Hey guys,
I’m seeing something a bit confusing with regen on my VESC setup.
When the motor is spinning, negative current works as expected (regen).
But when the speed drops close to zero, I sometimes see the motor current go positive, even though I’m still commanding negative current.
I don’t feel any forward torque, it just shows up in the logs.
Is this normal behavior at low speed?
What could be causing this?
The term “regen braking” is a bit misleading.
To brake to a full stop. The vesc has to apply a bit of current. Which is called “active braking”.
It’s nothing to worry about.
You can change the settings to use more active braking, to keep your board locked into position on a hill for example.
Yes. 
BLDC motors’ regenerative ability falls off a cliff as you approach a stop, because it’s the speed of the magnet relative to the conductor that generates the voltage. So voltage needs to be applied from the battery instead, consuming energy instead of harvesting it, right around zero speed.
How to make these changes in the vesc tool?
First, I would avoid rewriting (updating) ESC firmware solely because a tool suggests it, or solely because a new version is available. It’s high-risk, low-reward. If you have some other reason to rewrite, that’s different. But tool suggestions or existence of other versions just seems like an invitation for trouble. This isn’t a computer operating system, you don’t need to update for those reasons. Also the tool often fails to mention that your entire vehicle may stop working if you do the suggested update.
There is a setting in the app section called smart reverse. Holding the brake will apply negative current. That may help you, I don’t know.
