Anything different needs to be functionally the same. For example, Its ok to switch to a different manufacturer of 0805, 50V, 2.2uF capacitor as long it is the same specs.
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Thank you.
Hello guys, I’m currently building easyFOCer boards. After I built the first one and the flashing finally worked, I scraped two DRVs. It should be noted that I installed the NCE8295A Mosfets instead of the NCEP60T20 Mosfets. Can that be a mistake? I am not an expert in electrical engineering, I am a mechanical engineering student. At the time of ordering, the NCEP60T20 wasn’t available. I don’t need the high output power. I thought they were almost identical except for the output performance. I also operate the controller with 48V. I read in the forum that this can also be a problem. In order to make sure that the board does not have a fault in another place, I have now set up the second one. Before soldering the Mosfets in, I wanted to ask what you think of the other Mosfets. It’s perhaps important to say that the DRV always gets destroyed when I tried to set up the BLDC mode. Setting up the FOC mode wasn’t possible, becaus I couldn’d meassure the flux linkage. It was always zero. Im currently running the Ackmaniac firmware.
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I’m guessing by easyFOCer you mean Cheap FOCer.
Those FETs you chose should function but they are not ideal. Their Rds(on) is higher and will get hotter much faster in operation. These FETs would be a better substitute.
You should not be frying DRVs with motor detection alone at 48V. Make sure the DRV ground pad is properly soldered and comb over the PCB for any soldering mistakes. Electronics do not tolerate even the slightest f*ck up. Issues with this design don’t appear unless operating above 40A.
Good luck to you. This is a challenging project but I will help when/where I can. Feel free to start a PM with me but know that my time is limited and my responses may not always be immediate.
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Thanks a lot, yes I meant cheap FOCer. Good to hear that the Mosfets should be fine besides the Rds(on). For test purpose the should work. I will test the controller with a lower voltage. The soldering should be ok. I will inform you if it will function.
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I’m happy to finally announce the v0.9 release of the Cheap FOCer 2! Special thanks to @bj97301, @NuRxG, and @Davewesh for formatting the repo into something truly outstanding, much better organized, and readable by humans.
Remember that this is still being beta tested (although successful so far). Myself and the other contributors to this project will be making tweaks as we go and as we receive feedback from the community. I hope this community enjoys having this open source hardware available to build, use, sell, modify, and improve.
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Thanks mate you sharing your project, fantastic bit of tech. I for one can’t wait to check it out. 10/10
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Well i have finally assembled one after ordering all the parts probably a year ago and i can’t seem load the bootloader with an st link v2, i have installed the drivers and st utility, blue light comes on but when i press connect it says failed to connect etc and the light goes off on the st link. Board pulls 60ma when powered with 12v and i don’t believe there are any shorts.
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Have you ever been able to connect to a VESC with that ST Link V2 and your computer? I’m trying to verify if you have all the drivers and stuff installed.
Your soldering looks good btw
i have never needed to use an st link before, the first vesc i purchased was a flipsky one so i just changed the firmware etc through the vesc tool, after doing a bit more fault finding i think i installed D5 the wrong way round and i checked the leds using the diode tester on my multimeter and now D4 no longer seems to light up, still shows 2.0v as if its working but no light. Also i don’t seem to be getting anything on the 5v or 3.3v pins.
some more pics of the whole board.
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D3 is backwards. Please double check all of your diodes and LEDs for proper orientation.
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some progress,i swapped D3 around but it didn’t seem to change anything i now have , i checked the led D4 and it didn’t seem to be working so i got another checked it first then installed and still i didn’t work so then i changed R48 back to a resistor as i did have it as a ptc fuse as i think you suggested it way back and i’m now getting 3.3v and 5v with the blue led on when connected to the st link but i still can’t get it to connect on the st utility. Any settings i need to change in the st utility?
Thanks
stm32 ic was also backwards 
checked my st link with a known working flipsky vesc and it connected so i then noticed the stm32 i have has 2 indents on the top and i obviously put the wrong one to the pcb mark, realised properly after looking at others that have built them. connects now yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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Does the using firmware up to 3.5 still apply? Closest one to 3.5 i can find is 3.38, currently has 5.01 on it but it won’t be being used until i get heatsinks and things I’m waiting on to enclose it.
Thanks
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Oh yeah sorry I didn’t see the STM was backwards earlier. I’d be careful about using that STM now. They don’t like being powered up backwards…
The firmware should be good to go with the newest versions for hardware 4.12.
I hope this all works out for you. Either way, I do recommend upgrading to the CFOC2 at some point. Many improvements over the CFOC1…
funny you should say that as i almost ordered the CFOC2 from jlpcb last night using the smt service but figured i’d use this one first then do it later.
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Is there any guide on how to order the PCB for Cheap FOCer v1.0? The guide for the v2.0 is really great and for someone like me who do it for the first time it was very helpful. However the Cheap FOCer v2.0 is too big for the enclosure I have for my e-skate and I think the v1.0 will fit me better. Anyways, how can I proceed ordering it with the needed parts?
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There is no guide put together for the CFOC1 - The process is generally the same though, the problem is that the CFOC1 is NOT designed for use with the SMD Service and therefore you will only beable to get a single side of the board populated if you opt for that route. Otherwise you’ll need to hand solder each component.
Additionally - the Heatsinking on this design was to use a large piece of aluminum (i just bought 1" Square Stock). As well the MOSFETs and two large Electrolytic Caps stand rather tall on this board. So its something else to take into consideration.
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Which particular dimension is too big?
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hijacking Style’s question…
How much modularity do you have in the dimensions?
I was going to sacrifice a board and try sanding down a couple mm on each of the long sides (with a layer of kapton and jumpers for the cut traces) to fit a 1590b (56.5mm).
For the work, I might be better served figuring out kicad myself 