Looking forward to seeing the project evolve. Could you document your foundry steps ?
How will you prevent water ingress ? An O-ring seal ?
On a side note, I didn’t realise that this APD 200F3 ESC packing so much power was only 34mm wide and 12mm thick … leaving so much free space inside the 90x165 mast plate screw pattern … Will you use this space only for connectors ? A receiver (@ludwig_bre’s ?) could nearly stay there with an external antenna like the Lacroix Vortex…
How will you ensure the thermal contact between the ESC and the cast aluminium box ? Paste, liquid, nothing ?
Design evolving slightly, the esc moved to the side to allow easier cable routing and no need to cast the bow shape, the black beak/bow will be 3d printed and glued on, this saves weight and makes casting easier.
Still plenty of space inside the box for reciever but the antenna will need a long extension to front of the board.
For sealing I was just going to use a PU sealant on the joint, if everything works OK then I’d expect not to go back in but it would be possible.
For thermal contact I would use paste but I would need to machine the casting smooth just under the FETS and perfectly machine the top heat sink stand offs either side so the height is just right when clamped down.
I’ve been doing some testing with the APD esc in my V1 efoil but I’m having some problems.
When running the APD esc it cuts out after 2 minutes, if I try and restart straight away the motor stutters, if I restart after say 10 seconds it starts again but cuts out in a shorter time of about 20 seconds or so.
I have ruled out over current as my setup only pulls 60amps max at full power but mainly 25amp at cruise.
It’s not over temp as the thermal cut out should reduce motor power to 50% but it just cuts out, plus its not getting hot.
If I swap back to the Castle creations 160HV everything works fine.
Yes, the aluminium block is connected to an external heat sink, the esc is set to reduce throttle to 50% if the temp limit is hit but the motor just cuts out and stutters. I’m pretty sure it no where near the temp limit.
I’m not sure but it feels like a timing or sync issue, it’s set to auto timing but I’m wondering if I should set a manual timing setting, not sure what though.
I just left everything default when I set up my mates one. It just worked… But his is water-cooled and has thin silicone heat transfer pads between esc and heatsink.
Hi Gazman79 have you solved the problem with 200FX[3]?
I’m having the exact same problem too.
Esc cold but with propeller in water it limit power immediately. If I lift the propeller out of the water the engine runs at its maximum.
It would appear to be a current limitation!
I left all the parameters as default, I just removed the regenerative brake.
Has anyone used this ESC in efoil that can give me a suggestion?
I never managed to get the problem resolved. Im sure it wasnt over temperature for several reasons, the aluminium block had good contact with thermal paste, the aluminium block was connected to an external heat sink which has been used with another esc with no issues.
The APD esc is set to reduce power to 50% on overtemp but when it was cutting out with me after 2 mins it just had a hard shut down and squeals.
I think i had Sync issues but not sure what or how to resolve
I slightly filed the welds to make them smooth and not damage the PWM wires that have to pass over them to come out. I use a very powerful Weller soldering iron.
The black box is a dc/dc converter to obtain the 5V needed by the receiver. I preferred to put it close to the esc to minimize external connections from the battery.
I believe that overtemperature is impossible, even if I have not been able to take measurements, given that the engine never revs up, not even for a few seconds, while as soon as the propeller is brought out of the water even just a little, the engine runs at maximum rpm.
Could it be a firmware issue? Maybe an older version works better…
I ran it on the FR motor so that seems to be the difference. It might be worth reaching out to APD and asking them about the issue and seeing if there is a setting or another firmware that will resolve it. I have an APD120A that I can try run on the 65161 and see what happens.
