Hello everyone a couple weeks ago @Esk8supply kindly set me a dual vesc variant 6.1 based controller. I hate not having hard comparative data but so i decided to wait on my review until you could objectively compare this to at least one other vesc based esc. Luckily I was able to test it on the bench vs both a MakerX Mini Foc Plus (6.0 variant) and a Esk8.de 4.12 variant (German Focbox)
There’s been quite a few first impressions already posted by other reviewers but mine do differ slightly so i’ll get those out of the way real quick here.
So first off lets get some Por…pictures out of the way to see what I’m even going to be talking about!
Now this is clearly not your typical Vesc based hardware, which better explains the price tag of roughly 200 USD. At first 200 seems a little expensive for a dual controller that is only rated at 30 battery amps per side especially when you consider it’s lack of UART ports… or just ports any ports in general except for the USB.
So while this ESK8Supply ESC is definitely lacking in terms of supporting third party remotes or loggers (DaveGa, MetrPro, Firefly Remote, Vesc Wand etc) it does have some definite strong suits
200$ gets you 2 vesc 6 based ESC’s a remote and receiver combo… And an antispark switch that is push-button NOT LATCHING! And has a nice green glow
I see this as insanely competitive as you’d have to step down to a vesc 4 based ESC to get anywhere close to that price, which is a bigger deal than some may think.
Now you are stuck with the remote which at first i wasn’t completely sold on as it had an annoying squeak (lol)
But then after a quick disassembly and some lube on the spring the squeak stopped and i was nothing but impressed with what i found inside the remote.
Soft touch plastic
800 mAh battery a large antenna and a Hall Effect sensor.
The remote could maybe use like 5-10 more degree’s of throw but I was mostly impressed with how far and smooth it was and PPM readings in the VESC tool where incredibly stable and I have it currently set up with a 3% deadband.
AND THE RANGE! I mean i can’t get this remote to disconnect across my apartment through 3 walls (my WAND, mini remote and v1 winning all cut out during this test). A quick google of the nrf2.4 chip show’s that the max supported distance is 2km…
Luckily the NRF chip on the board comes with an antenna so you can easily mount it outside of a Carbon fiber enclosure… If that’s even going to be an issue here.
Now to the Juicy Part Some Actual “Testing” (More like a wall of text)
This is a EBmakers MakerX Mini FOC Plus and a Esk8.de 4.12 Vesc variant based controllers and the ESK8Supply ESC
It’s absolutely incredible the difference in sizes between these ESC’s. With the ESK8Supply ESC actually having the smallest footprint of them all (considering its dual), it is a awkward and fat layout with the caps on top however . Now I was only able to test one side at a time with a 12s battery at 45V and sadly I have no video of this testing as I’m in the midst of moving and cannot find my Webcam!
However I Ran all 3 ESC’s on the bench with a foc_openloop command with a motor in a waterbath to give people an idea how the ESK8Supply ESC compares to some more thoroughly tested alternatives out there. With the Esk8.de variant being incredibly similar to a focbox if not maybe a little better (kinda still available and made in germany) and the MakerX having some wonderful testing videos done by @linsus
Now some Proof of my sketchy test setup,
I tried to Run all ESC’s with both a foc_openloop 50 100 and foc_openloop 70 100 command. 50 and 70 amps respectively at 100 erpm. For all the tests the ESC’s where suspended in open air and not touching the table. Mosfets start Temps 30C +/- 3. TB 6374 Motor. Unsensored. 18C ambient Temp
First I tested the Mini Foc Plus at foc_openloop 50 100 and it took a total of 4 minutes and 3 seconds to start thermally limiting current to about 30 Amps at 80C This is a Vesc 6 hardware variant with Direct Fets and a small heatsink. The outside of the case was around 70C on my IR thermometer. I couldn’t touch for more than a few seconds.
Next i thought my Esk8.de (my favored controllers) would blow this out of the water and boy was I ever wrong, 1 minutes 3 seconds at foc_openloop 50 100. Now this one is by far the fastest to cool off after turning off the test but it throttled down to a pretty stable 38 amps at 80C
Now finally the ESK8Supply Vesc based ESC foc_openloop at 50 100, 20 minutes 69C STABLE… Now this doesn’t make a lot of sense but the heatsink is shared between 2 ESC’s and I was only testing one. So I’m sure under a dual Scenario this won’t perform quite as well. So I decided to test this at foc_openloop 70 100 as well because why not.
After 10 minutes I had to call the test at 69C mosfet temp because the phase wires where almost 100C and starting to smell.
So to say the least the Esk8Supply ESC has far surpassed my expectations on the bench. It seems to have a fairly conservative current rating that i will probably push when I install it in my board.
Now there Where some definite “bugs” that kinda exist right now I think nathan might be working on it but i wasn’t able to get the foc_openloop command working on the newest vesc tool but luckily i had the 1.06 version downloaded and was able to get full functionality on that.
The Antispark Circuit appears to have a auto off after 5 minutes feature that isn’t possible to turn off, However this auto off feature is deactivated if a remote is connected to the ESC. The Remote also automatically turns off after 5 minutes.
So essentially after 10 minutes of no remote input your board will shut itself off which isn’t a bad feature to have, I just prefer to have features i can disable or enable as I see fit.
So while The Esk8Supply ESC is a cool offering at a really competitive price it won’t be replacing my current daily drivers for a few reasons, but mainly 1. It has no UART support and I always track my rides. That being said this is probably going to be my new go to Vesc based ESC for building cheap builds for my friends getting into it.
Now I haven’t really bothered to edit this to much so I’ll probably be adding, fixing and reformatting this post.
Disclaimer… By “Variant” I mean its a Vesc Based ESC, Variants just easier to say and put in a title.
(I swear I didn’t pay him 
)