I like how you did the copper like that, I might give that a try.
5 Likes
Yeah @Martinsp had the awesome idea of just using single-core copper for trace beefing. It looks good!
4 Likes
What kind of iron/power did you use for that? Did you just run the iron down them as the solder melted? How did you keep them in place without rolling off?
1 Like
This is a question for @Martinsp. It looks as if he just used a ton of solder paste, wrapped the copper wires in regular solder wire, and flowed it accordingly. The tension of the solder in a liquid state keeps the wires in place.
4 Likes
Nice. Thanks!
2 Likes
@Martinsp has been working hard guys! Next is functional testing, attaching the heatsink, and then applying the conformal coating.
37 Likes
Got some slightly bad news. Texas Instruments has changed how they do their sampling. You now have to have a business email and a few other qualifications before being able to get free samples. Kinda sucks for the hobbyists. The BOM will be more expensive for one-off boards now being that you can’t practically get free samples anymore.
3 Likes
Are they offering it for schools/universities?
1 Like
Idk. I’ll have to look into it further
So I have good news and bad news.
Good news is that the controllers have been made and are functional in FOC and BLDC. Martin spun a 380kV motor with a 10s battery to test these controllers. No eRPM issues!
Bad news is that I messed up the CAN power rail on the PCB. My intent was to have a beefy automotive grade CAN transceiver to help with the issues people experience when using CAN with HW 4.12. I totally missed the fact that the new CAN transceiver needed 5V and not 3.3V. I didn’t make that adjustment in the PCB design 
Martin is currently getting 3.3V CAN transceivers from Europe to put on the controllers so we can at least have functioning CAN for the beta test team
I fixed the PCB design now so that CAN device gets the 5V that it should. This is why I didn’t want to release the design before feedback from the beta test experience.
10 Likes
my buddies at the lab like your idea and we are gonna build like 10 or so.
4 Likes
Cool! What do they like about it?
whats not to like. Not too expensive, bigger parts make it easier to solder and like you said the CAN improvment. They want to use it on small vehicles for transportation. But the most important thing, for science^^ Also they testet my board and are hooked.
2 Likes
Honestly I could seriously see this used in an educational setting.
- good pricing
- robust design
- user repairable (TA’s and the like)
- headers, headers, headers. Standard pinouts are so beautiful.
- mini USB means it can be repeatedly setup.
4 Likes
What type of issues were seen with 4.12?
1 Like
My wife actually has the same idea. We spoke about getting involved with education with my open source designs. Academia needs a lot of help relating theory to industry…
7 Likes
Issues with transients over the CAN bus when the bus lines were suddenly disconnected during operation. The transients could actually kill the MCU too.
There are other qualities that are improved upon by the VESC 6 design that my new controllers are based on.
My thoughts exactly, we want to do a workshop.
2 Likes
Pretty sure that is what killed one of my first units.
1 Like
The version of Cheap FOCer I release with have the CAN issue addressed and utilizes an automotive grade transceiver with high voltage bus tolerances. It should eliminate the issue
5 Likes