VESC FAQ | Best Settings For Hub Motors

For those who are using hub motors you need to adjust some values within BLDC tool (sensorless tab) to start smoothly from a standstill according to Benjamin Vedder:

Minimum ERPM: 50 Minimum ERPM for integrator limit: 600

This is due to the fact that the hub motors won’t give that much torque in general. Although I think it’s more efficient to use as high voltage as possible. Made some first tests with the SPACE cell with 10s and pediglides V1 hub motors and I’m quite happy with the result. VESC’s and motors are staying cool and reach has increased too.

This is a test with 7s (cracking nose at the end is due to the old wooden floor :smile: ):

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I also suggest upping the startup boost.

Hub motors don’t have the benefit of mechanical reduction, they don’t spin at high rpm like with a satellite motor configuration, so they may end up having higher motor current peaks during start up and when climbing hills.

Therefore the potential problem with hub motors is over heating from high amp draw and heat losses. This could also permanently damage magnets if temps get over 100c for too long.

With hub motors having higher peak amp draws it could also damage some batteries or blow fuses if you have them installed in your system.

Therefore it is important to have the correct settings in the VESC to help protect the hub motors & batteries from too high currents.

This is a quote from Ben Vedder about managing battery & motor current:

For the VESC you can configure different current limits for the motor and battery. You can for example set the motor current limit to 80A and battery current to 30A, which should work nicely with dual motors on a space cell. The motor current in each motor will then be able to reach 80A until you have reached 3/8 of the full speed. After that, the motor current will be more and more limited the faster you go.

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Does this also apply to carvon hub motors? The settings i mean?

Yes, I’m using both version of the CarvOn too with those values.

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I am having a hell of a time setting up my new vesc to work with my carvon single hub. I can’t seem to find any solid info on how to set the vesc up. I watched the vesc for dummies video and couldn’t decipher much from it. The settings I have tried have only resulted in a top speed of 3mph and no torque. I need some help dumbing it down. I am clearly not as smart as all of you.

Check RUNPLAYBACK’s topic on his Single Carvon build. He put his VESC’s settings there.

Saw his as well. The one he has listed was foc. I used the settings he had for bldc but that was only for the one page. None of the other settings. I have used all of the setting he had listed on the other pages to no avail. It also doesn’t explain why I have no power or torque. I shot him an email but am still waiting to hear back.

If you got your settings right please post them here. I’ll be probably buying single carvon this summer so It would helpful. Thanks!

Need more info. How many volts are you running? RUNPLAYBACK is using a Space cell, which is 10s. I am running on 8s with the Carvon single.

I have a space cell as well. And as soon I get this thing working right, I’ll post everything I did.

Just got back from a test ride after matching @RunPlayBack 's settings, as well as the settings at the top of this page. I have zero torque. It takes me ages to get up to speed. When I am at full throttle its nowhere near as fast as it was with my old setup using the carvon and 6s lipos with a car esc. not to mention, the hub motor was hot to the touch. This is the entire purpose I bought all this stuff, to keep the motor running cool and last. So far it has none of the above. I feel like I spent a crap load of money only to go backwards.

The things I dont understand about the vesc are the multitude of options. While that makes it a great muti-use product, it makes trying to understand it impossible without a masters in electrical engineering. Simple things like setting my throttle points are baffling me. I have full throttle in the first 1/8th of trigger pull, and braking doesn’t start until 2/3rds trigger. I tried playing with PPM pulsewidths, but that got me no change.

Maybe I should scrap the vesc and invest in a huge ass car esc…

What do u guys think of hub motors on TB esc? 120amp opto 12s.

I am using hub motor as well. Show me your bldc tool screenshot @Tothpl. Lets see what can I help you.

this is every page that I made a change to. I am using a gt2b in a bad wolf case as a controller. let me know what you see. I appreciate the help.

You need to klick apply after motor detection on the BLDC page. Else the detected values are not saved and so it won’t work. And after that “write configuration”.

I had figured out the “write configure” and had been doing that to all my changes. I will give the “apply” button a go as well. Other than that, these settings look good for my setup? Again, thanks for the help.

Be careful messing around with the settings, you have some of them in really dangerous territory. Revert back to default configuration and raise you motor and battery max up to 80 amps. You may want to run motor detection again after reverting back to default.

@Tothpl I think you need to recheck this points.

Scr1Shot1 > Voltage Limits Battery Cutoff Start (according to your bat settings) Battery Cutoff End (according to your bat settings)

ScrShot2 > Sensorless - Commutation Mode Minimum ERPM: 50 (Correct) Minimum ERPM for integrator limit: 600 (Correct) Integrator Limit: 135 (Check your motor detection param, the value is 134.54) BEMF Coupling: 850 (Check your motor detection param, the value is 849.56)

ScrShot4 > Current Control Startup boost (BLDC Only): 0.040 (I use 0.050 but 0.040 is enough)

Please check and apply your motor detection parameter, please read carefully :slight_smile: take your time!

Again, thanks for all the help. I won’t be able to get to it tonight. I’ll report back tomorrow with an update.