Facebook
Google
GitHub
LinkedinOk so I had someone point out a very very small very very high amp ESC to me that actually would be viable from a space taken standpoint, however, it was $48 shipped which is WAY too expensive when I can make my own motor controller for $4 in parts. However, I did a search for that ESC on amazon and a very similar ESC popped up that was around same size but made in china with no US middleman and cheap amazon prime shipping which dropped the price to around $11 shipped per ESC. Now THAT is viable from a price and size standpoint - well only BARELY viable it still is around 3x the price of going DIY controller from my last post. I pulled the trigger and bought 4 of them in a package deal off Amazon. I can use them to control BLDC motors for unrelated projects at the very least but also they provide alot of value just to dissect them and see what components it uses and the fabrication techniques they used and build quality etc. I can learn a lot just by studying them in person up close under a magnifier visor.
Now, this thing runs 7.4v - 22.2v which is perfect for my 2430 bldc motors (8v 24a motors). It handles up to 45A which is perfect for my 24A BLDC motors with lots of amps to spare. It is plenty small enough at 5mm height, 28mm length, 13mm width, I can mount this on the side of my motor. It saves a TON of time soldering and mucking about making a controller. But the one issue remains: this has firmware designed for drones. That means it does not have go to this position and stop and hold there. It doesn't have go to this position and pulse this phase at 50% throttle so the finger becomes more compliant or pulse at 100% throttle so finger is max stiff while holding in that position. This concerns me and makes me think it may not be viable then. I hate to have to PWM to a third party firmware and hope it does something approximating what we want. That's why I prefer a power stage where my microcontroller interfaces to that power stage directly controlling every aspect of the commutation phase by phase. That said, at this price point this can't be ignored at this time too. I can make a similar custom design and build this myself or I can try to hack into this where my microcontroller taps directly into its power stage bypassing its onboard chip and firmware or I can try to write a new firmware for it and overwrite its firmware or I MIGHT be able to find commands in its firmware where I can do something similar to go to this position and hold there type commands somehow? There might be SOMETHING I can do here MAYBE to get it to perform how we want in software although chatgpt was saying not likely but what if? I did read something about a braking command maybe I could use that command as a replacement for a "go to this position and hold" type of command? So chatgpt was against this approach but at this very attractive price point, size, simplicity, it is worth exploring at the very least IMO. It could be yet another nice pivot if we can magically manage to make it work somehow. Could be a bit of a game changer perhaps. And at the very least it is bringing in yet another tool, yet another option, another approach for the toolbox. That is helpful. The more methods we find the more we can apply the best method for each motor on a case by case basis for our 300+ motor robot.
Now, this thing runs 7.4v - 22.2v which is perfect for my 2430 bldc motors (8v 24a motors). It handles up to 45A which is perfect for my 24A BLDC motors with lots of amps to spare. It is plenty small enough at 5mm height, 28mm length, 13mm width, I can mount this on the side of my motor. It saves a TON of time soldering and mucking about making a controller. But the one issue remains: this has firmware designed for drones. That means it does not have go to this position and stop and hold there. It doesn't have go to this position and pulse this phase at 50% throttle so the finger becomes more compliant or pulse at 100% throttle so finger is max stiff while holding in that position. This concerns me and makes me think it may not be viable then. I hate to have to PWM to a third party firmware and hope it does something approximating what we want. That's why I prefer a power stage where my microcontroller interfaces to that power stage directly controlling every aspect of the commutation phase by phase. That said, at this price point this can't be ignored at this time too. I can make a similar custom design and build this myself or I can try to hack into this where my microcontroller taps directly into its power stage bypassing its onboard chip and firmware or I can try to write a new firmware for it and overwrite its firmware or I MIGHT be able to find commands in its firmware where I can do something similar to go to this position and hold there type commands somehow? There might be SOMETHING I can do here MAYBE to get it to perform how we want in software although chatgpt was saying not likely but what if? I did read something about a braking command maybe I could use that command as a replacement for a "go to this position and hold" type of command? So chatgpt was against this approach but at this very attractive price point, size, simplicity, it is worth exploring at the very least IMO. It could be yet another nice pivot if we can magically manage to make it work somehow. Could be a bit of a game changer perhaps. And at the very least it is bringing in yet another tool, yet another option, another approach for the toolbox. That is helpful. The more methods we find the more we can apply the best method for each motor on a case by case basis for our 300+ motor robot.
