New Brushless Motor Controller from REV Robotics

So many of you may be familiar with the popular FIRST robotics competition. For those out of the loop, they compete in a global competition every year with highschool students. They are very stringent on rules, such as using 12V lead acid batteries, only allow specific motors, have an established electronics system etc.

With that said, this new motor controller (and matching motor) are fairly big news for that community.

Here are some important specs:

-6V min -30V max (Can only be used up to 7S packs)

-60A continuous (likely motor amps) -100A surge for 2 seconds

70mm x 35mm x 25mm size

-USB C, computer programmable (new feature to FIRST) -CAN, PWM, and USB(UART) all function as control ports -Closed loop control (likely like a VESC position control) -Data port (function programable, accepts analog inputs, switches, quadature encoders)

-Follower mode? (likely to mimic another motors rotation)

$75 USD. I could see this being used for a budget 6S board thats looking for a reliable ESC. We’ll have to see if these things can be overvolted or if the components are over rated. REV is an established company and I seriously doubt these things will have high failiure rates (or DRV chips to blow). I would also trust their tech specs as it’s in their best interest to give competing students as accurate information as possible, they work closely with the non profit organization that runs these competitions.

So, what are your thoughts?

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I just saw this today. I was on a team in high school and they have brushless motors for the first time this year too. Hopefully FIRST will allow more brushless parts as that would help the esk8 community a ton. It’s all engineers at FIRST so the motors and controllers will be thoroughly tested in every way.

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Completely agree there, this may not be perfect for our usage, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction!