Anyone experienced with VESC FOC sensorless ?

[TeraH3rz]

Hello,

Hope I could find a clue or a hint what to look for to solve the issues I have when I finally got the VESC6 hooked up to my system. System specs are 12s Li-Ion 10Ah bat, 12" wheel with hub motor, FSESC6.6. FOC sensorless.

I used a VESC tool Wizard to detect the motor parameters and got succesfull results, wheel rotates smoothly durin Wizard detection phase. After storing data to ESC and trying to run the motor with arrow keys, motor just won't spin anymore. It burrs, jumps and cogs and is amp hungry. I have watched many tutorials done with similar fashion, but they work fluently or have just simple solution like correcting a faulty bat low level limit values and similar solutions. I have done these basic parameters to fit to my system. What is in this system that makes it non working ? I have not found a proper troubleshooting guide what should I adjust to make this run correctly. I guess there is just some simple solution since the ESC seems to work, but some critical parameter is missed. See the vids on Youtube from Wizard detection phase and arrow key attempt to drive the motor.
Is there something I should try next or check ? By trying something not knowing what is the problem could lead to burning my ESC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qXtW_bkiIo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLF0NHaJDw

Thanks !

 

[district9prawn]

The stutter seems like the controller is trying to run the motor in hall sensor mode, but sensors are not configured or plugged in.

 

[TeraH3rz]

The stutter seems like the controller is trying to run the motor in hall sensor mode, but sensors are not configured or plugged in.

I have FOC configured to sensorless mode but motor indeed have sensors as well but not intended to use them in thought FOC can be run without.

 

[TeraH3rz]

I have connected HALL sensor wires and let the VESC tool to find proper settings. Aswell I set the FOC to run in sensored mode.
I get 20 pulses / rotation from all sensors (oscillosope checked). Do I need to put them in order or does the VESC make that ? I see the similar effect. Only by adding AMPs to round 15 amps motor starts but it rotates like stepper motor, chopping and jerking. Have no clue does the pole count matter in "Motor" > "additional info" > Poles. Still altering pole count doesn't seem to have effect neither. No info found what so ever are these setting important and does the ESC use them anywhere.
Adding MAX current will draw that amount of current even when the wheel rotates freely, absolutely disasterous if free rotating wheel needs 15 amps on 12S, something is wrong there !

If the Wizard can detect the motor and run it smooth (in open loop) why the closed loop then fails to operate ? Some critical parameters aren't correct, which one(s) ?

Has anyone used these VESCs with hub motors and which settings were used ?

 

[district9prawn]

The motor poles parameter and all of the settings under additional info aren't used for actually spinning the motor.

The hall sensor positions should be automatic when you run the sensor detection. Check if the hall sensor table in vesc tool has sensible values (ie not all 255). Also 15 amps should be plenty to get even a heavy motor spinning.

Its probably more efficient if you just post some screenshots of your parameters or your motor configuration xml. Are you able to get the motor spinning in bldc mode?

 

[TeraH3rz]

The motor poles parameter and all of the settings under additional info aren't used for actually spinning the motor.

The hall sensor positions should be automatic when you run the sensor detection. Check if the hall sensor table in vesc tool has sensible values (ie not all 255). Also 15 amps should be plenty to get even a heavy motor spinning.

Its probably more efficient if you just post some screenshots of your parameters or your motor configuration xml. Are you able to get the motor spinning in bldc mode?

Okay thanks for the info. Indeed Pole count didn't do anything. FOC was a big disappointment to not work for the motor in closed loop. Detection was promising though.. Sensors I used for testing and did the detection, it seemed okay, rational values.. I also measured the sensor outputs with oscilloscope, 20 pulses per rotation on each channel.

Next I ran it with BLDC using only arrow keys. Motor spun very bad but after tweaking some parameters, mainly lifting the RPM and current I managed to run it constant but only on higher RPM, say above 200RPM, else it missed lots of cycles and running was more or less chopped. Also loading the wheel it felt strong. But connecting to my throttle motor worked horribly bad, chopping, not starting, and suddenly stopping etc, overall bad behaving. Then I wasn't able to start it without resetting the ESC (?)
Since the motor worked with arrow keys, but not using real throttle, I guess the problem could be that the motor refuses to work on lower RPM and startup (?!)

I will give another try and post some more info of my settings soon..