Would you name your fork “WESC” to avoid legal issues ?
W not only stands for your family name but also Water or can be seen as a double V meaning much better than the simple one (for our use) 
Should be able to add custom hardware here, you can see other custom builds like the “A200S” are already listed.
https://github.com/vedderb/bldc/tree/master/build_all
Not sure about getting it into VESCtool, but downloading the firmware and loading it separately isn’t that big of a hassle. If you call it WESC/Wdrive/etc I don’t think they would have issue, and might even help support your design if it works well. IMHO 90% of the value of VESC is in VESCtool; so if your drive doesn’t work with that It’ll be hard for it to catch on.
IMHO 90% of the value of VESC is in VESCtool; so if your drive doesn’t work with that It’ll be hard for it to catch on.
Agree! Since all I am changing is the config files, the wavebreaker (or should i call it something else?) is compatible with VESC Tool. The binary just isn’t included and you have to load it separately like with the A200S and all the other custom builds.
Here is my concept, which is an evolution of @pacificmeister concept. It needs a milled-out brick of aluminum for a housing, and some lathed penetrators to get the wires into the housing. This way, the whole thing is in the water when not foiling (0-200A motor current), and can conduct through the aluminum mast when foiling (20-80A motor current).
It’s a very different concept than what everyone else has done (except pacificmeister). I am wondering if anyone else is interested in mounting the ESC this way? One thing is that the wires need to be glued into the penetrators, so the wires need to be jacketed in a material that sticks to glue (not ptfe not silicone). I have been thinking about EPDM as a good jacket material for 8awg battery and motor wire.
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Simple and without water cooling. Love it
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Very nice I was still trying figuring out how to put my vesc between the mast bolt …
Ok so MY idea looks lot like this which just showed up on insta an hour ago. Whoever you are: I’m good at design, let me design it for you!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8iEaUZhZ--/?igshid=qrom9qllz4eo
Fliteboard is gonna be after them straight away. They have patented the ESC on mast…
oh jesus. Now how is someone gonna patent “ESC on the mast”.
I’m about to buy some ESCs. I should have sell-able units in about 1 month, unless Wuhan flu gets worse. I’ll dyno test each one, so you can be assured that they have been tested to 7kW before you hook it up.
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Here the patents are:
Their patents does not even cover the EU ?
There are nearly no informations on this patent. What does it cover ? ESC above the mast ? In which position does the ESC need to be to be patented ? Because yes, you have to describe everything in the patent and even the orientation of the said esc / cables, otherwise I will just flip over the ESC or put my cable elsewhere and we are out of the jurisdiction, aren’t we ?
The best selling products in the world aren’t even patented, just think of the Coca cola…
Look how Pegasus foil got rid of their patent … How are they going to sue them ?
Pwrfoil also have esc on mast… The flite patent covers esc on mast passively cooled by a special heat convection system… That’s what we can read in the patent and this is why other companies have already started to sell efoils with such features.
Well, I ordered a batch of wavebreaker 2 for us. Was going to put them up for sale and give some away in trades. But the asian pcb manufacturer got held up due to the wuhan flu, so I just got the boards this week. Being a smart guy, I decided to on-shore the manufacturing at a assembly shop close to my house. But I am in CA, and now WE are on lockdown.
So if anyone wanted a wavebreaker 2, sorry about that. The universe has decided this project shall not happen this year.
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Hello Nick, just curious to hear about your ESC project… still on track ?
I stopped working with vesc software when I met a embedded motor control software guy (kai) on eskate builders. Been workin with him. Done a 300A esc and a 90A eskate esc. Here’s the 300A version. What’s way nicer is he does rotor saliency tracking for low speed torque and has way better motor characterization. Altogether I am also way better at designing motor controllers than I was a few years ago. Evolution not revolution I guess
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What a gem ! Is it possible to know more ?
Dimensions ? Has it been tested on an efoil ? Do you still plan to commercialize it (a few) ? Recommended cooling: above the ESC or under the board deck ? Would you have some data curves you’d like to share with us ? … Would it be possible to do PID rpm (cruise) control ? …
That looks gorgeous!
roughly w x l x h is about 3 by 4 by 2 inches.
We do not have an efoil to test this thing on.
We eventually want to sell these things, have some customers from battlebots interested (but they will pay diddly squat so we’ll see). I can’t make many this year because of ongoing semiconductor shortage.
Cool it through the bottom heatsink, but there will be an enclosure that thermally links the top and bottom. May do a board rev that moves all heat producing components to the bottom, depending on whether I can convince Nick to draw that.
Don’t have curves, but we have a video of it running a 10kW barbecue for 5 minutes. We already know it’s better than APD and others.
PI speed control is possible, but will require user hand-tuning of the gains. I could do bang-bang openloop speed control (i.e. voltage control) or bang-bang closed loop speed control. That would not require tuning but may have poor dynamic performance.
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