Sensored versus Unsensored: Louder motor?

I’ve been skating my new build around for a few weeks and have been having a lot of fun. No real problems with the VESC and it all seems to be working really well.

I did however have a small amount of cogging from a standstill start, nothing major - just what I imagine is the VESC figuring out which way is forward before giving you smooth acceleration. I would always make sure I was moving forward slightly or give a little push when starting off, but wondered if connecting up the sensor wires would make any difference.

My motor is a 190kv 6355 from Torqueboards, which has the small type sensor connector so I wired up an adapter with a larger pin pitch that fits the VESC and gave sensored motors a go.

I now have awesome smooth acceleration from a complete stop, and seem to have smoother performance overall when braking or quickly punching the throttle while already moving to get up to speed.

I do however seem to have gained louder motor running noise? I don’t understand the in’s and out’s of exactly how the VESC controls motors (I know the basics, BLDC/FOC having differing “styles” of telling the motors what to do…) but how could BLDC with or without sensors make a difference?

Before without sensors, the motor had that tell-tale BLDC whine, but now with the sensors added there now seems to be a louder lower pitched groan in there too, especially when braking. It has made me much more conscious of it when riding around the city compared to before.

Anyone else noticed a difference after they added sensors?

There shouldn’t be a louder noise, mine is the same sensored and unsensored. Make sure you use hybrid mode, that way it goes sensorless after a certain erpm.

3 Likes

Ahh good thinking, now that you mention it I am unsure if I set it to sensored or hybrid mode…

I’ll whip out the usb cable and report back!

What did it say?

Well I’ll be damned, from my testing at the workbench, seems like that was the problem! I’ll take it out tomorrow for a proper test at speed and in normal circumstances to confirm though :slight_smile:

Thanks to @Jinra, gotta love it when a problem is just a slight oversight and is fixed almost instantly!

4 Likes

Does anybody know if using hyrbid mode will effect your top speed?