In theory this should allow you to change the voltage any battery pack provides on-the-fly with this board and software. So, I am thinking about a few places –
Racing – bursts of speed by temporarily increasing the voltage going to the motors, without heavy packs.
Tune the battery system to offer longer range by lowering the voltage.
Providing consistent riding voltage throughout the ride, without voltage drops as the pack gets closer to empty.
@Skyart, @Tony_Stark and @MoeStooge I figured you guys might want to chat 'em up. They’re in Carlsbad, CA. I spoke with them last week, they’re currently targeting robots.
I could be retarded but a VESC does this on its own. That’s why motor and battery current are different. Also why different kv motors like different voltages.
Ie: my Mountainboard runs 18s and I run 138 kv to keep the heat down but if I ran 205 kv, they would overheat in a matter of minutes.
If you ran something like this with a high current pull when the cells don’t want to give that much power because of power, you’re just adding extra steps from the battery to the beach which wouldn’t help anything. The voltage isn’t the limiting factor, it’s the cells not wanting to provide the power.
Concern here would be size and current carying capabilty, this is cool for low power aplications like you standard Ebike, but for 100-200amps this thing might get kinda big, also probably expencive, why fill the enclosure of an esk8 with a small battery and then add this device to get desired voltage, when you can simply fill the enclosure with a battery desined for your desired voltage.
Super cool tech tho, but not sure it has much practilcality in esk8
Sorry to rain on the techno-optimist parade, but isnt this just a buck/boost converter with slick marketing? Thats not new tech. From their FAQ section:
The only “new” thing they’re claiming is improved efficiency over existing buck/boost devices. Which, sure, maybe. That could be good for some things. But I dont see how that would help us at all.
They’re marketing this as a retrofit/adapter solution to plug new battery chemistry into existing devices without needing to redesign that device for a new voltage range. But we dont care about that in DIY esk8, because we’re constantly redesigning our boards, oftentimes for new voltage ranges. Right?
A highly efficient buck boost converter than can handle dynamic loads well, is interesting. But what is their idea of highly efficient, 94%?
I have lots of 12vdc stuff, and while 4S lifepo4 has a voltage range where most 12vdc appliances have no issues, 3S li-ion 12.6 to 7.5v range leaves a lot of capacity on the table, and 16.8v max of 4S, would fry things.
Go much over 14.4v and a lot of 12v leds will overheat, over 15 or under 10.5, and most 12v inverters will shut down.
So an inline device which can use a wide range of battery chemistry and Series groups to power that which was made for a narrower voltage range will have its uses no doubt, but for Esk8?
Feeding my 10s esc 42v for the entire discharge would be neat, as I am often at full throttle and easiky notice Vsag and torque loss, but even if their buck boost device was small and efficient, I don’t think I’d try to implement it.
Rather have more power and battery, and not need to use max throttle and only
notice sag when below 3.2 v per cell
That said if/when Sodium Ion starts getting competitive with Li-ion in power and energy density and is cost effective, using the 2-4v rage of that chemistry into devices expecting 2.5 to 4.2v is where their device can shine, if it is efficient, and can handle quickly changing highly dynamic loads by outputting a highly stable voltage.
They seem to believe LTO is where its at. I don’t know much about that chemistry.
Yes, this feels like a solution looking for a problem. A software controlled buckboost is a pretty good idea but I can’t think of anything I could use it for.
Maybe bounds testing and destructive testing during the product development cycle, but there’s existing methods of doing this.
Buck/Boost items seem to be electrically noisy as well, perhaps enough so as to screw with the remote’s signal.
I often have two or more buck and boost converters going from same 12vDC Lead acid. Sometimes a certain combo of 12v fan speed and led lights will start acting funny. Fan will change speed in relation to changing LED brightness when running on different speed controller buckers as control fan speed or led brightness, while separate booster is charging my esk8 up towards 42v.
The moment the booster switches from CC to CV, even though there is only a 0.01 amp difference, the fan will burp, sometimes.
Snap on ferrites seem to do little to nothing, but on one automatic 12vdc charger, when going to close the snap while it was charging, would have ferrite start buzzing in my fingers.
My bluetooth speaker range when buckers and or boosters are going, seems attenuated.
It looks like they are pushing LTO batteries for safety and fast charging, which make sense for daily use, light-weight robotics. LTO battery density is not so good so they are boosting voltage to keep up with li ion. I’m not an electrical engineer but 94-97% seems like a normal boost efficiency. I’m currently building a boost charger with this, which claims 92-97%.
