I think it depends on what you need to plug in. I am not aware of any industry standard for this unless the device comes from the VESC community or just happens to fit. I may be wrong on this though.
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Ah, I thought there’s a standard. I never heard of having to flip the UART port to make something fit. The pin order is the exact opposite than how the devices I have should be plugged in. But soldering the plug the other way around wouldn’t make too much sense because the PCB has a drawing on it indicating how it should be soldered, and the holes aren’t far enough from the side to solder the connector on the other way. Strange.
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I dont think that there is a standard since VESC was one of or the very first controller to feature this. ESCs that we were using on skateboards and scooters before VESC were from RC cars which only had the PPM standard which was used on the VESC too to make it compatible with RC remotes.
I think the comm connector was first designed on the VESC for alternative remotes like the wii and later bluetooth modules and other peripheral devices, without aiming for compatibility of any modules.
EDIT: a lot of this is just what I assume or what I would have done, I was not around when the first VESC was born. I used the RC car controller which was OK but not good enough so I was searching around that there has to be something better and found VESC 4.7 like a godsend. So take it with a grain of salt, or maybe even two please. 
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@Dinnye
You could have pushed the pins out backwards from the jst connector and lined them up in the correct order for the FOCer. Just use a small pointy tool. Minimum effort 
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I tried that first, but I failed at that because I don’t know how to do it
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Ah, okay… I was too worried about breaking it that I didn’t lift it up enough
When will the cheap focer 3 coming?
The only reason the cheap focer 2 exists is to port the VESC architecture from V4 to V6. If Benjamin Vedder ever releases a V8 VESC then you might see a cheap focer 3 but that’s dependant on both Benjamin releasing a new generation which isn’t happening any time soon and dependant on our man Shaman over here taking free time away from projects that make money to design, test and release an all new design. If you’re really feeling impatient you can try to design your own cheap focer 3. Otherwise, read any information on this forum, it’s obvious you haven’t.
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Hoping that someone can point out what I am doing wrong. I have two mostly assembled FOCers with flashed MCU’s, but both refuse to power on. I am getting around 2.8V on the 5V pins when they are connected to 36V. This makes me wonder if I screwed up the DRV’s? I really appreciate all those who contributed to this project!
Double check D6. Some folks have found it was soldered in backward and their boards didn’t power up.
A couple of people also got boards with a bad stm32f4 chip. Hopefully it’s not that.
Thanks for the reply. I have double checked D6 on both, and they are the oriented the same as the guide.
Could the stm32f4 be bad, even though it flashed and communicated via STM-Link?
That I don’t know. You should be able to download the spec sheet, find the 5V pin, and see what you find there.
Really gotta make sure the drv is soldered on well. This behavior could be because the large ground pad underneath isn’t soldered properly.
Also, what is the lot number from that DRV? Please check and compare to the known lot number that has issues
Ground pad was hand soldered. DRV is also not from a know bad lot # to my knowledge. I would upload or link a photo but I am too new.
Summoning @longhairedboy to promote him to tl1
Resolving assembly issues is important enough, imo.
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yeah. I can do that for him.
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What other amount was hand assembled? Are absolutely sure there’s no chance of a bad solder joint or something like that?
Another thing to try is desoldering the 3.3V regulator and testing again. This removes everything on 3.3V from being in play.
Say something on the 3.3V rail was shorted, then that would draw a lot of current and therefore possibly overload the 5V upstream. The voltage drops on the 5V supply when it’s overloaded and that could be what you’re seeing
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Here is the front and back of the board.
Nothing beyond the DRV was hand assembled outside of the guide. I can’t see any bad solder joints, but maybe someone else can? I’ll give desoldering the 3.3V regulator a shot later today, see if that changes anything.
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