HobbyWing 80A esc throttle issue

D

droner265

Member
Hi there,

I know it's not strictly quadcopter related, but I built an electric scooter and used a HobbyWing 80A UBEC ESC as the speed controller. I worked wonderfully and didn't even get hot until one day I decided to try out the brake feature on it. They are extremely powerful and stopped my in about 1 meter! Weirdly though I had this problem straight after I used them for the first time, the esc would only spin the motor when the throttle was about half way and then I could use the other half just as I would normally use the whole range. Think this makes sense? I could still use it but it meant I accelerated twice as fast as I only had half the range in which to control speed. I am using an arduino to generate the pulses so at first I thought that was the culprit as it was a cheap clone, but I tried it on a small quadcopter ESC and it worked just like it used to without a problem. I did notice that one of the capacitors look damaged but I don't think that would generate the issue described. I would ideally not want to have to buy another one as I am on a tight budget

Any help apreciated
 
Hi did you use a card to set up ESC , you should not use the brake even in R C Helicopters or planes we don't use the brake mode , you need to set up the throttle range so the esc know the range . We use the servo range to adjust the throttle range but you can't as it's not using a transmitter, but if your using FCB to give a signal to the ESC you should still calibrate so it knows what's off or full throttle
 
droner265 said:
Hi there,

I know it's not strictly quadcopter related, but I built an electric scooter and used a HobbyWing 80A UBEC ESC as the speed controller. I worked wonderfully and didn't even get hot until one day I decided to try out the brake feature on it. They are extremely powerful and stopped my in about 1 meter! Weirdly though I had this problem straight after I used them for the first time, the esc would only spin the motor when the throttle was about half way and then I could use the other half just as I would normally use the whole range. Think this makes sense? I could still use it but it meant I accelerated twice as fast as I only had half the range in which to control speed. I am using an arduino to generate the pulses so at first I thought that was the culprit as it was a cheap clone, but I tried it on a small quadcopter ESC and it worked just like it used to without a problem. I did notice that one of the capacitors look damaged but I don't think that would generate the issue described. I would ideally not want to have to buy another one as I am on a tight budget

Any help apreciated
Click to expand...

Realize this doesn't help given you say you have a tight budget but the VESC is the goto ESC for all of us on the electric-skateboard forum and is pretty ideal for vehicles you ride on it has a large input voltage range and lets you control the acceleration and braking in a very finely tuned way (can set max battery and motor amps to control torque, and can use current control mode to control acceleration with the remote). VESC can be interfaced using an arduino with the arduino servo library and using the writeMicroseconds function. VESC 6 is the latest and greatest but comes at a serious premium $150+ but can get a VESC4 for a bit under $100 (there was no VESC 5 manufactured really). So maybe worth it if all else fails and you decide to fix the scooter.

There are some restrictions on who can post on the forum but if you read some threads or can post into the new users thread if you'd like to see if someone there can help as well: https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/ .

Like hotneil said the ESC should be calibrated in any case and the 'stop' option on most airplane and heli ESCs is made to full stop a propellor not to decelerate you safely to a stop, it could be some back electromagnetic force came from the motor when it came from an abrupt stop and fried something in the ESC(or some other electric voodoo I don't understand).
 
Last edited:
Thanks to both of you. I have tried tweaking the arduino code mapping values but with no sucess. I can only make the range smaller. I am using some code from th youtuber GreatScott which builds in a delay to lessen acceleration. If i remove the delay then I can use the full throttle range. Weird! I might try someone else's code and see it that makes a difference. I appreciate that every esc is different, but could someone walk me through how to calibrate my ESC like Holtneil said - it has quite a limited menu and I didn't use a programming card, just moved the throttle up and down accordingly.

Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top