already default to this.
b. Select "Read Configuration" in the lower left corner.
c. Select "Write Configuration" in the lower left corner.
d. Select "Reboot" in the lower left corner.
6. Re-connect the VESC, select "Connect" in the upper right corner.
7. Open the 'Motor Configuration' tab.
8. Select "Read Configuration" (I'm not sure if this is necessary but it shouldn't make anything explode hopefully).
9. Select "Start Detection"
10. Have a beer if it works! :D
 
I appreciate your input guys, thanks alot. Unfortunately - no dice. 3 red flashes from the VESC, looks like bad news. I wonder if there is any further fault tracing I can do? Might take off the shrink wrap and have a look but don't want to run the risk of voiding any possibility of returning it on Onloop or getting a replacement. Darn! Board ready to rock!! How annoying :roll:
 
I plan to run two VESCs together for my dual diagonal setup. Just to be sure : both VESCs need to be connected to the receiver with Y servo cable (as well as via CAN) or do I need to connect one which will be master to the receiver and also connect this one with some cable on the CAN of the other VESC (i.e only one receiver cable goes to receiver from the master VESC)

Other question is .. where do I get/buy a wire that fits the CAN slot to connect both VESC together?

there should be a specific wiki only for the VESC BETA with all the key information to get it ready while avoiding to read the full thread!
 
okp said:
I plan to run two VESCs together for my dual diagonal setup. Just to be sure : both VESCs need to be connected to the receiver with Y servo cable (as well as via CAN) or do I need to connect one which will be master to the receiver and also connect this one with some cable on the CAN of the other VESC (i.e only one receiver cable goes to receiver from the master VESC)

Other question is .. where do I get/buy a wire that fits the CAN slot to connect both VESC together?

there should be a specific wiki only for the VESC BETA with all the key information to get it ready while avoiding to read the full thread!
Click to expand...

As i understand it, one gets the cable from Receiver, the other is connected via the Can Bus cable (also paying attention where you source yours).

HTH - GL!
 
HOW TO CONNECT DUAL VESC USING CAN

Multiple ESCs over CAN can be enabled to connect several VESCs over CAN bus. All VESCs must have different Controller ID and the slave VESCs must have Send status over CAN enabled (see the general tab under app configuration). The slave VESCs don’t need to have any application enabled since they will just be listening for CAN commands. Traction control can also be enabled, which reduces the torque on motors that spin faster than the slowest motor proportional to their speed difference. To connect VESCs over CAN-bus, connect the CANH and CANL signals between them. DO NOT connect 5v and GND because that is likely to cause ground loops which can reset and/or kill the VESCs.
Click to expand...


large resolution photo showing what/how to connect >HERE<
 
maybe I can try to dissasemble a servo cable to make this two wires ? or use wires and female pin that I have on my good old toasted balancing board and hot glue to ensure they stick and don't disconnect

Can't wait to get this up and running !

1432276945-img-2671.jpg


If I had a remark, I would modify the position of the big transistor, because my motor connections are going side... whereas now I would be required to extend all the motor wires or redo the wiring. making the full VESC a bit more compact would be great :D
 
okp said:
maybe I can try to dissasemble a servo cable to make this two wires ? or use wires and female pin that I have on my good old toasted balancing board and hot glue to ensure they stick and don't disconnect

Can't wait to get this up and running !

1432276945-img-2671.jpg


If I had a remark, I would modify the position of the big transistor, because my motor connections are going side... whereas now I would be required to extend all the motor wires or redo the wiring. making the full VESC a bit more compact would be great :D
Click to expand...

Looks great, look forward to see this baby running the VESCs! :D
 
For the CAN connectors:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xjst+4+pin+2.0&_nkw=jst+4+pin+2.0&_sacat=0

Only connect the servo cable to one VESC. Otherwise, you are likely to get ground loops and break the VESC.

vedder is there a technical reason you cannot take power from usb? For usability sake it would be a nice feature.
Click to expand...
You can mount a 0R resistor on R6 to get power from USB, but then it won't always be safe to plug in usb and the battery at the same time.

I did the following:
- Connect to VESC in BLDC-Tool
- Click 'Read Configuration' - this loads the current VESC setup into the tool
- Opened the SK3 motor config, loaded that because it was closest to my motor (APS 63mm 130KV 3200W)
- Clicked 'Write Configuration'
- Checked the App Configuration tab, looked OK - I set PPM as my 'App to use' because I am using standard 2.4ghz transmitter and reciever

BUT be careful, as I said, my VESC looks dead and maybe I did something wrong!!!
Click to expand...

You should run the detection yourself, since the KV of the motor is very important for the parameters.

Hey Silviasol, thanks for replying. The very first time I put throttle on there was a tiny twitch, but nothing since then. I was super careful, and only very gently applied throttle.
Click to expand...
Bummer. The Start Detection button did nothing for me, no motor spin up at all. That's what I tried first (I followed Vedders blog exactly). After a few hours of fiddling I decided the SK3 was close enough to my motor so gave it a go. Not sure if fault code was happening before or not, but I guess it was seeing as detection didn't work.
Click to expand...
It really sounds like the VESC was broken from the beginning. Replacing the DRV8302 is likely to help, but there can also be other problems.

I had an idea about building a "loaner" setup on a Raspberry Pi, get it configured with some stock motor configurations, include a programmer for anyone who needs it, and then just sharing it out with folks here in the states (easy/cheap/fast postal shipping)... but my initial test didn't seem to work following Vedder's steps. I'm a linux noob, so i might just start over w/ a VM on my Win laptop. I did similar with folks on a motorcycle forum where you could "borrow" their special crank locking tool and return it when done. Was very cool and handy...
Click to expand...
The ARM toolchain won't install from the ubuntu repo since the PI has a different architecture. You can compile it yourself though. I did it on my odroid u3 and it works nicely.

I had the faint clicking problem with no detection. 777arc helped me and here's what worked in this order:
1. Disconnect everything from the VESC - motor wires, power cables, usb, everything.
2. Hook it all back together.
3. Launch BLDC_Tool.
4. Select "Connect" in the upper right corner.
5. Open the 'App Configuration' tab
a. Select "No app" but it should already default to this.
b. Select "Read Configuration" in the lower left corner.
c. Select "Write Configuration" in the lower left corner.
d. Select "Reboot" in the lower left corner.
6. Re-connect the VESC, select "Connect" in the upper right corner.
7. Open the 'Motor Configuration' tab.
8. Select "Read Configuration" (I'm not sure if this is necessary but it shouldn't make anything explode hopefully).
9. Select "Start Detection"
10. Have a beer if it works! :D
Click to expand...
For part 5c above, make sure "No app" is checked before hitting "Write Config"
Click to expand...
You get just a click if you have the an application active (e.g. ppm) while you run detection, since a 0 command from ppm will stop the detection right away when it starts. I will fix that and push the code tomorrow. Should have done that a long time ago.
 
Well it was fun while it lasted. I got a few days of riding in and now the motor won't spin and motor detection doesn't work either. I configured it correctly and set appropriate parameters but then it started acting strange yesterday. I can stil connect the VESC through bldc-tool and read/write the configurations. But is seems like the VESC doesn't want to talk to the 3 motor wires anymore. I'm getting 3 flashing red LEDs on the VESC.

I flashed the new 1.2 firmware to the VESC using a discovery board but that did not help at all. The terminal fault code is: FAULT_CODE_DRV8302

Any suggestions? Should I order some new DRV8302 chips and install them? I've never done that type of soldering and don't have the right equipment but willing to try! :?
 
kwoolf1 said:
Well it was fun while it lasted. I got a few days of riding in and now the motor won't spin and motor detection doesn't work either. I configured it correctly and set appropriate parameters but then it started acting strange yesterday. I can stil connect the VESC through bldc-tool and read/write the configurations. But is seems like the VESC doesn't want to talk to the 3 motor wires anymore. I'm getting 3 flashing red LEDs on the VESC.

I flashed the new 1.2 firmware to the VESC using a discovery board but that did not help at all. The terminal fault code is: FAULT_CODE_DRV8302

Any suggestions? Should I order some new DRV8302 chips and install them? I've never done that type of soldering and don't have the right equipment but willing to try! :?
Click to expand...

I asked about this before, but I think the VESCs from onloop might have the wrong capacitors. I suspected that after seeing that the shunts are replaced with cheaper ones that are not properly mounted since the footprint doesn't match (which also could be a problem). There should be 8 10uf 50V ceramic capacitors on the pcb that are quite expensive (for being capacitors), and I suspect that they are among the first targets to save a few bucks on.

Have a look at c1 in this photo of my pcb:
http://vedder.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/PCB_Front.png

And compare it to this one:
https://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/n-yp39j5/zad02/product_images/uploaded_images/20150522-082329.jpg?t=1432249306

In the one with onloop PCBs, c1 looks smaller compared to my pcb. On earlier hardware revisions I had less capacitance on the input, and that caused many drv8302s to randomly fail, especially when running on higher voltage. After adding more capacitance, that problem went away.

If you order a drv8302 and fix the pcb, I recommend also ordering the 10u 50V caps, the 15u 100v caps and the shunts from my BOM. I think the capacitors are more likely to be the problem than the shunts, but it is not easy to tell.

If I could get one of onloops VESCs I could do some tests and see if there are any issues.
 
So there are parts on the onloop VESC that are not the ones in you BOM ?
This is going to be difficult to check with the white plastic on the PCB.

I am a bit puzled by this white plastic stuff on parts that may get hot ...
This totally prevents airflow to cool it down.

Some questions for Onloop :
Have the VESC you sold been through some tests ?
Which kind of tests by who ? Were they been tested individually or did you test one of the batch ?
 
Sure ... but I am by no way a specialist like you or onloop.
This are surely done for reasons and I may not have all the pros and cons to make an educated guess.

That's why I prefer to ask questions.
 
moving forward on VESC BETA...

got every connector soldered / in place to run this in dual diagonal. I need now to program them independently and I will be ready to go. Will do that tomorrow.

only thing I may be missing is the programming card to flash the firmware and get the latest bug/corrections from vedder

1432417376-img-2694.jpg

1432417376-img-2695.jpg

1432417376-img-2696.jpg
 
Hey Guys,
I purchased a VESC from Onloop and I updated the firmware to version 1.2. I have sucessfully uploaded the firmware on the ESC, but I am having trouble with the motor detection.

Whenever I connect to the VESC via usb using BLDC tool, I get the following error "writing ser_info struct failed".

Additionally, I am getting a sequence of 4 red LED blinking.

Also, when I run the motor detection, I have no response from the motor.

Any help or suggestions?

Carl
 
Try opening the Terminal tab in bldc-tool. Then type "fault" without the quotes in the terminal. Does it list any faults?
 
kwoolf1 said:
Try opening the Terminal tab in bldc-tool. Then type "fault" without the quotes in the terminal. Does it list any faults?
Click to expand...

I am getting the error "FAULT_CODE_ABS_OVER_CURRENT" in the terminal tab of the BLDC Tool.

In the terminal itself, I am getting "Writing ser_info struct failed"

Also, there is no Blue LED...
 
@Vedder - here are some hi-res photo's of my VESC from OnLoop beta. Would appreciate your thoughts if you get a chance:

http://gourmetpixel.com/tests/bens/VESC/benj_VESC1.JPG

http://gourmetpixel.com/tests/bens/VESC/benj_VESC2.JPG

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that helps.

The capacitors definitely look smaller in the photo. It would be great if I could get the datasheets for them or if someone can desolder one and measure the capacitance at up to 50V. If these capacitors have lower capacitance, it is very likely to cause many failed DRV8302s.

The sense resistors (the two big resistors with the R001 text) are mounted a bit better than in the other photo I saw, but some of the extra resistors that bridge them to the sense pads are almost not connected. For reference, this is what my prototype PCB looks like:
http://vedder.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/pcb_back.jpg

CarlDemolder said:
Hey Guys,
I purchased a VESC from Onloop and I updated the firmware to version 1.2. I have sucessfully uploaded the firmware on the ESC, but I am having trouble with the motor detection.

Whenever I connect to the VESC via usb using BLDC tool, I get the following error "writing ser_info struct failed".

Additionally, I am getting a sequence of 4 red LED blinking.

Also, when I run the motor detection, I have no response from the motor.

Any help or suggestions?

Carl
Click to expand...

From my PM to Carl:

(four red blinks = over current fault)

The ser_info struct is no problem, it is always shown with the way I emulate the serial port. The over current fault is probably because the shunts aren't mounted properly. Have a look at the two R001 resistors in this photo of one of onloops VESCs:
http://gourmetpixel.com/tests/bens/VESC/benj_VESC1.JPG
and compare to mine:
http://vedder.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/pcb_back.jpg

I suspect that one of the sense wires isn't connected. Can you take off the heatshrink from your VESC and make a photo?
Click to expand...
 
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