Like many people here in esk8 i have been waiting for vescs to come back in stock for a long time. I researched multiple alternatives, but most ESCs were either more espensive than the vesc or not in stock. However, in the HV section of hobbyking website I saw a little esc with 60A continuous rating (the vesc is 50A continuous) for $37 and I thought I’d give it a try.
Link: http://www.hobbyking.com/mobile/viewproduct.asp?idproduct=84705
The Multistar 60A ESC is sold as a helicopter ESC but mine came with the BLheli Multirotor firmware installed, which is great because multirotors can have bidirectionality, meaning forward neutral and reverse. I also bought the multistar programmer. I downloaded the blheli suite and proceeded to configure the esc. I made sure to have bidirectionality on and lowered the motor initial power to the lowest setting and turned off dampened light. I soldered some 5mm connectors and a 90xt to test. Bear in mind this is an OPTO esc so there is no bec and you will need a power source for the reciever.
Results: tomorrow
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What about brakes?
If you try to use reverse for braking, you might get launched off the board.
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Interested in hearing how this goes…
Please be careful and wear a helmet.
I couldn’t wait so I set it up and tested it out. First thing was that I need to switch motor wires because reverse is forward on the nano torqueboards controller. I had to trim the controller with a little screwdriver to reach the center or zero throttle. I noticed that the low power startup tends to cog the motor and is really slow, but then 3-4 seconds later it jumps to the appropriate rpm for that input. It almost knocked me off the board. The torqueboards 6355 motor is a beast, it easily propels me forward. The freewheel works when going forwards but backwards the board stops abruptly. I’ll keep tweaking the esc to see if I can get it to work.
There is a bit of cogging when loaded but acceleration is better. Need to esperiment with demag and timing. Using the high frequency setting there is much less heat. Maybe i can resuce the reverse range so that it only barely activates and works as breaks.
The esc burned while I was sitting on the board trying to set the center throttle on the controller. The wheel was slipping under me trying to accelerate and just when I thought I should get off the board and let it spin freely the esc cought fire. The low rpm power protect should have been “on” and I had it “off”. This esc does not have a temperature sensor so that setting could not be changed.
I would not ride with this esc. It doesn’t have thermal shutdown like other escs and, while blheli is excellent, it does not have the few but necessary configuration settings for a proper electric skateboard esc. Namely, regenerative breaking and slow acceleration.
It has been a learning experience nontheless, and thankfully I was unharmed and none of the other components was damaged.
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If you had used a 120a rated ESC it would not have burned. I’ll bet it!
Maybe. I noticed that this 60 A continuous esc got hot whenever pushing a load such as myself or at low frequency. High frequency helped keep it cool but it wasn’t enough. I’d say thermal shutdown is a must on skateboard escs because of the potential risk of fire.
