So I bought couple VESC’s from different manufactures, and would like to share my findings, hopefully, you guys can tell about your experience.
I got 2 VESC’s from enertion, both died with less than 2 months of use, both same failure, DRV chip blew up.
I initially thought that that was due to my setup, i was using 245kv motor with 10S, but I used veryyy conservative limits on my VESC, and did not pass 10mph with my sk8. But i changed my motor to a 149kv motor and it happened again…
but summary: don’t get your VESC’s from enertion, they will not repair the vescs not even if you pay labor or anything, i now have 350 dollars in paper weight here…
I also got one from Ollin boards, they have much better costumer support, they WILL take your failed vesc and try to fix.
I prefer paying 160 vs 100 dollars and have better custumer support, never buying anything from ENERTION again…
Yeah the early versions of the enertion VESC were noticeably lower build quality. I have bought from both enertion and ollin. I haven’t had any of them fail yet.
however as pointed out enertion has moved their manufacturing to the USA now so they should be much higher quality.
it is true that they don’t have a very extensive warranty on the VESC, but they are also priced at $89 a piece for two with free shipping- that basically means you can get two VESC’s for the price of one ollin board’s VESC.
With this new batch of 1,000 coming from the US, quality will surely increase over the Chinese factory they had previously…
Jason also made a thread asking people what they wanted to see for a VESC price, because he gets completely opposite reactions to his current price from different people…
-some want to keep the price as low as possible and go without a “no questions asked” warranty
-others want a no questions asked warranty, which would only come at a steeper price.
Sorry, but i did not pay 89 dollars for my vesc, i paid 359.10 AUD for both, and both died with less than one month, in no scenario my deal was favorable…
By the way, i dont want a extensive warranty, but less than one month of use each is a joke!
I feel your pain. I had the same issue. Bought 2 from enertion, had one not working as a master on arrivial, but worked as a slave. The other was working, and on the second day of use, it broke. So now I have 2 broken vesc’s. I bought 2 more from @chaka, using basically the same setup with minor changes, and now I have no problems. Been a week and a half, over 100 miles. I would DEFIANTLY recommend him for your vesc’s.
I think the problem really was heat. With his heat sink package, heat is noticeably down (I can feel the lid where they sit is much cooler) and the rollbacks are gone. I would definitely recommend the heatsink package if your not going to be ridding exclusivity on flat ground.
Hmm I also have 1 broken from Enertion, paid while it’s still above 100 usd waited 2 months usable for 5 minutes. The false economy hits hard. Not sure about the new batch, but I am gona wait for some members experience first.
However I wonder why so many people have issues with heat on their VESC, mine is being run without heatsink and it works just fine without any issues even not stopping after 10km++ ride.
Whats the steepest grade you ride on and whats your longest ~10% grade hill?
For me, flat ground stretches are never an issue. It could be linked to the inefficiency in the settings I am using, or in the motors. But the vesc works flawlessly on flat ground. So much power and speed on a full charge.
I bought two vescs from Enertion, one was DOA, returned it and got store credit.
I bought two vescs from Ollinboard, one failed while fiddling with settings, was repaired for free.
In the end, those are two equivalent forms of good customer service.
In my opinion the vesc has an inherent flaw, which is the touchy mosfet driver chip: look at it the wrong way and it will die on you, no matter where you bought it.
I hope Vedder realizes this and improves robustness in 5.0.
I’m pretty sure that my VESC’s did not die due heat. They both died when starting a new ride (first 2 minutes of use)
The first one it was probably due to a high kv motor, I was using 245KV motor.
The second one lasted less than 1 week on a 149KV motor.
The rest of the setup and conditions:
No hills what so ever: live in Houston - TX
I weight 120lb (~55kg)
No way of having short circuits between the phases, I used heat shrink on all my connections and 3d print a plastic spacer to fix the cable on the board.
same thing happened to me but i think that issue will be ironed out with this new batch. I thought at first mine was moisture related but i had a UCF student take them to the lab. Blown DRVs, both of them at the same exact time. I’m having a place near hear fix them for me since i have the replacement chips.
Interesting news… after following the vedder forum, he just posted something, he mentioned that the blew DRV chip can be caused when the capacitor fail.
I went and removed the heat shrink on my two vesc’s and guess what I saw? both vescs had capacitors leg broken / desoldered.
Capacitors were poorly soldered to the PCB, so when they failed my VESC’s died.
I’m checking both of mine as soon as I get home. I am making arrangements to have my DRVs replaced locally so i’m not going to be happy if they blow again right afterward.
Can you upload a picture of those capacitors legs? This way people can compare them with the ones they are going to receive, so they can fix the problem before the drv chip is blown.