My experiences with the FVT 120A 12S Dual ESC / Sleeping Lion

It worked fine with mini remote, nanox remote and gt2b.

Hope Iā€™m not hijacking This Thread. I have an update. I finally got my board put together and hereā€™s my experience so far, day one. I bought a Chinese Mountain board with 18650 batteries,12s and 6375 ( non sensored) Motors. Goes 25 miles an hour on a flat surface . I took that setup and installed it on on mBS board.itā€™s a ton of fun and the acceleration and braking is very smooth and reliable but I wanted more power. I built my new board with a new mBS comp 95 board with Matrix 2 trucks,2x5000mah lipo batteries, micro remote same as the Chinese board, 10s, Hobbie sky 6384 (sensored Motors) that I ordered on Amazon for about $90 a piece and an SVT sleeping lion twin motor ESC. the new board weighs about 8 pounds less than the old board. Out of the box the board is unrideable / dangerous . I then set the settings with the original firmware that came with the ESC to very soft start, 30% braking, 3% neutral range 3%, throttle limit at 80%, start power at 11 The motors stop and start very close to each other so I did not use a Y connector yet. I havenā€™t been able to use the sensor wires yet because the plug is different on the motor and ESC.

with the new settings the board is much more rideable but still pretty sketchy. With the old board, if you were going 15 miles an hour and you push the throttle up to 100% you wouldnā€™t go flying off the board same with the brakes. With the new board you canā€™t do that or you will go flying. Itā€™s controllable but WAY more touchy. thatā€™s the bad part, the good part is the power borders on obscene!! I have a digital level that I used to measure a few hills around the area. Iā€™m not sure how well of an indicator the level is but on the first Hill the level measured 7.75 degrees. From a dead stop the old board will climb the hill fine but it definitely is much slower than on a even surface you might get up to 10 or 12 miles an hour. The second Hill measured 16.5 degrees it may not look that steep in the pictures but I assure you itā€™s fairly steep. From a dead stop the old board would climb the hill but maybe at three miles per hour. On the new board with the throttle at about 10-20% it will climb both hills like it doesnā€™t know youā€™re on it! no exaggeration , no hyperbole thatā€™s a fact. If you were to push the throttle to say 75%, youā€™re going down! same thing with the brakes, they work well but if you push it over 50% youā€™re going to go down. I love the amount of power the new system has, but it is to way punchy! Iā€™m going to contact the vendor to see what can be done but at this point I couldnā€™t recommend the setup. I was worried that two vescā€™s wouldnā€™t have enough punch but this is ridiculous. Iā€™ve seen people eat it pretty hard on my old board and that thing is a kitten compared to this thing. For reference Iā€™m 165.lbs. lots of High Impact Sports. Dirt bikes,kite boarding, you name it. If the acceleration / breaking was more manageable this thing would be exactly what I was looking for. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

IMG_20180924_181613 IMG_20180924_181951%20(1)

Hi nadir35. Art here. Im trying to program my FVT sleeping lion. What usb or programming box support FVT Sleeping Lion 5s-12s? Thanks for your time.

I use this one http://s.aliexpress.com/b6BbERJR

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yea i used this one aswell

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Hi aMasheep, Art here. Did you ever get your esc set up to run smoothly? Mine randomly looses rc signal, and goes into a beeping mode. It has happened at low and high speeds. I tried different receivers and different remotes without luck. Sometimes it work fine. But its random. I checked BEC voltage under load, and it remains at 4.92V. Adjusting BEC voltage with programming software did not change it. Short theory may be correctl. I have a battery/cell monitor on my set up. Sometimes it gives me a low voltage alarm (not at any extreme load) as I lose rc signal. My battery is 10s5P 15AH-sustains 100A continues or 200A burst. I dont think a slow speed acceleration would strain that battery.

No, that battery should be able to sustain the current draw. I used recycled batteriets from old laptops which sags a lot under load, and Iā€™ve only managed to pull 1800watts to my knowledge. I do have the problem with the controller loosing connection(obviously from RF congestion) but I got to borrow one from a friend and it works much better. I have seen dropouts on that one also one time, but I havenā€™t tried to resolve the problem yet. What controllers have you tried?

What you can do: try to take the receiver away from the ESC as it can interfere with the signals.

Also, does your dropouts last for 5 sec or is it fast? What firmware do you use?

Please give me more Info, I will try to help as best as I can. Best regards.

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Thanks for getting back to me.

Im using one of those mini controllers. (This one I think) :https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-2-4Ghz-Remote-Controller-Receiver-ESC-USB-Charging-for-Electric-Skateboard/272826376972?hash=item3f85b8230c:g:ddIAAOSwI4BZskUk:rk:2:pf:0)

The original receiver for the mini controller did not work properly at all. I bought a different receiver with a little antennae. That one worked better. It does seem like if I (or any part of me) gets in between transmitter and receiver, I loose signal. Signal loss is brief, just a second or so (at higher speed that is enough to jolt the board hard enough for me to fly off of it.

I tried two different mini controllers without luck. What controller/receiver worked for you?

I use the firmware that came with the ESC. Itā€™s the same one that fvt website has: 20180614. It is the only one that fvt website has.

I did move receiver away from the esc. I think it helped a little. When I was riding around yesterday (just to test it out) it seemed to come on sometimes when im just getting going, or sometimes when Im cruising at decent speed. Holding the controller closer to the receiver does work, but I dont want to rely on that for safe riding.

Hmm I see. It really sounds like you just have the same controller reliability issues as me. Iā€™ve heard that the controller you bought is also all in all a worse controller than the regular mini controller found here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Electric-Skateboard-2-4GHz-Remote-Controller-Transmitter-Receiver-Binding-Plug/272733085845?epid=20005946328&hash=item3f8028a095:g:rfIAAOSwqxdcB21U

This controller is known for better reliability, although mine was brokenā€¦ My friend bought exactly the same one and itā€™s much better.

If you want to fix your existing controller, I canā€™t help you as I donā€™t have a degree in that fieldā€¦ Iā€™ve tried some things with mine but it has only made it worse.

I think your best bet is to go for the remote type I linked you. If you are happy with the firmware then good. I have a couple of other firmwares you can try out if you want, but it probably wonā€™t fix the controller issues.

Best regards.

Thanks for the reply. I would like to try different software with this esc. It seems like it may be relevant to my case. I started a thread with fvt rc issues. I do think the remote and receiver combo i have is crap. I did do this alteration, that helped my connectivity a lot. Ill attach a link to the video. Basically, I replaced my transmitter antennae. It extended my range and resolved connectivity problem. Here is a vid of what I did for the remote and esc. Ill direct message you my email address. If you can send me different software versions for this esc, Ill much appreciate it. Thanks.

Looks like a nice ride. Good thinking with the reciever and transmitter! btw: does your drivetrain make a lot of noise? I am using chains right now and they are kind of loudā€¦ I am thinking about moving to belts, and just buy the wheels you have there off of ali express. But I will first have to smoothen up the ride, as its quite rough and uncontrollable now.

I will send you the firmwares in PM now, If you figure out which of the firmwares that yields a better riding experience, please write back with the firmware and the settings you use, would help a lot :smile:

Best regards.

Thanks aMasheep.

Belts are a bit quieter than chains. I will send you a video with how mine sounds.

With my current set up, the board is rideable. But is not a forgiving ride. I rode 5 miles yesterday. My thumb was numb from trying not to piss off the angry lion. My legs were smoked because of fast acceleration and breaking.

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Hey @nadir35 !

I know I am a little late to the party hereā€¦ So I am building my own board and am considering buying the FVT 120A for my 10s setup. I wanted to know if its possible to control this using an Arduino? I have been struggling to find an ESC that can be controlled by that. I have heard you can do it with VESCā€™s, but it seems a lot more complicated and maybe not ideal for the setup I am trying to make.

Just wanted to know what sort of experience you had with this (if any)ā€¦

Thanks!

From my experience of trying to make arduino control work with a non-VESC, it is just not worth it. The old fashioned remote and receiver is far less hassle and more reliable.

I would advise on going the VESC route. I was hesitant at first which led me to getting this ESC, but with current dual VESC prices I donā€™t see a reason to not go the VESC route. It really isnt all that complicated once you put some time into it. (I was afraid of that at first too)

Thanks for the answerā€¦ Yeah I believe I am going to go with the VESC, however I just realized my Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 doesnā€™t have some sensor wires? It just has the 3 main wires. Is it still compatible with the VESC? Is it still compatible with using the arduino as well then? Or would my motor need to have these sensor wires?

The wires I am referring to: PNG

After some further research, I realized that it should still work without those sensor wires it will just be less ā€œsmoothā€. Hopefully it will still be programmable by the Arduino and not too challenging! I plan to use the PPM default settings on the VESC and just attach the signal wire to the arduino.

Thanks again

u are right with the sensor wires, however i advise you to do some further arduino researchā€¦ the signal your arduino will be transmitting will probably have not high enough of a frequency which will lead to motor jittersā€¦ atleast thats what i had with a car esc, maybe it works with vesc

That is a great point which I never would have thought about. I looked into it and found a post where someone had a similar issue. The default frequency for the Servo library is 50Hz but can be modified for any value you would like. This specific user changed his to 400Hz as that was the recommended value of his ESC.

However, he also mentioned that increasing the frequency may cause high current output due to fast phase but his ESc could handle it. How am I able to tell if the VESC can handle high current?

My apologies for being so new to the topic. Electricity isnā€™t one of my strengths, but I am trying to learn.

All in all, I can modify the frequency but it may cause a high currentā€¦

Hi guys, could anyone give me an advice on getting programing app for 6s version as i canā€™t get it anywhere. All links dead and idk where else i can get it.