VESC in FOC-Mode

@DeathCookies I used FOC for a long time before I had an issue, and the issue was traceable to a short caused by some bad wiring on my part. Full story below.

The only problem I’ve ever had with FOC was from user error because one of my motor phase wires came loose. I would hit full throttle and when I hit throttle again it would automatically brake which was scary as hell but I was able to run it off. So one thing to keep in mind is that when you’re running FOC always make sure your motor wires are super secure.

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@DeathCookies Sounds like for me and for @RunPlayBack the problems were not a result of using FOC; I think similar symptoms would arise using BLDC mode.

The two common issues attributable to FOC, it seems, are failed motor detections (resolved by reducing battery cable length) and strange braking behavior (resolved by using an updated HW version of VESC or adding a cap to C18).

VESC failures with FOC are not a manufacturing issue.

It’s a combination of motors (some fail, some don’t under FOC), parameters in BLDC tool, cables (shorting them, length), bad solder joints due to vibrations, switching between FOC and BLDC with no reset to default values, using 12s sometimes causes that as well, and so on. Already wrote the in the FOC thread.

Does that mean Battery pack discharge amps?

Max draw from the Space Cell battery. http://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/vesc-faq-optimized-s-p-a-c-e-cell-settings/414

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Im confused does this mean if i have a battery pack (12s2p) that discharges 20amps at MAX it can power dual motors?

where does vadder sell his vesc?

http://www.ollinboardcompany.com/product/vedder-s-speed-controller

Here you go my friend!

U have a battery max amp and motor max amp on the vesc. It converts higher voltage to amps for th motor so u can use less amps from the battery with higher voltage. A big benefit of using higher voltage as it keeps the vescs temp down

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thanks! =)

@hoochij4s @Blacksheep for clarity, OllinboardCompany is not where Vedder sells VESC. Vedder is the designer who releases the open-sourced VESC design, and OllinboardCompany is one of the groups that manufactures and sells them.

The owner of OllinBoardCompany, @chaka, is a member here and I personally own one of the VESCs he sells, and it is very high quality, but it isn’t Vedder who builds them to sell.

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thanks a lot very helpful

My bad @treenutter , thanks for the correction!

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I use my repaired VESC since 2 Weeks in FOC on 12S and dont have problems at all.

What motor/kv are you running?

I’m getting “abs over current” errors after breaking hard then light accelerate or accelerating hard and breaking Doesn’t seem to happen in BLDC. :thinking:

Turnigy SK3 149kv but sadly my VESC has now problems too… I do not see any faults in BLDC but it still does not want to drive… :frowning:

RPB, you really got me hooked with your awesome esk8 clips and your very informative blog! :slight_smile:

So I’ve built my board based on your blog post and could finally assemble it fully yesterday.

I did a few 10-20 minute rides with the settings you posted.

I have a few questions: Question 1:

[quote=“RunPlayBack, post:3, topic:5263”] Startup Boost: 0.040 [/quote] In my BLDC-Tool it says (Startup boost (BLDC only), does it still have an effect in FOC?

Question 2:(Solved)

I think the new SpaceCell BMS has a 40Amp limit and a 40 Amp fuse, so I think it should be okay to set it 40. Will this maybe have and effect on the torque? EDIT:(Solved) I upped the Bat Max to 40A, still working fine and feels more torquey.

Question 3:(Solved)

On your blog you have this setting at the default value of AFAIK 10k. Does this setting have an effect on the speed limit? EDIT:(Solved) I set this back to 100k, since in my BLDC tool it says BLDC Mode only. Soft ERPM Settings do take effect, but I disabled it.

Question 4:(Solved) If I do benchtesting (I use the mini 2.4ghz “Winning” Remote) it’s almost impossible to let the wheel turn slow and then slowly accelerate, it goes from 0 to max RPM very quickly. While riding it seems to work pretty good. Is this normal, or is there a setting to smoothen out the acceleration? EDIT:(Solved) Got this solved with setting the correct minimum and maximum pulsewith in the PPM settings-tab. This video explained it nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtuofrQr3F8

Question 5: After about 10 minutes of riding it somehow feels that the torque lowers (I have a SPACE Cell 3 with Battery cut off start at 35.20 V). On one ride it started to feel like almost 30% of the torque towards the end of the ride. Is this maybe an overheating issue? I have the temperature limits set like this:

EDIT:(Unsolved) This problem seems to still exist, torque is decreasing over a 10minute ride.

Thanks!

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I just switched to FOC mode. Before that I was riding in BLDC. I didn’t flash the firmware. Just reseted it to the default settings and set up the new ones. Now, the board accerlates much smoother and is much quieter. I’m using an esk8.de VESC and an SK3 6364 245kv motor with an 8s lipo battery. First ride was awesome. Hope it will last.

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do you know what video you watched to set it up?