Enertion was the first company in the world to produce a Single MCU Motor Controller based on the VESC® motor controller project. This device is called the Focbox Unity. The product development took many months & several iterations to dial in, but in the end the product proved to be extremely reliable and there have been over 5000 sold & delivered worldwide.
The Lacroix Stormcore 60D was the next single MCU motor controller to hit the market. It is designed by Charles & Jeff, former engineers from Enertion. Its fair to say they had acquired some existing knowledge from enertion before diving into the Stormcore project.
The two brands of products are actually very similar in terms of components, the bill of materials share 95% of the same parts. The most notable difference is the Stormcore 60D has 3 low side shunts vs the 2 low side shunts found on the Focbox Unity.
The Stormcore also uses a newer Texas Instruments DRV chipset that isn’t commonly used in VESC® based motor controllers & was only recently made compatible with the core VESC® firmware. As with all new IC’s there are the usual teething problems that need to be ironed out over several hardware revisions and the overall product reliability is sure to improve overtime.
DRV issues were the biggest cause of failures in the early days of VESC® motor controllers, These DRV faults plagued the original VESC® design for several years before engineers nailed the perfect layout of capacitors and component positions to minimize noise and improve the overall robustness of the hardware.
This slight design change between focbox & stormcore is mostly not going to be enough to alter the performance or be noticed by your average rider cruising around. However, if you are a real performance junky and like to ride around measuring your motor currents & duty cycle you might be able to study the charts after your ride & identify the different characteristics that come from having the 3rd shunt.
The main idea behind the 3 shunt design is to improve the accuracy of the current measurements at high RPM, and/or during rapid acceleration from zero to maximum duty cycle with high KV motors.
Here is the chart comparing both products side by side
Looking at your compariason Ive got a Stormcore and Unity next to me on my desk.
Unity runs XT60 / 14AWG motorwires with a 2.5mm Bullet female connector… (unless you are refering to a new unity? pics)
The 3rd shunt - and the Stormcore in general has been a great improvement , I ride silently on Hubs now, defiantly getting more range - its smooth - the unity on FW 5 + is also smooth just not as smooth.
Comparing 10s to 10s, would expect on 12s to see the preformance boost from the stormcore to scale moreso than with a unity.
Keep in mind im speaking Hub only here - Sensored. When taking off with load no push start. This is where i consume amps the most as we all do to get “going”.
Since using the stormcore Ive had mildy better results (Will take it to a Track to do some proper testing consistant indoor) IE consumption has been less to achive the same.
I am however confused on the XT90S on a Unity? Ive seen this aftermarked from Bioboards thats about it
Ah okay, good to mention that - and prehaps note Mr60-M - theres also the triangual connector.
XT90S is always nice, any reason why the Phase wires would come with a MR60-M already sodered?
Can imagine for DIY builds can also be a hinderance to find a way to get it out of certain enclosures on the market today. (I understand 2 holes with a Gasket is better than 6 induvidual ones).
That being said, all that cable length would be wasted in order to do that. and since its not bracketed /mounting it becomes harder.’ warrenty voids etc
VESC to motor wire normally we all aim for short can imagine it would be awesome for plug and play if motorwires could reach enclosure where the mr60-m is sitting mounted into an enclosure.
Interesting - suppose the question here is was the 2 shunt design well desinged? - for what reason would one want a 3 shunt then? but prehaps jeff can enlighten us all always keen to learn.
The good news is there now is a choice for the consumer. Those who can afford it and believe it is better can choose stormcore. Those who don’t see any benefits will have a more affordable option.
I do remember vedder at one point saying something along the lines of initially it seemed like with two readings you could compute the third but that turned out to be not so good. thus the three shunt designs.
sounds like vesc 6 is still better than both though.
