Ok, I think I am going to order the PCB’s through Batch PCB The cost will be $49. It is only 1 oz copper and I should probably use 2 oz. But inorder to save some $$ I am going to risk it.
I still need to develop the firmware; but it will go alot easier with the PCB in hand.
Stay Tuned!
I haven’t updated in a while because the board has been sitting in a corner.
You see the Volacano 60A ESC controller worked great for the lightweight test pilots; but not so much for my 180lb butt.
I could not take off from a dead stop. I was determined to get a reliable start was trying different things and it burned up in a glorious burst of light and smoke! You see with this type of motor; starting the motor turning is the hardest thing todo. Without sensors the controller has to guess what the motor is doing until it reaches a speed at which the BEMF sensing is reliable.
My conclusion is that the Volacano ESC controllers; although probably exceptional for R/C applications; just don’t have the stuff to push start a 180lb dude on a mountain board from a deadstop. After some searching without luck, I decided that I would design my own Heavy-Duty Sensorless Brushless Motor Speed Controller based on Arduino hardware and hopefully software. The design will be Open-Hardware and the software, I hope will be Arduino based, regarless will be released under GPL.
I have had the PCB designed for almost 3 months now and have even ordered most of the components but holidays and other stuff have kept me from doing the build. But with the New Year here I am determined to get it going.
I will post the schematics and PCB design next week, and hopefully provide the links to all the great application notes I have found for the software design.
Happy New Year and stay tuned!
