Why choose VESC?

Still many new beginners don’t know much about the VESC or feel confusing when they try to configure it , here we’ll congregate all the VESC information and explain why you should choose VESC?

What is VESC?

First you need to  understand the VESC  is the abbreviation of Vedder’s Electronic Speed Controller,an open source project developed by a Swedish Technician Benjamin Vedder. It is an electric circuit that controls and regulates the speed of an electric motor.

Here’s an impressive analogy that given by a rider in esk8 forum

Voltage - Think of it like how big a muscle is
Amps - Think of it as how much energy you can send to that muscle

• You can have huge muscles, so moving something with that muscle takes less energy than someone who has smaller muscles (i.e. high voltage, low amps) (a good example of this is running at 10s and only 15 amps per motor)

OR

• You can have small muscles, which means to do the same as the big muscles, you need more energy. (low voltage, high amps) (a good example is 6s and 120 amps per motor)

(source is from : https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/new-vesc-user-read-this-complete-walktrough-of-the-vesc/2980/19)

Now ,you may get more clear idea of what’s vesc. But is it only used in electric skateboard?

No, actually it also has good performance in other applications, like ebike, fighting robots, also escooter, gocart.(All pictures are from Flipsky customers)

 

Why should you choose VESC?

The main benefits of VESC is to set protection for your keyparts, and can be programmable to meet your special needs.

1. Firstly, the entire electronic system can be protected by programming or limiting different  parameters of the speed controller:

Corresponding VESC tool setting picture for explanation the benefits of the VESC. More detail operations about vesc tool will come in the last part.

1.1. Limiting the amount of amps from the battery to the motor.

When a motor receives more amps than it can handle for too long(usually when going uphill), it’s very easy to get burnt. Therefore, with the VESC's adjustable current input setting, a motor or ESC will never be burnt out(unless the current input value is set too high).

1.2. Setting the maximum temperature you want the ESC to reach.

This will not only prevent the ESC from overheating and burning, but also prevents the temperature from being too high and damage the motor.

1.3. Setting the minimum and maximum input voltages.

This process is also called voltage protection. It protects the battery from over discharge. If the battery is over-discharged, it will easily break down.

1.4. Setting the maximum value of the regenerative power.

This is to ensure that the battery will not receive too much power when braking or freewheeling.

2.Second, from the perspective of VESC features:

2.1. It’s able to automatically recycle battery power during braking or freewheeling and send it back to battery in order to realize lower energy consumption and higher efficiency.

2.2. Battery power generated from braking can also be recycled to braking again so that it can be used for reverse rotation of the motor and motor fixing.

2.3. Battery power generated from braking can also be recycled to braking again so that it can be used for reverse rotation of the motor and motor fixing.

How to configure the VESC?

Vesc tool is used for configuration of your vesc, to set up your VESC with different batteries/motors , to achieve the most comfortable performance that you want your eskateboard /ebike.. to be reached.

Here’s the VESC tool download source: https://www.vesc-project.com/vesc_tool

And let's see how to configure a vesc in eskateboar!

 

How does VESC performance ?

1. Now you may get general idea of what VESC is, Let’s see how DIYers feel about it after using a vesc?

 “I have their street style kit with the same ESC. Can confirm it sucks due to one single braking level. Like binary kind of thing, 1 for full braking power, and 0 for no braking at all, nothing in between.

Swapped to dual VESCs and it's just as smooth as Boosted boards now.”

 “Did alot of uphill test today. WOW the hillclimb is crazy it feels lik im going downhill. I did at max 60 km/h on a steep uphill and i was not even close to throttle the remote max! And the brakes is increadible strong in both high speed and low speed, i did have to lower the settings alot for the brakes. First try i did go downhill at around 30 km/h and almost flew of when i did the brake”

“Yes works great! It get to around 70kerpm but both the unity and the flipsky 6.6 I tested with can handle it without any problem
And no need to worried about the Torque of this board is insane, here it is racing against the Raptor 2”

 “Took the board for a 6 mile ride today, tons of hills, ate them up like it was nothing. Still came back with 77% battery.”

“I always thought that I would eventually add a second motor but after riding it, one is more than enough considering my area. It smashed the steepest hills in my area and I have yet to reach full throttle”

All above is from  esk8 forum: https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/

2. And we also have taken a compare test video to see the performance before and after using the vesc.

  All the conditions are the same: 

   The same road /same tester / same board (except for the grip tape)/ same remote

   We only change the ESC to Flipsky Dual FSESC4.20

   Let's see how is the test result?

 

So you may get a better understanding about the VESC now, do you want to get one and try? If so, don’t be hesitate, just go for it! 

https://goo.gl/b6FQkS