Using @Ackmaniac’s flavor of Vedder’s software is the single best improvement I have made to my esk8s. I applaud both Ben and Nico as my equipment wouldn’t be the same without their cumulative contributions. I owe you both.
I hope that in the spirit of Open Source, more time is spent focused on development, and less on a quest for control.
I appreciate that this is job for Ben and a hobby Nico.
I think there may be a lot of us that are buying from Trampa as a way to support Ben at his new job. In doing this we have a high expectation of his/Trampa’s work. We are buying a finished product, and I think Trampa’s products are pretty polished. As such I spent $$$ on an Urban carver.
However, I fully admit that I would not have spent any $$$ with Trampa (or anyone else) if it weren’t for Nico’s software and his presence on the forum. He answered my noob questions and added software features when I asked him for help. Pretty amazing service from him as a random stranger on the internet. I owe you man.
So I hope that Ben and Trampa can keep an open mind about @Ackmaniac’s fork. In my case, it helped them sell an Urban carver and future Vesc’s.
And somehow @Ackmaniac has been stuck doing their customer service for free. (In my case anyway)
I know ben personally and I have to say hes one of the brightest and most humble persons I’ve ever met. I understand your reasoning around the “baby” scenario. But frankly I’m sure Ben would be positive to the idea to get more developers involved. Aslong as it does not potentially harm the project in the future. Cause who will be misscredited if not Ben when someones VESC blows up due to software collisions etc? (I know its the users own fault but the avrage guy wont see it that way)
And as some has already mentioned, this is his sparetime project. He has a fulltime job and working on his Ph.d. in parallell to this so hearing everyones opinions and doing quick changes is something that hasn’t been possible for him. Breaking his leg in combination to the release of the new VESC didn’t improve the situation either.
I also know from Ben that he has felt discourages to continue working with the VESC several times cause there are so many factors sucking the fun out from what he loves with this project. Lets not let this add to that pile.
I’m all for people like ackamaniac implementing changes and investing thier own time to push the project forward. But I really think it is important to implement this in a good way. I really think breaching that gap is something frank can help with.
Found a issue with the timeout behavior for PPM for dual drives. Have to investigate that further. So for the moment please don’t set a Failsafe signal above the max or below the min value. Will let you know when i fixed the issue. Everything else is working fine.
Amazing work @Ackmaniac, been running your old BLDC tool with your android app, and it great to keep track of board stats and change config on the fly.
I have just updated to this new tool and setup in FOC for the first time, running sweet!
My only problem is that the Android app has now stopped working, I updated the firmware to the default from the app (FW3.1, HW410).
Is there something I am missing or does the new firmware just not work with the current Android app?
Just went for another spin on FOC on my FOCBOX setup, and the board seems to be having a few issues, that nearly took me out. It seems to happen at random but throttle / brake getting stuck on full for like a second, seems like some kind of time out. Also on other occasions vesc seemed to lose connection, like it was resetting. Plugged it into computer when I got home, but no errors??? I know its a bit vague, but any ideas? think I might have to put it back into BLDC on the VESC-tool and test.
On a side note, this only started since the battery has gone down to about 30%, could this be a voltage sag issue??
Had to look up the word “forking” since I didn’t understand it’s meaning…I wont post the definition here. But damn… I never thought you could have so much fun over at github
Please update to the new file. (OSX version isn’t updated yet, will add it when available)
I just worked the last 2 days on the timeout ramping for PPM. And now it is working like it should. I highly recommend to update to the latest file i released in my dropbox link. The name is the same but the firmware files which are included are different. Also the Version is still the same (3.100)
If 3.100 is already installed you can update easily by connecting to your ESC, read the settings of the app and the motor and then flash it with the new firmware. After the flash connect to the ESC and directly write the settings which you have read previously. This is possible because the parameters did not change. Do not close the ACKMANIAC-ESC Tool in between. If you have a slave repeat the steps for it.
When you think that you have correctly adjusted the timeout parameters (instructions in the first post) you can test it by spinning the motors with the remote and simply switch off the remote. Now the ESC. should start to brake. When this works then you can test it at slow speed when you stand on the board. Simply switch off the remote and you should feel that the ESC smoothly ramps to the adjusted brake current.
Appreciate all your hard work! I have to ask though… What’s the advantage of not updating the version number to, say, 3.101 to reflect the revisions?
Reminds me of when the current ramp step bug was discovered, and Ben Vedder fixed it but kept the firmware at 2.18, making it impossible to tell if you had the bugged version without loading it
Is this still applicable to dual VESC setups connected via CAN? I’m hoping if they’re connected via CAN the update happens to both VESCs automatically, no?
When you update the parameters via the ESC-Tool then no. So you need to setup each motor individually.
When you do the update via my app then all motors which are connected by can (and send their status) are updated.
Just made some tests with the timeout behavior for PPM and with my Mini remote i set the Timeout to 100 ms.
By this the ESC reacts very fast if a timeout happens and slowly ramps down. If you let this at 1000 ms (default) the ESC will continue for at least 1 Second with the last command. If this was full throttle there is a good chance that the board will throw you off.
Sadly the timeout happens most of the time in such a situation. And here is why:
To my experience the reason for a timeout with a PPM remote is mostly a broken antenna on the receiver. This happens during assembling or when we make maintenance in our battery enclosure. Because that cable is always in the way.
So when it is already broken then it sometimes has contact and when it moves a little then not anymore. Or with higher amps comes more interference and that causes the connection loss.
So long story short. It mostly happens when we don’t need it (strong acceleration or braking).
And in these situations it is a very high chance for a crash if the board looses the power immediately or if it continues to do full throttle or brake while we released the trigger already. People who had these problems already know what i am talking about.
So with the mini remote i set the timeout to 100 ms so that the trigger doesn’t stay at full throttle and reacts really fast.
Please only do this with this firmware and with the latest version. And read the instructions in the first post and test it that the timeout really works with the correct Failsafe signal. Please only use a Timeout Brake current if you really understand everything and tested it properly.
If you don’t understand it or your not sure that you set it up correctly then leave it at 0.00 A.
I know that it is a bit complicated but i saw people crash badly because of connection losses. When it is setup correct it is a great safety feature.
Yes you are able to set that but it has no effect. Braking was limited by the max amp parameter. So brakes could be weaker or equal but not stronger.
Had to find that out the hard way when i was testing kids mode downhill.
Took me a couple of days and a lot of testing, debugging and analyzing. Some ADC values get initialized incorrect in the first moments the FOCBOX starts (maybe the direct fets are too fast at startup). After that it works fine.
Ok - I’m sure I’m gonna get a load of grief for this question but I literally cannot find out how to do it and have hunted for the answer and can’t find it. Oh dear. Here goes - if anyone could answer this quickly and then delete my message it might save me a heap of embarrassment!!
How the hell do I apply minor changes?
I’ve run the wizard and applied my settings - all good, but I wanna increase my Absolute max to 155.0A (I guess this could be any change) and apply it - where’s the apply button? I can only read the current setting I’m sure this is so simple and there’s a massive red button somewhere I’ve overlooked - any help hugely, and humbly accepted
I’m sure this is so simple and there’s a massive red button somewhere I’ve overlooked - any help hugely, and humbly accepted 