So I know most people on here will just say “Don’t bother with car ESC just get a VESC”
But with the current situation of no one having any VESCs available (as far as I know), I was thinking we could put together a list of car ESCs that people have used and had good luck with.
I would love to contribute to this, but unfortunately have not bought any parts for my board yet
I did find this one though, and it looks like it would work well (its even PC programable): http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/_60530__TrackStar_150A_GenII_1_8th_Scale_Sensored_Brushless_Car_ESC_PC_Programmable_US_Warehouse.html
I have one of this. Works very well with 6s, even better if your motor is sensored (torque boost on startup). The only downside is that it has loud braking sound.
Yes it has high pitch noise sound like. There is no way to adjust this even with the programming card. I have the pc programming card that could do even advanced configuration, but it just doesn’t do the job minimizing the sound.
The brake also not as potent as VESC brake.
It appears that the sound comes from the magentic resonation of the motors winding (act like speaker).
You may want to look at one of these from this post
I had the FVT 120a 6s without a programmer, and I don’t recommend it to anyone, even if it’s very cheap.
With the VESC you can customize with a precise numeric value the amount of braking force to apply, not just “soft”, “medium”, “hard” levels like with most of hobby ESCs. Also I don’t know if it was because the lack of programming card but basically after some point the braking was locking the wheel so it was very dangerous to ride it with it.
I have the FVT 120A 6S and I’m happy with it. A programming card is a must I believe, to fine tune it for our intended use.
But of course it’s my first and only esc so far, so I have nothing to compare it to.
the FVT esc’s are fine if you program them. But the settings are vague at best. Mostly just words, like low, medium, high, and very high. You don’t know what the numbers behind those values are, and as such, I have blown some FVTs before, and a few motors using the FVTs.
Just save yourself the trouble, and buy a good quality VESC from @chaka. He has them with less then a 2 week lead. Pricey, but if you have any problems at any point, he’ll take care of you at little to no extra charge. I feel into the false economy of enertion VESCs, and other shitty escs before investing in some chaka VESCs, and I can say with confidence, I will be buying plenty more from him in the future.
The problem is there’s no vesc readily available, which is why this thread was created in the first place. Ordered 2 from enertion a while ago, and still waiting. Ordered from ollinboard, still waiting. Then I ordered the fvt, now I’m happily riding.
Like I said, with chaka, these about a 2 week lead time from my experience (and observing others experiences lately). Far faster than waiting for enertion or anyone else. There is no “order today, get it in 3 days or less”. But you won’t wait that long for chaka.
Saying there is no vesc available is technically true, but implies you will be waiting months from any of the sources out there. This is not true, and if your going to order any other speed controller, you will likely be waiting at least a week anyways for shipping (3 weeks+ if you want to get a good price with shipping from china). There’s only a handful of sellers that can get any esc to you in less than a week.
guys is there a difference between all the VESCs that’s out? I’m new to this so just wondering Enertion has the lowest price if you buy 2 or more. Then there’s DYI’s version. And now I read there’s a chaka or ollinboard (Same?) Please clarify if possible gentleman! Regarding the car ESCs, would it shorten the motor life since the braking seems to heat up the motor pretty much (e.g. screeching noise). Thanks guys.
Chaka makes the vesc himself, instead of outsourcing the work to cheap china factories, which is what enertion has done up to this point. Inheriently, the quality is different. I had 2 enertion, one arrived broken, the other broke the second day for apparently no reason while riding. I bought 2 from chaka, and since then, have had no issues, running basically the same configuration. That, along with many others complaining about enertion vescs breaking randomly and quickly, says that there is a quality difference between chaka’s and enertions vescs.
Now, with that being said, the next batch of enertion’s vesc’s are coming from a US factory, and quality is expected to be much better.
The other major difference is enertion offers no warranty, while chaka will fix your vesc (usually for free, unless you do something really stupid, and he will only charge you for parts to fix it, which he has yet to ever do), even if you break it by accident (and not just in normal operation).
In terms of what components they are made of and features the vesc has, they are exactly the same. It’s just a difference in quality of components and quality of assembly.
@chaka (yes, that’s Ollin Board Company) makes them in house and does a number of things such as special coatings, exceptional support, and warranty. This creates a two week lead time and a much higher price tag, but when something breaks, you’ll find you’re in very good hands and 90% of the time he’ll fix it no matter what happened.
Enertion ordered some 2000 of these things and basically broke the world market. That’s why we’re waiting. They have a factory making them, and soon they will be on tap at a reasonable price unlike what’s happening right now with the wait. The wait is due to supply shortages. Relax and they’ll be here soon. I have five of them coming since february myself and people need to stop canceling orders, its just dumb. I think this batch has possibly resolved the blown DRV/capacitor issue we saw last time. If you cancel you’re going to allow your impatience to cost you a wad of cash.
DIY has some too, preorder for $99. I don’t know the story there. Maybe he’s got better pricing at the moment, but i doubt anyone will ever be able to order another $80 vesc like we all did from Enertion in january and february but are now waiting. I don’t know what the value add there is, i’m not familiar with his warranty.
thanks for the answers everybody. So we basically have 3 to choose from Just wondering what happened with those damaged Enertion VESCs? Is there a replacement or any sort of repair offering? Price is very competitive indeed.
my original two are busted and i never heard back from a guy who was going to fix them for me. If i find a place that can fix them i may pass on the info if they allow me.
@c4Lvin No, like I said with enertion, nothing. You get what you get, there is no repair service or replacement if it breaks on you. This is why chaka is doing so well IMO. A lot of people frustrated by their enertion vescs breaking. But again, like I and longhairedboy said, this next enertion batch is expected to be better, and those problems are expected to go away.
Perhaps I’ll just wait for a few months on getting any VESCs. First it’s just the wait, second, I’m a beginner at this. I’m good with R/C though. How would I wire or connect two 1/5 or 1/8 (those 120-150A) ESCs together to a receiver? I’ve seen the VESCs have the wire to pair them for duals but I’ve also seen RC Car/ESCs running together as well. Are there only specific models that can do that? It will be probably much easier and faster if I go this route…for now.
Just wondering what happened with those damaged Enertion VESCs? Is there a replacement or any sort of repair offering? Price is very competitive indeed.