Are my VESC settings correct?

ESK8 Electronics
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#1

Hello, I am making this thread so that someone can confirm that my VESC seeing or correct or see what I did wrong. This is an @chaka VESC that has already had some trouble in its very short lifetime. The day I got it I screwed it up my inputting some wrong voltage values. So I sent it back and they fixed it free of charge which is awesome. This time I am going to be a little more careful by checking on the forum first. I will include some screenshots of my settings below. One more weird thing though. When I was setting it up, I (for whatever reason) pulled the receiver out of the VESC while the vesc was still turned on. Then, every time I connect to the BLDC tool, it comes up in a different modem number, for example it used to say “cu.usbmodem301”, but the next time I booted up it said “cu.usbmodem9”, then it said “cu.usbmodem14” and it keeps changing every single time. You can see this on the last two pictures that they are different from all the others. Thanks for your advice in advance!

EDIT- My Batt min (regen) I believe is set to -5A, not -10A

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#2

I dont think that the USB connection or modem or whatever is a problem, If the VESC settings still write on the VESC memory it should be OK.

To tell you If your voltages and other stuff is correct we would need to know more info about your setup, type of battery, what the max current ratings are and cell count and so on…

#3

Oh crap! I was going to write that, just forgot to I guess. Here are my specs 190kv sensored motor (I don’t have the adapter for the sensor wire yet so when I do I will run motor detection again). Two 4s 5000mah 20c lipos in series for one 8s battery. Is there anything else you need to know?

#4

No not really, most of the other settings are just personal preferences in my opinion. Voltage and amperage is what can kill your VESC, motor and battery.

The settings seem to be fine just the “motor min” is in my opinion too low, here where I live I need it to be higher because that is what determines your braking force. If you live in a “hilly” area that might be an issue because of not enough power for braking down hill. Also climbing the hills with 40 amps (depending on your weight etc) might be an issue. but on the other hand having more amps and not enough air flow might over heat the VESC. All of the values are set pretty safe as they are so the VESC should not get damaged by them. And if you find them to not be right for you you can change them but that needs test riding atc… Hope this helps :slight_smile:

#5

I am not sure if you saw my edit but my batt min (regen) is actually set to -5A I think. Am I correct in saying that that value is the amperage you can charge your battery at? Because 5A would be 1c for me which I use for charging anyway. And I am a bit confused by what you were saying about my “motor min” what do you think I should change it to? I way around 120 pounds and I would only have to climb a few smallish hills, maybe a few larger ones. Thanks for your help btw.

#6

did not see the edit sorry. The regen is OK at 5 and 10 is doable it wont relly damage the battery because lipos are made to be drained at high amperage (for such aplications that is) so they will handle 2c charging but it might shorten their life a little bit. The motor min seems OK, you are quite light so it might be all right. But as I said, try it preferably on flat ground first and you will see what you need to adjust. I usually set it to the same as my motor max so I can reverse the same speed as i go forward and also because i like hard braking and the hills are steep here.

#7

Ok, so the motor min (regen) will increase braking force? Sorry if I am asking dumb questions but I know very little about the VESC.

#8

Yes motor min and max is what adjusts (increases or decreases) the power (power equals amperage times voltage) so the motor max is the max amount of amps that the VESC is going to allow to be sent to the motor windings and the same for motor min. In your aplication (current no reverse with brake) it will adjust the braking speed (motor min) and the forward power of the motor or acceleration (motor max). Often times this gets confused with battery min and max which set the draining amps from battery and the charging or regen amps.

#9

no question is dumb in my opinion, everyone has to get the knowledge somehow, asking and researching is the only way :smiley:

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#10

Thanks for that! I have read a ton but much of it still goes over my head. I will defiantly keep this in mind, thank you!

#11

Iam happy that it helped :slight_smile: ride safe!

#12

Anyone else have anything to add? :slight_smile:

#13

You could change your ERPM limits to 60000 instead of 100,000, but not a huge thing. You could also probably increase your batt max later on if you feel like you want more power. I think your batteries can handle 50+ amps When you finish doing the motor detection, and it didn’t fail, make sure you click “apply” under “Start Detection” or the parameters won’t be applied. The values you have are close, so I can’t tell if it automatically rounded up (which is often does) or not. I can’t remember how much it rounds.

#14

Hello, I rounded the motor detection results to the nearest 5 for Int. Limit, and the nearest 50 for BEMF Coupling as stated in the @torqueboards tutorial on youtube here. I will run it again though once I get my VESC sensor wire adaptor which I ordered today. So for changing my ERPM would I change both max and min to 60,000? Also what exactly do you mean by “more power” does this correlate to more torque or more speed? Thanks!

#15

I’d say just let the program handle the rounding. Vedder built it quite well and it’ll put it close enough to where you need it. Run motor detection, make sure it didn’t fail, and then just hit apply.

I would change both the the max and min ERPM to 60000 (the min stays negative though). The VESC can handle 100,000, but I tend to side on the safer side and set it a bit lower. Some agree while others will disagree. I’d search through other’s posts on the ERPM limit if you want to know more cause I don’t think I’d explain it as well as they have.

You’ll feel the difference in battery current when you’re speeding up (especially from a stop) and when you’re going uphill. Basically if you ever feel like it’s sluggish at either, I’d start by increasing your batt max.

I’ll also make a note about the motor min/max. When you’re hitting the edge of what you’ve set, either the motor max/min is going to hit the limit first or the battery is. I tend to set the battery limits according to what the batteries can handle and then just set the motor limits really high (like 60 and -60). So then I never hit that motor limit because I always hit my battery limit first. That’s also partially because I have a good understanding of what the batt min/max means and I don’t entirely understand how the current that the vesc takes in from my batteries translates to the current the vesc sends to a motor.

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#16

Thanks, I will have to explore the settings of my battery and motor limits as I get some more tests in. But for now nothing is going to blow up if I give it a few test runs? :slight_smile:

#17

I don’t see any other issues in what you posted so far. Can you post the Motor Configuration Advanced tab? That would be the last thing I’d check.

#18

There you go. Only thing I changed was startup boost though.

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Also changed Batt max to 30 and ERPMs to 60k. As well as run motor detection again and clicked apply instead of rounding.

#19

K. I think you’re set! Just go easy on the throttle when you start out :wink:

#20

Haha will do. Just gonna be tests in my basement until this north eastern winter goes away though :slight_smile:.