How’s DIY’s VESC track record looking thus far? I’ve been trying to dig through some old threads on the forum and have only been able to find things back from June/July about DIY’s VESCs.
I’m looking to purchase a backup VESC for when my Ollin VESC breaks (now… just had to try FOC) when I remembered DIY also sells them. I don’t see nearly as many issues with them as I do Enertion’s, but that could be just because there’s more people buying their VESCs from Enertion. Has anyone purchased one recently from DIY? How has it been running? What’s your setup?
First off, why do you feel like your Ollin VESC will break? I have 8 of them running FOC, and not a single issue. If you really want a back up, order another Ollin VESC.
From what I could gather about diys vescs, they are the original BOM, no upgrades besides those recommended by vedder have been done. Now that enertion released the VESC-X which supposedly has a bunch of upgrades, and Ollin VESCs have upgrades, I don’t really see why risk it with an original BOM VESC. There have been a fair number of complaints about them breaking over the last few months. Less than enertion, but my feeling is enertion is selling way more (The number of orders enertion is getting per day is insane and explains the whole situation).
I hear you on the upgraded BOM ones. I wanted to give the VESC-X a shot but I most likely wouldn’t get it until after the snow drops where I live.
About the Ollin VESC - it actually already broke. I went about 3 miles in FOC on a 12s 190kv setup. I configured the VESC with a fresh firmware and following Vedder’s tutorial on YouTube as well. Since winter is quickly approaching here, I wanted to have a backup VESC if this happens again and to avoid a two week downtime. I’ll probably play it safe with BLDC for now
A lot of people seem to have issues with FOC, and they all seem to be belt driven systems. I only ride hub motors, of varying (80 -149) kv, all in FOC and never any issues. And I ride a lot.
Yeah it seems like everyone has good success with FOC + hub motor combo. I’ve considered hubs, but I’ll be honest, I haven’t done much research on them. It seems Carvons are the way to go
The biggest down side I’ve found from hubs is I get less range. I’m running 4wd with hummies hubs again. With a massive 504 Wh 12s4p battery, I’m lucky to get 7 miles on my very hilly route. I would love to race a raptor vs my board, but a 2wd belt drive equivalent can have the same torque and even a higher top speed than me with 2x to 3x the range. I had better range with the 2wd carvons, I could get about 12 miles on my route with the same battery. I still want to try the carvon v2.5s, with more torque, I bet they are good. They are just too low of a top speed for me, which is why I’m building a 4wd carvon v2 board. I should be able to get into the mid 50’s (mph) without any issues, maybe even faster.
@evoheyax is making me want to try a hub setup for my next build as well lol I really liked FOC when I tried it but don’t want to run the risk of blowing more DRVs until it’s proven for belt driven systems…
The more vescs, the better. It’s just less stress on your vescs. I can’t imagine running a single drive, and I don’t personally think it should be a thing. No one wants to publicize the fact that if you want to be able to go from 0-20 mph with a single motor, in under 3 seconds, you will have to counter balance the pull on one side, or it will throw you off. 2wd or 4wd is the way to go if your after more stability. If you have a single drive lower torque motor/gearing, you won’t feel much of a pull one way. But I’m all about acceleration and top speed.
I haven’t had too many issues with my single drive if I’m honest. Everything was fine and dandy until I tried to run FOC on the single drive, which yes, I agree would probably be efficient to have a dual drive in this case to reduce risk of damage to the VESC. Being a pretty light guy and comparing to my dual drive boosted though, I feel little manageable differences, which is acceptable in my mind since it’s half the drivetrain cost. I think the general conception is two or more drives is better, but people don’t consider the fact that a single drive might actually suit their needs and purpose more, while being cost effective. I read a lot about some 150+ lbs guys being moved by a single drive with no problem.
Getting back on topic though, thanks for the link @Jinra. I think I’m just going to fork over the cash for another Ollin VESC eventually, especially since they upped their warranty from a year to two years + further support after those years pass. I’m going to keep an eye on how the first production batch of VESC-X goes as well since I’m curious to see if belt-driven FOC support is increased
The VESC-X or a VESC v6 (when ever those finally come out) sound like the best option for single motor boards. But personally, I like the Ollin warranty. I don’t think I will be buying VESC from anyone else in the near future.
I have a VESC from torqueboards, haven’t had any problems so far, i run BLDC tough. I tried FOC but my battery leads were too long and i was getting errors while braking. Ill report back once i re do all my wiring with very short 10aug wires.
Good to know about the torqueboard VESC. I’m back and forth on getting one, but am still leaning more towards just settling on another Ollin VESC.
I wasn’t aware that battery leads would cause an issue in FOC mode? Would you be able to explain that a little bit more? I’m running a split enclosure design so I do have long battery leads going from battery to VESC so that could be a problem for me.
I read it over at vedder’s forum i believe. It seems that the length of the wires from the battery to the VESC influences the inductance and this affects the DRV chip when using FOC.
At the moment i have 12AUG wires that run about 40+ cm, with about 4 connectors. Not the most efficient wiring. See here, there’s a few sections of wire missing lol.
My average speed is 25 mph with inclines of 7% grade or higher for at least 40% of my route. I’m a 200 lb guy also, which from testing with hummie who’s about 140 lb, makes a big difference.
