Engineering:VESC
Vedder Electronic Speed Controller or VESC is an open source project,[1] started by a Swedish engineer named Benjamin Vedder in 2014 to create a customizable high power Electronic speed control. The project was mainly tailored for the Electric skateboard, but would later be used for other applications, such as E-Bike.[2]
History
ESC were usually sold as black boxes with proprietary firmware and until 2014 there were not any real open source alternatives. In January 2014, Benjamin Vedder posted about his custom ESC project.[3] A GitHub repository was established in August 2014 to add to the project and transform it into its current open source nature.[4] This was followed by the launch of dedicated Open-source hardware project forum named Vesc project forum in December 2016.[5] Big manufacturers have since capitalized on the demand for high powered reliable ESCs, most notably Chinese Hoppywing which launched a very similar product to VESC.[6]
Types
There are two main types of VESC. One supporting moderate current and another supporting high current, both are designed to control a single brushless motor BLDC.
Moderate Current
Initially this type was called VESC 6 and supported up to 50 amperes of continuous current. This was later updated to VESC 6+ and can now support up to 80 amperes of continuous current. This VESC type supports up to 60 volts, which safely translates to about 12 of 4.2 volts Lithium-ion battery cells. This chip with a heatsink weights about 162 grams [7].
High Current
This type currently called VESC 75 supports up to 300 amperes of continuous current. This VESC type supports up to 75 volts, which translates to about 16 of 4.2 volts Lithium-ion battery cells. This chip with a heatsink weighs about 494 grams [8].
VESC Tool
VESC Tool development started in 2017 to create an application with a mobile version for control, customization, and update of VESC firmware. The application was created in an open source fashion, as well[9]. The tool can be used over USB and recently through a wireless connection as well. It is developed to be compatible with latest VESC Hardware and backward compatible with older versions of the hardware. It allows the generation of real time data that can help improve performance of systems employing VESC[10].
See also
References
- ↑ https://www.vesc-project.com/ The VESC Project
- ↑ http://vedder.se/forums/viewtopic.php?t=168 VESC in electric bicycle
- ↑ vedder.se/2014/01/a-custom-bldc-motor-controller/ A custom BLDC motor controller (a custom ESC)
- ↑ https://github.com/vedderb/bldc/ custom BLDC controller
- ↑ https://who.is/whois/vesc-project.com vesc-project.com
- ↑ https://hobbywing.com/goods.php?id=641 ESC for skateboard
- ↑ http://www.trampaboards.com/vesc-6-plus-benjamin-vedder-electronic-speed-controller-p-26762.html VESC 6 PLUS
- ↑ http://www.trampaboards.com/single-vesc-75v-300a-in-cnc-t6-silicone-sealed-aluminum-box--the-most-powerful-vedder-electronic-speed-controller-ever-p-26284.html VESC 75 300A
- ↑ https://github.com/vedderb/vesc_tool The source code for VESC Tool
- ↑ https://www.vesc-project.com/vesc_tool VESC Tool
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