The thing is we are making a scooter and it already has a brushed DC motor mounted so we would prefer not to take of the motor and mount a brushless one. Here are some images that led me to believe that connecting a brushed dc motor is possible to the VESC.
My guess is that, as a lot of other features, BLDC tool has the option to be select, but that is not actually implemented on the firmware, take motor temperature limits, on the hardware side it has everything ready, but not working on the current firmware
Looking through the firmware on github, there’s definitely something implemented. Still looking through it to see if it does what you need it to.
Thank you any help will be very much appreciated!
Sorry I might be wrong. I believe previously it wasn’t supported, maybe now it does. But I would like to see brushed motor working with VESC as well.
Could you please post your VESC configuration and also state what VESC version you have.
I am unable to post that information until Monday as this is a school project and I will not have access to the VESC until Monday. But here is a picture of the exact VESC I have so you might be able to tell. Furthermore, the VESC is not configured because of the whole brushed, brushless situation, however, I have given info on the battery we are using so if you might be able to tell me the best configuration for the VESC,
that will be very much appreciated.
VESC supports brushed DC motors just fine. In addition, Benjamin has several videos of brushed DC motors online:
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Could it be possible for you to explain how to setup the VESC with the brushed DC motor. A step by step instructions guide would be nice.
There is not much to tell: connect to the VESC using BLDC_Tool, select DC (instead of BLDC or FOC) in the most left tab. Then connect the first and third power cables (leave middle one open). Make sure the voltage going into the VESC doesn’t exceed your DC motor voltage.
I just tried it with a brushed DC motor (12Volt) and it works just fine.
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What do you mean by this?
There are three wires coming out of the vesc on the middle side. Just use the side ones and not the middle to connect the motor. Not sure if polarity matters though.
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Thank you everybody for your help, the VESC is now working with the motor.
THANKS!
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I suspect I will have the same problem: I want to change my AT big skate from lead to Li-ion battery, and I believe I have a brushed motor on it. I have just ordered a 10S4P and a VESC, and I am glad to see it is possible to make it work. Was it difficult to do the set-up with the VESC?
And with regard to erwincoumans remark above
my motor says 36V so do I need to limit the output of my battery through the VESC as it will be slightly above that limit?
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I know its been awhile on this post but I want to know as well. “my motor says 36V so do I need to limit the output of my battery through the VESC as it will be slightly above that limit?” @lox897 @erwincoumans @msthg5000
You will be fine, what overheat a motor is the current
Of course in brushed motors too much voltage can damage/destroy the brushes, but no a bit more than the rated
@Pedrodemio So if the current goes over its rating it can be damaged? But im guessing the current would have to be continuous in order to overheat and damage?
Yeah, if I’m not mistaken the VESC still limits the current with brushed motors, so you can gradually increase it as you fell if it’s getting too hot
Awesome this was helpful now I can rebuild my wife’s pocket mod hahaha
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I’m trying to setup a Flipsky VESC in DC mode to run a brushed 24v 120w zy6812 motor on 6S for my sons build. He’s 9 and only weighs 20kg. I’ve had it turning with very conservative battery/motor current values but it did’nt run very fast or with much power. Prior to this we were using a rc car esc which only allowed us to go to 4S but top out about 10mph and he wanted it to go a little bit faster. So I thought I’d try it on 6S but couldn’t find a cheap brushed rc car esc over 4S but the flipskys on eBay are so cheap now i’d thought I’d give one a go. So what sort of min and max motor/battery settings should I be using for this setup. Can’t find any max or continuous current spec’s for this motor but 120w/24v is 5amp isn’t it. The battery is made up of 3 x 2S 40C 5000mah lipos in series. Currently I think I’ve got max motor current at 5 amps. Do I just keep upping this until the motor starts getting warm.
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I doubled the motor current up to 10Amps and the powers back to similar as it was with the RC car esc. Motor doesn’t appear to be getting to warm either. The top speed is up from 10mph to maybe 13-14 mph at a guess so he’s pleased. It means he can keep up with me as we cruise around the estate. I’ve also ordered another HM-10 Bluetooth module we can see some live figures for speed, current and voltage.
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