So here is some data. FYI 15V ~ 1V on scope & 28A = 1V

Magnum Clones on 6 Cell from startup.


@ Stall


Also 300W scooter motor on 4 cell with minimum slew rate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX8VMGHHdHc

300W scooter with faster slew rate (approx 300ms from full reverse to full forwards)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxItXSGCESs

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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Last edited by marto on Sat Apr 23, 2011 2:11 am; edited 1 time in total

Hey Steve -looks epic!
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

I probably should be asleep but I nearly have calibration mode working.

Basically the motor beeps at you like the brushless ones so you can go into a menu and do stuff. Once I am done you will be able to calibrate the upper and lower limits, set exponential or linear control modes, and the max slew rate. Also I can do things such as lipo limits, turn on and off temp settings and other cool things like that.

Its starting to sound more and more like a real commercial ESC.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Tz85a ESCs are in the wild
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Steven Martin
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What would people like to be able to set in the menu?

My ideas
1. RC limits
2. Max Slew
3. Temp limiting on/off
4. Expo/normal rates

Suggestions? I am going to do these 4 then others will be on the back burner.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

All of the above is now implemented with an overly convoluted combination of beeps. Working on making it a bit easier to go through.
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Steven Martin
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Firstly make sure your robots wheels are off the ground and a motor is plugged in. (We listen to the motors beeps)

1. Power off ESC
2. Turn off radio
3. Power on ESC (you now have 10 sec to enter programming mode) ESC will start beeping once a second
4. Hold radio stick high and power on radio
5. If you successfully enter programming mode you will hear 6 fast beeps.

Now we are in programming mode
Calibrating RC pulse
You must wait for beeps to stop before you move to other limit
6. Move stick to very bottom
(one beep)
7. Move stick to top
(two beeps)
8. Move stick to bottom
(3 beeps)

Slew rate setup
(6 fast beeps)
9. Move stick to center
(1 beep)
10. Move stick up or down to increase or decrease slew rate. The number of beeps is the current slew rate setting. 2 is default higher is faster but harder on motor.
11. When you are happy with the current slew rate move stick to center and leave it there.
(slew rate number of beeps)

Set Expo Mode
(6 fast beeps)
12. Move stick to center
(1 beep)
13. Move stick up to enable EXPO (3 beeps) or down to disable (4 beeps)

Set Temp Limit
(6 fast beeps)
14. Move stick to center
(1 beep)
15. Move stick up to enable EXPO (3 beeps) or down to disable (4 beeps)

Done!
Will beep fast until you center stick. You have now left programming mode.
_________________
Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Where's that damn donate button?!
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

Here we go! Some lounge room testing....

http://vimeo.com/22783758

We will keep putting em through their paces, and videoing the results!

We had them running about for an hour or so last night.The tz85a's didn't get hot at all.

Wombot still has some steering problems at high speed ....I think cause one powered wheel is a bit higher than the other ,and the outer edge bottoms out on the floor a bit. It might also be that the back wheels are not straight either..... Oh and these are not identical motors either...so Wombot isn't the best robot to test anything with but its shit loads better than before. The tz85a's definatly have no delay .... something that the blue speedos were notorious for. The blues couldn't go straight at all at slow speeds.

We love them Steve!!!! Congratulations..they are a win!!
M&J
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Miles Blow - Julie Pitts
www.mulesfilm.com.au
www.wombokforest.com.au

-Pickasso- Vivid Sportsman champion 2015

Hi guys glad they work well for you. Bit of a shame you missed out on the latest firmware. It does change every day though. There is still wires attatched so shouldn't be too hard to upgrade at a later date.

Other ideas I have for the firmware is to add a Relay Mode for the small ESCs. I still need to get the port to the SiLabs MCUs sorted I had a bit of a look at it today but have been a bit slack.

Does anyone want low voltage cutoff? Or anything else which can be easily added in software.

Steve
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More ESCs on the way. See market place threads for Beetle/Feather ESCs. Hopefully some beta testing will prove them usable.

I have a superbrain ESC on the way which is a bit more expensive however it has current limiting. Which could be a very good addition. They are also firmware upgradable through a external programming box. So that could mean that no physical modification would be necessary.
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quote:

---

Originally posted by marto:
I have a superbrain ESC on the way which is a bit more expensive however it has current limiting.

---

I have been playing with re-programming BL controllers a bit. I don't really know much about the actual code, but I have been able to modify the code linked in the 1st post to at least demonstrate to myself that the following ESCs are capable of being hacked.

I use both of these ESCs for the BL motor in my 12lber so I have a few of them that I have partially blown up and I was hoping to be able to re-program them to use as drive ESCs. Unfortunately it looks like when they burn up it destroys the fet drivers on 2 legs. Also both of these don't have pads to solder programming wires to, so I had to solder them directly to the chip.

The 2 ESCs I am talking about are these:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idproduct=10015
and
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idproduct=7340

The circuits are slightly different between the 2, but both use the ATMEGA8.

I also have looked at this one
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=7341

It also uses the ATMEGA8 and doesn't have pads for the programming pins. It also uses a smaller package for the ATMEGA8 so I haven't tried soldering to the pins on the chip.

Lastly I have a couple of these:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idproduct=4315

It also uses the ATMEGA8 chip but does have pads for accessing the programming pins. I haven't tried programming it yet. For the cost, I would think it would be better to buy ESCs from robot power solutions for not a whole lot more. But this ESCs do support programming BL settings via a USB dongle and if that could somehow be used to re-program it to be a brushed drive ESC then it might be the simplest hack yet.

Anyway, thanks for the information in this thread. I am going to continue playing with these to see if I can get them working.

Dylan

Yes the SS range are generally programmed through the serial port from what I can see. That is usually exposed. If I could go through and find which pin they use to trigger the serial programming mode then using this to program them may be possible but they look like pretty low quality ESCs anyway.

If you want to do it through just USB you need a controller which supports firmware upgrading.

It would be interesting to compare the Wasp and the TZ85a. Wasp would probably current limit to save itself where as the TZ85a wouldn't. However if you know how to program the ESCs you are probably looking @ $40 for a TZ85a or $70 for a wasp. But if you don't know what your doing then the choice is obvious.

What I really need to do is write a brushless mode for it. The you can have a magical I can do anything ESC. I will get there it will just take time.
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com