Save yourself the headache and use Amass brand MR60 connectors instead of trash bullet connectors. Soldering ability is a prerequisite for these types of repairs.
wouldn’t mr60 connectors also need to be soldered?
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You need to find a pin-out for your esc
Look for the model number on your esc & google it + pinout, if nothing comes back maybe email the company asking for one. Or crack the case open & see if pinout is printed onto the pcb
It could be the case that the 4pin header on the esc is for the power button & the button supplied is only 3 pin. The missing pin is likely for Illumination, if your button doesn’t look like it has an LED in it that makes sense.
But posting a picture of the breakout would be best
mr60’s do indeed need soldered. real g’s can perform such feats with a bic lighter and a nail.
is this the pinout labelled on the front?
Howdy!
That’s awesome! I actually did the same thing here:
DV4S and all.
Correct,
If you’re not yet confident enough, it’s possible you may be able to find an RC hobby shop willing to do it for you. Soldering is certainly an incredibly useful skill for this and many other hobbies (or a way of life for @b264) though most people here, me included, would recommend you start practicing.
Yes, there are occasionally changes in the pinout between versions of the same speed controller, it is worth checking either:
1: if you already have the DV4S, look at the ESC itself, each individual pin is labeled on the top.
2: if you can’t physically check the DV4S itself, you can likely email mboards support to get confirmation that the pinout from their website matches the version that you have.
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or even a computer repair shop.
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Yes, and you’re in luck! Because the best time to learn how to solder is right now!
And you’re in a place with tons of resources for learning how.
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its the way you mentioned soldering being a required skill and then suggested the mr60’s. I thought they might have been some sort of friction snap on connection or something. as for soldering I haven’t done a ton but am confident I can make it half decent. the bullet connectors I filled with solder and have cut the wire to length, heated the connector full of solder and pushed the cable into it securing it in place.
the thing I need to read up on is the sensor cables and how to get them in that connector.
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do you know whether this vesc has an antispark switch built in? it makes no sense if not and so then you’d need 2 switches. 1 from the battery to the vesc and the 1 that came with the vesc itself.
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It does indeed, mine is built into the 8pin uart port but I Believe later versions of the ESC have a separate 3pin switch port (I believe it’s the far right port on the ESC)
does yours not have the 3 pin connector on the far right? and did yours arrive with a power button with a cable already installed with it? mine came with a power button with a 3 pin connector. not a hell of a lot of information for any of this stuff.
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My on/off button uses 3 pins out of an 8 pin connector leaving the other 5 connection points empty like this:
This is the pinout for my switch/uart port:
I believe your uart port and switch port are separate like this picture.
Notice on the far right of the mboards picture there’s a port with pins: SW 5V and GND
Does your DV4S have the SW pin inside the uart port (8pin like mine) or does yours have a separate 3pin port for SW 5V and GND like in the picture from mboards?
Hello.
sorry I just saw your response. for some reason i’ve not been getting any notifications. esc has 3 pin connector that sits on the far right like in the picture. I dont have any label for sw anywhere else.
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Don’t worry about the mr60’s they’re too tight for the phase leads on maker esc’s without modifying them anyway. There’s nothing wrong with bullets
at the moment i’m having trouble soldering them for some reason. (I think its not a big enough solder tip) so I’d rather sod up only one connector rather sod up 3 in 1 go.
by the way, people mention the xt60 and 90 anti-spark connectors. can these stand such a high current going through them? i’m not sure if this vesc’s power button that comes with it is anti-spark
The channel that made this video has a few really good tests like this for XT60 XT90 and some other connectors, this can give a decent idea of the kind of current these connectors handle over a given period of time.
That said: if you’re asking whether or not to worry about the XT60 on the VESC, I wouldn’t worry about it.
The power button itself is just a power button, it receives power and sends a signal to the VESC which (in the case of the DV4S) has a built in anti spark circuit.
The purpose of anti spark is to turn on/off power to your ESC without the spark that happens when plugging it in,
Some are built into the speed control (like yours) and only need a button to be plugged in to use.
Some are a completely external module like this:
And some use an XT90S connector and make a loopkey like this: How to make an XT90 Loop Key
Your DV4S can just use the power button to cycle on and off.
Also I missed this prior but:
Soldering sensor wires is definitely possible but it takes quite a bit of finesse and can be pretty frustrating in my experience.
I generally crimp my sensor connectors and will only solder them if they cause persistent problems.
Here’s a guide on crimping jst connectors
thanks for the response. you’ve answered a heck of a lot here. the reason I was asking about the xt60/90’s was if I needed an anti-spark connector whether it could handle the current.
as for the sensor cables I asked a friend on his opinion for the sensor cables and like yourself he suggested crimping them. the vesc came with 6 pin connectors with cables already attached which I’m guessing is for the sensor cables. (even has the same colours) so I crimped the sensor cables from the motors as well as these cables that came with the vesc. that way if eovan has wired it differently to the standard I can swap the cables about.
at the moment I have 3 last questions:
do you happen to know the continuous and max amps for the motors and battery? and if the battery amps exceeds the vesc limits can I limit it in the software? I will watch the paval gamas video once i’ve got it assembled but until then there’s no point as i’d forget with the rest of the information.
do you happen to have any images of how you went about managing the wiring? its a bit awkward given the phase cables and battery connector aren’t opposite each other and I need an idea as how to go about it.
how did you go about mounting the vesc to the heatsink? i’ve seen a couple people use double sided tape or something like that but that doesn’t seem very secure to me. as well as this if there is a space between that and the heatsink I can’t imagine it would last long.
This is relatively subjective, somebody who rides hard and weighs 280lbs may overheat things with much lower current than somebody who weighs half of that.
This is dependent on the model of eovan you have, mine is the older version of the GTS carbon super with a 12s4p Panasonic ncr21700T capable of putting out 60A, I would personally avoid going over 60a total (both sides together) battery current, these batteries use a discharge BMS which means the BMS may cut power (at the worst time possible) if you set battery current too high.
For reference, I am 180lbs and don’t ride very hard, my settings are:
Motor current: 50a/side
Battery current 30a/side
This was before putting kapton tape down to secure everything in place, if you’re looking to make things neat, I may not be a great example to look towards lol
I think it was @Evwan who introduced me to thermal adhesive, that stuff has worked great for me so far.