FOCBOX UNITY | Official

That’s like how kids set fire to houses :joy:

3 Likes

No offense intended, I’m sure you put a ton of hour into this. Clearly you noticed it as a potential inconvenience too if you spent as much time as you say rearranging. My intent was not to have you halt production and start from square one but if there was a way to mitigate as much of the bend as possible when assembling, that would be awesome as the less stress on components the better.

I’m looking forward to more updates on the Unity. I will probably be purchasing one for my Raptor 1.

1 Like

It looks much smarter than placing two XT60s on the back. I can shorten the total length of the 3d print enclosure I am designing.:smile:

1 Like

NO THIS IS PATRICK

8 Likes

My thing was that the solder pads could have been moved before the production runs they could have gone where the hole on the left side of the board since the pads are on the bottom side of the board. My main concern would be the stress on those joints and wires. As you can see from your comparison the super flexible wires from the remote lines are able to make that sharp bend with out issue as they are smaller gauge the wires going to the xt60 are a lot thicker and bring the issues of not being able to make a true hard right angle. Looking at it I am not sure you would be able to do a two enclosure type build with this

My best recommendation would be to get a ruler and draw out a rectangle that is 68mm x 117mm. Cut out the piece of paper and see if it fits in your enclosure. If it doesn’t, maybe just build a single drive system as I doubt any kind of dual system will fit.

a lot of wasted energy here. they’re not going to halt production and scrap everything to accommodate your changes. either you buy it, or you don’t, simple as that. I’ve actually held one in my hand was surprised at how small it was. I personally can’t wait for them to start shipping.

8 Likes

How is the release of the source code coming up? I guess you have everything finished by now and ready for release?

4 Likes

I don’t think it’s wasted energy at all. Wasted energy would be continually requesting they offer it in pink when they only offer black.

No one is disputing the size, we’ve seen comparison pics. We are making suggestions that I think every builder on here would benefit from. Everyone will be bending their wires so if’s telling the assembly line to clock them 45 degrees out rather than straight out, we would all be happier. Maybe we’ll see it on Unity 1.1

4 Likes

This is an interesting prototype from the first post

image https://esk8content.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/db2454/optimized/3X/e/7/e7e1a17c4195e9bc7f1e8a0e1badb8ba6f88faf2_1_690x460.jpeg

2 Likes

At least solder the wire a little bit like this, it would save space for a transceiver…

2 Likes

i bought two! looking to make these the starting point for new builds

2 Likes

Sigh I wish. The code is in a workable state right now but needs a bit of love. Still a few hacked bits that work well but dont follow good coding practice so need to re-arrange a bit. Currently all my focus is on test jig SW dev to test as many independent features as we can. Finally got Qt to compile on a rPi yesterday :smile: was way harder than I expected.

When units arrive (Friday) I’m working to implement/test all the smart switch features both on the FW side and App side. Ideally in tandem with this I’ll be implementing some of the features/addressing some of the issues that beta testers identified. A few of these:

*Automatic hall sensor swap (if you accidently plug your hall sensors in backwards m1 hall with m2 phase leads the FW identifies during calibration and switches them software side) *Torque curves/more thorough remote calibration settings *Data logging (this ones for the datasheet we are about 30% done making which includes plots of current/temp/time to better address the “continuous current” misnomer)

We have a stand-in FW that will be flashed to the MCUs now before pcb assembly. Then the test jig will flash latest FW image before shipment so we have all the fixes in there. There won’t be much use for the code without hardware anyways, but I’ll make sure its in a repo before units are shipped. FYI we are aiming also to hit robotics applications which won’t work well without open-sourcing, so its definitely happening. Just don’t want people seeing my ugly half-finished code.

Hope you guys enjoyed the update!

26 Likes

From a fellow electronic engineer, your updates are always a very interesting read. Keep them coming.

3 Likes

I know we are way past this point: have you considered a hardware based FOC IC? I dunno anything about hardware or software but it sounds nice

This would mean you lose the ability to customise the control system to your motor/battery setup. Only the highest volume stuff uses that approach.

Not really :wink: Those integrated IC is basically chip with mcu inside which does almost the same thing :slight_smile: The only thing why they are not used is because of voltages :slight_smile: esk8 uses way to high voltages compared to consumer/industrial areas :slight_smile:

1 Like

There is more than 1 type of such chips. TI and ST make some chips like you are talking about with an all-in-one package. But there are also some chips with more basic interface that just generate the waveforms based on very simple inputs. The reason we don’t use those is their zero velocity performance is pretty much terrible. They are also too low power and designed for things like computer fans etc.

1 Like

@Deodand Hey mate, I’m staring an EMTB build based on a full suspension chassis, end result will run 10” tyres. I have just bought 2 APS 6384 Sensored motored and plan to run it on a 12s6p cell made of 30q with belt drive 15T/66T. Do you (or any of the other boffins) on here think the current draw will be too high? I have been into mountain boards and off-roading for a long time, it’s electricity that scares me :confounded:. Last thing I want to do is order one of these and cook it days later. What would be a better setup? FOCBOX unity or 2 Focboxes? Cheers

Unity will be a better setup if you’re OK waiting a 1.5 months for it. At 6p 30q 100 amps should be a nice conservative max battery amps, and the unity will deliver more power to your motors since it has better thermals. You’ll also get all the integrated features that make the electronics in your board easier to setup (app, integrated switch, integrated bluetooth etc.). Definitely reccomend the unity for people that want to save time/energy/risk wiring up a bunch of different components since it is a more integrated solution.

That said, 2 focboxes should get the job done if you want to be riding ASAP.

2 Likes