Bamboo upgrade Part 2 -Motor controller and remote

This is part 2 of board upgrade after making a 10S 8P battery pack and fitting it in a new enclosure under the bamboo GT deck and using stock motor controller boards.

Reasons for part 2 upgrade are to use more available and better parts for BMS ,motor control and remote so as to be able to adjust settings on motor controller, use a smart BMS and adopt the latest smart remotes.

 

VESCs arrived today

 

Awesome, didn't know you'd started this thread or ordered parts! Should have lobbed in with mine for free shipping. What was the eta on shipping?

 

Andrew

Under a week - ordered last Thursday - arrived today - not bad eh!

 

Wow jipped, ordered mine on the 18th!

 

A bit of an update -Have had some forum access issues but all good now
Basic component list for this upgrade is

2xVESC motor controllers (V 4.12) with bluetooth connection to iphone app

1x Smart BMS with PC and bluetooth cell and pack monitoring and setting up

1xAnti spark mosfet main switch

1xSmart Remote

have changed over motor plugs/leads on vescs from 5mm bullet to MD30 to suit motor plugs

There is a brand new vesc tool out used for setting up vescs.this is a great tool and essy to use but you still need to know what all of the settings do.

Have wired up complete system including a 10s 1P battery pack on a bench test piece of wood .
Powered it all up yesterday and used vesc tool to flash vescs with latest firmware (V3.28) adjust all settings and trial run the motors-all good so far.
Still waiting on smart remote to arrive

Connected up smart BMS to battery pack and PC -All BMS settings and cell/pack monitoring can be seen on PC

 

This is the smart remote I will be using

https://youtu.be/NHkWKNrXExc

 

Fired up smart BMS and all works good. Connects to PC for set-up and monitoring. Everything is fully configurable

 

So - configured both Master and Slave VESC and have established control from master to slave via CAN data .

Waiting for smart remote and vesc heat sinks to arrive to finish off bench testing prior to changing out evolve speed controllers.
Photo shows my initial throttle and braking curves - but these can be changed from smart remote to suit different riders.
0 for throttle value is neutral mid-point , 1 is full forward and -1 is full brake. The shape of the curve can be infinitely varied to get an ultra smooth take off even with full throttle .

 

Ha, bravo.

Too cool mate. I'll be catching up shortly (I hope!)

 

Can't see the canbus connector between vescs? Was diyskate's power switch/anti spark relatively plug & play?

 

Andrew
VESCs are definitly not a plug and play-quite a bit of stuffing around with flashing latest firmware from VESC tool and establishing comms etc but after that and an hour or so of configuration -all good
I have saved all of the settings in a file so if you could upload my settings as a starting point if you want.

I set up each VESC individually and then set up CAN bus connection in a master/slave configuration

Suggest you plan for an external USB socket on your enclosure so you can change VESC settings without taking enclosure off.

Main power switch is very straight forward with no setup required.

Cheers

 

This is amazing... Been waiting for someone to do this. I don't trust the bamboo GT currently!

There should be no reason why I can use the stock battery pack and just upgrade the smart controller vesc and BMS...

 

Hi
Thanks for this
Yes trying to break free from

• crap Evolve battery(Done)
• crap Evolve speed control unit
• and crap Evolve remote

and go latest configurable smart remote , a smart BMS and fully configurable VESC units on a good Evolve bamboo GT deck.

Also use latest phone Apps to monitor board electronics status and configure VESCs on the fly.

To have a safe and enjoyable ride configured to how I like it!

There is no reason why you cant use stock battery and change out to more reliable remote and dual VESCs - however the diffetence betwen stock battery and 18650s is like night and day- much reduced sag and longer range.
Cheers

 

Jesus.. 10s8p is like 80 X 18650s thats alot of ecig batteries! I wonder if 26650 batteries in a 10s4p would be cheaper and lighter?

Have you got it working with your smart controller?

 

Guys - An update on this project
Have not been able to post for a while due to forum access issues
Project is now complete with Evolve ESC gone and replaced with a pair of VESCs - See photos for final assembly details - Mounted the VESCs on the evolve heat sink .

 

I have had a fancy remote on order for a while but it has been delayed


So bought a ebay $25 remote to change over until fancy remote is received


Works like a treat and has much better(smoother) travel compared to evolve remote

 

And lastly - an app to connect to VESCs and provide telemetry to phone
I went with an app called METR which connects to a blue tooth module connected to vescs.

Provides real-time data on your phone from vescs
and it can map your rides nicely

see
https://metr.at/r/AQ4nY

for a recent ride

 

Last post on this project - but happy to answer any queries

 

Hello, can you help me?
I want to modify my evolve bamboo gen 2.