I am a rookie at efoil, VESC can be applied to eoil, but it is rare to see people actually use VESC to build their efoil, what’s the main reason and different? waterproof and high voltage?
What i understood, vesc6 has 60-80A(?) safe current (i guess we need more to be on the safe side) with good enough cooling and newer 300A version is “untested” and a bit pricey. Marketing has some fingers in it, vesc6 for 300€ and 60-80A nominal current OR “no name” 200A+nominal current for 200€?
I am not saying which can(t) do its claimed specs or which1 is better or which1 has more or less stuff inside but i suspect price and marketed power has a lot more influence than name, at least currently in this comunity. People are still testing imo.
I first used the VESC v6.4 on my efoil. It did not have the power needed to work properly. It got me foiling above the water for a moment but then overheated and entered a fallback state. However this was without a working water cooling installed. My feeling is that the VESC 6 is just slightly under the capacity needed for efoils so I choose not to stretch it. I am now using the ARC200 from FreeFly. It works just great. Not to expensive either (compared with the VESC anyway).
I foiled on and off for 45minites yesterday with the arc200 with just a passive heatsink. ESC got up to 70°C max temp. Was seriously impressed that I could do it without any air or water cooling.
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@Jezza I have an Arc200 laying around for my still very unfinished build. I bought it with high expectations regarding thermals. What you write sounds pretty awesome. Can you tell me the rough dimensions/specs of the heatsink? Are you using a metal or plastic box?
I used a 10mm thick piece of aluminium plate and cut it to the footprint of the arc200. I have run some cooling pipes through the alu, but just haven’t connected the water pipes yet.
I am going to be posting pictures of 2 new builds soon so I will include the ESC.